Marissa Garner

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Amber's dangerously psychotic ex-boyfriend has been stalking her for the last couple years, forcing her to move every couple months. She's at a job she loves but has started to get the feeling that her ex is moving in and with her job already in danger of being lost due to the business losing money, it looks like it could be time to move on again. When Ben sees Amber trying to avoid a jerk at their apartment mixer, he is instantly attracted to her but as a FBI agent, his job doesn't exactly allow for ease of starting a relationship. However, their attraction can't be ignored and when Amber possibly stumbles upon a clue to the current case Ben is working on, it's looking like fate wants these two together.

The beginning of this book had kind of a rough start for me, from the ridiculously over the top aggressive douchebag at the apartment mixer that won't take no for an answer from Amber to the somewhat dry relaying of facts/details that introduced our characters and settings. Essentially, Ben the FBI agent is working a case where a group of Mexican male illegal immigrants turn themselves in because they feel their wives/girlfriends/daughters that they crossed the border with were kidnapped and sold into sex slavery. Amber works at a surrogate clinic that has had numerous people canceling appointments and one rude man asking why they charge so much. Amber does some investigating and finds a new clinic drastically undercutting their prices and strangely, all the surrogate mothers they are offering are Hispanic. That is the main storyline but there was also Amber's psycho ex-boyfriend, Gary the apartment complex douchebag who won't stop needlessly showing up, Amber and Ben's growing relationship, Amber's boss' out of nowhere character turn, Ben's inability to stop discussing his ex-girlfriend, the woman FBI agent who played somewhat of a red herring but in a weird way, and the drug cartel drama. I think the author thought the more "maybe they're guilty!" offshoots she could throw out there, the more suspenseful the story would be, it didn't work out that way for me, just felt overcrowded with needless components.

The story seemed to follow Amber (trying to find out why her clinic is losing clients) and Ben (trying to find the missing Hispanic women)more separately than them together. Their attraction was pretty instant, they're sleeping together, and while we have two self-proclaimed commitment phobes, they only seem to think of themselves in that way, rather than acting that way. Amber repeatedly talks about Ben's blue eyes, abs, and six foot frame, she's physically attracted alright but that was about as far as the depth seemed to go between the two. It was hard to sense Ben falling in love with Amber as he repeatedly talked about his ex-girlfriend and how extremely hard it was to get over her. I'm not a fan of my heroes seemingly hung-up on past partners and it got to the point where I felt, does Ben doth protest too much? (I noticed the next book in the series is about Ben's ex-girlfriend so maybe the author was trying to drum up interest in the character)

When Ben and Amber did have their interactions, the conversations felt stilted (at times also felt that way with other characters) and I never felt any chemistry. The suspense aspect, Ben working the case of finding the Hispanic women, was probably the strongest part of the book but the trees aspect of it worked better than the forest, if that makes any sense.

Personally, this story just had too many unbelievable (you're literally fearing for your life and moving every two-three months but refuse to give up a job in your very specific sector?) or not clicking points and lacked in the romance department for it to work for me. The ending was outrageously abrupt, after flipping back and forth about four times to make sure I didn't miss a page, I laughed at how sudden it was. The author is fairly new, so maybe try to see if her writing style would work for you, but I have to say for me, overall, it didn't.

… (plus d'informations)

Rcvd an ARC at no cost to author. (netgalley) While I can't say that I didn't enjoy it, there was so much stuff thrown at you, we had a lot of different subjects and story lines. I get it the author wanted are attention, but maybe focus on one and avoid so much repetition. I am not going to bash the author, I mean as I said it did capture my interest and I continues to read. I liked Sean and he showed his devotion.now Jess, mmmm wasn't so sure about, yes she was going thru a lot, that is a given but she should have fought harder for Sean..… (plus d'informations)

Kat has a problem on her hands. There are things not quite adding up at work. The one person to help happens to be part of her past. Part of a past she just cut and bailed on.

Dillion was that past that Kat left behind, but know he is the key to helping fix the future of millions of lives. With the lives of millions at stake and Kat doing the asking he comes in and works to save the day. But of course there are obstacles in their way.

I did not walk in on an on-going plotline. I did not walk in on an ongoing series connection, that I would have felt a loss of information. I did get me a second chance at the one romance with some dramatic suspense and intrigue. I got a complete start to finish with not cliff hangers, not added cast that have to know what their story was, and not muddled confusion. I did get me an honest to goodness romantic suspense. Why did she leave? Why did he not follow/fight? Why was this happening? Where did it all start? How are these things connected?

Pick it up if you are looking for a simple down to earth romantic suspense. One that you don’t have to have all the proceeding books in the series read to follow.… (plus d'informations)