Flash of Fury by Lea Griffith

Have you ever read a book and you keep having deja vu?  Like you've read it before?  That was my experience reading Flash of Fury by Lea Griffith.  Only I hadn't read it before, it just seemed like I had.

Flash of Fury is a composite of every military romance you've ever read.  Nothing about it stood out as a unique piece of work.  It was almost like Lea Griffith read a number of romance novels and just followed their plot line when writing her own book.  

The characters (Kingston McNally & Allie Redding) are boring, boring, boring.  They fall in love hours after meeting one another and, in the middle of horrifically dangerous situations, seem to have no problem constantly admiring one another's bodies.  Like, I get it, this is a romance novel and there needs to be romance.  But realistically, we should probably stop thinking about King's ass when we're being shot at.  

The plot is overdone, drawn out, and honestly, confusing.  For one, it starts out with a ridiculous amount of military lingo.  I read quite a few military romances and yes, they use lingo, but they do a good job of helping the reader understand what's going on.  Two pages in I couldn't wrap my head around the scene and I almost put the book down out of frustration.  

Then you've got all the different plots.  Terrorists, a mole in the CIA, a double agent on King's team.  Lea Griffith was obviously trying to set up the other books in her series at the same time, but she introduced way too many plotlines and characters to give focus to any one.  

I'll be honest, I got so bored that by the end I was skimming those pages.  When I finally finished I was relieved that I didn't have to read it anymore... not begging for more, like I usually am after reading a good novel.  I think this may be Lea Griffith's debut novel, so I'm willing to cut her a little slack (and maybe give her another chance), but I'm pretty disappointed in how this book turned out.