The setting is very dark, but the pace is fast enough and the interactions between the romantic leads and their support teams is positive enough to make the overall story enjoyable. (Squeamish, yes I am.) Vivi and Jazz are operatives for a contract agency and the Navy SEALs, respectively. They're in a southeast Asian hellhole with the goal of rescuing children caught in the sex trafficking industry while also tracking the moves of an international crime kingpin. If you've seen the anime Black Lagoon, it kind of reminds me of a romantic version of that in a lot of ways. World building was thorough, the linguistic abilities of the author shine, the heroic characters are all enjoyable, the villains are super villainous, and the characters in the gray area are nicely nuanced. I tend to skip over fight scenes, so I don't have much to say about those. Overall, reminds me quite a bit of '90s era Lowell or Howard. I'm looking forward to trying more by this author. ( )