Code Name: Ghost

4.5 stars-emotional and haunting

4.5 stars-- CODE NAME: GHOST is the fifth instalment in Sawyer Bennett’s contemporary, adult JAMESON FORCE SECURITY romantics suspense series focusing on the men and women who work for Jameson Force Security. This is former US Marine Malik Fournier, and PA Anna Tate’s storyline. CODE NAME: GHOST can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Malik’s story has been building for several instalments. There is a slight cross-over with the author’s Cold Fury Hockey series.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Anna and Malik) CODE NAME: GHOST follows in the wake of Malik Fournier’s imprisonment and torture in the Middle East in the aftermath of a mission that went all to h*ll. Five months would pass before Malik is rescued and our hero struggles to move on with his life. Riddled with survivor’s guilt, Malik begins to fall for his late friend’s wife, a woman who lost her husband just months before giving birth. Blaming himself for the death of his friends and Anna’s husband, Malik battles between head and heart when Anna makes it known she would like to take their friendship and relationship to the next level. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Anna and Malik, and the potential fall-out as Anna begins to struggle with the reality of Malik’s job.

Malik Fournier was captured and tortured for close to five months, and never expected to survive. His rescue and return home came with the grief and remorse of losing his friends, and the guilt that he takes upon himself. Weeks of counselling and talks with family and friends slowly begins to pull Malik out of his own mind, and into a world where the woman he loves is willing and waiting. Anna Tate lost her husband the day Malik went missing but Anna never once suspected that Malik was to blame for her loss. A single mother, working for Jameson Force Security, Anna is up close and personal with the men and women who have traversed a world of evil and war.

The relationship between Anna and Malik begins as friends and co-workers to lovers but Malik continues to struggle with survivor’s remorse as well as the unwritten ‘bro-code’ of dating his late friend’s available wife. Anna is the first to make a move on our story line hero, and in this Malik continues to battle between head and heart. The $ex scenes are intimate and intense without the use of over the stop, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and familiar secondary and supporting characters including Jameson Force security owner Kynan McGrath, psychiatrist Corinne Ellery, security specialists Tank Richardson, Merritt Gables, and Cage Murdock, as well as Malik’s siblings Max, Lucas, Simone and her husband Van (Cold Fury Hockey), and their parents Marilyn and Laurence Fournier Cage and Jaime’s story line is next in Code Name: Rook.

CODE NAME: GHOST is a story of loss and love; forgiveness and acceptance; second chances, relationships and falling in love. The premise is emotional and haunting; the characters are inspiring and spirited; the romance is passionate and dramatic. CODE NAME: GHOST is an encouraging and inspiring look at survival and grief.