Prince Charming

It shouldn’t surprise you when I say that CD Reiss has put out yet another amazing book. When you read a book by this author, you expect it to be well written with a storyline that grabs your interest from page one and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final word is read. This book is no exception. Keaton is trying to go straight and Cassie is the one assigned to catch him before he does. Neither expect the intense attraction the two of them feel for each other to blur the lines between cop and criminal....but it does. And it is absolutely explosive! -thank you CD Reiss for this forbidden/opposite attracts steamy read. The plot flows smoothly with its twists and turns. The angst the characters feel is placed perfectly and the dialogue is both sexy and sassy. The attention to detail is certainly appreciated and the love scenes.....my goodness, the love scenes! The author left no room for error and you will find that you will be completely fulfilled and waiting to see what she has next up her sleeve. Keaton is swoon worthy with his good looks and actions and Cassie is one that you can admire because of her beauty and her strength. Definitely lead characters that you can invest in without any disappointment. I would highly recommend Prince Charming as a must read for 2018!

So CD Reiss fans know that she can write, non? We understand that. We know that she builds a plot that grabs you from the first pages and keeps you in its grips till you turn the last. Longer, even. Nearly a year after finishing Separation Games (and even longer since reading Marriage Games), I find myself thinking about Adam and Diana more often than I think of, you know, real people. We know that Reiss delivers Hot Heroes who we wish we could will into reality. And now, with Keaton, we know that she can write the perfect hero. This isn't to say that Keaton does not have his flaws. Oh, he does. But he's just so ... charming. It will be impossible for you to spend time with him and not fall in love with him. He's British, for one thing (I kept picturing Clive Owen as I read this book), and he's got that distant, dangerously powerful vibe going on. He's tall, he's broad-shouldered, he has long legs, and he smirks. He has wit and a sense of irony. He also knows when it's time to accept that he has fallen in love. Is Cassie worthy of him? YES. I'll admit that, despite my advanced years, I am childish and immature when it comes to Hot Heroes. I rarely find their female counterparts deserving because I know I'm SO MUCH BETTER FOR THEM. In the case of Cassie, though, much as with Diana, I know that Reiss has given Keaton the right fit for him. There are some nerve-wracking moments of cyber intrigue, which Reiss develops with as much care and detail as she does the romance. My only quibble is a line toward the end when she tells us that the resolution to one of the subplots is a "story for another book." That irked me, but then again, it has made me quite anxious to read that other book. I highlighted so many lines from this book that I could string them all together and let that suffice as a review. Instead, I'm going to close with this one, which, perhaps, is my favorite: "You are the flesh of my heart and the reason it beats." Get to know Keaton. And then come back and tell me how much you love him.

Keaton Bridge is a character that was first introduced to us in Christine's book, King of Code. And while you do not have to read that book before you pick up Prince Charming, I am really anal about reading books in order, especially when I know a character was in it. I do that so that I can get a feel for them first as a secondary character, how they act, what they say, how involved they are in someone else's story before they get their own. It also ramps up my desire and excitement to read their book, because I already kind of know them. Whelp, in this case, I didn't really know anything at all about Keaton Bridge! Keaton has been living life in the shadows, rumored to be an infamous black hat hacker that the FBI has been trying to catch for years. Enter Cassie Grinstead, young, beautiful agent who is trying to work her way up the ladder and grab that coveted title of Special Agent. Both Keaton and Cassie have a slew of secrets in their past that they have kept closely guarded. Until they meet and quickly figure out that they want to share those secrets with each other. Except it's just not that easy. First they have to build trust in the little bubble they've created. Cassie has never been attracted to a man enough to allow them to be anything more than a temporary sidepiece. Her grandmother is constantly reminding her of how she has to break the curse that has fallen on the women in her family, the curse that has left every woman before her as a single mother. She is absolutely convinced that fate isn't going to fall on her. Then she meets the infamous Keaton Bridge. He's supposed to be the target of her investigation. But the more time she spends with him, the more convoluted everything becomes. Because the guy she gets to know intimately certainly can't be the guy in that huge dossier the FBI has on him. Keaton has been living a life of lies since he was 15 years old. Even his closest friend, Taylor Hardin, doesn't know the real truth of who Keaton is. But once Keaton meets Cassie, he realizes that he wants her to know who he really is. But that is practically impossible, because he has too many targets on his back, enemies that he doesn't want to ever find out how much Cassie is quickly taking over his heart. Christine fills this book with twists and turns. Like Cassie's grandmother who is obsessed with puzzles, we are fed this puzzle piece by piece until they finally all click together and we get to see the whole puzzle and what is really going on. Sometimes it's hard to get a clear view of the puzzle piece, oftentimes being viewed in a dim light, but by the end, the picture it creates is beautiful. The passion and chemistry between Keaton and Cassie is off the charts, the allure of a forbidden romance between the agent and the criminal was explosive and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This was a book that I had to really concentrate while reading. It is obvious that Christine did a lot of research for the story. I have to admit, as I did while reading King of Code, that a lot of the computer stuff goes straight over my head. But that wasn't really the focus of this book. For me, the focus was really how these two people who were set on specific paths, take a long look at their lives when they realize maybe those paths would be so much better if they traveled it together as one. Another fantastic read from Christine! I can't wait to see what she has in store for us in White Knight!