Reviewed by Sadie Watson

I just finished Marliss Melton’s romantic suspense novel Don’t Let Go. This is my first Marliss Melton book and I’m surprised that I haven’t read her sooner. I’m also surprised that this romantic suspense novel is, in large part, about parental love. Romance, suspense, parenting? I didn’t know the combination could work, but it does.

School teacher, Jordan Bliss is in Venezuela, working in a mission school and adopting a 4 year old orphan, Miguel. Before finalizing the adoption and bringing her son home to the States, a rebel force takes over the mission. Her sister Jillian, knows people in high places and secures a team of US Navy SEAL’s to rescue her. However, their mission is to rescue adults, there was no mention of children in their directives. Miguel is literally ripped from Jordan’s arms and she is sent back to America without him. Jordan is inconsolable, and the loss of her son is so great she vows to go back and get him.

Solomon McGuire is a US Navy SEAL, and the man that separated Jordan from her son. He knows he was following orders, it was the only thing he felt he could do. But he’ll never forget the look on Jordan’s face when he tore her son from her arms and left him in a war torn country. You see, Solomon’s own son Silas was stolen from him by his ex-wife and he’s been searching for him for 5 years.

Both Jordan and Solomon carry the sorrow of loosing a child and the difficulty of taking a breath much less living each day not knowing where their children are or if they are safe. But Jordon and Solomon are not the only characters in this book dealing with the responsibility of being a parent and raising a family. Jordan’s sister Jillian is recently widowed with a third child on the way. She worries about how she will go on without her husband and make a life for her fatherless children. Rafe, an FBI agent who helps find Jordan, has his own tortured past about his children. And then there is Ellie, the woman who has been caring for Silas all these years. All these characters are motivated by love for their children. It drives the story and gives it purpose.

Ms. Melton gives us a strong heroine who has strong motivations, a strong hero who is learning to love again and great secondary characters who are fighting to find new lives. Her action scenes are taught and tense filled with Navy SEALS and Venezuelan Rebels, with an atmosphere that evokes the hot humid jungles as well as the sense of urgency that comes when time is running out and it’s either do or die.

Some of my favorite scenes are between Solomon – the tough by the book Navy SEAL — and his 6 year old son as they try to get to know one another. And of course there is the love story between Solomon and Jordan – it’s hot, passionate and urgent. Ms. Melton manages to engage us in both the romance and suspense without loosing sight of what drives both Solomon and Jordan – the love for their children. She effortlessly weaves all the stories together and gives you a book worth reading.