Category / Suspense

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Collateral Damage by J.L. Saint

Format: E-bookcollateraldamage
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Plus Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Silent Warrior, Book 1
Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd.
Hero: Jack Hunter
Heroine: Lauren Collins
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: December 14, 2010
Started On: December 18, 2010
Finished On: December 23, 2010

Like any reader, I am a bit apprehensive when it comes to trying out new authors, though that doesn’t stop me from trying out books on authors that I have never heard of because just sometimes, delving into the unknown certainly pays off when you find a book such as this one where the pages literally turn themselves with the fast paced action, romance and adventure that this one delivers – in spades.

Sergeant First Class Jack Hunter with more than 20 years of military experience under his belt also known as DT i.e. Double Tap because of his accuracy with headshots, wakes up in the ICU at the Walter Reed Medical Centre when the last mission where he had led his team members Rico, Pecos and Neil into the terrorist ridden areas of Lebanon where a group had kidnapped and held hostage the daughters of the Israeli Prime Minister and the US Ambassador had gone totally wrong. With Rico and himself seriously injured and Neil dead in the strike that had taken place, Jack is a man torn apart by the nightmares about the mission gone wrong and pieces that don’t seem to fit together. The one thing that Jack who has a strained relationship with his 6 year old daughter Livy after the hellish nightmare of a 7 year marriage with her mother Jill had ended up in divorce knows is that there is more than what meets the eye in what went down in Lebanon. With all his senses screaming at him to make sense of the blond and blue eyed American he had shot dead whose body had not turned up makes Jack all twitchy on the insides and makes him push himself to the limits to get back to the field before the shit hits the fan.

Lauren Collins with her 6 year old twin sons Matt and Mitch is just a month away from finalizing her divorce from Bill Collins the one man she had thought had been her Prince Charming who had later turned out to be the stuff made from nightmares. Right after Bill had taken up a job at BioLogics, a company that deals with invention of green technology as their PR executive and turned all secretive, their marriage had hit the rocks only to plummet deeper into abysmal when Bill began a string of extramarital affairs that had finally decided the fate of their marriage. And when Lauren receives the dreaded phone call in the middle of the night informing her that her husband had been shot dead in what appeared to be a random act of violence right after which her home is invaded by a masked gunman hellbent on searching for something Lauren has no clue of whatsoever, she barely manages to escape with her and her sons lives intact.

When the rough and tough looking six foot Jack Hunter with his square jawed and chiseled looks turns up on her doorstep commanding all her bedraggled hormones to take notice and clamor for his attention, he turns out  to be her only savior from danger that lurks wherever she turns. Lauren has no choice but to trust Jack with her and her sons lives as they race against time and try to piece together the cutthroat world of murder and mayhem that Bill had thrust his family into. As red-hot passion burns strong and sure like wildfire between Jack and beautiful Lauren so does a mad man’s thirst for world dominance that knows no bounds as he would go to any lengths to thwart those who stand in his way to prevent him from executing the perfect plan which would give him total power served on a silver platter.

Likes:

  1. Jack Hunter. He is broody, tortured and hot as sin!! I always love myself a tortured hero who knows what to do with his God given talents in pleasing a woman! And that’s not the only thing that drew me to Jack. He is loyal and wants to do right by what is his though he has had a hard time of things for the last couple of years. And on top of all that, he is black ops military. *sigh* Jack is utterly swoon worthy ladies, I solemnly swear by this! *swoons*
  2. Lauren Collins. She is perfect heroine material for the rough and tough Jack Hunter. With her sons she is the fierce mother tigress protecting her cubs, with Jack she is vulnerable and strong at the same time and what makes her unique is she doesn’t stand down and let Jack take all the control but rather she is an equal partner where she and Jack are concerned. Loved Lauren to bits.
  3. This story opened up my eyes to a lot of things that can go wrong with the precariously balanced “peace” that we take for granted in this world. Just add to it bad guys who are unscrupulous enough and have the means to manipulate the West and  the Islamic world as that happened in this story and you would have a global catastrophe of major proportions on your hands. Being a Muslim myself, I was a bit apprehensive when I started out reading and encountered the scene where Muslims had kidnapped the daughter of the Israeli prime minister. And I thought to myself, please don’t let this story be something where Muslims are portrayed as less than human and I was really glad of the sensitivity with which Ms. Saint handled the issue. There is no overly judgmental stuff going on in the story which brings home the hard truth of a war that was started by the Bush administration which has already cost the common man a lot more just a pretty penny from his pocket. Kudos to Ms. Saint for pulling this off so well.
  4. I liked the secondary stories that were taking place as the story unfolded. I liked how Ms. Saint didn’t overly make the story about the secondary characters, which is sometimes what happens when an author tries to juggle too many characters and their stories in one novel. She has laid the foundation nicely for this new series the rest of the books which has already landed on my auto-buy list. I am really looking forward to reading the story of the Delta Team commander Lt. Col. Roger Weston and Mari, the Muslim widow of Neil who dies in the op that is the starting point of this series and story.
  5. The cover. Believe it or not, the cover was what drew me to the story in the first place. I make it a point to surf through Samhain Publishing at least once a month to find out titles that might interest me. And when I looked into the eyes of the guy on the cover, I was baited enough to read through the synopsis and I have since then been looking forward to its release date which was earlier this month. This one definitely ends up on the fabulous cover list!  ^_^
  6. The creepy villain and his ever more creepy chimpanzee. Gives me the shivers of the bad kind even thinking about his warped mind. But he was a villain who certainly delivered enough to label him as one of the creepiest villains ever and lends the story the edge that it so well receives from him on the danger and adventure front.

Dislikes: As always the lack of a proper epilogue does rankle but not overly much since I hope I would be getting to see a bit of Jack and Lauren in the next couple of books in the series. ^_^

Recommended for: Fans of romantic suspense who love books filled with non-stop adventure and red-hot passion!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo | Samhain

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heart of Fire by Linda Howard

Format: E-bookheartoffire
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Pocket
Hero: Ben Lewis
Heroine: Jillian Sherwood
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: October 1, 1997
Started On: December 18, 2010
Finished On: December 18, 2010

Jillian Sherwood, daughter of the archaeologist known as Cyrus “Crackpot” Sherwood grows up with the love for archaeology and lost civilizations instilled into her long back when she had been just a young child fascinated by the stories of long-lost civilizations she had learnt of whilst sitting in the warm security of her father’s arms. When her father had died when Jillian had been 14 years old in the Amazon jungle on the expedition which would have proved once and for all that Cyrus didn’t have his head up in the clouds as all his colleagues and the rest of the archaeological community believed him to be, Jillian follows in his footsteps to become an archaeologist herself, something which becomes twice as hard for her because her father’s reputation lingers even long after his death.

The final straw comes when Jillian is overlooked as a possible candidate for the Ouosalla dig in East Africa, the biggest new archaeological find in decades funded by her employer Frost Archaeological Foundation. Even though Jillian is more than qualified to attend, she is not even considered because of her father’s reputation, which brings forth the burning desire in Jillian to actually delve into her father’s fascination with the Anzar theory of the Amazon being named for a band of warrior women who had lived deep within the jungle, this fascination of his which had played the main role in Cyrus being labeled as a “misguided” fool.

When Jillian’s half brother Rick Sherwood learns of the probable treasure, the “Empress of the Heart”, a big fat red diamond that supposedly exists in the lost city of Anzar civilization, its not long before Rick teams up with the unsavory Steven Kates who agrees to fund their expedition to find the city of Anzar. Because only Jillian knows the secret of the coded message left in her father’s books, they have no choice but to take Jillian along. It is in Brazil that Jillian first comes across the six foot tall, potentially lethal Ben Lewis who is to be their guide in the rough trek through the Amazon jungle and its river for the next two months or so.

From the moment Jillian lays eyes on the rough around the edges Ben, she instinctively goes on the protective mode knowing that here was a man who would be lethal to her heart, body and soul if she were even to give in an inch. Ben is more than surprised and a little bit aggravated as well to find his unexplainable fascination with a woman who does not even remotely fit in with the usual type of women he carouses around with. And though Ben tries to tell his wayward libido otherwise, his body clamors to possess Jillian as his own and brand her his. His practiced seduction techniques certainly do not seem to work on the cool and collected Jillian, who makes it her self appointed mission to not give into Ben’s caresses which leaves her senses begging for more of where that came from.

I liked:

  1. Ben Lewis. Its tough not to like a man who oozes sexuality from just his mere presence in the story. *fans self*
  2. Jillian Sherwood. Linda Howard knows exactly what we want from her characters and she certainly doesn’t disappoint us with Jillian. Independent to a fault, vulnerable and loyal and a stubbornness that makes Ben grit his teeth every now and then, Jillian and her acrid sense of humor certainly makes for an enjoyable heroine.
  3. The witty banter between Jillian and Ben. My God, I laughed out loud several times during the story, especially the parts where things never seem to go as Ben plans them with Jillian. She constantly manages to surprise and infuriate him with the lack of interest she shows towards his advances, a fact that just continues to aggravate and arouse Ben more and more throughout the story.
  4. The explosive passion between Ben and Jillian. One reason why Ms. Howard’s books always rate a re-read is the fact that she delivers in spades in the romance, adventure as well as the sensuality department in her stories. The scene where Ben claims Jillian in the middle of a thunderstorm amidst the downpour in the jungle made my senses all go on red alert! *mmmm..*

Dislikes: Umm.. nothing much but I felt that I didn’t get to learn more about Ben and his past which I yearned for throughout the story. Though the lack of his past didn’t in anyway diminish the full force of his personality, I would have loved knowing more about him than just his hyperactive libido which makes its presence known right from the very beginning. *wink*

Recommended for: Fans of Linda Howard and fans of jungle trek themed romances.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Dangerous Secrets by Lisa Marie Rice

Format: E-bookdangeroussecrets
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Dangerous, Book 2
Publisher: Avon Red
Hero: Nick Ireland
Heroine: Charity Prudence Prewitt
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: July 1, 2008
Started On: December 9, 2010
Finished On: December 13, 2010

I was going through my reviews the other night when I found that I had not reviewed my favorite Lisa Marie Rice novel from her Dangerous series, the other 2 in the series which I have already read and reviewed before. I remembered Dangerous Secrets to be a novel that made a huge impact on all my senses and that is the main reason why I decided to re-read and do a full review on this one. It has taken me ages to read and review this, not because this book in anyway fell short of my very high expectations (yes, I have high expectations even when I re-read books), but because of certain stuff going on right now I couldn’t find the time that I really, really wanted to indulge in Nick Ireland and savor him to bits! *sigh*

34 year old Nick Ireland aka Nicholas Ames aka Iceman is one of the best undercover agents that the Unit has ever employed, the Unit being a government special task force investigating international organized crime collaborating with terrorists. Nick had never known who his mother was as his mother had abandoned him at an orphanage when he was a baby. Nick had grown up in a bunch of orphanages and sometimes brutal foster homes where his main job had been survival. Though Nick had never known anything tender in his life, he had always been a fierce champion of the underdog, and that is how Nick had ended up befriending his closest friend and billionaire Jack. Tall, with midnight black hair and deep blue eyes Nick has a body which has been honed to perfection to be a lethal killing machine in the 10 years that Nick had served in the military. Nick is known as the Iceman because he is always cool and in control no matter what the circumstance until his legendary cool shatters and dies a brutal death when he invades Charity Prewitt’s life on his newest mission.

Charity Prudence Prewitt is a 28 year old librarian living in the quiet little town of Parker’s Ridge in Vermont. Beautiful with an air of calm serenity and elegance that always surrounds her, Charity had given up the hope of pursuing her dreams to take care of her ailing aunt and uncle who are the only family Charity is left with since her parents had died in a fire 15 years back. Charity had given up hope of ever finding someone who would want to share her life together with her responsibilities towards her aunt and uncle and had resigned herself to turning into an old maid when Nick strolls into her life, seducing her into surrendering her heart, body and soul to him.

Nick’s mission is simple. Seduce information from Charity about her best friend, Vassily Worontzoff, the Russian author of Dry Your Tears in Moscow, a novel considered as one of the classics of the 20th century. However, Vassily is far from the grand old man of literature that everyone thought he was. Vassily is one of the survivors of the Kolyma, the Soviet Union’s cruelest prison camp where prisoners had to work in temperatures as low as -90 degrees Fahrenheit in the gold minefields. Vassily had indeed been the renowned author back then, but the cruelty of the prison system and losing his beloved Katya who had never stood a chance with her beautiful good looks in a place like the Gulag prisons had turned him into the complete opposite of what he had been. Vassily had entered prison as a writer and come out as a monster, now the head of the Russian mafia in America, a man who would do anything to claim Charity as his own as he believes her to be his Katya, reincarnated for them to be together once again.

When Nick strolls into the small quaint library and assumes his role as the suave retired stockbroker and asks Charity out for dinner, the awareness that catches both of them unawares is stunning and ferocious in its intensity. Nick, a man who is so used to always been in control of his emotions and baser nature suddenly finds himself at a loss on how to handle how Charity makes him feel, the need in him to possess Charity as his so strong that nothing on Earth would sway Nick when he saw the danger that Charity was in, making a man who is commitment phobic to the extreme to marry the woman who makes all his senses go haywire – all in a good way.

A week is all that Charity has with her husband before they are married and on the eve of their wedding Charity receives a news that no bride should ever hear, especially on her wedding night. And Nick becomes a force to be reckoned with, as he breaks every rule ever written to protect the woman he loves at all costs, from a man who is nothing short of insane, a man who thinks nothing of it to smuggle radioactive material and sell it to the highest bidder to achieve his nefarious goals in life.

Likes:

  1. Holy shiite!! This book packs a whole lot of sensuality that I found myself in a sort of daze all throughout the story. Damn you Nick!! Nick makes it really hard not to make you devour each and every love scene in the book, and surprisingly I found myself wanting more of the same when most of the time too many love scenes in a book just tends to make the story cumbersome. But Ms. Rice pulls it off so well that I couldn’t help but yearn for more and more of Nick and Charity heating up the sheets, the walls and what not! ^_^
  2. Nick Ireland. He is just perfect! In each and every way! Though his gentleness and kindheartedness draws you towards him unlike anything else, this doesn’t make him a wimpy hero by any means. His smoldering sensuality, the way his senses all comes alive with Charity, the way he cherishes each and every moment he spends with her, unknowingly yearning for something he had always thought that he should or would never have just makes me endlessly sigh over the guy! God, I wish I could order up a guy like him to turn up on my doorstep! For real! ^_~
  3. Charity Prudence Prewitt. Though the prudence bit makes me go LOL, Charity is just the perfect match for Nick in each and every way. I say this because heroines in Ms. Rice’s books are never feminists who constantly need to prove a point to the hero. But rather they are feminine to the core, with an inner strength that stuns you from time to time and manages to lend the story a really charming quality with their elegance and beauty. So needless to say, I fricking loved Charity to bits!
  4. The flow of the story. I don’t think I can ever describe how well this story goes down, like a glass of cool water, not too cold, just the right temperature to quench your thirst on a really hot day. That’s how well I perceived this story and I imagine I would read it again somewhere down the line, just to give a treat to all my senses – as a treat to your senses is what  this book is! Pure magic is what Lisa Marie Rice weaves with Nick and Charity.
  5. And I loved me the ending! To pieces! ^_^
  6. Oh yes, the library smexing! Earned it the A+ grade, yes it did! *wink*

Dislikes: None.

Recommended for: Fans of Lisa Marie Rice or fans of romantic suspense who love their mystery to come packaged with a high dosage of sensuality. This one makes all your senses reel – all in a good way of course!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo

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Lisa Marie Rice
by mvbookreviewer

Review: No Place to Run by Maya Banks

Format: E-booknoplacetorun
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Kelly Group International, Book 2
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Sam Kelly
Heroine: Sophie Lundgren
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: December 7, 2010
Started On: December 7, 2010
Finished On: December 7, 2010

I have been waiting for this book like forever (okay that was a tad wee bit dramatic), but it does feel like I have waited forever after reading and reviewing the 1st book in the Kelly Group International Series entitled The Darkest Hour, a story that just captivated me right from the very beginning and totally blew me away. So it would not be an exaggeration to say that I had very high expectations for the 2nd book in the series, each one of which was met with and some even exceeded by this delightful romantic suspense novel by Ms. Banks.

The Kelly Group International (KGI) is a family based business which takes care of situations such as hostage recovery missions, kidnap cases and the likes and also hire out their services to the numerous government agencies in the US for covert missions requiring highly skilled operatives in delicate situations. 36 year old Sam Kelly, the eldest of the 6 boys in the Kelly bunch acts as the leader and shares responsibility of running this covert group with his brothers Garrett (even saying his name makes me go just a tad bit weak in the knees ^_^), Donovan (Van) and Ethan who is yet to officially join the group. Each having specialized military background, Sam had served in the army before forming the KGI group with his brothers.

Sophie Lundgren on the other hand comes from a family right out of your worst nightmares. Alex Mouton,  her father is at the top of the most wanted lists in the US running his empire in everything illegal ranging from running prostitution rings to arms dealing. Sophie had witnessed the horrors of her father’s rigid control over his emotions and his ruthlessness at the tender age of 10 years, a man who always puts his business first and never tolerates any sign of weakness from those are close to him.

When a KGI mission takes Sam and his brothers to parts of Mexico on a mission to take down Alex Mouton, it is at a seedy bar in Mexico that Sam first encounters the blond, delicate and beautiful Sophie, making all his primal instincts come out to play right at the very first sight of her. Their affair though short, runs hot until his mission takes him away leaving Sophie behind, Sophie who calmly plans and executes a plot to murder her own father.

Five months on, a pregnant Sophie is at the very end of her wits trying to elude those hellbent on killing her to exact revenge for the murder of her father. Sophie holds the key to her father’s vast empire and its the only thing that’s keeping her alive and prevents her from being shot pointblank. Exhausted, with no place to run to except to the arms of the father of her child and the man who rocked her world for a brief period of time, it is a barely alive Sophie that Sam comes across, the woman who has haunted his dreams ever since he had walked out on her to complete KGI’s mission.

With more questions than answers running through Sam, trust is the hardest commodity to come by when Sam finds out just how truly deceived he had been by Sophie, the woman who now carried his child, who still manages to touch something deep inside of his heart, something no other woman had ever being able to do. Scared as Sophie is, the last thing she wants to do is to put the Kelly family in harms way, which is exactly what happens as things spiral out of control until at the very end when Sam has to decide whether he would be able to trade the life of the woman he loves more than anything for the life of his own mother, a decision no man should ever have to make.

My likes

  1. Boy, where do I start? This book packs everything and I don’t mean that lightly, EVERYTHING that I look for when I pick up a novel of the romantic suspense genre. Action packed, highly sensual and emotional with enough character development that keeps the pages turning, I resented the time I had to spend away from the story after I started reading. Yes, Maya Banks has done a splendid job with this one and I can’t literally wait for Garrett’s (*sigh* there goes the knee shaky thing again!) story to come out in March 2011.
  2. Sam Kelly. Oh boy! He is one yummy alpha hero, in fact I don’t know how Ms. Banks does it with the Kelly men, but the entire bunch just makes me salivate, sigh, drool and palpitate as the story unfolds. Even with the 1st chapter itself, Sam managed to knock my socks off, with his smoldering sensuality, the simmering need deep within him to claim the woman who is obviously meant for him which touched me in a deep, deep way. And as the story continues, I got to see so many sides of Sam, the responsible tough oldest sibling role he has to play, the gentle, kindhearted soul that comes out to play when he is around those who are weaker than him and the way he lays claim on his woman sealed the deal for me with this hero.
  3. Sophie! She is one hell of a heroine. Vulnerable, beautiful and fiercely protective as a mother lioness with her cubs when it comes to her baby and Sam, she totally won me over because she is exactly what Sam needs in his life to make it complete. I loved her because she doesn’t take crap from anyone, not Sam, not Garrett and not even her formidably frightening father and still managed to touch something deep inside of my heart with her need to belong, to be loved and cossetted by someone who would love her unconditionally.
  4. The family dynamics in the story. What pulled me in even from the very 1st book in the series is how well the whole Kelly family as well as other side roles within the series have been created, whetting the reader’s appetite for more from them. Apart from the obvious Kelly brothers whose stories every reader of this series must covet, I would love to read Rusty, Sean as well as P.J. and Steele’s story. It is a testament to how well the character development has been handled within the story that I as a reader have this deep, insatiable need to learn more about them, whom we just get to meet in a scene or two in the whole story. Kudos to Ms. Banks for a job well done!
  5. As much as I coveted the emotional, sensual and action-packed moments in the story, I loved the humor-laced parts of the story, though they were few and far in-between. The scene that stands out the most is where Sam has to find underthings for Sophie, and it is to his mom he has to turn to, and the conversation between Garrett, Sam and Donovan just had me laughing out loud – making my husband a firm believer of the fact that I am stark raving mad! ^_^
  6. And before I forget, I very much heart the man-titty cover! Would make a sensational addition to Pamela Clare’s MTM posts don’tcha think? ^_^

My Dislikes: Absolutely none! Just wish there was more of this stuff to read, is all!! ^_^

Favorite Quotes

He stopped, just a foot in front of her, so close that his heat reached out and circled her like the damp towel she wore so close to her breast.
The clothes were in his hand, but he didn’t move to give them to her and she didn’t reach for them.
His gaze was so intense. So penetrating. She felt naked. So itchy, and alive. She swallowed, but nothing she did ridded her of the knot in her throat. It ached like she ached.

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of Maya Banks.
  2. Fans of the KGI series.
  3. Fans of romantic suspense that love action packed stories filled with enough emotion and sensuality to knock your breath out! If you love them like I do, this one’s for you!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Moving Target by Rosalie Stanton

Format: E-bookmovingtarget
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novella
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Hero: Nathanial Thornton (Wolf)
Heroine: Anna Winter
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: July 5, 2010
Started On: December 6, 2010
Finished On: December 6, 2010

So, it always tends to happen with me, if I stumble across a new author who has done a good job in convincing me with what I have read that he or she is worth rummaging through their backlist to find yummy reads, I ALWAYS end up doing just that. Firsts by Rosalie Stanton which I reviewed earlier definitely whetted my appetite for more from Ms. Stanton and I ended up getting myself a copy of Moving Target, a short romantic suspense novel that was published earlier this year.

Moving Target is the story of how Nathanial Thornton or Wolf is hired to kill Anna Winter, a job after two weeks of surveillance of his target Wolf is convinced that Anna is not what she has been made up to be by whoever has ordered the hit. From the first moment that Wolf lays his eyes on the stunningly gorgeous Anna with her pretty green eyes and gentle smile, all Wolf can think about is claiming her as his own, knowing that someone like him who has seen the dark side of life too many times to count is not deserving of someone like Anna who walks on the right side of life.

Anna had been working as secretary to Richard Monroe at the US Secretary of Agriculture in DC when she had heard something she wasn’t supposed to, and her fate had been sealed the moment Richard had discovered the fact and fired her. Coming back home to Springfield Missouri to lick her wounds and look for job, the last thing Anna would have expected is to run into the gorgeous as sin Wolf whose ocean blue eyes promise her things that makes her senses all go on high alert.

Wolf with the darkness that has surrounded his life till now finds the light at the end of the tunnel so to say in the arms of Anna who brings peace to his otherwise tortured soul with her acceptance and love.

I liked:

  1. Mmm.. you guys guessed right! Of course Wolf tops the list of my likes for this short novella. I felt my heart literally go aflutter when Wolf came up beside Anna asking her to dance, while promising with his eyes of things that he wants to do to her that just made my knees go weak. The club scene was definitely something! *wicked grin*
  2. Anna. I liked her because she doesn’t wait around fussing and bemoaning about the fact that an assassin who has been hired to kill her is the one who ultimately rides to her rescue when the shit hits the fan. I loved Anna because in spite of everything she still saw the gentleness that resides in Wolf that yearns to show itself, and because she opened up herself to let Wolf in, giving him a chance to embrace the light to escape all the darkness in his life.
  3. Definitely love the cover on this one too!! ^_^

I did not like: None, though I would love to read a full length contemporary or romantic suspense from Ms. Stanton. ^_^

Recommended for: Those who love short romantic suspense with a good dosage of sensuality in the mix.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo | Lyrical Press

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Ritual Sins by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookritualsins
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Onyx
Hero: Luke Bardell
Heroine: Rachel Connery
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: October 1, 1997
Started On: December 4, 2010
Finished On: December 5, 2010

Ritual Sins was recommended to me on Goodreads by my good friend Ruby. As I read through this one, there is one thing that I can say with absolute certainty; none can blame Ms. Stuart for spinning your usual run-of-the-mill romantic suspense. Ms. Stuart always pushes the boundaries with her stories which either makes you want to hurl the book at the wall or put it at the top of your favorite keeper pile. For me, this book hit somewhere in between, though the story that unfolded pulled me in right from the very beginning.

Ritual Sins begins when 29 year old Rachel Connery decides to visit Santa Dolores, home base of the Foundation of Being in New Mexico, a compound devoted to meditation and enlightenment, combined with a hospice center to care for the dying. Rachel is a tortured heroine if there ever was one. Growing up with a mother who had never really cared about her and flitted from one man to another which had rendered her only child wary of the opposite sex, Stella Connery had cared for no one except her own self. Rachel had suffered sexual molestation at the hands of her third stepfather, the touching which had started when she had been 9 years old which had escalated into rape when she had been 12 had rendered Rachel frigid, unable to touch or be touched by any person, be it in kindness or anything else. Armed with her MBA from Havard, Rachel had worked hard in soul sucking jobs to earn enough money to just one day up and leave to Spain where for a period of 3 months she had found her solace, only to return back to the States to find out that her mother as the trustee to Rachel’s trust fund had drained her of every penny, 12.5 million dollars of which she leaves to Luke Ballard, founder of the Foundation of Being before finally succumbing to death after being diagnosed with breast cancer and leaving nothing behind for her only child but suffering, betrayal, anger and pain. Now the only thing that keeps Rachel going is her quest for revenge, the thirst to bring down Luke and his Foundation crumbling down which grows stronger everyday.

Ex-convict Luke Bardell grew up in a small town where his grandparents had tried to convince his mother to get an abortion, a father who had been an evangelist traveling from one town to the other who had never really wanted a child in the first place and had been killed for his wayward way with womenfolk by a jealous husband which had finally propelled his mother to marry Jackson Bardell, the worst mistake of her life for which she had paid in full by committing suicide when Luke had been around 8 years old, leaving him at the mercy of Jackson’s drunken fists until the day Luke had grown old enough to defend himself. When Luke had killed a man in a barroom brawl, Luke had been found guilty of manslaughter and had done time in jail for 3 years after which he had been released on parole during which time Luke had started the Foundation. With an uncanny charisma and charm, Luke has the ability to use his skills to draw people into his manipulative web of serenity and solace, and when Stella Connery dies at the Foundation, Luke knows deep down in his gut that Stella’s skinny, pale and sour faced daughter would prove to be the downfall of the Foundation, unless Luke can make her pay with the ultimate surrender of her heart, body and soul.

I liked:

  1. The unique story that unfolded as I swept through the pages. As I said at the beginning of my review, none can blame Ms. Stuart for spinning your average romantic suspense. This story is by not any means an easy read. Luke is a manipulator of the highest degree, who doesn’t feel any qualms about using people for his own needs regardless of the consequences. Learning about Luke and Rachel’s disturbing childhoods wasn’t easy, but it makes for a compelling read, one you can’t help but go on reading with a twisted kind of fascination. Even with all his faults, Luke still makes for a hero worthy of a sigh or two, even as he goes out of his way to charm and seduce Rachel to give up her heart, body and soul to him for nothing in return.
  2. Rachel Connery. She is a tortured heroine if there ever was one. She has so much pain, anguish and fear locked up inside of her that she is one simmering ball of misery waiting to explode. Ms. Stuart certainly paints a realistic picture of how someone who has been raped by her own stepfather countless times  can be frozen into state of abject misery throughout the years, not knowing how to reach out to anyone and never letting yourself become vulnerable enough to be hurt like that ever again. It was painful seeing Rachel being “forced” to give in, to embrace her sensual nature and when she did let go, it was a mighty fine feeling that overcame me as I rooted for her freedom from the very shackles of fear that keeps her in a prison of hell till that very moment.
  3. The complex multifaceted characters that liven up this read. There is not one character that I would have wished to do away with in this story. Each one of them lends something essential to the story making it one compelling story to sink into.

I did not like: Umm.. there’s nothing that I can say outright that I disliked in this novel. But Luke’s character was a bit tough to like during the first couple of chapters though the guy oozes charm like nothing else. But in the end, knowing where he came from, learning about the wealth of pain and suffering that had shaped him up made it all worth in the end. I still can’t say that I flat-out loved Luke, but I can definitely say that I wouldn’t shut the door in his face if he were to turn up at my house. *grin*

Favorite Quotes

She just looked at him. She really had extraordinary eyes, he thought, keeping his own face expressionless, slightly bored. It was those eyes of hers that were his downfall. He could resist her anger, he could resist her body and her sarcastic tongue. But those deep brown eyes, so full of pain and fury, need and defiance, did him in.

Recommended for: Fans of Anne Stuart.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Night Fall by Anne Stuart

Format: E-booknightfall2
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Onyx
Hero: Richard Tiernan
Heroine: Cassidy Roarke
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: March 1, 1995
Started On: December 3, 2010
Finished On: December 4, 2010

Anne Stuart definitely knows what she is doing with her bad-ass heroes who walk a fine line between inciting intense dislike or adoration despite of their broody and almost irredeemable nature in her readers. Night Fall caught my interest whilst going through her list of published  books and the fact that this story had won the RT Reviewer’s Choice award for the Contemporary Romantic Suspense category in 1995 convinced me to push this one towards the top of my TBR pile and I have to say that this is one romantic suspense novel that all lovers of this genre ought to read.

Richard Tiernan is certainly not your average hero in a romantic suspense novel. Yes he is handsome, compelling, charming and draws women towards him like iron towards magnet but what makes him a bit more sinister and edgier than your average alpha hero is the fact that Richard is a man who has been convicted for stabbing his beautifully angelic and pregnant wife Diana Scott Tiernan to death and the murder of his two beautiful children; 5 year old Amy and 3 year old Seth who to this day have never been found. It hadn’t taken much for a jury to find him guilty when Richard had done nothing to allay their suspicions. The fact that Diana had been about to leave him and had in fact filed papers to deny Richard access to their children had provided the motive that was needed for the conviction and his sentence had put him on death row to be killed by lethal injection until Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Sean O’Rourke posts his bail to use Richard’s story to pen his final masterpiece.

27 year old Cassidy Roarke had worked damn hard to make a safe and predictable and albeit a boring life for herself in Baltimore. Growing up with her father Sean who practically storms through life with his fierce bull-like nature and her mother Alice who had just been like Sean had definitely left its mark on Cassidy. Cassidy with her hour-glass figure, red hair and green eyes with her fierce protective nature knows that she will always fall short in her father’s eyes and that she would never be able to rise up and meet his expectations. Though she knows that putting herself in reach of Sean’s manipulative nature wouldn’t end up in a pleasant way, Cassidy is no match for her father’s wheedling and the news that he is sick propels Cassidy to travel to New York to see her father, her curiosity on why Sean had felt the need to manipulate her enough to require her presence being the deal breaker in her decision to go up to see her father.

When she arrives, she is hardly prepared to find a convicted murderer residing at Sean’s home, and Richard is exactly who Cassidy meets when she steps into her father’s apartment. The need to flee, to protect herself from the compelling man that stands before her rages an internal battle with her reluctant fascination for a man she is better off not knowing anything about. But Cassidy can’t help herself as Richard is determined that Cassidy fulfill the role that he has chosen for her, regardless of how much Cassidy might have to sacrifice of herself in the end. Ownership of Cassidy’s heart, body and soul is what Richard wants within the short time period he has left, and he uses all his acquired skill in drawing a hopelessly ensnared Cassidy into his trap until it is all too late when Cassidy’s well-honed survival instincts do kick in. What Richard doesn’t count on is for him to fall into a trap of his own making, for him to come to care enough to want to see the dawn of another day because of Cassidy.

I Liked:

  1. The compelling story telling done by Ms. Stuart on this one. From the prologue itself, this story drew me in, trapping me within the complexity of the story as it unfolded and made me read till late into the night so that I could find out what had really happened that fateful night when Diana Scott Tiernan had been stabbed to death in her own home. Kudos to Ms. Stuart for the amazing story she has told in this one!
  2. Richard Tiernan. His character is one that draws the reader right from the very beginning. It’s not only Cassidy that he lures in with his manipulative lies to ruthlessly achieve what he wants but the reader as well since I could not for the world stop thinking about Richard, his death sentence and the aura of danger, mystery and desolateness that surrounds him. My wary fascination with him turned into entirely something else halfway through the novel as his seductive and compelling nature made it hard for me to do anything else but love him for who he is and when the cracks finally begin to show in his well suited armor around his heart and emotions, I felt like holding him and never letting him go. Richard Tiernan is one fine man definitely worth your time! ^_^
  3. Cassidy Roarke. Her innocence coupled with her undeniable intelligence and her fierce loyalty towards those whom she loves makes her a very compelling heroine, exactly what someone like Richard who has lost himself in a shroud of darkness from which he sees no light really needs. Cassidy’s finely honed fight or flee nature always comes to light around Richard as he tempts her beyond anything or anyone she has ever known which makes for an interesting read in itself.
  4. The hideously creepy villain who comes to light towards the end of the story. The guy just gives me the creeps and the heebie jeebies if you know what I mean! It’s not that I “like” him but I like what his character brings to the story which makes for a very compelling read.

I did not like: Nothing much but *sigh* again, the abruptness of how it ended kinda punched me in the face with this one as well. Though I know better than not to expect long and overdrawn epilogues from Ms. Stuart, it kinda still stings when the story is over long before you want it to be, like cold water up your ass before you have fully woken up in the morning!

Favorite Quotes

She was literally backed into a corner, backed by her own nervousness, and he’d advanced on her. She raised her chin, looking at him with completely false calm, and waited for him to move out of the way.
He didn’t. Not for an agonizingly long time. He let his gaze fall, travel down the length of her, from her wild mane of hair, down to the front of her plain white nightgown to the tips of her bare feet. There was nothing even remotely suggestive about the cotton nightgown or the baggy sweater she’d pulled over it, nothing erotic about bare feet. His eyes slid down her body, and she was burning up.

She was unprepared for the sudden change in him. He’d been holding himself very taut, and suddenly the tension seemed to leave his body. He sank to his knees in front of her, his arms around her waist, his head pressed against her belly, and he was trembling. She reached down, in wonder, to cradle his head against her, and she felt the heat of tears against her skin, and her heart broke.

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of contemporary romantic suspense.
  2. Fans of Anne Stuart and her dark, edgy heroes.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Two Alone by Sandra Brown

Format: E-booktwoalone
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Intimate Moments
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Cooper Landry
Heroine: Rusty Carlson
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: November 1, 1987
Started On: November 30, 2010
Finished On: December 1, 2010

I was going through Sandra Brown’s book list on Goodreads when a bunch of her older titles which I have not managed to read yet caught my eye. This one jumped outright at me from the very first moment with the title alone to make it sound like a story that I would be interested in. Upon reading the book summary, I knew that this book was definitely right up my ally and I didn’t hesitate to get myself a copy and indulge in one of my favorite romance themes ever – where total opposites come together in a romantic suspense novel, the hero as grouchy as can be and the heroine as feminine as  they come creating the best of sexual tension which in the end delivers a romance of the best kind! And this book certainly did not disappoint me on that front.

Two Alone was first published in 1987 when Sandra Brown wrote under the pseudonym Erin St. Claire a fact which I found out when I was about to start writing the review, and I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed this one since most of the time romances penned in the 80’s tend to be of the wall-banger variety in terms of character development and developing storyline. But Sandra Brown has pulled it off, and I should say she has pulled this one off quite well with Cooper Landry and Rusty Carlson and their explosive mixture of passion and desire for one another.

27 year old Rusty Carlson is a real estate agent who works for her rich father and resides in Beverly Hills, California. With her mother dying when she had been a teenager and her brother Jeff whose sudden death had taken him away just two years back, its just Rusty and her father left in the family. Rusty always feels that she falls short when it comes to her father’s expectations, who always goes out of his way to sing praises for his dead son, and it is because Rusty tries so hard to please her father and rise to meet his unrealistic expectations that she subjects herself to spending time with her father at his favorite hunting grounds. On her way back to civilization, the plane on which Rusty is on crashes hurtling her into a world she is not at all equipped to deal with and puts her in the path of the dangerous and broody Cooper Landry.

Ex-military, having served in the Vietnam war and having ended up as a prisoner of war to later come out fighting with enough scars to last him for a lifetime, the last thing that Cooper needs is to be saddled with a woman who is too beautiful for her own good, a spoilt little heiress who Cooper is sure would end up being a pain in his butt whilst they fight for their survival until they are rescued. Cooper has sworn off women after the last woman he had given his everything had in the end betrayed him in the worst way possible and Cooper was in no hurry to let someone like Rusty ride roughshod on his emotions and his well protected heart.

But what Cooper doesn’t count on is the fact that Rusty though has lived a privileged life, she is no whiner and takes the whole survival of the fittest part about their predicament in the icy mountains with the killer snow storms moving in on them far better than Cooper had been expecting and in the end her gumption is what earns Cooper’s admiration, something he is quite stingy in passing out. And regardless of how much he tries to despise her and keep her away with his taunting and rough behavior, Cooper is helpless in the red hot desire that becomes as much a part of him as breathing when he is around Rusty.

Rusty is bewildered by the amount of hostility that Cooper shows her but she is no match for the desire that he unleashes with one searing glance and it is this strong attraction that they both try to ignore which brings forth all their animosity towards each other until the dangers in the wilderness forces them both to put aside their differences and work together for survival, something which propels them towards their ultimate combustive coming together which I absolutely reveled in reading about.

So.. Stuff I liked:

  1. Cooper Landry. He is broody, tortured enough to warrant my heartfelt love and bring forth all my protective instincts which makes him the perfect alpha hero. His callous behavior towards Rusty at the beginning made me realize that oh boy, when this one falls, he will fall hard and that made me nearly rub my hands together in glee at the mere thought of his fall. And every expectation I had of him as a hero was met. Cooper just sizzles the pages with his smoldering sensuality and the hot, hot kisses that fairly made Rusty not the only one to yearn to possess him. *wistful sigh*
  2. I loved the undeniable hostility between Rusty and Cooper which actually sprang from their mutual attraction towards each other which both refused to give in – or Cooper refused to give in because in his mind, he has nothing left to offer to a woman and because for him trust doesn’t come easily at all. Because of this, the simmering tension and sensuality between the two just took my breath away a time or two and I could barely sit still as anticipation coursed through me as I waited for the moment the inevitable explosion to come! *note to self: should join a Lamaze class ASAP*
  3. I loved the epilogue or rather the ending. It wasn’t abrupt, neither was it drawn out and what made this ending special was because of how their happily ever after was told. When Cooper leaves thinking that Rusty had ultimately betrayed him, it is Rusty who makes her way to the mountains where Cooper lives, and the ending is described months later which effectively conveys what happened that night when a bedraggled Rusty showed up on Cooper’s doorstep and also gives the reader glimpses into their happily ever after. Now why we can never find a man like Cooper, I would never know!!

Now.. Stuff I didn’t like so much:

I know it’s trivial but, what’s with the names of the hero and heroine in this book? Rusty? Who in the world calls their child Rusty? LOL! And Cooper was an okay name but I wanted something more significant, a name that would scream testosterone and ooze sexuality in lethal doses just like the man himself! ^_^

Favorite Quotes

He muttered swearwords that were in themselves arousing because they explicitly expressed the height of his arousal.
Like a Rod Stewart song, they were viscerally sexy, one couldn’t hear them without thinking of a male and a female mating.

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of Sandra Brown.
  2. Fans of romantic suspense.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag

Format: E-bookluckyslady
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Doucette, Book 2
Publisher: Bantam
Hero: Etienne Doucet (Lucky)
Heroine: Serena Sheridan
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: December 30, 2003
Started On: November 20, 2010
Finished On: November 24, 2010

This week has been totally crazy. After the 10 day break during which I practiced the art of doing nothing except sleep, eat and read, the time during which I met Bastien Toussaint (can you tell whether I love this guy or not? LOL!), the work week started on a crazy note. Added to that I am deep in pursuit on a place to do my Masters degree which I have kept on the back burner for quite some time now. So all in all, I left Lucky hanging far too long and managed to finish this one by staying up all night last night for which I am not even remotely feeling guilty about as Lucky managed to surpass each and every expectation I had of him from the very beginning of this delightful story.

Lucky’s Lady is not my first Tami Hoag. Her book Ashes to Ashes though classified as a Romantic Suspense which sort of falls flat on the romance area was my first Tami Hoag and since then I have never been tempted to read a book from Tami Hoag until I found myself in the midst of a discussion on Amazon where someone recommended this book as being one of the best books ever. Skeptical as I was I couldn’t resist picking this one up for which I am thankful for. This book has that perfect balance of romance and suspense that earns it the right to be labeled as a romantic suspense. Thanks to the rave reviews from various friends of mine on Goodreads such as Lady Jayne, Quinn, Melissa B and Shawna which played a major role in me taking the plunge into this romance based in Louisiana.

Etienne Doucet or Lucky as most people know him as, is one of the most deliciously sinful and heartthrob variety of hero ever. Right from the very first second he entered into the story all my senses went haywire and everything in me clamored to find out more about him. Ex-military, Lucky is a man who has suffered on many levels, who has been to the brink of taking his own life and beyond, taking his refuge in the beautifully mysterious Louisiana swamp he calls his home. Betrayal of the worst kind from the two women who he had dared to care for has left Lucky a man dangerously cynical of the fairer sex and certainly wants nothing to do with the classy Serena Sheridan when she walks into his life destroying every belief and all the walls he has put up around his emotions till now.

Serena Sheridan is classy, beautiful and totally different from her twin sister Shelby. Serena had been fifteen when her father, an only child had died leaving her and Shelby in the care of their grandfather and owner of Chanson Du Terre the Sheridan plantation. Serena’s mother had died long before that and  though Serena has always longed for a close relationship with her twin sister, it had never happened and Serena had upped and left for Charleston where she has made a whole new life for herself as a psychologist. Serena had been married for 4 years to a man for all the wrong reasons and the lack of sizzle in their life had led them to divorce amicably and Serena has resigned herself to believing that she is just one of those women who would never feel that deep passion in her life, until she locks horns with the sinful Cajun hero Lucky.

Someone as classy and beautiful as Serena would never have crossed paths with someone like Lucky who likes nothing better than letting others think the worst about him. It is when Serena returns home for a vacation to spend time with her grandfather and her sister and her family who were currently living at Chanson Du Terre that she finds out that her grandfather had gone into hiding deep into the swamp and it is her deep concern for him that drives Serena who has never set foot in the swamp due to an incident that took place 15 years back, to face her worst nightmare and go after her grandfather into the dark and dangerous swamp. With no one but Lucky left  to guide her to where her grandfather is in hiding Serena has no choice but to bear with the man who just makes all her senses come alive with one word in his drawling Cajun accent that literally makes her knees go weak.

What Serena finds out upon the explosive encounter with her grandfather leaves a sour taste in her mouth. Someone who doesn’t like how the mysterious and yet beautiful swamp which had been her home makes her feel, Serena is forced to make a choice on whether she would run back to her safe cocoon back in Charleston or whether she would stay on and fight the battle of her life against her only family whilst the greatest danger of all is the power that Lucky wields over her heart and emotions within such a short period of time. Filled with mind numbing sexual tension, I never wanted to put this book down ever since Lucky Doucet put his raw powerful frame into the picture.

Likes:

  1. Lucky Doucet, Lucky Doucet and Lucky Doucet! Can I say it one more time? Would it make it anymore obvious that the guy totally invaded and took control of my heart, body and soul whilst I was reading this book and then some? Sigh! I don’t think I can adequately describe the way he took absolute control of the story since he walked into the picture. From his sinfully good looks to the edge of his tortured soul, I loved every bit of him and then some more and couldn’t help but sigh and moon over those sexy and at times dirty French phrases he kept tossing into the story which made my knees go weak each and every time! And his total mastery in the bedroom!! OMG!! Should I go on? LOL! This was the one time that I wished that I was able to match his physique with someone real like my friend Jayne on Goodreads is able to. Jayne, wanna help me out here? ^_^
  2. Serena Sheridan. She is one classy kick-ass hero who manages to pull the whole thing off quite effectively. Her vulnerability coupled with her strength is what made me love her absolutely as the story unfolded. Her faith and love in Lucky as she discovers the person he is deep inside, the fact  that she is not intimidated by the total bad-ass act that Lucky pulls off quite effectively and the fact that she was strong enough to let Lucky go even though it had been the single hardest thing she had ever done sealed the deal for me with this heroine.
  3. Loved the sassy and sexy bantering between Serena and Lucky throughout the story.
  4. The super duper sexual tension in the book! My insides were on a total quivering session all of last night since Lucky picked up from where he left off. From the first no holds barred kiss to the give-it-all-you-have encounters between the two left me breathless and at times like a puddle of goo as Lucky took total control of my, ahem! baser emotions. *drool*
  5. Absolutely adored the way the story ended. At first as the story progressed, I thought, “Oh well! Here comes another bad-ass hero who is going to make a total fool of himself from the first sight of his woman” and boy was I ever so delightfully wrong! I just love it when the ultimate happily ever after (which of course is a foregone conclusion in a romance) nevertheless is NOT a foregone conclusion within the first couple of pages which is one of the reasons why I rate this as an A+ read and then some. This was a beautifully fitting ending if there ever was one! Sigh!

Dislikes: Absolument pas! (Absolutely none!) ^_^

Recommended for: Anyone who LOVES romances!

Favorite Quotes

What Serena had braced herself for she wasn’t sure, but it certainly wasn’t the man who filled the doorway. The impact of his sudden presence had the same effect as being hit with a shock wave – a phenomenon she had heretofore not believed in.
Her first impression was of raw power. Broad shoulders, bulging biceps. His chest, bare and gleaming with a sheen of sweat, was wide, and hard muscle beneath taut, tanned skin. The strong V of his torso narrowed to a slender waist, a stomach corrugated with muscle and dusted with black hair that disappeared beneath the low-riding waistband of faded green fatigue pants. She raised her eyes to his face and felt a shiver pass over her from head to toe, making her scalp tighten and her fingers tingle. He stared at her from under sleepy lids with large, unblinking amber eyes, eyes like a panthers. 

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Fire And Ice by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookfireandice
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Ice, Book 5
Publisher: MIRA
Hero: Hiromasa Shinoda
Heroine: Jillian Lovitz
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: May 1, 2008
Started On: November 18, 2010
Finished On: November 18, 2010

As all good things in life do come to an end, so I have reached the end of this highly entertaining romantic suspense series by Anne Stuart. Though I still definitely yearn for more of Ms. Stuart’s heroes, I would have to dig through some of her other books to find the fix that I am craving for even now. I hear that her House of Rohan series is really good and I am definitely going to try them out, as soon as I catch my breathe from the latest roller-coaster ride that I just disembarked from.

The Hero: 27 year old Hiromasa Shinoda or Reno is hardly one’s typical romance book hero. Reno is cousins with Takashi O’Brien, hero of the 3rd book in the Ice series which I reviewed earlier. Readers who have read or are reading the series in order would have come across Reno in Takashi’s story, and even then I found myself intrigued with the complexity of his character. Half-American and half-Japanese as well, Reno is the grandson of the head of the infamous Yakuza family, a family steeped in organized crime in Japan. Reno’s complexity doesn’t come from his mixed heritage, but rather the mass of contradictions that he actually is. Whilst Hiromasa Shinoda looks respectable and is a man with a high IQ with a degree in Engineering, the darker and edgier side of him known as Reno can most well be described as a punk Yakuza gangster. With long spiky hair that falls well below his waist colored in crimson red, and two teardrop tattoos on his high cheekbones and hard-ass attitude, Reno is the ultimate bad boy with a deep rooted animosity towards American women as his own American mother had abandoned him once she had grown tired of playing Yakuza royalty. Serving as the Committee’s newest recruit, Reno hardly fits in with the typical Committee material but shows his true potential when things turned quite rough in Ice Storm, the 4th book of the series.

The Heroine: Jillian Lovitz or Jilly as she is called by everyone close to her is 20 years old and a genius who has never had the chance to experience the stuff that normal childhoods are made up of. With a high IQ that had refused to sit idle whilst she experienced life, Jilly had graduated from high school when she had been fifteen, college when she was eighteen had never had the chance to develop normal relationships. With big brown eyes, a wide mouth and short blond hair and well around 6 feet tall, Jilly had always felt more like a giant around her five foot something, petite mother who had acted more like a spoiled child herself than an adult all her life. Jilly’s one solace in life had been Summer her half-sister who had always looked out for her and mothered her whom she misses terribly since she married Takashi and moved to Japan.

Storyline: It is Jilly’s yearning to experience life and the need to divest herself of her status as a virgin that ends in a disastrous one night stand which propels her to fly to Japan to drown her sorrows in the arms of Summer. However, unbeknown to Jilly, Takashi and Summer had gone into hiding to escape a bunch of mercenary killers who were gunning for their lives. And it is Reno who rides to her rescue on a mean looking Harley and whisks her away to safety whilst Jilly’s heart acknowledges the fact that in reality she had come to Japan wanting to seek Reno out, the man who had fueled all her adolescent dreams for the past two years. This time rather than international terrorists out to take the world, the danger that surrounds them rises too close to home for comfort and it will take every ounce of Reno’s willpower to keep his hands of Jilly whilst they run for their lives dodging killers and bullets as they race through Japan trying to figure out who and why they have been targeted.

The First Encounter: Jilly and Reno’s first encounter takes place at the end of Ice Blue, the story of Summer Hawthorne and Takashi O’Brien. Even with his deep rooted animosity towards American women, Reno is helplessly ensnared right from the first moment he lays his reluctant eyes on Jilly.

Time period: This story has a contemporary setting and takes place in the UK, Japan and later in the US.

Narrative Form: This story is told in the 3rd person form in both Reno and Jilly’s point of view for the main part of the story.

Awareness between the hero and heroine: What drew me to this story in the first place was the attraction that flares between Reno and Jilly at the end of Ice Blue. Even back then, Takashi and Summer had realized what was happening and had taken steps to avert someone like Reno from taking advantage of an innocent like Jilly. However that had not stopped either of them from dreaming about the other or wanting the other. Though Reno’s yearnings had been more sexual in nature whilst Jilly’s had been more dreamlike in nature, it is the white hot and undeniable attraction between the two that Reno certainly doesn’t want any part of that makes this book so damn attractive. Whilst Jilly spins dreams of the possibility of a happily ever after with the ultimate bad boy Reno, Reno is determined to keep his hands off from Jilly because he knows that she is more trouble than it is worth. But when push comes to shove and Reno has to keep Jilly safe, the close proximity proves to be Reno’s undoing where Jilly is concerned which makes this read truly worthwhile.

The turning point: Reno is someone who likes older women for the fact that they are more experienced and bring less unwanted emotion into the picture. But when he is unable to let go of the memory of the one encounter that brought him close to Jilly for the next two years, Reno knows that he is in more trouble than he had ever anticipated. With an all grown up Jilly getting up close and personal with him, it takes Reno everything he has to keep his hands off, until need obliterates everything else. For Jilly who has spun all her adolescent dreams on Reno it is just a matter of time before she hits the point of no return where Reno is concerned.

Likes:

  1. Hiromasa Shinoda. As I said earlier in my review, the complex nature of his character is one of the main reasons that made me race through this story at such a fast pace. I loved the fact that he alternated between being the good and nerdy Hiromasa and the ultimate bad boy Reno whilst the bad boy wins most of the time. Whilst his bad boy Harley riding image appeals on so many levels to my slutty inner self, it is the medium between the two that made me fall for him in the end.
  2. Jillian Lovitz. She is such a treat to read about. Her positive optimism when it comes to Reno is what made me love her. Even though at times Reno’s words and actions cut deep, and Jilly keeps telling herself that familiarity with Reno would breed contempt and in the end she wouldn’t feel so vulnerable with Reno, it is Jilly who identifies the fact that it is not that Reno doesn’t feel anything for her but rather he is terrified of just how much he feels when it comes to Jilly.
  3. The premise of the story. I loved discovering tidbits about Japan and their customs and lifestyle. In fact it made me even search up on the Internet on some of the stuff that I came across in this novel such as the Japanese Capsule hotels and the Meiji Shrine. For someone who has always held the view that Japan is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, reading about it in this novel just drove home the point that I need to do some traveling ASAP.
  4. The element of forbidden love in this story. Throughout the whole of Ice series, it has been the nature of their jobs as employees of The Committee that had kept the heroes/heroines unable to face the fact that even they are vulnerable enough to fall in love when it comes to  the right person. However, Reno and Jilly’s story is different such that Reno tries to keep his hands off of Jilly not because he doesn’t want her, but rather because he had promised his cousin’s wife that he would stay away from her and for someone like Reno, family loyalty comes before anything else.
  5. And oh yes, even though totally unrelated, I loved listening to Breaking Benjamin’s latest album Dear Agony all throughout when I was reading this book. The music just brought something extra to the story which is hard for me to explain but nevertheless played an important role in enhancing my enjoyment of a story well spun.

Dislikes:

Again, what’s with these abrupt endings? I just don’t get it! The story flows so smoothly, you ache for the hero and heroine to get their happily ever after, and wham bam thank you maam, the ending just comes out of nowhere and slaps you on the face something fierce. I so dearly wish this weren’t so. I mean it would be nice just to leave us readers with a healthy dose of an epilogue (even a page or two would suffice) to tide us over and take with us images of the ending we had envisioned right through the story. *glum sigh*

Recommended for:

  1. Fans of Anne Stuart.
  2. Fans of romantic suspense. Even though this is part of a series it can be read as a standalone.
  3. Fans of the Ice Series by Anne Stuart.

Favorite Quotes

Snap out of it, Reno!  he told himself. You’ve just managed to rid her of any romantic notions. Don’t blow it by thinking with your dick again.
The funny thing was, it wasn’t his dick that was giving him trouble. Yeah, for some crazy reason he still wanted to screw her when he should be concentrating on other things. But even more, he wanted her lying on the narrow cot with him, her body crammed up against his, her arms around him, her face against his shoulder, her heart beating against his.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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