Medusa Project Books In Order

Publication Order of Medusa Project Books

Medusa Project is a series of military romance novels written by Cindy Dees. The books tell the story of an all-female Special Forces team that undertakes dangerous missions all over the world.

+The Story

Cindy Dees was in the army. That not only allowed her to visit many interesting places but she met a myriad of interesting individuals, this while participating in all manner of missions.

The experiences the author picked up during her military career shines brightly in the Medusa Project series which follows the exploits of women like Cindy Dees who fight alongside their male counterparts on the battlefield to keep the United States safe.

When the Medusa Project series first kicks off, the Medusa Project is just an experiment. Vanessa Blake is an Air Force Major that has been chosen to lead the first Special Forces Team comprised entirely of women.

Code named the Medusas, the team is supposed to help the Army determine whether or not women have a place in the Special Forces. So Vanessa undertakes her charge knowing that she carries the future of women in the Army on her shoulders.

What Vanessa Blake doesn’t know is that their trainer, Lieutenant Colonel Jake Scalatone, has been tasked with making sure the Medusa Project fails. Vanessa’s bosses do not believe that women have a place in the Special Forces, and they are determined to use the Medusa Project to squash any future campaigns about the issue.

So it doesn’t matter how well the Medusas perform. They have already failed in the eyes of the people with all the power. Things take a positive turn for Vanessa and her team when Scatalone disappears during a mission.

Vannesa turns the failure into an opportunity by volunteering the Medusas for Scatalone’s rescue mission. They will march into hostile territory, complete the critical mission and possibly even save the Lieutenant colonel. And if they succeed, the Army must commission them as an official team.

The move is risky but it pays off and it launches the Medusa Project, making Vanessa and her team pioneers in their fields.

The women of the Medusa Special Forces team are designed to be as diverse as they come, not only in terms of their ethnicity but also the skills they bring to the table. They include Aleesha Gautier, the doctor of the group, a woman that has been trained to heal and who must then struggle with the notion of taking lives as a member of the Medusas.

There’s also Isabella Torress, the intel analyst that is pushing the boundaries of her family’s traditions; Karen Tucker, the muscle of the team, a girl that can take on the biggest and the toughest men in the world but who sometimes struggles with her butch appearance; and Misty Cordell, the pilot of the crew, a girl that endured an accident, underwent surgery that made her beautiful and now she must prove that there’s more to her than her pretty face.

The Medusa Project series is published under the Silhouette Bombshell banner. And considering the reputation of Silhouette, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Medusa Project series is a blend of romance and action.

The women in Cindy Dees’ stories are strong, beautiful and seemingly untamable. But they can also be compassionate and kind and vulnerable. Each book focuses on the adventures of a different member of the Medusa Project.

Because each woman boasts a unique skill that adds value to the team, the different novels feature missions designed to test the competence of each woman in their respective field.

And whether they are fighting fraudsters or contending with terrorists, the women of the Medusa Project always find the time to pursue love in the various forms it manifests. Unfortunately for the series, the romantic aspects are not always handled appropriately.

A common complaint leveled at these books is the fact that the romance feels out of place. It’s almost as if Cindy Dees wrote an exciting action-packed manuscript, and then she began peppering it with random kisses and moments of passion because Silhouette mandated it.

The books would definitely be stronger if they stuck to the militaristic aspect of the Medusa Project series. Each member of the Medusa team brings with her plenty of drama and internal struggle, enough to drive the plot of each one of Cindy Dees’ Medusa project books.

It is generally agreed that the injection of love and romance is unnecessary. The romance is even more problematic because Cindy Dees doesn’t commit to it. The Medusa books merely touch on the romance. They hint at it and even talk about it. However, Cindy stops short of actually delivering on the sex that tends to litter most Silhouette novels.

Even with those complaints, Cindy Dees has been commended for her work on the novels which have been described as G.I.Joe but with women. The author was inspired to write the Medusa Project story after her army career saw her accompany Navy SEALs on a special test program.

She got to see these trained men in action and she realized that it was possible to put women in their shoes and garner the same result. Once the concept for the Medusa Project came together in her mind, it only took her 19 days to write the first book.

+The Medusa Project

Vanessa Blake is an Air Force Major. She was given an opportunity to lead the first all-female Special Forces team. Code named the Medusas, the team was supposed to either prove or disprove the viability of using women in the Special Forces.

And Vanessa was pretty excited for the chance to be a pioneer. As such, she is disheartened when she learns that their trainer, Lieutenant Colonel Jake Scatalone, has been ordered to fail the Medusas regardless of how well they perform. There is no place for women in the Special Forces.

When Scatalone disappears during a failed mission, Vanessa volunteers her team to go behind enemy lines and rescue him. If they succeed, the Medusas will become an official team.

+Medusa Rising

Doctor Aleesha Gautier was trained to save lives. When she joins the first all-female special ops team, she knows she will have to take lives, but she doesn’t know if she can do it when push comes to shove.

Aleesha is forced to confront this issue when she is charged with rescuing a hijacked cruise ship and she realizes that she might have to kill the bad guys before they kill her.