“No Rules of Engagement” Tracey Richardson

I don’t mind romance in a novel but I don’t like romance novels. Unless the novel is Tracey Richardson’s No Rules of Engagement.

In a military hospital at Kandahar Air Force Base, we are introduced to the eponymous Major Logan Sharp, a keen, confident doctor, unflappable in the most urgent of situations. Until photojournalist Jillian Knight arrives at KAF on a two-week assignment. The attraction is immediate but unteneable; Logan is unwilling to breach the walls necessary for her to effectively do her job, just for a temporary fling with a civilian, and for reasons of her own, Jillian does not force the attraction. Thus begins a tantalizing, achingly protracted love affair.

Richardsons’ characters explore the love/hate paradox often found among war professionals, both at war and long after coming home. She writes of the current conflict in the Middle East without polemics, graciously allowing readers their own opinions. But above all, No Rules of Engagement is a white-hot romance, worthy of its place alongside the searing Afghan sun.