Breaking His Code by Patricia D. Eddy

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Title: Breaking His Code
Author: Patricia D. Eddy
Series: Away From Keyboard #1
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 18, 2017
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Kale Williams, Lisa Zimmerman
Length: 5 hours and 21 minutes
Genres: Military Romance, Contemporary, Romance
Source: Audible Escape Package
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2019 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ iTunes ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

I can't escape my past. West wants to be my future.

When West, a former SEAL and my online gaming buddy, begged me to meet him IRL (in real life), one word, one touch, one look sent me fleeing like a coward. Back to my keyboard, online gaming, and the deadline that could make or break my whole programming career. Back where I'm safe.

Problem is, West followed.

Forced back into a world I'd rather forget, Cam's the one thing I'm afraid to lose.

My civilian life looks great. On paper. But my business is tanking, and I can't sleep more than a few hours before I jolt awake. Screaming. Shaking. Alone. Out of options, I accept a mission I might not come back from. But when I need Cam most, fear sends her running.

If I survive, can I convince Cam love is worth the risk?

My Review:

4.5 stars — I came for the latina heroine (for my diversity challenge), I stayed for the awesome narrators, relatively accurate coding references, amazing female software developer, and patient hero.

First, the narrators: Both narrators are new to me, and I enjoyed them both.  I LOVED Ms. Zimmerman in particular, she added so much emotion and depth, she easily got me crying at the challenging parts.  She was also killer on the different voices for different characters.  Mr. Williams had great pacing, but slightly less emotion variance for West.  And while his different voices weren’t quite as good as Ms. Zimmerman’s, I thankfully enjoyed his female voices (which can be a sticking point with male narrators).

Oh man, for such a short novel, these characters really packed a punch.  I felt the most for Camilla, which is odd because she was riddled with flaws that usually make me want to smack them.  She allowed so much of her past to influence all her present day interactions…and while we all do that to a degree, she was doing it to her detriment.  She had such a fear of abandonment, that she really kept people at arm’s length.  And she did make me growl at her on multiple occasions, particularly with her conflicts with Lucas (sp?) and West.  But something about the way that Ms. Eddy wrote her had me understanding her, and still empathizing with her struggles.  She was so smart and badass, but her stranglehold on her independence almost lost her some great people.

I LOVED that she was this kickass female programmer, and I appreciated that the coding references were actually not that bad…usually I roll my eyes.  I also really loved that we got such an in depth look at quite a few different “aftermath”s of military service.  I loved how she participated on the vet net board, trying to help other vets and make sure they knew they were not alone.  It really gave a great glimpse into what they go through when they return.

West was pretty awesome too, but I will admit that I didn’t feel like I got to know him quite as well.  I loved how persistent he was in his pursuit of Cam.  I loved that he could be soooo patient with her, but he also didn’t allow her to walk all over him.  He was very forthright.  And I appreciated his very real struggles of trying to make his Dojo work, and I LOVED what he was trying to do with its expansion.

And their chemistry was pretty solid, from friendship to steamy.  I almost wish we’d gotten more time with them together though…I felt like we got 2 strong separate stories, but I wanted to see how they made their lives work together too.

Lots of great secondary characters, and I can see how this one is shaping into a series.  I will definitely be putting more of them on my wishlist.  I will admit that I saw the “bad” guy fairly early on, and as my hubby put it: why can’t the heroine have been reading this book?  She would have seen it right away!  😉  I really loved how that all shaped up in the end.

So yeah.  Gotta love it when you ask for recs, and it turns out SOLID.