AUTHOR: JINA BACARR
Pages: 89
Date: 18/10/2013
Grade: 3-
Details: A Cosmo Red Hot Read
Received from Harlequin
Through NetGalley
Own / Kindle
The blurb:
That's when I realize:
a) My ex-boss is a hiding corporate secrets
b) Hot copy-room guy is an undercover FBI agent
c) I would make a kick-ass spy!
Then Special Agent Hottie brings out his cuffs, and things get really interesting…”
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This story-line might have worked very well in a full length novel. In a novella counting less than 90 pages it was just too much. Especially since this book is trying to be more than just a light-hearted and funny spy story. We are also in the middle of an erotic adventure and dealing with the traumatic backgrounds both Pepper and Steve are burdened with. The word count just wasn’t high enough to carry all these plot lines. The result is a story that can’t quite make up its mind as to what it is and doesn’t really satisfy on any level. Just when you’re getting all caught up in the tension of the spying the mood switches to an erotic encounter which in turn might suddenly become a rather dark look at either Pepper or Steve’s past.
For me this was a rather frustrating reading experience because I never got the opportunity to settle into the story. Whenever I started to get comfortable with and involved in what was happening on the page the story would change and I would have to adjust to what could almost be a different book. As a result none of the elements I normally enjoy in a book – the mystery, the love story, the erotica – had the opportunity to come to fruition, leaving me slightly confused and frustrated.
Like I said, in a longer book this set up might have worked very well. In fact, I would probably have enjoyed spending more time with Steve and Pepper because both of them, but especially our geeky girl, showed great promise as characters. This could have been a quirky and enjoyable read if it either had been longer or contained fewer elements. As it was it left me rather bewildered and dissatisfied.
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