Dead in the Water Deep by Julie Ann Walker

Dalton "Doc" Simmons is not a great person. In fact, the main problem I had with this book was that he was sort of a jerk during most of this book and we didn't get to see a lot of relationship growth between he and Camilla during this book. 

Doc is the last man from a former Navy team that is now doing deep sea salvage. They've found a treasure, discovered a way to make it legal to salvage it, and now they just need to pull up the last bits before a hurricane hits.

There is a lot that goes on in this book but most of it is external conflict including an on-the-page death. 

Three stars

This book came out June 28, 2022

Follows
Show Across the Bow

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Shot Across the Bow by Julie Ann Walker

In the previous books of this series, we've seen Spiro "Romeo" Delgado and Mia Ennis dancing around each other. They are clearly attracted to each other but they keep claiming to only be friends. Friends that often spend evenings together, reading to each other from their favorite fantasy series and then falling asleep. In fact, that's what happens in one of the first scenes in this book. At least their night was better than Doc's. He left with a woman but then... well. It didn't work out. And then the woman ends up being the lawyer that the lieutenant hired to make sure that they can keep the treasure after they find it. 

Unfortunately, while the four of them are flying back to the island where they are looking for the Santa Cristina, their plane goes down. That would be bad enough if it didn't seem like someone is making sure that no one survives the night...

Because the whole book takes place in such a short time period there is understandably not a lot of character development and you will probably want to read the other books in the series before you read this one.

Three stars

This book came out November 29, 2021

Follows Deeper Than the Ocean

Followed by Dead in the Water

Borrowed as ebook from NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Deeper Than The Ocean by Julie Ann Walker

There are starting to be rather a lot of names in this series with the six former SEALs and now at least 5 of their romantic interests. It did make it hard to follow at points but then it settled into two main stories.

The main plot was between Christina "Chrissy" Szarek and Ray "Wolf" Roanhorse. The man who was falling in love and the woman whose past made her wary of the feeling had been circling around each other in all of the previous books. In this one, Chrissy and her best friend are shot when they take a shortcut through an ostensibly abandoned warehouse. It's just bad luck that they happen to see a drug drop going on. Both are shot but while Winston immediately goes down, Chrissy is able to make it to the bar where she is supposed to meet Wolf for a "friendly" drink.

Like other books in the series, our heroine is in trouble that the hero is trying to protect her from. It again sort of overwhelms the romance and the reader getting to see the relationship really grow.

The B story is between Mia, a shy and introverted historical researcher with A Past, and Romeo, a ladies' man who is fighting his attraction to a woman who is the kind you settle down with.

Three and a half stars

This book came out May 31st, 2021

Follows Ride the Tide

Followed by Shot Across the Bow

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Ride the Tide by Julie Ann Walker

I've been enjoying the Deep Six stories and this is one is no different. We've seen glimpses of the romance between historian Alexandra "Alex" Merriweather and former SEAL Mason McCarthy. She's  a twenty-seven-year-old virgin who has made it plain that she'd like her first to be with Mason. Petite and red-headed, she fascinated Mason but his first marriage burned him to the point where he is not going to be good for any woman. Or so that is his overriding belief. But he also knows that, if he has even just one taste of Alex, he'll never be able to let her go.

And that is very similar to other romances but the Deep Six series also has the search for sunken treasure and baddies that persist in trying to kill one or all of the team. There was a b-plot romance as well that is set up to be the next book but it did take away some from Alex and Mason.

 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out November 24th

Follows Devil and the Deep

Followed by Deeper than the Ocean

ARC kindly provided by Sourcebooks Casablanca and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Built to Last by Julie Ann Walker

Jamin “Angel” Agassi has been with the Black Knights Inc. since about book 3 or 4. He has had extensive plastic surgery and changed his name (the handsome visage they gave him was part of the reason for his nickname.) Before he had all the work done, he was in love. But he had been trained that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.
He's absolutely shocked to see Sonya Butler, his love, acting as the secretary to the evil crime lord known as the Spider. She's not at all like he remembered her, cowed and subservient. At least, she is until the firefight. Then all hell breaks loose and each finds out that the other is not what they seem. Not the first, second, or even third layers.
An interesting end to the BKI series with the promise that there may be a group of new operatives to follow. This was a slow start (story wise, not as much action wise) but tied up a lot of loose ends in the BKI series.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out June 26
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley

Devil and the Deep by Julie Ann Walker

Bran Palladino has been exchanging emails and sat phone calls with Maddy Powers since he kissed her on her father's yacht. Where he had just helped free her from kidnappers. Or pirates. Let's just say she was hijacked. Now she's back in the area (well, ish, she's close anyway) with three high school girls that her dad had her choose for a chance to become engineers in his company. The problem being that Bran doesn't seem to have shown up, even though she invited him. Well, that's not actually the biggest problem. Nope. It's the four men who have arrived on the island and are trying to kidnap her and possibly the girls.
From Bran's point of view, it's a cluster. Especially when he gets shot in the thigh. Actually, he takes that pretty well. It's when the high school girls start flirting with him that he starts to wig out a little.
I liked the first book in the series. It was sort of bat-shit crazy but in a "highly enjoyable read" way. This book was maybe a little too frenetic but about the same.

I am very much looking forward to the story of Alex (the very talkative researcher helping the men look for the Santa Cristina) and Mason (who doesn't talk very much at all) but I think we're actually going to see why Wolfe (who I can't remember at all, but must have been in the first book) and Chrissy (who is a leggy blond who runs an adventure travel company (?)) don't like each other first.

Book comes out July 5
Three and a half stars
Follows Hell or High Water

Followed by Ride the Tide

Hell or High Water by Julie Ann Walker

Leo Anderson used to be in the Navy. He used to be a SEAL. But when one of the seven men under his command died in a mission gone really wrong, he got out of the life. Now, he's searching for sunken treasure and dreaming of the woman who was with them on that last mission.
Olivia Mortier has never forgotten Leo either. So when a capsule of enriched uranium from one of her missions is lost on the bottom floor, Leo is is the perfect person to help with the cleanup.
I have a bunch of Julie Ann Walker's books but still haven't cracked them. So when a new series was mentioned on the Smart Bitches podcast, I was excited to snap this book up. And while it was a little surface-y on the romance, the action was fast and furious. I didn't feel like I got to know Leo or Olivia particularly well but I will definitely be continuing the series to see if I'll get to learn more about them.

Followed by Devil and the Deep