Category / Suspense

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Coming In Last by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Sensuality: 4
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Hero: Jamie McAdams
Heroine: Andi Morrow
Date of Publication: July 30, 2006
Started On: February 24, 2010
Finished On: February 25, 2010

Andi grew up in foster homes and other such state child care centers ever since she was abandoned by her parents when she was 5 years old. Growing up, Andi learnt the tough lesson of never relying on anyone but herself to see things through. Now a nurse working at the day care at a private firm, Andi is also an author of romance novels though no one knows about this secret career of hers.

Jamie is a private investigator whose godfather Jeb is one of the president’s of the firm at which Andi works. Jeb hires Jamie and his partner Mick to find out who has been embezzling money from the company. At first with the help of Art Letcher the money guy of the company, all clues point towards Andi been the one who had stolen money. But as Jamie and Mick dig a little further, they realize that Andi is innocent and that the real thief was doing a good job of framing an innocent whilst he/she was going to get away with more money than that had initially been identified as stolen.

Without Andi’s knowledge and Jamie’s heartfelt disapproval, Mick hatches a plan to catch the real thief by using Andi as bait. However, Jamie feels like a heel because he has fallen in love with Andi and he knows that Andi is the woman that he has been waiting for all his life. Andi too feels the intense connection and its not long before these two hits the sheets and burn their way through them with the intense passion and heat these two generate.

But once Andi finds out the extent of Mick’s and Jamie’s plans, Jamie’s worst nightmare comes true when Andi wants nothing to do with him. But in the end, everything works out and the bad guy is caught, and Jamie and Andi gets the happy ending they both deserved.

Not one of Walker’s greatest stories but enjoyed it.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Kobo

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Hunter’s Need by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Hunters, Book 12
Sensuality: 4
Publisher: Penguin Group
Hero: Duke
Heroine:  Analise Morell
Date of Publication: October 28, 2009
Started On: February 14, 2010
Finished On: February 20, 2010

You can never go wrong in picking up a novel by this author. Though I have not read the whole Hunters series and am not that much of a fan of romance of paranormal genre, any book by Shiloh Walker is well worth the try. This book is trademark Shiloh Walker, mystery and suspense in spades together with a hero and heroine that you can relate to, whose love and need for one another is just out of this world.

Duke is a shape-shifter who was betrayed by Ana 5 years back when Ana and Duke had first met. Duke is a hunter, a part of an elite group who all have special powers. Some of them are vampires, others werewolves with a couple of witches thrown into the mix with shape-shifters as well. Ana is a psychic who had to use her ability to save her younger brother from the clutches of a sadistic vampire by luring Duke in. Duke had never forgiven or forgotten the fact that Ana had almost cost him his life. Going out of his way to avoid Ana is the hardest thing Duke has ever had to do since he still wants her like crazy.

Ana can’t help but want Duke as well. But knowing that Duke despises the very ground she walks on finally takes its toll on Ana and she leaves the Hunter’s school and moves to Alaska to settle down. A year on, Ana has a job and a place to call home, together with a nagging feeling that there is something horribly wrong or evil lurking around the mountains that surround the city. This feeling intensifies when Ana finds out that girls have been going missing, some of them turning up dead, others never to be found. And all the girls bare a strong resemblance to the first girl Marie that went missing, whose murder was at first blamed on her fiance’ Paul, who now lurks on the streets mumbling and muttering to himself.

Ana knowing that she wouldn’t be able to handle whatever evil that lurked around, calls in the Hunters for help. Duke who had been growing ever so restless since Ana left, is the one to pick up the call and eventually the one to head to Alaska to figure out whats got Ana so riled up. From the moment these two see each other, its all sparks and high powered jolts of lust between the two.

As these two team up to find out the source of evil who has killed dozens of young girls, the ghosts of these young women tend to haunt the two and eventually end up helping Ana to identify the killer who turns out to be much  too close to comfort to the first victim.

All in all, great romance, a pine tingling mystery and a yummy shape-shifter with whom a gal can never go wrong!

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Dangerous Passion by Lisa Marie Rice

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Dangerous Book 3
Sensuality: 4
Publisher: HarperCollins Publisher
Hero: Viktor “Drake” Drakovich
Heroine:  Grace Larsen
Date of Publication: July 21, 2009
Started On: February 6, 2009
Finished On: February 13, 2009

It’s been a while since I posted a review here. Mind you, I haven’t given up on reading but every spare minute I have these days, I end up watching The Mentalist which has got me pretty hooked. Anyhow I managed to finish this book after a week of starting it, and I blame it all on Simon Baker for keeping me so engrossed on watching him solve homicides!

So back to the review, like most of Lisa Marie Rice’s books, this book too has an intense alpha hero with a real dangerous edge to him. Growing up in parts of Russia on the streets, Drake is someone who has learnt to kill with his bare hands at a very early age, just to survive and move onto the next day. Now richer than he has ever hoped to be, and more powerful than anyone can imagine, with his fair share of enemies in all the wrong places, Drake is a weapons and arms dealer.

Though Drake has everything and more in his power he feels restless until he sees these beautiful paintings on one of his rides through the city of Manhattan. There in that little gallery, Drake sees Grace and his world is forever changed. Drake knows too well that he cannot impose on any woman the life he has chosen for himself. His enemies if ever were to find a weakness in him, Drake knows they would exploit it till he is on his knees a broken man in every way. But this doesn’t stop him from going to see Grace once a month in her gallery unknown to her.

But things take a drastic turn when his enemies discover his fascination with Grace and tries to kidnap her to use as leverage against Drake. Drake and Grace narrowly escape with their lives though the killer(s) are intent on finishing what they have started.

Drake doesn’t know the name to give the emotions that Grace rouses in him. Drake wrongfully thinks that tumbling into bed and keeping Grace there would definitely cure him of what ails him whenever he is in her vicinity. However as these two are confined to be in the same place for security purposes, the wall of steel around Drake’s heart starts to crumble bit by bit. And finally after a second fatalistic attack these two are forced to run for their lives and completely disappear from the face of the earth as the relentless killer pursues on his mission to eradicate Drake once and for all.

Scorching hot passion with a hero who knows what he is doing makes this book a page scorcher. If men in the real world have even a figment of what heroes in these books have, we women would be a pretty happy bunch over on the side of reality.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shadow Hawk by Jill Shalvis

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Harlequin Blaze #329
Sensuality: 3
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: JT Hawk
Heroine:  Aby Wells
Date of Publication: June 1, 2007
Started On: February 4, 2010
Finished On: February 5, 2010

This was a  book that I stumbled upon by chance during one of my forays into surfing through FictionDB.com. There is a feature on the website that displays books under “featured author”, and I have come across many a good reads this way. Readers on Amazon too seem to have given this book great reviews. Although I do remember reading books by this author in the past, she has not been one who has made a deep impression on me as a reader. However after reading this book I would have to say that this author has got what it takes to write yummy romances.

Both Hawk and Aby are ATF agents. Hawk has been working on a case of known as Kiddie Bombers. Someone or a group of someones have been teaching young kids to assemble bombs and blow them up as well as making them well versed with different other sorts of weaponry. Hawk has his suspicions that moles in the ATF organization were more than responsible for the difficulty they have been facing in apprehending the culprit. Aby too had been working on the case of the Kiddie Bombers when she had been taken hostage and held captive for two days when one of the head agents of the ATF had come to her rescue with guns blazing. Though she has been working in Hawk’s unit for more than six months after the incident, she refuses to let Hawk realize just how susceptible she is to Hawk’s brand of charm.

Things finally take a turn when Aby and Hawk are handed the same assignment, bust up a gathering of the Kiddie Bombers being held at some remote location. Although Hawk senses “setup” right from the beginning, he and his partner Logan still go through the motions before it all blows up in their faces. Logan gets hospitalized with severe injuries whilst Hawk barely escapes with his life intact. Now that Hawk has come face to face with the top manager of the Kiddie Bomber’s organization, he knows that Aby, himself and Logan are loose ends that wouldn’t survive if Hawk doesn’t take matters into his own hands.

Framed as the head of the Kiddie Bombers organization, Hawk has no choice but to take Aby hostage whilst he tries to find enough evidence to point towards the right man. Aby, a reluctant hostage at best got on my nerves at the beginning with her distrustful attitude. However, she does redeem herself later in the novel which otherwise would have made me extremely disappointed in this book.

More than Aby and Hawk’s story, I found myself fascinated with Logan and Callen, the nurse whom Logan meets when he is airlifted to the hospital to treat his injuries. I found the chemistry between these two characters more intriguing than the lead characters, though they didn’t do a bad job themselves in burning up the pages of the book. I feel this book would have been better suited in the Harlequin Intimate Moments series, cos for me a Blaze book is all about intense chemistry between two characters who just can’t help but fall insanely in love with one another at the end.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Dangerous Lover by Lisa Marie Rice

Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Dangerous, Book 1
Sensuality: 4.5
Publisher: HarperCollins
Hero: Jack Prescott
Heroine:  Caroline Lake
Date of Publication: July 31, 2007
Started On: January 29, 2010
Finished On: January 30, 2010

This was a book I started reading sometime back, way before I even started this blog, and for some reason I stopped reading through before I reached half way, and now am wondering why I gave up reading a trademark romantic suspense story from this author.

Caroline Lake, a girl who comes from a rich family was the object of then homeless Jack’s adoration. Though he knows that he would never be worthy of Caroline nor would he ever have the means to be with her and her well off family, far removed from the homeless shelters that Jack resides in, that doesn’t stop Jack from yearning for Caroline and wanting her as his own.

On the fateful day that his drunken mess of a father drops dead right in front of his eyes, Jack rushes off in the cold snowy wintry day towards Caroline’s place, just so that he could see her face which would make his bleary existence in this world just a bit brighter. However, Jack sees Caroline with his boyfriend Sanders, which kills something inside of him. He moves on without looking back, never knowing what the future would hold for him.

Now twelve years later, Jack is back. After serving in the military as a tribute to the person who had saved him from merely existing and withering away, Jack returns with 21 million dollars worth of blood diamonds from Sierra Lone, the last mission his ‘adoptive’ father had requested from him. Not knowing that the person who was ruthless enough to kill an entire village for the diamonds was hot on his trail, Jack makes his way back to Summerville, just to see how the woman of his obsession and wants and desires has fared over the years.

Life hadn’t been one smooth ride for Caroline. Her parents killed in a fatalistic car crash rendering her younger brother crippled and a couple of bad investments his father had made rendering them penniless with the costly care required for her brother, Caroline was at her wits ends after her brother had finally succumbed to death, leaving her all alone, with a mountain of debt and no way of paying it off.

On Christmas Eve, Jack comes by to her bookstore looking for a place to stay. Although Jack has a dangerous vibe around him, Caroline cannot help but respond to his dark magnetism. Thinking Jack to be hard down on his luck, she offers him a place to stay at her home, and finds in Jack more than she ever hoped possible. However, though Jack may have found Caroline and got her at last, the person who is after the diamonds is relentless in his pursuit, pulling all the stops and stopping at nothing to get back what he claims rightfully as his.

As usual, Jack is pure alpha male, Caroline the true version of a damsel in distress with the power to bring the strong alpha to his  knees. Highly sensual, this book is a good read for those who love romances with the bite of a thriller in it to make things a bit more interesting.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Missing by Shiloh Walker

Format: E-book
Read with: Microsoft Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: None
Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Hero: Cullen Morgan
Heroine: Taige Branch
Date of Publication: November 4, 2008
Started On: January 1, 2010
Finished On: January 5, 2010

Nobody spins a tale of love and suspense better than Shiloh Walker. I absolutely love her books. Except for novellas, her stories are insightful and you can just feel the passion between the two characters unfold right in front of your eyes and this story is in no way an exception to the rule.

Cullen Morgan meets psychic teen Taige Branch on a holiday vacation that Cullen’s family takes in the Gulf Shores in Alaska. Taige, whose parents died in a fatalistic car crash, lives with her religious zealot of an uncle, who makes his distaste for the psychic powers that Taige tries to deal with and ignore everyday of her life evident in his dealings with her. And then she meets Cullen, who is the only person Taige feels connected and safe enough with and soon after falls in love with.

Cullen accepts Taige for who she is until Cullen’s mom is brutally raped and murdered. Cullen blaming Taige for not being able to save his mother brutally cuts off all ties with Taige. The story continues years later, where Taige has learnt to channel her psychic powers and now works under contract for government agencies in trying to help rid the society of psychopaths who prey on small children. Taige has never trusted anyone enough to have an intimate relationship with after Cullen though there are these intense dreams that Taige keeps having about Cullen caring for her and loving her as she has yearned for ever since the day Cullen made her walk out of his life forever.

When Cullen’s daughter goes missing, it drives him back to Taige. Now Cullen who once couldn’t forgive her for not saving his mother asks for Taige’s help in finding his daughter. As they find Cullen’s daughter, Taige is pushed headlong into finding a killer who kills children with special powers like herself and the killer that she seeks just might be too close to home for comfort. All through this, Cullen finds what the severe ending of their relationship had cost Taige and vows to win her back into his life no matter what.

The only part that I was unhappy with was the fact that Taige lost so much in her life when Cullen abruptly ended their relationship, and Taige never got the chance to put up a fight when Cullen wooed her back into his life. I guess the intense connection between them that did not cease with time or distance really played a big part in making this all believable. I can’t believe that I put off reading this book for so long. Should hunt down all Walker’s new releases and start going at them ASAP.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Half.com | AbeBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Witness by Sandra Brown

Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Hero:Dr. John McGarth
Heroine: Kendall Deaton
Date of Publication: May 1, 2007
Started On: December 12, 2009
Finished On: December 13, 2009

Kendall Deaton with her 3 month year old son Kevin is on the run for her life. Witnessing heinous murders committed by a group calling themselves The Brotherhood of which her husband Matt and father-in-law Gibb were prominent members of, Kendall has no choice but to disappear from the face of the earth so that the members of The Brotherhood, which had its members even in federal law enforcement agencies had no chance of finding them.

Kendall and her son are soon found by FBI agents Pepperdyne and John, who is assigned the task of delivering Kendall to the authorities as the key witness in the trial to convict the members of The Brotherhood. However, a fatalistic crash of the car they are travelling in lands John with amnesia giving Kendall the chance to once again flee and make her way to her originally planned hide out. In the process to waylaid the authorities, Kendall proclaims John to be her husband & John thwarts her plans of fleeing into the night when he demands that Kendall couldn’t leave her ‘husband’ to fend for himself especially while supporting a broken leg with the amnesia.

Amidst the mistrust between Kendall and John stirs the beginning of an attraction that the readers can’t help but feel to their bones. Sandra Brown does an excellent job of weaving the story of the magic that happens between Kendall and John while relating the horrific events that occurred  in Prosper, South Carolina where Kendall worked as a public prosecutor, that led to this tumultuous turn of events.

This is a highly fast paced read, one that I guarantee cannot be put down with engrossing characters and a great plot to keep you riveted to your seat till you read the last page.

This is actually a re-read for me. This was the second book that I read from this author and I have always remembered it to be the one that got me hooked on Sandra Brown’s books and I have to say the same magic wove itself on me this time too.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | AbeBooks | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard

Format: Paperbackkissmewhileisleep
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: John Medina, Book 3
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Hero: Lucas Swain
Heroine: Lily Mansfield
Date of Publication: April 26, 2005
Started On: December 5, 2009
Finished On: December 7, 2009

Lily Mansfield is a woman hell bent on vengeance & revenge against the powerful Nervi organization operated in Paris. Seeking justice for the assassination of her close friends Tina and Averill (both of whom had previously being contract killers themselves) and their adopted daughter Zia who had actually been found abandoned and starving to death, by Lily on one of her jobs to Croatia. Since Lily’s life as a hired killer didn’t provide the most stable environment to raise a little girl, Lily had let her friends adopt Zia, and the three of them had held Zia dearer to them than anything else.

Lily kills Salvatore Nervi, the head of the Nervi organization nearly killing herself in the process and goes into hiding in the one place Salvatore’s son Rodrigo Nervi wouldn’t think of looking for her. But as most powerful organizations in the world, the Nervi organization has their hands in all the important agencies of the world with pretty strong political ties with the richest governments in the world, which makes it quite easy to identify the woman who had deceived Rodrigo’s father and ultimately led to his demise.

The CIA dispatches their agent Lucas Swain to track Lily down and bring her down. With Rodrigo hot on Lily’s trail as well, Lucas befriends Lily & ultimately finds himself intrigued on what had actually lured Lily’s friends Tina and Averill out of their retirement into bombing one of Nervi’s laboratories, which had resulted in the murder of the whole family. Unearthing the secret that the Nervi organization was in fact producing a vaccine to combat a strain of the avian influenza virus that has the capability of human-to-human transmission, whilst mass producing the strain of the virus itself to unleash on the world to reap the benefits in millions of dollars, being the only organization having a vaccine at hand.

Things get interesting when Lily and Swain are hired by the same anonymous person who lured Averill and Tina for the initial attack on the laboratory, to destroy the lab and the scientist who is engineering the virus & the vaccine once and for all. As most of the novels by  this author, this too delivers a superb tale with a splendid cast of characters, with the right mix of intrigue, mystery, passion, love and family politics with a surprising twist at the end of the tale.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Divorced, Desperate and Dating by Christie Craig

Format: E-bookdivorceddesperateanddating.jpg
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Divorced & Desperate, Book 2
Publisher: Love Spell
Hero: Detective Jason Dodd
Heroine: Mystery writer Sue Finley
Date of Publication: November 25, 2008
Started On: December 4, 2009
Finished On: December 5, 2009

Christie Craig is a new author, whose books I have never come across before. With a total of 5 novels out so far, 3 of them belonging to the Divorced & Desperate series, this author writes with the sort of dry humor that only few can pull off and entertain the reader as much as this book has kept me entertained.

This book can be read as a standalone although it is the second book in the Divorced & Desperate series, though after reading this, my interest has been piqued enough to consider reading the first book in the series Divorced, Desperate and Delicious and the third book which is to come out this month has definitely found a place in my never ending pile of to-be-read books.

The Divorced & Desperate series is centered around three women each with a bad divorce up her sleeve who vow to uphold a period of celibacy. They get together weekly to rant and rave about men, sex and everything to do with relationships and marriage in general.

Sue’s story starts when Lacy and Chase’s story ends in the first book of the series. Jason Dodd is Chase’s detective partner, Lacey being the first one to break the vow of celibacy of the Divorced & Desperate club and tie the knot with Chase.

The story kicks off when Sue, receives a dead rat via post, and the profile of a stalker who is copying the gruesome scenes from Sue’s own books starts to emerge, landing Sue in the awkward position of having Jason as her self proclaimed protector till whoever is playing havoc with Sue’s life is apprehended, whose earth moving kiss and a promise to call which was never fulfilled after a three month period had passed had prompted Sue to try and break her self proclaimed vow of celibacy and start dating.

The ensuing tale is hilarious with a quirky family on Sue’s side to make things more interesting. Commitment phobic Jason, a result of living in too many foster homes, each rejection making him vow never to let anyone close enough to hurt him, finds himself in a constant battle to tamp down the feelings of intense passion, tenderness and protectiveness that Sue effortlessly unleashes within him.

If dry humor, a good plot line with a little mystery thrown in to perk things up in between is your piece of cake then this book is for you. I guarantee you that this author definitely doesn’t disappoint in any of these departments.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | AbeBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Seduction by Amanda Quick

Format: E-book
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Bantam Books
Hero: Julian, Earl of Ravenwood
Heroine: Sophy Dorring
Date of Publication: March 1, 1990
Started On: December 2, 2009
Finished On: December 4, 2009

Found this book whilst browsing through FictionDB. I quite enjoyed this book, the story of how Julian, the Earl of Ravenwood, sophisticated and cynical about women in general after a disastrous marriage which ended up with his wife murdered and community folk in general whispering in corners that Julian had killed off his wife due to her nefarious ways, weds Sophy Dorring, brought up in the countryside, thinking that she would be the docile little wife that Julian wants, someone who wouldn’t get into all the trouble his first wife Elizabeth had always been found in.

Julian is in for a surprise when at first Sophy refuses his marriage proposal put forth through her grandfather. Shocked that someone who hadn’t impressed the ton during her coming out, who hadn’t got a single marriage proposal during the time, and quite past the age where the ladies of the ton got married, with very little inheritance to offer and just passable looks had the gall to refuse a godsend of an offer, Julian confronts Sophy on her trip back from an old friend of hers who grows medicinal herbs, a subject of much interest to Sophy.

Ultimately, these two wed, each of them having bargained for a set of conditions to be met, which Julian finds out to be unconventional and fascinating at the same time. Sophy’s conditions being that they wouldn’t consummate their marriage till a three month period during which Sophy and Julian should get to know one another better, her choice of reading material which is far and wide never be influenced by her husband and that she never be cast off to a home in the country side whilst Julian traverses in the city.

Julian quickly realizes the errors in his agreeing to the first condition, when he finds himself in lust with his new wife, whom he tries to seduce, but backfires on him in the most hilarious ways possible. I found myself laughing out loud several times whilst reading through bits of conversation between Julian and Sophy as well as the situations that Sophy tended to land herself in, not the docile and meek wife that Julian had bargained for at all.

To make things more interesting, upon realizing that trying to make Julian fall in love with her when to Sophy’s point of view that Julian had never got over the grief and pain caused to him by his first wife, pursues her little project of finding out who drove her sister to take the life of herself and the baby that she was carrying. With only a black ring of a crude design the only clue as to whom her sister had been holding clandestine meetings with, Sophy embarks upon a mission to make the man who made use of her sister pay for what he had done.

Things get interesting from this moment forward. Sophy and her quirky and eccentric friends help her in their ways to find out what the ring symbolizes, unraveling something far too dangerous that could cost Sophy her life in the end.

All in all, this was quite a fun read which I enjoyed immensely. With a surprising villain in the end, at least it was for me, this book proved to be a ‘seductive’ read which was hard to put down.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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