Samantha Wells had a wonderful childhood and two parents that loved both her and each other beyond measure. When she was eight, without warning, her world was destroyed.  Three men broke into her house, killed her parents and left her for dead.  Sam’s uncle took her into his care and raised her.  Her upbringing wasn’t typical after the tragedy; Sam’s Uncle Walt trained her to defend herself.  After many years of training, Sam went into the profession of being a covert rescuer hired by both the private sector and the government in situations that, officially, they couldn’t be involved in.  Her code name:  Black Smoke.  Having her professional persona a highly guarded secret, Sam ended up giving up any real personal life; friends and long term relationships.

An American scientist has been taken by the Taliban in Afganistan and the U.S. government has asked Black Smoke to join their best team to go in and rescue their scientist.  Her team, Lt. Mark Lowe aka Kong, Lt. Carl Underwood aka Ricochet, and Lt. Ben Campbell aka Boomer.  Although Ricochet and Boomer accepted her immediately, Kong had a hard time believing that he could trust a woman to watch his back in the field, even given her reputation…especially a woman so small and beautiful.

Black Smoke is fast paced, action filled and absolutely, totally fantastic!  I couldn’t put Black Smoke down because both the story line and the characters are incredibly believable.  The instant attraction between Sam and Mark is wonderful to see although they fight it because, as all covert operatives know, the mission comes first when lives depend on them doing their jobs.  One of the things that I truly loved about Black Smoke is that the story didn’t end after the mission. There was a lot more afterward, not only the relationship between Sam and Mark but also a lot of adventure outside of it.  Sam’s relationship with and getting to know Ricochet and Boomer added a lot to the story, as did hearing through both action and voice how much her spirit guide cared for her.  Black Smoke is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time and it’s also one that I will be reading again and again.  I’m hoping that Robin Leigh Miller will be writing more books with these four incredible characters, they’ll be an auto buy for me.  For lovers of action and romance, I Joyfully Recommend Black Smoke.