Pleasantly surprised by this new to me author and series. Series gets better with each book!
4
By MsRomanticReads
Tags: Romantic Suspense, Friends to Lovers, Heroine: 27, Hero: 32, Interracial/Multicultural, FBI, Ex-Military
At the time of posting, I read all five books currently available in this series. This new to me author is going on my auto buy list. I’m not usually taken with the first book in any series, but I was hooked from the first page. I had purchased the box set which had the first three books in the series, and I read all three until I couldn’t stay awake any longer…back-to-back page flipping. And as soon as I finished all three, I purchased the next two so I wouldn’t have to stop. Two days later and I finished all five plus Ignited, the first book in the Titanium Security series (actually, I read Ignited first and loved it. Since I had this box set on my Kindle already, I just kept reading).
What I really enjoyed about this story was the fact that it featured an interracial couple, specifically a Chinese American heroine. In addition, the characters spoke and acted mature, something I often find lacking in the books I read. Throughout the budding relationship, the hero and heroine spoke openly and honestly about what they wanted and acted to make it happen. I’m thankful that the author didn’t find it necessary to throw in misunderstandings (in their present) and hem-hawing as a source of conflict. That’s not to say that everything was smooth sailing for the main characters. The suspense plot involving both supplied more than enough tension.
The story was paced well, not too slow to tempt me to skip pages and not too fast that I felt issues were being glossed over. There was a great balance of suspense and action to romance. I didn’t feel that one area suffered at the expense of another. The romance was believable based on Rachel (27) and Jake’s (32) history of mutual attraction. Now that they were both grounded in their careers, more mature and they were both at a place in their lives where they knew what they wanted, I didn’t feel that were rushing into a relationship too quickly. They’d already been friends and only lost contact for two years. The danger to Rachel and the nature of Jake’s profession was a convenient catalyst to make them realize that life was too short for regrets. Besides, there were enough tells to make it clear that they both wanted the same thing.
The suspense plot wasn’t over the top, but it wasn’t dumbed down either. The best part about it was seeing Jake and his team in action while rescuing Rachel and her gullible brother. Rachel handled the grittier parts rather well.