Review: Mission: Uncovered by Anna Hackett

Review: Mission: Uncovered by Anna HackettMission: Uncovered by Anna Hackett
Format: eARC
Source: author
Formats available: ebook
Genres: action adventure romance, romantic suspense
Series: Treasure Hunter Security, Team 52, Norcross Security
Pages: 150
Published by Anna Hackett on 11-1-2022
Purchasing Info: Author's Website
Goodreads

Amber Butler is out to prove herself: to her sister, herself, and especially to her bosses at Treasure Hunter Security. If her mission involves trekking into the desert with someone from the covert black ops Team 52, she’ll do it.

But what she doesn’t expect is for that someone to be her smoking hot Vegas one-night stand.

My Review:

Amber Butler is good at what she does – she just believes she has a difficult time making good choices. She’s having a difficult time letting go of the fact that one of her choices went so very wrong that her sister Peri had to hire Treasure Hunter Security (that story is in Unmapped) to rescue her from the deadly black-market antiquities ring, Silk Road.

Amber believed the job they hired her for, to trek to Antarctica to locate a buried treasure that was a lot more than it seemed – even as her current employers turned out to be a lot worse than they seemed.

Amber took a few hits to her confidence, but in the end Treasure Hunter Security saved the day, Peri met the love of her life, and Amber got herself a new job with people she can trust – that very same Treasure Hunter Security.

After all, she’s an accomplished wilderness guide and occasional treasure hunter. She’s a perfect fit for their organization. Not to mention her about-to-be brother-in-law wants to keep an eye on his future sister-in-law, and her sister wants her working with people who can be trusted.

It should be a win-win-win, but Amber’s still not quite trusting herself. She wants to be seen as a responsible adult and earn her place at THS. But as Amber isn’t currently trusting her judgment or her choices, her plan is to put her nose to the proverbial grindstone, keep her eyes on that prize, and swear off relationships until she feels like she has her act together.

A set of resolutions that flies out the window at escape velocity when THS sends her on THE perfect job for her with the man she never expected to see again. Her last wild one-night stand before she started her new job and made all those oh-so-responsible resolutions.

Treasure Hunter Security has teamed up with their friendly rivals at Team 52 to hunt down a deadly ancient relic in the desert surrounding Lake Mead. Team 52 has brought their newest recruit to team up with Amber and reach Montezuma’s real – and really toxic – revenge before the villains can reverse engineer the old formula and create a weapon of bioterrorism like the world has never seen.

All Amber has to do is guide the hottest man she’s ever slept with to find a relic that’s been lost for centuries in a cave that’s been underwater for decades while resisting every impulse in her body to jump him again. And again.

But Team 52 agent Garrett Webb has plans of his own. His resolution is to tempt Amber to break every single one of hers. Before, during and after they get the villains put down.

Escape Rating A-: If you’ve followed Anna Hackett’s interconnected series, or at least her contemporary action adventure romances, Mission: Uncovered is a terrific coda for all of them. It’s not just that the mission is a joint operation between Team 52 and Treasure Hunter Security, but the Norcross Security folks get to mix in a bit as well. So for fans, this novella is a real treat.

For readers new to the author, Mission: Uncovered is a terrific introduction. While the references to the previous series are fun, the main story is completely new. Amber and Garrett are both new to their respective organizations, still trying to find their places.

Including, they each secretly hope, with each other.

The relic they have to retrieve is itself both old and new. On the one hand, yes, it’s THAT Montezuma. On the other, the cave in which the relic has been hiding all these centuries was at least partially submerged by the construction of Hoover Dam. Falling lake levels may have revealed the formerly hidden entrance.

What makes the story so much fun – in addition to the historical references which I always love – is the romance between Amber and Garrett. They’re both emotionally wounded and neither completely trusts their own judgment when they first meet. It takes them both time and trust to realize that they’re better together than either would be separately, and then they have to be able to trust themselves to decide to give it a go.

So a lovely romance where two people rescue each other into an HEA that is very much earned.

If the author’s work intrigues you, and I hope it does, there are plenty to choose from and all of them are terrific. If you’re specifically interested in Mission: Uncovered, there’s a lovely little bit of a dilemma to get it. This story was written specifically to be a free offering from the Protector Romance Book Club, and if you want it RIGHT NOW you’ll need to join the Book Club to get it – along with the December introductory novellas from another author contributing to the club. Which does sound like a whole lot of win. If you are willing to wait and/or work your binge reading way through Treasure Hunter Security and Team 52 and Norcross Security first, Mission: Uncovered will probably be available at some point in the future. But why wait?