Spoiler warning: This review contains spoilers for Atlas, light spoilers for the Rockstar Hearts novella Thorned Heart, and a nod to how the Famous series wraps up.
Lemon finally gets his book.
Three books into Eden Finley’s Mike Bravo Ops series, and she hands the spotlight to the dancer we first glimpsed in a Christmas novella two series ago, and pairs him with the one member of the team who turns out to be a total softie.
Atlas, released June 8, 2023 is, so far, my favourite of the Mike Bravo Ops series.
Who is Lemon?
If the name rings a bell, you have read Thorned Heart, the first novella in Finley’s Rockstar Hearts duet.
Lemon, real name Andrew, was the friend Cash Me Outside guitarist Seb Rose invited along on a Christmas trip, and that was about all we got. He was there, he was fun, and then the story moved on to Seb and band manager Thorne Young.
Atlas refers back to that trip, although Seb is never named, and some of what happened to Thorne in Thorned Heart is described without names attached. It is a neat bit of Sadenverse housekeeping that rewards anyone who has read the duet without confusing anyone who hasn’t.
Meet Atlas
Andrew “Atlas” is a former US Navy SEAL, six-foot-five, built like a wall and sporting a faux Mohawk. We have seen him in the background of both Iris and Rogue, and Rogue in particular gave us a taste of him.
The joke is that he did not get his call sign for carrying the world on his shoulders. Atlas has no sense of direction. None.
What I love about him is that he is confident without any of the cockiness we got from Iris and Trav in the first two books. He is exceptionally good at his job, but behind the big rough exterior he is a gentle, sensitive man who wants a relationship rather than a hook-up.
“Working undercover at a strip club is not my usual kind of job,” his half of the blurb opens, and the whole book is in that line. He takes the op to prove to Trav he can lead one. Then he meets Lemon.
Welcome to Peaches
The setting is Peaches, a gay go-go and strip bar in Los Angeles not far from the Sunset Strip, co-owned by Lyle Ivanov and David Smith.
Atlas is installed behind the bar, and his brief from Trav is to befriend the club’s biggest gossip. That happens to be Lemon, who has been dancing there for seven years and is, in the words of reviewer Cadiva on Goodreads, the “mother hen” to the younger dancers. Atlas is eventually promoted to security.
The supporting cast of dancers is a delight. There is Sam Eckles, a Nebraska boy nicknamed Callie, short for California, thanks to his surfer-blond hair and blue eyes. There is Doug, stage name Diamante, Frenchie (who is Canadian), Hunter and Romeo.
Lemon’s side of the blurb sets up the friction. “He’s as judgmental as he is hot, and let’s just say he’s really judgmental,” he says of the new bartender, and he is not wrong. Atlas starts this book looking down on the dancers and has to unlearn it in real time.
Finley flags that journey in an author’s note up front, along with a content warning for a secondary character who is a victim of domestic abuse. That storyline belongs to Callie and his boyfriend, Stephen Dawn of Dawn of America bank, and the book handles it with care rather than detail.
If this story raises anything for you, 1800RESPECT is available on 1800 737 732.
Andrew and Andrew
Yes, they are both called Andrew. It is very cute and the book knows it.
The turning point is Atlas pulling a handsy drunk off Lemon, and from there the attitude flips and a friendship starts. Lemon has never had a relationship before. Atlas has never wanted anything casual. The chemistry does the rest.
“Underneath the judgment, it turns out Atlas is a total sweetheart,” Lemon says.
For a series sold on knights in shining camo, this is a love story first and an op second.
The embezzlement plot ticks along in the background and pays off in a solid climax, but I was never reading for the mystery. I was reading for the two of them.
What other readers think
Atlas sits at a 3.89 average on Goodreads from more than 6000 ratings, a touch below Iris.
The praise lines up with mine. Love Bytes Reviews gave it 4.5 hearts, called it sex-positive and sex-work-positive, and only wished the rest of the team had more to do during the op. Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words gave it four out of five and singled out Atlas and Lemon’s dynamic as the strongest thing in the book.
The criticisms are consistent too. Some Goodreads readers found Atlas’s early attitude hard to sit with, some felt the message about sex work tipped into lecturing, and several wanted more heat earlier. Scattered Thoughts also felt the “Atlas must prove he can lead” subplot was an afterthought.
Fair points all. None of them dented it for me.
The Sadenverse connections
Atlas also quietly closes a door left open in the Famous series.
Mike Bravo Ops member Domino declares his relationship with Maggie, the mother of Ryder Kennedy’s ex daughter Kaylee Kennedy from Spotlight. If you have been waiting since book two of Famous to find out where that landed, here is your answer.
My third-book theory
I have a theory about Eden Finley, and Atlas has just made it harder to argue with.
The third book in each of her series has been my favourite. Deke gave us Ollie and Lennon in Fake Boyfriend, and they are still my favourite couple in that series. Fandom gave us Denver and Mason in Famous. And now Atlas has given us Atlas and Lemon, who might just be my favourite Mike Bravo Ops couple so far.
I was very happy to see Lemon finally get his own happy ending. He has deserved one since that Christmas trip.
If you listen rather than read, the audiobook is narrated by Tim Paige and Liam DiCosimo, with Paige carrying over from the earlier books.
Next up: Zeus, Mike Bravo Ops book four, released March 28, 2024. It is Callie’s story, and after what he goes through in Atlas, I’m curious about whether he can be redeemed. I could not be more ready for it.
Buy Atlas direct from EdenFinley.com
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