Call to Honor

This flimsy second book of Weber’s SEAL Brotherhood series follows the ultraelite Poseidon team on a mission to a California suburb; why SEALs are undertaking a landlocked mission on U.S. soil is never explained. Diego Torres is tapped to lead Operation Hammerhead and retrieve a hostage while securing sensitive intelligence. When disaster strikes, he is forced to leave behind the body of a slain brother in arms. Harper Maclean is a single mom and interior decorator whose elegant life is interrupted by the news of her child’s father being killed in action on Operation Hammerhead. But when rumors spread that her ex is alive, Diego and his team infiltrate her neighborhood in search of answers. He compromises his principles to get close to Harper, becoming far more intimate than he intended. Weber creates an improbable adventure of low risk and strange, sometimes illegal choices by her protagonists, with a tense and frantic romance at its center. The SEALs on Diego’s team are the literary equivalent of a stripper peeling off a fake uniform, titillating but with no hint of military authenticity. The conclusion is typically heroic, and it is as unsatisfying as the romantic denouement. (Feb.)