Reviewed by Cara Lynn
I liked this book a lot and rate it 5 out of 5 stars. Romantic suspense, my favorite genre. Warning: near rape.
The book opens with Laura Roberts being hauled in for questioning by two FBI agents who will stop at nothing to get the information they need. They are very intimidating, and it isn't clear if they really are FBI agents, considering how they take her away and how quickly they flash id which cannot be read. I thought she was less than smart in going with them without a lawyer, even though Chase Donovan had tried to intervene.
She is a bookkeeper in Chase and his father's warehouse business. She has been quietly doing her job.
Next thing you know, the next morning she resigns from her position. Then things get violent and gruesome when she is drugged in the back of a limo, overhears what two thugs have planned for her (violent rape, then death), and they begin to make 'good' on their threats.
Chase is a complex character whose mother was sweet and loving, and whose father is anything but. He appears to be only a playboy, spending money, gambling, multiple women, but there is more to him than what appears.
On a night when his father has invited him to dinner, he decides to go to his boat to get away from the life he is leading -- and there he stumbles across the two men with Laura. Lucky for her.
It is clear someone wants her dead so she cannot inform on them to the FBI. She has no idea what it might be that they are after. She knows that it is Chase's father who has set her up for the assault.
The why and wherefore is the book's story. The reader has to suspend belief in some instances, but not to the point of the ridiculous. The characters are well drawn and believable. I liked the character of Chase's aunt. One wonders sometimes why they were able to stay safe, as they don't take some of the precautions that I thought of. But Chase knows what would make his father hesitate, and it is a good solution for both of them and provides for some almost-misunderstandings along the way, as well as some misunderstandings.
It's considered a sensual novel, but it is not crude, and the sex is within a loving relationship, not erotica.
P.S. The near rape scene is as violent as I would ever want to read, even moreso. Because it is not in a military or spy situation, but just a regular woman, it is more gut wrenching, because you know she doesn't have any super powers up her sleeve, yet at the same time since the genre is romantic suspense you don't expect her to be killed -- and you hope she isn't raped. You also know that Chase is already on the way, unsuspecting, and you are pretty sure he will get there in time, but it is touch and go.
This book was given to me in digitally to review for LRP.
Rating: 
Reviewed by Sandra Scholes
