BREAKING POINT by Lindsay McKenna is a realistic, gritty look at those brave men and women in the military, especially those at the front lines. McKenna does not romanticize their lives. On the contrary, she shares with her readers the gritty reality these soldiers face on a regular basis. In BREAKING POINT, McKenna paints a picture of the SEALS and other military units who put themselves in vulnerable positions to tend to humanitarian needs.

Life in the military takes a level of patience few people can imagine much less exercise. It is part of the inherent discipline necessary to get the job done and survive to see another day. One of the issues we deal with in today's society is the need for instant gratification, instant reward. We often forget how important a lesson it is to just "wait for it."

Gabe knows what it means to wait. He has spent his life waiting for that special someone who will partner his life and fill his dreams. His inner strength is his ability to wait. Gabe is the picture of patience, and his job as a SEAL and sniper depend on it.

From the moment Gabe sets his sights on Bay he begins to envision what his future could be. The more he learns about her the more impressed he is with this genuinely unaffected woman with an amazing heart. It was that heart Gabe wanted to win more than anything in his life.

In the military, the code of ethics is stringently observed, followed and enforced. Gabe honors this code with his determination to maintain a friendship and nothing more with Bay. As a team, they work well and build a secure base of trust.

Luckily, both Gabe and Bay share the regard for that code and neither one dares to compromise their team or unit. Bay earns the respect of this team of SEALS one day at a time, and this process is far more difficult then she had imagined. Certainly more difficult than on past missions with different units. She needs all her attention focused on the goal to win this special group of men's respect. Any attraction between Gabe and Bay is delegated to a back seat.

Their lives are daily put in jeopardy. Any thoughts of of the future have no place in the middle of the hostile territory they are immediately dealing with. Not to worry. Gabe knows what it will take and has the patience to wait for the person he holds most dear--Bay.

Lindsay McKenna throws a one-two punch in this at times gut- wrenching view of working in remote, harsh areas trying to do humanitarian work while surviving. At the same time, McKenna works diligently to keep her characters ethically strong. In BREAKING POINT, we are transported to a locale where survival is the ultimate challenge.

BREAKING POINT is part of McKenna's Operation Shadow Warriors series. McKenna admits to being reticent about writing series, but I eagerly await the next book in this intriguing military series.

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Author Note

Dear Reader:

BREAKING POINT is well named. Navy Corpsman Bay Thorn is a part of the super secret Shadow Warriors Operation. She is one of forty women who US Army General Maya Stevenson has gathered and had trained for black ops duty along side men. She has worked over in Iraq for years with Special Forces teams along the Iraq-Syrian border when she is ordered to a SEAL platoon. Flying out of Iraq and finally reaching her destination at FOB Bravo, thirty miles from the Afghan-Pakistan border, Bay doesn’t know what to expect.

Can you imagine being a woman and being ordered to work/fight in a US Navy SEAL team? And you are the outsider? You are not trained to be a SEAL. And can you imagine how the men of that platoon are going to take a WOMAN coming into their team? To say the least, there is going to be at least half of the men will be fully against having a woman, no matter how well trained for combat, among them.

The whole ethos of the SEALs is that they are like a group of sticks bound together--unbreakable. It’s easy to take one stick and snap and break it. But if you put a group of them together, no one can break them. SEALs have come to rely fully on their brothers in arms that they fight with daily at FOB Bravo. To have a Navy corpsman, a woman, being forced upon them, is too much to take.

Bay knows she’s got her work cut out for her. And only one SEAL in the platoon is willing to give her a chance to prove she’s got what it takes. Petty Officer First Class Gabe Griffin is a man who sees beneath the mask most people wear. And as the chief introduces Bay to the platoon, he senses her unease, her worry, about not being accepted. And yet, despite her soft, almost innocent demeanor, he knows she’s carrying a lot of secrets about herself that she’s not sharing with any of them.

Gabe is intrigued by Bay. He senses her strength, her resolve, admires her keen intelligence and ability to want to fit into the team. She’s a strong woman who speaks in a soft West Virginia dialect, is humble, willing to work hard to be trusted by the men on the team. Only, what he doesn’t expect is to fall in love with Bay over time. Her goodness, her heart in helping others, opens his own heart to her. Bay hasn’t come into the team looking for love or any relationship. But it happens.

And what to do about it? Gabe knows to show how he feels toward Bay will tear his team up and create possible loss of life among them. Bay is more than aware of her feelings for Gabe but is smart enough to realize she can’t show, speak or even hint that she’s falling in love with this quiet, intense, attractive SEAL. Her whole focus is on getting the rest of the team to accept her and trust her out in the field of combat. There is no place for love in her life. And it takes both of them to the breaking point of loving one another and never being able to show or give it voice. To do so, can not only put them at risk, but also the men of the team. And neither is willing to do that. Until events outside their control intervene, leaving them and their survivors in the jaws of the Taliban who want to kill all of them.