Catherine Mann tackles the sensitive issue of divorce, and by giving it a military twist, takes the reader on an emotional roller-coaster of visually portrayed highs and lows. With her cleverly interweaving danger into the lives of her main characters, the impact of this story is constantly felt on several levels.

As the flight engineer on a mission to bring supplies to a small Caribbean island, Sergeant Shane “Vegas” O’Riley believes it is also a good opportunity to give his wife, Sherry, the divorce papers he had drawn up. When this couple married, Shane had hoped to finally have the type of home life he never experienced as a child. However, Sherry teaches workshops to adults in overseas countries, so she along with their two adopted daughters are now living on the island. With his frequent deployments and her often being out of the country, they never really established a normal way of living as most couples do over time. When they were actually together, their two adorable girls got the most attention, as they are both devoted parents. With this lack of communication between them often leading to disagreements, Shane and Sherry have decided divorce is their only course of action.

An incident on the way to the island could have been fatal for Shane and his fellow crewmen, but fate was on their side and they safely land. During their debriefing, he learns about a group of terrorists who have a new camp on a nearby island. Shane knows he must get his family safely back to the States, and with some effectively worded persuasion, Sherry agrees to go back home. Though another attack occurs, they eventually are able to leave the island.

When an unanticipated problem has Shane staying with Sherry and the girls, they seem like a family again. Although they each desire the other, their reasons for getting a divorce have not gone away. Also, what they do not know is the danger on the island has followed them to the States, putting their lives in grave danger.

For emotional realism in a military setting, Catherine Mann creates stories where every word is not only accurate but also heartfelt. With her outstanding ability to blend death-defying suspense with sincere emotions, Ms. Mann is able to make the reader form a definite opinion about each character. I always come to sincerely care about individuals on the side of good, while coming to truly despise those who support merciless evil. By the conclusion of this story, I had cheered on these brave men who fight for our country, and heartily loathed those who would harm innocent people. I even cried for one person whose life is now totally chaotic. Ms. Mann has a gift for being able to put my own emotions through the wringer, as her skilled writing lets me experience every intense situation from the beginning to the end of the story. For the third book of the Air Force Special Ops series, the featured couple faces many emotional problems as well as danger from an unknown source. Shane and Sherry seemed so genuine and credible, as their adult lives are partially ruled by how they grew up. There are also many tender and caring moments between this couple and their girls, where their own powerful feelings seemed to leap right off the pages. The secondary story about Keisha and Rodeo was thoroughly entertaining and well-developed, too. For a story about real military men and the women who love them, ON TARGET is memorably outstanding in every aspect.

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Filed Under: HQN July 2007 Reviews	About the Book: Genre: contemporary ISBN: 978-0373772124 Page Count: 378 Price: $ 6.99 Reviewer: Amelia Richard
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Sensuality Rating: Sensuous Star Rating: 5 Stars Author's Website: http://www.catherinemann.com/index.html

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