Never Surrender

Starred review from May 12, 2014
McKenna takes readers on a gritty and emotional journey with this high-octane sequel to Breaking Point. Navy SEAL Chief Gabe Griffin would do anything for his fiancée, Navy Petty Officer First Class Baylee-Ann “Bay” Thorn. She’s a member of a select group of women secretly being tested for combat readiness. Bay has just returned from deployment when she’s sent back to Afghanistan to provide medical support to an Army platoon. When a sadistic Taliban warlord kidnaps her, Bay’s life and sanity are on the line, and Gabe moves heaven and earth to rescue her. McKenna provides heartbreakingly tender romantic development that will move readers to tears. Her military background lends authenticity to this outstanding tale, and readers will fall in love with the upstanding hero and his fierce determination to save the woman he loves.

May 15, 2014
In the seventh book in her Shadow Warriors series, McKenna continues the story of medic Bay Thorn and her SEAL fianc', Chief Gabe Griffin, introduced in Breaking Point (2014). When Bay returns to Afghanistan, she is captured by the Taliban. Forced to tend to their wounded and ignore the injured children seized for sex trafficking, she is wounded herself and finally escapes after being viciously raped by the Taliban leader. Gabe helps find her and kill the Taliban responsible. He then accompanies her through her hospitalizations until he can take her home to her family in Kentucky, while hoping that someday she will recognize him again. The story of Bay's painful recuperation, nightmares, flashbacks, and PTSD, despite endless support and patience from Gabe, who himself is often driven to exhaustion and despair, makes up the bulk of this truly memorable story, which does conform to the romance genre's requirement of a happy ending. While there are other romance titles about rape survivors finding love, this one has a special, heartbreaking resonance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)