The Navy SEAL action-romance gets a makeover in Dees's refreshing Valkyrie Ops series launch, which opens with three strong, capable women training for a chance to enter BUD/S, the intense physical training that weeds out average sailors from potential SEALs. Lt. Sherri Tate benefited from beauty pageant scholarships, but she's much more than a pretty face. The aspiring Olympic heptathlete is ready to serve her country and prove that women can integrate the SEALs, despite the attitude of the team that's sent to train her and the other female BUD/S candidates, including troop commander Griffin Caldwell. Unsurprisingly, Griffin doesn't believe that women can make a SEAL team or that they belong there. But he can't help but be impressed by Sherri's determination, grit, and impressive fitness, and gradually he realizes that Sherri and the other women deserve a legitimate shot. A mission gone awry brings Griffin and Sherri into closer quarters, and as a romantic connection builds, they must carefully navigate their relationship and keep it separate from Sherri's training. Dees's readers will delight in the double pleasure of smart, tough women succeeding in their field and pretty, witty heroines winning the hearts of military men. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Dees launches her Valkyrie Ops series about the first female SEALs with a tale about the three women chosen for training with an experienced SEAL team, particularly Lieutenant Sherri Tate, a Navy media officer and former beauty queen and Olympic athlete, and Griffin Caldwell, leader of SEAL Team 7. Caldwell can't understand why Tate wants to be a SEAL, but she is not about to let him prevent it, despite the sizzling attraction between them. During training, things get dicey, because of harassment from a classmate, the necessity of keeping their relationship secret, and because Caldwell resents having to stay behind to train her when the rest of his team head out to capture a terrorist they've hunted for years. Things come to a head when Tate disappears and her colleagues realize she's been kidnapped. The ending proves to all concerned that she is one helluva a SEAL and for sure deserves to be one. A good read for military romance fans that might also lead readers to M. L.Buchman, whose first women stories are even better.--Mary K. Chelton Copyright 2019 Booklist