Format: E-book
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Carina Press
Series: Standalone
Hero: Braden Donnelly
Heroine: Lilly Carmichael
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 15, 2011
Started On: August 11, 2011
Finished On: August 12, 2011

Deadly Obsession by Katie Reus is my first taste of her work and I think I am going to end up becoming an instant fan if what she can deliver with the rest of her stories is as good as this one turned out to be. Deadly Obsession is a romantic suspense that is a trifle bit dark with some vivid images of violence that makes this book exceptional in terms of the realistic edge the story delivers.

Deadly Obsession is set in the small town of Hudson Bay where a vicious and sadistic serial killer has been targeting victims too close to comfort to the town’s sheriff Braden Donnelly. Braden’s entire family apart from his grandmother had all been killed in a plane crash three years back the time around which he had quit the Marines and returned home, tired of seeing the face of death each and every day. Braden has a feeling that the killer is trying to send a message across to him though he has no idea who in his town would hold that much of a grudge against him.

Lilly Carmichael left her hometown ten years back and never looked back. An undercover agent for NSA, Lilly suffers from PTSD after a horrific incident in Africa that still plagues her with vivid nightmares. Lilly had left behind her Aunt Debra and her first boyfriend Braden who had been her first everything when she had left town. Though relations between her and her aunt who had brought her up since she was five years old had remained solid, Braden and Lilly had parted on bad terms and Lilly knows that Braden had been as much heartbroken as she had been when she left him behind. Guarding the secret of the actual reason why she had fled town seems to be the only way she can keep the now much more mature and lethal version of Braden whose intense stare still betrays the need he feels for her.

Braden feels suckerpunched by the intense want that courses through him as he sees Lilly for the first time in ten years. All his relationships since then had never even come close to making him feel even half as much of what he feels for Lilly though Braden would rather die than admit the fact to the woman who has continued to haunt his dreams even from afar.

It is Aunt Debra’s death that brings Lilly back home, a death that was staged by the killer who has every intention of wreaking havoc on Lilly and Braden’s emotions and lives, a fact he drives home by the sheer number of murders that he commits within such a short span of time. With the clock ticking towards an end that Braden would not have Lilly end up as the victim, both Lilly and Braden remain unaware until towards the very end just how personal and how close to home the threat against them emerges from.

Deadly Obsession turned out to be a fantastic read that held my undivided attention from page 1. There was never a dull moment nor a minute when I wished the story would continue on a different track and speed than with the one it was proceeding. Braden is such a sexy, compelling and intense hero that one cannot help but be drawn towards him even from the very first encounter. Hiding in his heart a wealth of pain because of all the loved ones he had lost, Braden is not at all ready to make himself vulnerable yet again to the only woman who still manages to make his heart beat faster by her mere presence. Its his protective nature without needless coddling and his take-charge attitude when it comes to the matters of the heart that lodged him permanently in my heart as I practically devoured this book.

Lilly was a heroine I reserved my judgement on until the very last minute, until the story brought to light exactly why she had left the way she did ten years back. Even before that, I couldn’t help but admire her courage and need to dig deeper to find out who was targeting innocent women in her hometown in the killer’s quest to make Lilly and Braden squirm in utter helplessness as the body count continues to grow.

All the side characters in the novel brought that something extra into the story that always makes a book that much more pleasing to lose oneself in and worthy of a mention is the quirky character of Hailey Banks, the county coroner. If Katie Reus were ever to continue this as a series, I would dearly love to see her story come out.

Final Verdict: Dark and edgy with the bite of red hot passion sizzling through the pages, Deadly Obsession is a romantic suspense that delivers on all counts.

Favorite Quotes

His masculine scent and strong embrace definitely hadn’t changed. He murmured soothing words against her hair and she let herself relax. When his familiar male scent washed over her with startling intensity, she cursed her traitorous body. Her nipples tightened against her bra when he stroked a soft hand down her spine. With one gentle touch her dormant libido flared to life.

When he dipped his head toward her breasts, she arched her back, giving him better access. In measured movements, he licked and laved one breast while palming the other. His calloused palm over her sensitive skin sent erotic vibrations to all her nerve endings.
This was a side to him she’d never seen. His whole body shook with need and the dark look in his eyes was startling. Not that she was afraid he’d hurt her. He just looked…hungry.

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