���By far what I liked most about this book was the author's voice. She has a remarkable writing style. Her prose is vivid without being overdone, lush without being repetitive, captivating without being over-the-top. Her dialogue is spot on, too, and she writes men beautifully.

I felt the story lost steam about half-way through, though there were plenty of sexual acrobatics so I guess there was that kind of steam. But the meat of the plot took a backseat to all the sexual escapades, and I started to get a little antsy for a resolution.

The book was probably about a hundred pages longer than it needed to be, and I nearly abandoned it with a hundred pages to go. I'm glad I stuck it out, though, because I liked the ending. It was sweet and made sense in a romantic way -- though again, the suspense suffered from a pat, all too neat and tidy ending. I think I will look for the next book in the series, though. I'm curious to see where the author takes the Steele Street boys. (A-) ( )

Wow, the prologue sets the tone for the whole series by introducing the characters and man o' man I can't wait to read about these boys!
I love how Regan reacts in certain situations, like a normal person would. When Kid says "take someone out" it keeps tripping her up. Regan doesn't scream hysterically or anything when she has to deal with gun toting men or suddenly turn into Laura Croft either, her mind just keeps stumbling over itself thinking "oh he has a gun" then "Oh shit he really has a gun".
There were tons of great one liners in this book. Tara Janzen knows how to write humor into her books really well.
I did however, find myself checking twice to make sure this was the first book in the series because I kept feeling like I was missing some of the story. There was a lot of back story which probably could have been made into a whole other book.
I have always been a muscle car lady and oh man the Camaro scene (pause as I wipe the sweat off my forehead) with the no backseat no problem scene; they use the hood with the car rumbling under them. I tip my hat to you Ms. Janzen for this, yes, yes I do. Greatest scene I have read in '09 hands down.
At first I was kind of distracted by the Kid and Nikki (Regan's sis) romance, but then the conversation they have about her parents was a great downshift from one-liners, sex, and action. I could feel the connection they were building between themselves. (I cheated and looked to see if they were the next book but they're not until book4!! WTF!? I really want to cheat to see these two get together)
Quinn Younger definitely moved into my category of favorite lead characters with his from the school of hard knocks, fighter pilot, to covert ops. He is a great "reformed" bad boy.
This book was pure fun. Janzen writes the scenes so well I could visualize scenes like I was watching a movie and was completely lost in them. Think of this book as a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, you get beef cake, action, and completely unbelievable scenarios, but it won't be winning any Oscars. It will never be deemed a classic but damn if it wasn't entertaining.

A ( )

This was a steamy romance with a pretty good story. I enjoyed the characters and humor.
I can't wait to read more of hers. ( )

Tara Janzen's Steele Street series of chop shop kids who became black op agents. For the day you want to just slip away and have enjoy some action/adventure in your reading. ( )

If done right, I'm a pretty huge fan of shoot-em-up movies where the plot gets a little lost amidst the explosions, shoot outs, and car chases. And apparently I'm a pretty big fan of books that do this too, because I really enjoyed this book.

This is an extremely fast paced action romance. 95% of the story takes place within the space of, I believe, a day. Back in the day Quinn Younger was a budding 16 year old car thief, but after being caught he and a group of other guys were sent to paleontologist Wilson McKinney in Rabbit Valley to work off their time. During this time Quinn became rather smitten with Wilson's granddaughter, Regan, but never got up the nerve up to talk to her. Now after some odd amount of years, Regan has tracked Quinn down to the middle of no-where Utah because his name and address was the last thing she found in her missing grandfather's planner. But Regan has been unknowingly followed by some evil henchmen to Quinn. This, of course, sets off a chain of gun fights and car chases.

The main plot of this story, while present throughout the whole book, faded a bit amidst all the action going on. And the reveal of why the baddies were wanting the dinosaur bones was rather... unsurprising. But that didn't effect my enjoyment of the story at all, because Janzen writes some pretty kick ass action scenes.
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