Book Description:

Publisher: Three Clover Press (February 1, 2013)
Category: Vietnam War, Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller
Tour Dates: May 2013
Available in: Print and ebook 384 Pages

In this suspense thriller set during the Vietnam War, Victor Ortega is a rogue CIA agent, and he needs someone to blame for his crimes. Recon Marine Ethan Card is the perfect patsy. As a teen, Ethan ran with a Chicago street gang, and he has a criminal record. He also has a secret lover, Tuyen, who is half Vietnamese and half French.


Tuyen is a stunning, beautiful Viet Cong resistance fighter.


Since she was a young child, Tuyen has lived under the control of her brutal, older, sexually abusive half-brother, Giap, a ruthless and powerful Viet Cong leader, who has forced her to kill Americans in battle or die if she refuses.


When Ethan discovers he is going to be court marshaled for weapons he did not sell to the Viet Cong and Tuyen will be arrested and end up in an infamous South Vietnamese prison, where she will be tortured and raped, he hijacks a U.S. Army helicopter and flees with Tuyen across Southeast Asia while struggling to prove his innocence.


Victor Ortega and Giap—working together with the support of an unwitting American general—will stop at nothing to catch the two, and the hunt is on.


The star-crossed lovers travel across Laos to Cambodia’s Angkor Wat; to Bangkok, Thailand, and then to Burma’s Golden Triangle where Ethan and Tuyen face a ruthless drug lord and his gang.


In the rainforests of Burma, Ethan also discovers Ortega and Giap have set in motion a massive assault on his Marine unit’s remote base in South Vietnam with the goal of killing the man he admires most, Colonel Edward Price, who is the only one who believes Ethan is innocent.


Ethan must risk everything to save Price and his fellow Marines. Will he succeed?


My Thoughts:


When Lloyd Lofthouse approached me about his new book, I got excited. I loved The Concubine Saga so was highly anticipating his next book.  However, I was a bit nervous at the same time because, this time, he write an action/adventure/thriller.  Though I do watch some movies in that genre, I rarely read books in it.


As I started reading, I quickly saw that I didn’t have to worry.  Running With the Enemy has some of the great elements I loved so much in The Concubine Saga; the character development, plot, setting, and historical elements.  All the things I need to make a book a great read.


The action was pretty much non-stop.  The love affair between Ethan and Tuyen felt real.  The bad guys were scary bad!  The only thing that seemed out of place to me, was the character, Victor Ortega’s use of the word “man”.  I know that word was used a lot in the 60’s but he said it at the end of just about every sentence.  For me, it took away from the flow of the novel.


This heart pounding adventure is not for the faint of heart.  It is full of sex and violence.  It is for adults only! That said, I highly recommend it!  Lloyd Lofthouse did it again!  I can hardly wait to see where his next novel takes us!


4.5/5


I received the ebook of this book for my honest opinion.

About Lloyd Lofthouse:

Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam veteran, served in Vietnam as a field radio operator in 1966. Back home, Lloyd was a heavy drinker until 1981, never talked about the war and suffered from PTSD. In the early 1980s, he confronted his demons by writing about his war experiences in an MFA program.

Running with the Enemy started as a memoir and then evolved into fiction.


His short story, A Night at the “Well of Purity”, named a finalist of the 2007 Chicago Literary Awards, was based on an event Lloyd experienced in Vietnam.



His novel My Splendid Concubine has earned ten honorable mentions in general fiction—a few examples: the 2008 London Book Festival; 2009 San Francisco Book Festival; 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, and the 2012 New York Book Festival, etc.


In 1999, his wife, Anchee Min, the author of the memoir Red Azalea, a book that was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1994, introduced Lloyd to Robert Hart, the real-life character of My Splendid Concubine.


After an honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines in 1968, Lloyd went to college on the GI Bill to earn a BA in journalism, and then worked days as a public school teacher for thirty years (1975 – 2005) in addition to nights and weekends as a maître d’ in a Southern California nightclub called the Red Onion (1980-1982).


Loyd’s Website: http://lloydlofthouse.org/


Thanks to the author, Lloyd Lofthouse, I am giving away one copy of Running With the Enemy.  This giveaway is open internationally.  If in the U.S., there is the choice of choice of print, mobi, epub, or pdf.  If outside the U.S., ebook only.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Follow the Tour:
So Many Precious Books May 30 Review & Giveaway
Book Dilettante May 31 Review
M. Denise C. June 4 Review
M. Denise C. June 5 Interview
JoyStory June 6 Review
Sweeps4Bloggers June 10 Review & Giveaway
Dab of Darkness June 11 Review
Romance & Inspiration June 12 Review
Candle Beam Books June 13 Review
Candle Beam Books June 14 Interview & Giveaway
A Booklover’s Library June 17 Review
A Booklover’s LibraryJune 18 Guest Post
DWED Blog June 20 Review
DWED Blog June 21 Interview
Reviewing Novels on Line  June 24 Review
Reviewing Novels on Line  June 25 Interview
My Devotional Thoughts June 25 Review
My Devotional Thoughts June 7 Interview
Tabula Rasa June 26 Review
A Book & Lattee June 27 Review
A Book & Lattee June 28 Interview
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