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Code Name: Danger #11
Stranded with a Spy
Escape from hell?
To hell was more like it! When Mallory Dawes, suddenly infamous in the States, decided to take that vacation to France, her problems were just a lost passport. A car swept out to sea. Missing travelers' checks. And a mysterious, if intriguing, man who always seemed to turn up just when she was in trouble...
Cutter Smith—code Slash—was told to keep the beautiful blonde in his sights. But as his interest in her veered from the professional to the intensely personal, Cutter knew the cost of falling in love would be high indeed. And he would have to pay the price—.
To hell was more like it! When Mallory Dawes, suddenly infamous in the States, decided to take that vacation to France, her problems were just a lost passport. A car swept out to sea. Missing travelers' checks. And a mysterious, if intriguing, man who always seemed to turn up just when she was in trouble...
Cutter Smith—code Slash—was told to keep the beautiful blonde in his sights. But as his interest in her veered from the professional to the intensely personal, Cutter knew the cost of falling in love would be high indeed. And he would have to pay the price—.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
33 people are currently reading
380 people want to read
About the author
Merline Lovelace
407 books139 followersAfter a 23-year AF career, Colonel Merline Lovelace launched a second career as a writer, basing many of her tales on her own experiences in uniform and on her travels all around the globe.
The USA Today best-selling author now has more than 11 million copies of her books in print. Her works have won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA. Merline is especially proud to have been named the University of Oklahoma's Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year.
The USA Today best-selling author now has more than 11 million copies of her books in print. Her works have won numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA. Merline is especially proud to have been named the University of Oklahoma's Writer of the Year and the Oklahoma Female Veteran of the Year.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 13, 2011
Finally! A Harlequin freebie I really enjoyed!
Tired of being stalked by the media after her sexual harassment lawsuit against her former employer has been dismissed for lack of evidence, Mallory decides a vacation in France is just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, unbeknown to her, someone puts a CD with highly classified information in her suitcase in an attempt to smuggle it outside the U.S. Airport security goes ballistic when they find the CD and OMEGA, a top secret government intelligence agency, and Cutter, one of its operatives, are called to the picture. Cutter's mission is to follow Mallory and catch her in the act of delivering the CD to the Russian criminal OMEGA believes she's working with, but he soon starts to question if she's as guilty as he thinks. And when his interest in her turns more than personal, things get complicated...
Cutter and Mallory were very likeable characters, and I had no problem believing how quickly they fell in love with each other. She was a bit too trusting at first, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same if I was in her shoes. As this book is part of a series, other OMEGA operatives made appearances in the story and, while they were interesting, I thought some of their scenes were unnecessary - particularly the ones featuring secondary characters Mike and Gillian, who are the H/h in Undercover Wife, BTW.
As for the plot, it was well done. The pace was a bit slow in the beginning - as much as I loved revisiting Mont St. Michel, I could have done without the detailed description provided by Ms. Lovelace - but it got better once Cutter and Mallory got together. The ending was a bit anticlimatic and, funny enough, even Mallory thought that, LOL. Anyway, I didn't need to see bullets flying and blood splattered all over the place. All in all, I was pretty much happy with the way things were.
Tired of being stalked by the media after her sexual harassment lawsuit against her former employer has been dismissed for lack of evidence, Mallory decides a vacation in France is just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, unbeknown to her, someone puts a CD with highly classified information in her suitcase in an attempt to smuggle it outside the U.S. Airport security goes ballistic when they find the CD and OMEGA, a top secret government intelligence agency, and Cutter, one of its operatives, are called to the picture. Cutter's mission is to follow Mallory and catch her in the act of delivering the CD to the Russian criminal OMEGA believes she's working with, but he soon starts to question if she's as guilty as he thinks. And when his interest in her turns more than personal, things get complicated...
Cutter and Mallory were very likeable characters, and I had no problem believing how quickly they fell in love with each other. She was a bit too trusting at first, but I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same if I was in her shoes. As this book is part of a series, other OMEGA operatives made appearances in the story and, while they were interesting, I thought some of their scenes were unnecessary - particularly the ones featuring secondary characters Mike and Gillian, who are the H/h in Undercover Wife, BTW.
As for the plot, it was well done. The pace was a bit slow in the beginning - as much as I loved revisiting Mont St. Michel, I could have done without the detailed description provided by Ms. Lovelace - but it got better once Cutter and Mallory got together. The ending was a bit anticlimatic and, funny enough, even Mallory thought that, LOL. Anyway, I didn't need to see bullets flying and blood splattered all over the place. All in all, I was pretty much happy with the way things were.
December 5, 2017
Read the book in a day, The characters are great and i also love the setting and the suspense. But the book did not grab my attention like other romance suspense but it was worth the read.
May 15, 2009
Nice spy romance. Interesting and likable heroes, a little adventure in the middle and the wonderful landscape of Normady in the background made an fine mix. Could be faster paced and with less info on politics/trade info, but I enjoyed it anyway.
October 11, 2009
I'm sure there's a target audience for this book, but unfortunately, it wasn't me. Even for a free ebook.
The basic setup seemed interesting enough: Congressional aide Mallory Dawes has become infamous after levelling sexual harassment charges at her boss, and she's decided to flee her sudden infamy by taking a vacation to France. Problem is, she's been set up to get caught carrying secret information, and agent Cutter Smith has been assigned to track her and find out who she's taking the information to. He soon realizes she's innocent, of course--and the two of them have the obligatory sparks flying while teaming up to find out who's actually behind the information theft, not to mention attempts on Mallory's life.
Thing is, way too little time was spent on the suspense part of this plot for my tastes, and way too much on describing the lushness of the villa where Mallory and Cutter get to crash and the clothes Mallory gets to borrow. Especially the shoes. We're told over and over what awesome shoes she gets to wear, and how she even winds up using one of them to take down the actual villain in the final confrontation... which would have been awesome if it'd actually happened on camera instead of getting brushed over in description after the fact. While, I might add, the only other notable female characters in the cast (clearly the heroines of previous installments of the series this book must be part of) swoon hardcore over the shoes. No admiration of our heroine's takedown of the villain, no exclamations of 'wow, you're awesome'... just gushing over the thousand-dollar designer shoes.
For me, for whom a thousand dollars means 'the amount of money necessary to buy an awesome laptop or guitar', this just did not compute. Not a badly executed book for what it was, but clearly not for me. Two stars.
The basic setup seemed interesting enough: Congressional aide Mallory Dawes has become infamous after levelling sexual harassment charges at her boss, and she's decided to flee her sudden infamy by taking a vacation to France. Problem is, she's been set up to get caught carrying secret information, and agent Cutter Smith has been assigned to track her and find out who she's taking the information to. He soon realizes she's innocent, of course--and the two of them have the obligatory sparks flying while teaming up to find out who's actually behind the information theft, not to mention attempts on Mallory's life.
Thing is, way too little time was spent on the suspense part of this plot for my tastes, and way too much on describing the lushness of the villa where Mallory and Cutter get to crash and the clothes Mallory gets to borrow. Especially the shoes. We're told over and over what awesome shoes she gets to wear, and how she even winds up using one of them to take down the actual villain in the final confrontation... which would have been awesome if it'd actually happened on camera instead of getting brushed over in description after the fact. While, I might add, the only other notable female characters in the cast (clearly the heroines of previous installments of the series this book must be part of) swoon hardcore over the shoes. No admiration of our heroine's takedown of the villain, no exclamations of 'wow, you're awesome'... just gushing over the thousand-dollar designer shoes.
For me, for whom a thousand dollars means 'the amount of money necessary to buy an awesome laptop or guitar', this just did not compute. Not a badly executed book for what it was, but clearly not for me. Two stars.
October 24, 2009
This was a freebie downloaded from the Sony eBookstore, and once again I can see why. It could have been more entertaining if less time had been spent describing their luxurious French villa and the leading lady's borrowed wardrobe and more time on the suspense part. It feels a lot like the author spent so much time on everything else that when she hit page 300, she suddenly realized she had to wrap it all up.
Also, was it just me or does it seem highly improbable that a woman will sleep with a man a second time after learning that she's a suspect in a major identity theft scheme and he's an agent who's been sent to tail her? Especially a woman who's just had her sexual harassment case turned around on her by a smarmy politician. I mean, really.
Also, was it just me or does it seem highly improbable that a woman will sleep with a man a second time after learning that she's a suspect in a major identity theft scheme and he's an agent who's been sent to tail her? Especially a woman who's just had her sexual harassment case turned around on her by a smarmy politician. I mean, really.
October 1, 2017
This had potential, the execution just didn’t entirely work for me.
After Mallory accuses her congressman boss of sexual harassment it blows up into a scandal and she wants nothing more than to escape the spotlight on a trip to coastal France. Cutter, an undercover operative, is tasked with trailing Mallory around France and discerning whether she’s seeking revenge for the scandal by passing government information to a criminal or if she’s an innocent victim.
With Mallory burned by exes blabbing to the media about her sex life, and Cutter literally burned by a woman on a past mission, it seemed they’d both be super reluctant to get involved with anyone and their attraction would be full of tension they were desperate not to act on, instead they acted on it pretty quickly, which to me didn’t seem like a natural progression of their relationship, both physically and emotionally the pacing of the romance in this novel felt too hurried.
I’m not even sure why it was rushed either given that there wasn’t much going on with the suspense plot, the story was actually fairly uneventful. It seemed like this book could have used some more action or twists or digging deeper into Cutter and Mallory’s emotional issues, instead there was so little going on that some chapters were given over to another couple, a subplot that was seemingly only there to set up their story for another book.
Both romances had moments where the guys thoughts dipped into territory that felt uncomfortable as far as the way they were ogling the women in their lives, maybe that’s authentic to the way guys think, I don’t know, and maybe under other circumstances it wouldn’t have been quite so noticeable or notable to me, but to have the romantic “heroes” objectifying women in a story where the heroine has been sexually harassed it struck me as inappropriate and unattractive.
Despite how negative this review has been so far, I did like the descriptive details of the French food and the setting, and I thought the author made a good creative choice as far as using the setting to strand Mallory with the spy.
After Mallory accuses her congressman boss of sexual harassment it blows up into a scandal and she wants nothing more than to escape the spotlight on a trip to coastal France. Cutter, an undercover operative, is tasked with trailing Mallory around France and discerning whether she’s seeking revenge for the scandal by passing government information to a criminal or if she’s an innocent victim.
With Mallory burned by exes blabbing to the media about her sex life, and Cutter literally burned by a woman on a past mission, it seemed they’d both be super reluctant to get involved with anyone and their attraction would be full of tension they were desperate not to act on, instead they acted on it pretty quickly, which to me didn’t seem like a natural progression of their relationship, both physically and emotionally the pacing of the romance in this novel felt too hurried.
I’m not even sure why it was rushed either given that there wasn’t much going on with the suspense plot, the story was actually fairly uneventful. It seemed like this book could have used some more action or twists or digging deeper into Cutter and Mallory’s emotional issues, instead there was so little going on that some chapters were given over to another couple, a subplot that was seemingly only there to set up their story for another book.
Both romances had moments where the guys thoughts dipped into territory that felt uncomfortable as far as the way they were ogling the women in their lives, maybe that’s authentic to the way guys think, I don’t know, and maybe under other circumstances it wouldn’t have been quite so noticeable or notable to me, but to have the romantic “heroes” objectifying women in a story where the heroine has been sexually harassed it struck me as inappropriate and unattractive.
Despite how negative this review has been so far, I did like the descriptive details of the French food and the setting, and I thought the author made a good creative choice as far as using the setting to strand Mallory with the spy.
January 1, 2025
Moderately well written, clearly by a man who didn’t bother to visit or research Brittany nor Normandy prior to writes out the area. Condescending view of women.
May 27, 2010
OK, this is the second-last of the free e-Harlequins I downloaded last year, and though it has a few problems, it's definitely one of the better ones.
The main characters, Mallory and Cutter, are well-delineated though I wouldn't call them well-rounded. Cutter has more going on outside the current situation than Mallory does; he has friends and colleagues and shared history, but we aren't even told whether she has parents, siblings, or any friends outside of the office she leaves under a cloud of (misplaced) shame. We do know she's no fainting violet, though: not only does she have the courage to file and pursue a sexual harassment suit against a powerful politician, she also comes out swinging when physically threatened on at least three more occasions in the story. She's smart, and calm, and I love a heroine who can do her own rescuing AND graciously accept help. Cutter is Mr. Special Ops, armed and ready for any situation, and we know he's been in love before, because he's got the scars - physical and emotional - to show for it.
The setting is northern France, which is a place I've never been to. The author has, though, and she describes it beautifully. (She does a lot of describing, of places, clothes, food, cars, etc., which may in part explain the slight deficit in character development.) Her grasp of French names is tenuous at best, though, or perhaps the unnecessary accent on "Gilbért" was an editorial choice, to remind the reader to pronounce it the French way - "Zheel-BAIR". There's no excuse for "d'Marchand", though, which should be "de Marchand", unless French has changed. I think that must originally have been d'Arcy or d'Urberville or something else that started with a vowel, and was later changed. It irritates me when stuff like this gets through, I have to say. Surely Harlequin must have someone they can call on in matters of foreign language and spelling. (I suppose it's possible that these could have been deliberate editorial choices, but the implication is horribly insulting to the intelligence of the reader, so I shall hope that is not the case.)
This is a romantic suspense, so there's a mystery to be solved in amongst the extraneous diacriticals, sipping of Calvados, and lovemaking in a fantastic Norman castle. But the villain is a shadowy entity at best - could be The Russian, could be a government conspiracy, could be a personal vendetta - and the dénouement is actually pretty unsatisfactory because there are important questions that do not get answered. (Exactly how did that CD get into Mallory's suitcase? What precisely was the villain's plan? Who was the mole? Was there more to the drunken American at Mont St. Michel?)
I think the scope of this novel must have been scaled down to fit the number of pages in the book, because there's a lot of unfulfilled potential here, and some unpursued avenues that feel like artefacts of a longer draft. About a quarter of the way in, there is the beginning of a second romance, between two of Cutter's colleagues stateside, but this evaporates about three-quarters of the way through. There's also this paragraph:
"The familiar stink of the solvent he used to clean his weapons after a shoot permeated the Blazer. Mike kept a complete kit in the read well - bores, brushes, rods, gun vise, wood and metal polish - all the tools of his trade. He carried his Mauser 86sr in a concealed compartment as well. NATO snipers trained with a military version of Mauser, which featured a ventilated stock to dissipate heat and a detachable box for quick switching from high- to low-penetration rounds. Mike's had been custom built to his specifications."
Which originally made me think "research infodump much?", but then got me wondering if it was going to be important later, and then I began to look forward to a juicy armed standoff or similar. Perhaps that was felt to be too Tom Clancy, though, because it all came to nothing but word and page count.
Right or wrong, there seems to be a different (by which I mean "lower") standard for writing in the romance game, and thus my rating system is a little different, too. No stars means "unreadable/did not finish", and the scale ascends from "sucked" through "didn't suck" to "not bad" to "pretty good" to the five-star "very good". This one was pretty good, problems and all, and Merline Lovelace is a name I'll look for again. Especially if she follows up on this book by writing that second romance into a book on its own.
The main characters, Mallory and Cutter, are well-delineated though I wouldn't call them well-rounded. Cutter has more going on outside the current situation than Mallory does; he has friends and colleagues and shared history, but we aren't even told whether she has parents, siblings, or any friends outside of the office she leaves under a cloud of (misplaced) shame. We do know she's no fainting violet, though: not only does she have the courage to file and pursue a sexual harassment suit against a powerful politician, she also comes out swinging when physically threatened on at least three more occasions in the story. She's smart, and calm, and I love a heroine who can do her own rescuing AND graciously accept help. Cutter is Mr. Special Ops, armed and ready for any situation, and we know he's been in love before, because he's got the scars - physical and emotional - to show for it.
The setting is northern France, which is a place I've never been to. The author has, though, and she describes it beautifully. (She does a lot of describing, of places, clothes, food, cars, etc., which may in part explain the slight deficit in character development.) Her grasp of French names is tenuous at best, though, or perhaps the unnecessary accent on "Gilbért" was an editorial choice, to remind the reader to pronounce it the French way - "Zheel-BAIR". There's no excuse for "d'Marchand", though, which should be "de Marchand", unless French has changed. I think that must originally have been d'Arcy or d'Urberville or something else that started with a vowel, and was later changed. It irritates me when stuff like this gets through, I have to say. Surely Harlequin must have someone they can call on in matters of foreign language and spelling. (I suppose it's possible that these could have been deliberate editorial choices, but the implication is horribly insulting to the intelligence of the reader, so I shall hope that is not the case.)
This is a romantic suspense, so there's a mystery to be solved in amongst the extraneous diacriticals, sipping of Calvados, and lovemaking in a fantastic Norman castle. But the villain is a shadowy entity at best - could be The Russian, could be a government conspiracy, could be a personal vendetta - and the dénouement is actually pretty unsatisfactory because there are important questions that do not get answered. (Exactly how did that CD get into Mallory's suitcase? What precisely was the villain's plan? Who was the mole? Was there more to the drunken American at Mont St. Michel?)
I think the scope of this novel must have been scaled down to fit the number of pages in the book, because there's a lot of unfulfilled potential here, and some unpursued avenues that feel like artefacts of a longer draft. About a quarter of the way in, there is the beginning of a second romance, between two of Cutter's colleagues stateside, but this evaporates about three-quarters of the way through. There's also this paragraph:
"The familiar stink of the solvent he used to clean his weapons after a shoot permeated the Blazer. Mike kept a complete kit in the read well - bores, brushes, rods, gun vise, wood and metal polish - all the tools of his trade. He carried his Mauser 86sr in a concealed compartment as well. NATO snipers trained with a military version of Mauser, which featured a ventilated stock to dissipate heat and a detachable box for quick switching from high- to low-penetration rounds. Mike's had been custom built to his specifications."
Which originally made me think "research infodump much?", but then got me wondering if it was going to be important later, and then I began to look forward to a juicy armed standoff or similar. Perhaps that was felt to be too Tom Clancy, though, because it all came to nothing but word and page count.
Right or wrong, there seems to be a different (by which I mean "lower") standard for writing in the romance game, and thus my rating system is a little different, too. No stars means "unreadable/did not finish", and the scale ascends from "sucked" through "didn't suck" to "not bad" to "pretty good" to the five-star "very good". This one was pretty good, problems and all, and Merline Lovelace is a name I'll look for again. Especially if she follows up on this book by writing that second romance into a book on its own.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 8, 2015
First off, I read this book on purpose. I was legitimately surprised, though. I figured it would just be 130 pages of heaving bosoms, perfectly chiseled abs, outrageous scenarios, and convenient plot points. Instead I found that it was 190 pages of heaving bosoms, perfectly chiseled abs, outrageous scenarios, and convenient plot points.
I'm not saying it was bad, though. It was fluff. It was like literary whipped cream. It was light, sweet, and not a good source of protein. Despite that, I can see how it could be a late night vice to sneak out and consume copious amounts as quick as possible....if you're going through menopause. Yeah, that's the ticket.
It fits every stereotype I've expected of a harlequin romance novel. There were super model super spies with hardcore code names like "Slash", "Lightning", and "Hawkeye". Everyone has a tragic back story but is willing to let down their defenses in the name of love. There were impossibly perfect scenarios that are sweet enough to induce a diabetic coma in just about anyone. Everything came together conveniently in a very neatly wrapped package.
Will it be a permanent part of my library? No. Will I read another one? Maybe. I would definitely recommend it for the hopelessly incurable romantic out there. If your romanticism is benign, though, it may cause a relapse.
Criticism:
The main villain was revealed obnoxiously late in the game. I guess there wasn't enough room for more story development in between the heaving bosoms.
It's said that "Slash" carries a Glock yet he "thumbs the safety off" when he draws his weapon. Everyone knows that Glocks don't have external safeties. Well, everyone except for the author, apparently.
I'm not saying it was bad, though. It was fluff. It was like literary whipped cream. It was light, sweet, and not a good source of protein. Despite that, I can see how it could be a late night vice to sneak out and consume copious amounts as quick as possible....if you're going through menopause. Yeah, that's the ticket.
It fits every stereotype I've expected of a harlequin romance novel. There were super model super spies with hardcore code names like "Slash", "Lightning", and "Hawkeye". Everyone has a tragic back story but is willing to let down their defenses in the name of love. There were impossibly perfect scenarios that are sweet enough to induce a diabetic coma in just about anyone. Everything came together conveniently in a very neatly wrapped package.
Will it be a permanent part of my library? No. Will I read another one? Maybe. I would definitely recommend it for the hopelessly incurable romantic out there. If your romanticism is benign, though, it may cause a relapse.
Criticism:
The main villain was revealed obnoxiously late in the game. I guess there wasn't enough room for more story development in between the heaving bosoms.
It's said that "Slash" carries a Glock yet he "thumbs the safety off" when he draws his weapon. Everyone knows that Glocks don't have external safeties. Well, everyone except for the author, apparently.
May 26, 2010
I read a really good book yesterday. Yes, yesterday. One day. One book. It was another free Harlequin on my iPod. And it was GOOD! I'm not sure if my system was ready for the shock, but I couldn't put it down.
It's called Stranded with a Spy and it's about a woman wrongly accused of being a slut and trying to go on a simple vacation to escape her scarlet letter where no one gets killed for talking to her. Is that so wrong?!? She meets an operative from a secret government organization and they fall madly madly in love over the course of two days. What's totally fricken awesome is the hero says "I love you" and the heroine says "yeah, whatever, look at these cool shoes!" (not an exact quote, but awesome nonetheless) She did love him, but the author didn't feel the need to shove the love in the reader's face. Awesome soaked in awesome sauce with a side of thank you for crying out loud!
It was a Romantic Suspense book, but the actual spy stuff was cut short. There wasn't much suspense really. It was obvious the heroine was being set up to everyone but the government, but the story was good and the characters were believable. The only characters too stupid to live were the people who got killed (perfect) and the villain. As Batman once so wisely said, villains are so stupid (On HowItShouldHaveEnded.com that is). Clancy and Grisham have nothing to fear, but Merline Lovelace, you're on my author to read more from list. Welcome to that very short and very exclusive list.
It's called Stranded with a Spy and it's about a woman wrongly accused of being a slut and trying to go on a simple vacation to escape her scarlet letter where no one gets killed for talking to her. Is that so wrong?!? She meets an operative from a secret government organization and they fall madly madly in love over the course of two days. What's totally fricken awesome is the hero says "I love you" and the heroine says "yeah, whatever, look at these cool shoes!" (not an exact quote, but awesome nonetheless) She did love him, but the author didn't feel the need to shove the love in the reader's face. Awesome soaked in awesome sauce with a side of thank you for crying out loud!
It was a Romantic Suspense book, but the actual spy stuff was cut short. There wasn't much suspense really. It was obvious the heroine was being set up to everyone but the government, but the story was good and the characters were believable. The only characters too stupid to live were the people who got killed (perfect) and the villain. As Batman once so wisely said, villains are so stupid (On HowItShouldHaveEnded.com that is). Clancy and Grisham have nothing to fear, but Merline Lovelace, you're on my author to read more from list. Welcome to that very short and very exclusive list.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2009
Book #65 of 2009
This was one of the books I downloaded forever ago to go along with my Kindle app for the iPhone. I pull them out when I'm looking to kill some time. Today was one of those days where I needed to kill some time. I had a Dr.'s appointment this morning and fully intended to tote along the book I'm currently reading. But I forgot it. Then, as I was leaving work for the appointment, I contemplated swinging by my house to pick it up, but it wasn't really on my way. I probably would have finished that book there and started this one anyway, because I ended up waiting for TWO hours to bee seen by the Dr.
But, this book. I like it OK. If there was an option for 2.5 stars, somewhere between "It was OK" and "I liked it", that's probably the rating I would have given it. But it was very short (I read it basically in a day). Also, there were some strange dead end story lines that frustrated me (another book perhaps?) It was an enjoyable way to pass the time at least.
This was one of the books I downloaded forever ago to go along with my Kindle app for the iPhone. I pull them out when I'm looking to kill some time. Today was one of those days where I needed to kill some time. I had a Dr.'s appointment this morning and fully intended to tote along the book I'm currently reading. But I forgot it. Then, as I was leaving work for the appointment, I contemplated swinging by my house to pick it up, but it wasn't really on my way. I probably would have finished that book there and started this one anyway, because I ended up waiting for TWO hours to bee seen by the Dr.
But, this book. I like it OK. If there was an option for 2.5 stars, somewhere between "It was OK" and "I liked it", that's probably the rating I would have given it. But it was very short (I read it basically in a day). Also, there were some strange dead end story lines that frustrated me (another book perhaps?) It was an enjoyable way to pass the time at least.
September 18, 2009
An interesting twist for a romance. The main character files a suit on her big wig employer for sexual harassmen and ends up a national target for ridicule. After the dust settles she leaves her job and flees to France where she finds herself in the middle of an even BIGGER storm. She is being followed by a special operative spy because they think she stole important information from her employer. Soon into the novel you discover the plot is a bit more tricky. FUN and very entertaining read!
January 2, 2016
When considering this book you must take account the fact that it's 300 pages. It's a short, quick, to-the-point but interesting read; if you're looking for something easy and interesting without too much thought required then this fits the bill. The romance is cute, but of course kind of hustled along quickly, since the book's so short, and the bad guys are wrapped up really quickly--we don't even get to "see" the arrest happen, the character just tells us about it. Overall, an easy and uncomplicated read, but if you're looking for more than that look elsewhere.
April 25, 2008
I really wanted to like this book, as I want to like them all. But I had a real struggle to get into the story. The pacing seemed very slow. The characters overall were interesting and the storyline was strong. I could see myself loving this story in screen adaption. However, there was so much information needed to be conveyed through dialogue that it made for a slow read and I kept finding myself skipping ahead to find a passage of interest.
May 10, 2013
This is a well paced, neat little story. An easy read, easy entertainment. I just thought the ending was a little weak, though. The black moment came - and then - nothing. It was all explained as a flashback in the next chapter! the hero was fighting his demons, and then, that was it. We didn't hear from him again. We heard about it from other characters comments. Also - a lot of time spent in a secondary story with the secondary characters. But over all, a nice read.
November 3, 2008
I've loved every Omega book I've read. They're fun and fast-paced. This one isn't any different and I realized, as I read the first page, that I'd already read this one. I remember now that it was this book that made me say to myself I couldn't wait for Gillian's story. Well, it's out and arriving day after tomorrow.
October 31, 2009
Another free book from amazon.com for the kindle iphone application. I just read this one because I didn't have anything else to read and was feeling desperate. It wasn't terrible but it was just okay. It would have been better with more plot development and less sex....but then if that's what I wanted I guess I shouldn't have downloaded a romance.
October 1, 2010
I'm not much of a fan of Harlequin romances but decided to try this one since it was free. It was a quick read and was much easier to read than Twilight, a romance novel that I cannot stomach. The heroine wasn't too dumb, and the plot wasn't too unbelievable. I'd say go for it if you like romance novels.
May 29, 2011
Merline Lovelace has done it again! I loved the unexpected scenario that puts the heroine with the hero for the length of the story. I realize it was his mission- but nature couldn't have helped him any better if he'd asked! I enjoyed this peek into an Italian countryside, especially since I'll never get there myself. Vivid descriptions make this book an exciting read.
February 1, 2009
Spies, France, and politics. Awesome. :) Massive brownie points added for a heroine who three separate times wades in swinging rather than waiting to be saved. (A couple subtracted for fuzzy Congressional details, but that's just me being picky.)
April 29, 2009
It was a free book from Harlequin. Haven't read one in 20 years. Now they are writing them in other genres. Not bad. Loved the location (France) as it was based in a place that I have been dying to visit-Mont St. Michel.
April 28, 2010
Well...while the basic plot was interesting, far too much time was spent on minor characters and unnecessary details, leaving almost no room to develop the romance. The ending was also rushed, leaving the reader unsatisfied.
July 8, 2011
This is my first one by Merline Lovelace. The romance was too easy... Did not feel connected to any of the characters. However, it was better than a few I read recently. So was not completely disappointed. Would like to try a few more books by the same author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2008
An extremely well done romantic/suspense, despite the title, (which I think is a little hokey), Merlin Lovelace has always been a name I look for when going through books.
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October 2, 2009I reading this in between some "heavier" books just for a break.
January 26, 2010
Free download on Kobo. Interesting plot line and an easy read for your spare time.
January 15, 2010
I really enjoyed this book, especially getting an author I know I like for free as a Kindle book. I'm a fan of several Merline Lovelace's military romances and this book fir right in with that style.
March 31, 2010
A freebie I downloaded. It was ok.
January 9, 2011
Enjoyable freebie.
February 17, 2011
GREAT book!
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