Extreme Honor: The True Heroes Series

Drake (Hidden Impact) begins the True Heroes K-9 trainer series with a tepid romance that feels like a lecture on dog training with some military trivia and bland sex scenes tossed in. Training working dogs for military K-9 service takes a combination of skill, intuition, and understanding of canine psychology. Rehabilitating a military K-9 after his handler's death, especially when that death occurred under suspicious circumstances, calls for even greater skill. David Cruz is one of the best military K-9 trainers around, so he has no idea why Evelyn "Lyn" Jones, a consultant specializing in canine PTSD, is poking her nose into the recuperative program he has set for Atlas the Belgian Malinois. Sure, Lyn's easy on the eyes and has good ideas, but what David needs is an answer for why Atlas's handler sent him that puzzling text message just before he was killed. Unfortunately, Atlas is the most emotive and likable character in the book by several miles. Agent: Courtney Miller-Callihan, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Feb.)