{"id":58572,"date":"2021-04-18T06:28:12","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T10:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=58572"},"modified":"2021-04-18T06:28:12","modified_gmt":"2021-04-18T10:28:12","slug":"review-bombshell-eod-explosive-ordnance-disposal-2-by-jane-harvey-berrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=58572","title":{"rendered":"Review: Bombshell (EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), #2) by Jane Harvey-Berrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

\r\n <\/div><\/div><\/b><\/h4>\n
\n

Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

4 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

This is the second book in the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) duet, and continues the story of bomb disposal officer, James Spears, in a dramatic, heartfelt, intriguing and suspenseful story that is beautifully written and had me captivated from start to finish.<\/p>\n

James went through so much in the last book (so did readers!), and when we see him again, he is a shattered man, drowning in grief and guilt, and completely without the will to live. And then his friend and colleague, Clay, arrives to pull him out of his misery and give him purpose again by working with a de-mining group removing landmines in a former warzone in remote Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Lady Arabella Forsythe could not have a life more different from James. Raised in wealth and privilege, she is a spoiled socialite who does nothing but drink and party. But when her mostly-absent father tires of her antics, he skips rehab and ships her off to the middle of nowhere to work with a charity whose work progresses his own selfish business needs. It\u2019s a massive culture shock for Arabella, and while she takes in her new experience with eagerness, she finds herself drawn to the broody soldier who completely ignores her.<\/p>\n

What is it about women that make us want to fix men who are broken?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

James hates Arabella on sight. Her blonde, sunshiney persona grates on his permanently foul mood, and he writes her off as spoiled, shallow, and everything that he despises. She is also the polar opposite of the woman that he lost, and he wants nothing to do with her.<\/p>\n

Arabella is a wonderfully complex character. Sure, on the outside she appears shallow and self-absorbed, she\u2019s known no other life or way to be, but secretly she dreams of more, she\u2019s just been trapped and bound by her controlling father and sees no way out of her cage.<\/p>\n

Both lost in their own way, James and Arabella come together unexpectedly, finding comfort and a release from the stress of their situation together. But their hook-ups are quick and emotionless, and that\u2019s the way James needs it to be, refusing to lose his heart again, and determinedly staying focussed on his job.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve been a soldier, when you\u2019re faced death, that\u2019s not where it ends, because I don\u2019t think the living ever get to go home. Not really.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

James and Arabella\u2019s story is emotionally heartwrenching. Their personal experiences would be enough to carry the story, but what makes this book so suspenseful and intriguing is the setting. The work that James does is dangerous and intense, and what makes it all of the more intense, is that it\u2019s real. The work he is doing is real, the danger, the violence, the injuries, it\u2019s all real, and it\u2019s terrifying and devastating. There are millions of landmines buried in warzones around the world, and when the war is over, militaries don\u2019t take them with them, they are left behind, and it\u2019s a slow, expensive and dangerous job to remove them, and it\u2019s only done by a few small non-government groups.<\/p>\n

Harvery-Berrick has done her research on this subject, and she tells her story well, getting to the heart of this issue and making it personal as we meet local people, watch the work being done, and come to understand the environmental and political issues that make this work so important but so dangerous, and prone to corruption. And it\u2019s in this setting that Arabella finds her passion \u2013 not only for James, but for a life that is more<\/i>, and it\u2019s an important journey for her that is beautifully written.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been so lost, so untethered, but coming to a place so few cared about, I\u2019d found something precious.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But while Arabella is uplifted by her experiences, James remains locked inside his emotionless world, refusing to let anybody in. And though we see glimpses of affection, of him coming to care for somebody again, and his gentle and tender side, he is so broken by all that he has been through, that a relationship seems impossible, and it\u2019s heartbreaking to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you get it? Guys like me don\u2019t do relationships because we can\u2019t<\/i>. You think you can fix me, but you can\u2019t. What if we did the whole marriage and kids thing\u2026\u201d
\nI was stunned, but he didn\u2019t notice.
\n\u201c\u2026and five years from now something sets me off? I\u2019m a ticking time-bomb, and you do not want to be around me when I explode.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a rollercoaster of emotion, and there is so much growing and changing that both James and Arabella go through. They need it \u2013 to finally move on from the past, find their way, figure out what they want, and claim it on their terms \u2013 but it\u2019s not an easy journey to get there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll wait for you, James.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s all I need to hear.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thankfully though, this book does come through with the happy ending that was missing from the first one. Individually, the find their way to a good place, and the romance lover in me was super satisfied with the love story and how everything wrapped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you.\u201d \u2026
\n\u201cYou love Amira,\u201d she said carefully.
\n\u201cYes, but I love you, as well. Very much. I want to live, and I want my life to be with you.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was a great end to the duet, and a gorgeous ending for both James and Arabella. It was a long and difficult journey, so seeing these two lost souls finally find their happy was so special, and I loved their story.<\/p>\n

4 stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Tick Tock (#1)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n

Bombshell (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review 4 stars This is the second book in the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) duet, and continues the story of bomb disposal officer, James Spears, in a dramatic, heartfelt, intriguing and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,49,51,9,29],"tags":[926,159,48],"class_list":["post-58572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-feeeeeeels","category-military","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-eod","tag-jane-harvey-berrick","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Bombshell.jpg?fit=200%2C299&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-feI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}