Wild Hearts by Doranna Durgin is a compilation of two romantic suspense novels, Hidden Steal and Making the Rules. In Hidden Steal a young woman wakes up and finds herself a prisoner of unknown kidnappers who have given her a drug which has erased her memory. Giving herself the name "Mickey Finn" she escapes her captors and sets out to figure out who she is and why she was kidnapped. She gets help from Steve Spaneas, the owner of a gym in a rough part of town. In the course of uncovering the mystery about herself, she finds some unexpected and scary skills as well as some dangerous enemies.

I have read other novels by this author and enjoyed them and I was not disappointed in this book as well. Mickey is a funny and intriguing character. She can also kick some serious ass. Steve is not your usual alpha male romantic lead. He is compassionate and caring. I enjoyed the humour and light romance elements in the novel. The book was fast paced and a quick read. The action scenes were well described. Some of the elements of the novel were pretty unbelievable (the actions of the CIA operatives for example) but I willingly suspended my disbelief and enjoyed the ride.

Making the Rules is a romantic suspense in the Hunter Agency series that Durgin contributed to the former Silhouette Bombshell line. It is not necessary to have read the earlier books to enjoy this one. Kimmer and Rio are agents for the Hunter Agency. They find themselves framed for crimes they didn’t commit, cut off from help and running from Basque terrorists. Their feelings for each other will either save them or kill them.

Durgin has again given us a strong heroine and an action packed book with fun dialogue. I found the plot in this one even harder to believe. Agents as experienced as Kimmer and Rio would not have fallen for such an obvious set up. And while I enjoyed this novel, I was jarred out of fully immersing myself in the plot by figuring out the plot far in advance of the characters.

I would recommend this compilation for anyone who enjoys fun, light romantic suspense. ( )

"Mickey" wakes up handcuffed to a strange bed with no memory of who she is or what brought her here. Relying on her instincts to protect her, she works to unravel the mystery of her abduction and identity. "Wild Hearts" is action-packed, for sure -- but the writing is clumsy and distracting, and the plot's thin and character development rather heavy-handed. A weird mix of Bourne Identity-esque political espionage and twenty-somethings' daydreams. ( )

I received this two-story book as part of the Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review.

I enjoyed reading both Hidden Steel and Making the Rules, I think they both have potential to be continued as I think the main characters in both books still have stories worth telling, and I liked that while romance was a factor (especially in Making the Rules, where it was used as a character flaw) in both stories they didn’t usurp the larger plots. I liked the style of writing that the stories took, and minus a few miniscule grammatical flaws I didn’t have many problems with the book. I think the author did a great job of giving her characters a voice, fleshing them out (for the most part), and crafting stories that will keep the reader’s attention right up to the end. Even though there are moments in each story that provide a bit of foresight through some of the background encounters, for the most part you as the reader get to live in the moment with the characters, experiencing things as they do. I think the author did a great job of creating two independent heroines with flaws, quirks and the courage to face their problems head-on rather than running from them. She also paired them with two silent, observant men who were able to hold their own next to these women. I appreciated that there wasn't a ton of attention paid to physical attributes, but I think it wouldn't have hurt to give us a little more description when talking about the characters or certain surroundings. This omission did make it a little easier to take visual liberties (if that's not a 'thing' it is now for the sake of this review LOL) in trying to picture a scene or specifics on a character. Some of the scenes and transitions were rather choppy, but it wasn't to the point where I felt confused about where the book was going; sometimes it just took me a minute to catch up as transitions between days wasn't always clear. Anyway, if you like action, badass chicks with a creative take on weaponry, are looking for a departure from the typical action/romance books and males who don’t fit the mold of a typical alpha dog, then Hidden Steel and Making the Rules are books that you might enjoy.

My full review of both books is on my blog: http://bit.ly/1z6RrTx (for Hidden Steel) and http://bit.ly/1ak2QZq (for Making the Rules) ( )