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          For Ross Kinkaid, life has been a series of misses, of not quites.  Not quite a brilliant student in high school, he opted to follow his older brother into the Army, where he did brilliantly at training but, owing to an accident in the final phase, graduated not quite a Green Beret.  Recovered, he found himself not quite Army, but involved in one of the CIA's not quite straightforward missions, called Shadow, whose aim was to place resistance in Laos and Cambodia to counter the growing success of the Viet Cong.  Unfortunately, the scheme didn't quite get off the ground, all were killed but Kinkaid, and back to hospital he went.

          Fifteen years later, Ross is not quite happy as not quite the premier salesman for a civilian food contractor, not quite over the death of his Japanese wife just before he left the Service, and not quite lovers with his secretary Sarah Baron, whose husband did serve in Viet Nam, and came back not quite the man she married. He values their friendship, but it's not quite what he needs. And now the Army wants him back, to train newly formed Ranger forces in Thailand, to polish up their American advisors and, quite incidentally, to tidy up a few loose ends from his last, ill-fated mission.  He's combat experienced, he's damn good but, more importantly, they think Shadow is still alive somewhere in Cambodia, and only he knows the players.

          Well, he makes it in but, once again, doesn't quite make it out though, thanks to a mysterious Oriental woman named Sem Bai, he lives to escape.  Only...not quite.  Captured by river pirates, he finds himself imprisoned in a mountain fortress and being tortured for information on the long-ago but hardly forgotten Shadow.  When he won't break, the scheming Chinese kidnap Sarah for very effective leverage.  Rescued by her not quite committed abductor, he goes on to become the hero he always dreamt of being, in the process tweaking Sarah's Rick into becoming the husband he ought to be. End of that story, he forlornly hopes.  But the Army isn't quite finished with him yet, Sarah is not quite happy again with her Rick, and the tale is not quite done.  There remain a few loose ends not quite tied up, a few betrayals not quite revealed, and a surprise or two not yet quite sprung.

          If a few of the details of this rousing adventure are not quite credible, there is no denying the flair with which they are chronicled, nor the reality Mr. Hart brings to their description and the skill with which they are woven together.  More so than in prior novels, romance centers this tale, not alone Kinkaid's sad and frustrating love life, but the heroism and daring-do which originally comprised the Romantic Tale.  Plenty of that to satisfy even the male reader.  Filled with the grit and misadventure one knows to typify military pursuits, and with the pointless secrecy for which the operations of the CIA are justly notorious, it is also a tale of fine plans gone disastrously awry through human weakness, offset by the grand sense of honor and heroic self-sacrifice that so many of our servicemen bring to the world in which they struggle, not always quite desperately or quite without verve, to make a difference.  I shan't go into the deeper philosophical permutations which so enriched the tale for me, beyond observing they were there, but I will assure you that if you've a taste for brave men and equally courageous women, for thrills and scares and a tear or two, you will find Shadows in Replay anything but  "not quite."

Kaththea Spurlock
LoveRomances.com

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RATING: 4 - Rare Find
SENSUAL RATING: Smolders - High sexual tension

For Ross Kinkaid the Vietnam War never ended. Although it's been fifteen years since his involvement with Shadow (a joint CIA/Army covert operation formed to disrupt the Communist governments) not a day goes by that he doesn't remember and think about the men who never came home and the men who were left behind.

The White House is ready to begin the final phase of operation Shadow. Kinkaid's involvement is essential, as he is the only person who knows the identity of the men inserted into the Cambodian regime.

Although bored with his 9 to 5 job, Kinkaid has a bigger problem. He fears he is falling in love with a married co-worker. So, when the invitation to return to active duty is issued, Kinkaid accepts. He is a man running from both his past and his future. He soon discovers that this is a race he can't win.

Before the final curtain falls, Kinkaid will discover enemies he didn't know he had . . . friends he didn't know he had . . . and the woman he was meant to spend his life with.

Think John Wayne, think honor, think dedication to duty, love of country, and think of a man with memories to battle and a past that needs closure and you'll have a good handle on Ross Kinkaid.

Although there are certain elements of Shadows in Replay that stretch the realm of believability, for anyone who enjoys Military espionage thrillers Shadows in Replay will hit the mark.