Under The Surface: An Alpha Ops Novel

Anne Calhoun

May 2016 · Sold by St. Martin's Paperbacks

About this ebook

Welcome to Eye Candy, the East Side’s hottest nightclub where the bartenders are hot, the cocktails are fancy, and danger lurks just under the surface...


Eve Webber, the gorgeous and savvy owner of Eye Candy, knows better than anyone that growing up on the wrong side of the tracks comes with certain complications. Determined to run a clean business and fix up the East Side, Eve’s plans get temporarily stalled when a potential new hire walks into her bar. The sexual chemistry crackling between them is a potent distraction...even if she refuses to mix business with the promise of pleasure.


Detective Matt Dorchester lives by strict rules that have kept him alive in impossible situations. When his latest undercover assignment has him playing a bartender, his desire for the passionate owner has him breaking every single one. Eve is in danger and her life depends on his secrecy. But once their attraction reaches a climactic conclusion, Matt must make a desperate choice: Tell her the truth about who he really is—or risk a once-in-a-lifetime love to save her life?

Ratings and reviews

Three and a half stars. I read a teaser of this book at the end of Anne Calhoun's last book and I was sufficiently intrigued to request this book when it came up on NetGalley. Eve Webber is the owner of a bar/club called Eye Candy which predominantly caters for women. She has been approached by an old school friend/ acquaintance who wants her to launder drug money through the club. She immediately informs the police but someone sees her or suspects her and the rumours are that a local gang is gunning for her. The police have been informed by the FBI that Eve's contact may lead them to the source of the drugs - the FBI wants Eve to act as an informant and get as much information about the drugs as possible. The chief detective on the case also went to school with Eve and decides to put an undercover detective in her club as a barman. Matt Dorchester is the undercover cop in question, a man driven by duty he commits totally to his role but he knows he has to walk a tightrope between getting Eve to trust him and not crossing the line. Something that he finds increasingly difficult to do. Eve is the daughter of a preacher and her parents are constantly urging her to get a 'real' job, owning a club is tantamount to owning a brothel as far as they are concerned. She is teetering on the brink of financial ruin, metaphorically betting on the regeneration of the Southie area to bolster her business. If you like romantic suspense stories then I think you will really enjoy this. The plot was well thought through and believable. Eve was a likeable woman, fighting for Southie and her right to have a job that absorbs her against her family and the criminal elements. She is upfront about how she feels and doesn't hesitate to come on to Matt, when he backs off one too many times she also tells him SHE has needs and she WILL fulfil them elsewhere if he continues to play coy. Funnily enough I half applauded her for her balls and half wondered how I would feel if a male character uttered the same ultimatum. I was less enthused by Matt, I really don't get these self-sacrificing characters who feel they aren't good enough/ entitled and I really didn't understand WHY he felt that way. I also had an issue about the sheer number of times that he referred to Eve in his own mind as a "the City's sexiest cocktail waitress". Searching my Kindle it appears that I may have imagined that she was an award-winning cocktail-maker rather than simply a cocktail waitress but even so it grated every time I read it, as though mentally he had to put her down from a successful bar/ club owner to a waitress. But otherwise, I really enjoyed this novel, sexier than the Alpha Ops books I have read with a strong plot and believable characters with a good cast of secondary characters. I'm shipping a Caleb/ Sorenson book soon. I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

About the author

After doing time at Fortune 500 companies on both coasts, Anne Calhoun landed in a flyover state, where she traded business casual for yoga pants and decided to write down all the lively story ideas that got her through years of monotonous corporate meetings. Her first book, LIBERATING LACEY won the EPIC Award for Best Contemporary Erotic Romance. Her story WHAT SHE NEEDS was chosen for Smart Bitch Sarah's Sizzling Book Club. Anne holds a BA in History and English, and an MA in American Studies from Columbia University. When she's not writing her hobbies include reading, knitting, and yoga. She lives in the Midwest with her family and singlehandedly supports her local Starbucks.