What I Should Have Done

Anchors and Eagles, Book 2

By: R.L. Atkinson

Narrated by: Austin Stone, Sable Lyn

Torn between love and war, his heart wears the scars of a past his soul can't forgive.

SEAL operator Mikey Johnson has seen his fair share of horror. The one thing that keeps him going during his deployments is the comfort of knowing who is waiting for him at home. That is, until he returns one day to a betrayal that cuts him deeper than the rest. And love gives way to anger and mistrust. When his team ships out on their next tour, he finds that they've been assigned a new, temporary sniper from another branch. The last thing he expects is for that teammate to be a woman.

Scottie Aleck, the first woman to graduate from the United States Army Sniper Course, finds herself a pawn in a political game as she's assigned to a team of Navy SEALs. She's familiar with their reputation. They've refused to draft a new SEAL for years, leaving the spot open. She has big shoes to fill, and with her career on the line, Scottie's determined to prove herself. Then, she meets him…

The mission is simple: find the bad guy, eliminate the bad guy. Except nothing is as simple as it seems when feelings become involved amidst combat and war. They aren't supposed to fall in love. They can't fall in love.

But violence has a way of breaking all the rules.

This is a spin-off of What I Should Have Said.

Contains mature content. A complete list of content warnings can be found on the author's website.

©2024 Rianna Atkinson (P)2025 Podium Audio

Action packed touching love story

I struggled to get through the first hour or so because I felt like it was going to be all about the fmc and her insecurities working in a man’s world. Also the female narrators voice was somewhat abrasive and I just couldn’t get into it. Well I’m so glad I kept listening!!! Crow’s insecurities in the beginning were just laying the ground work for a beautiful story of developing trust and love. Mikey’s backstory was heart wrenching and explained how he became the killing machine he was. As their relationship transformed throughout the story it became more exciting and action packed. I couldn’t hit pause and I was enthralled until the very end. Parts were touching and emotional and parts were nail biting excitement. I’m so glad I listened past the first hour. There was little to no steam which I would’ve liked to have but the storyline made it all worth it and there was plenty of sexual tension and chemistry between the two mc’s. Overall it’s a very good book worth the credit!

It was okay.

It was okay. I got this because of a reel I saw of a tidbit of scene about Mikey’s ex fiancé showing up and the sniper girlfriend (which didn’t happen until the very end, and was anticlimactic). The story line was interesting enough to continue although the “bad guy” was obvious. The FMC was a bit annoying and constantly had an attitude that people were out to get her just cus she’s a female and that she had something to prove. Like she had a chip on her shoulder and had an attitude about it. Kinda like a “woe is me” thing. It annoyed me and had me rolling my eyes a bit. She was not my cup of tea. I did love that she was a badass sniper though. Proud of her for that but she still needed an attitude adjustment. The MMC was good. He was sweet, funny and sounded charming. Nothing bad to say about him.
Spicy scene(s) were mediocre. Like it was just okay.. kinda filtered. Like watching something with the explicit parts blurred out. Not very much descriptive and short so basically you have to use your imagination.

the relationship was so good

I loved the writing it kept me guessing and I love the relationship that they build together they really needed each other.

Absolutely not

I only made it a few pages into chapter 6. I almost never return books, and had I been able to with this one, I would have.