Sunday, April 01, 2007

Kiss Me Deadly, Review for RD

Kiss Me Deadly by Susan Kearney

Tor Romantic Suspense, July 2007


While driving home from work Mandy Newman, a lawyer dealing in divorces, is run off the road by someone she assumes is an angry ex of one of her clients. While shaken she tries to move past the ordeal and concentrate on taking care of her baby daughter with the help of her mother. When she and her co-workers discover they have won the lottery and millions of dollars she is on cloud nine. Not even a face to face with her daughter’s father can bring her down, especially since he doesn’t know he’s a dad. As one of her co-workers is murdered and the rest are being targeted by a killer Mandy has no choice but to accept help from the one man she is trying to avoid – Zack Taylor.

Zack is a DEA agent who on leave after a rough assignment turns sour. When he comes face to face with Mandy Newman again after almost two years all he can think about is how she made him feel when they were together, and the night of passion they shared. He has no idea that one night created a child he never knew he wanted. But when Mandy is threatened and his family is jeopardized he starts to understand that he can deny his feeling all he wants but he would do anything to protect those he loves. He must now catch a killer before the killer catches them and destroys any hope he has of starting over.

Kiss Me Deadly gripped me from the first page, all the way through to the end of the book. I love how Ms. Kearney has made Mandy both tough and vulnerable, showing first one side and then the other. When faced with possible impending death her thoughts were only of getting home to her daughter, which, as a mother, I found completely heart-wrenching and believable. Zack Taylor is an Alpha male but he comes flawed and we see tenderness creep through that makes him not so Alpha that you want to smack him. He was still the hot hero, but without the “me Tarzan, you Jane” mentality that so many Alpha males have.

The suspense in this book builds as you are taken back and forth between various scenarios and trying to get a feel for who the villain is. While I started to suspect fairly early on who it might be, I did change my mind a number of times, and even expected that I would be wrong. Layered in with the suspense and main love story we get to know the supporting characters and feel their lives are integral to the story – you find they are much more than people thrown in to add red-herrings or pad the story; they are living breathing beings who made Kiss Me Deadly rich and textured.

If you are looking for a romantic suspense that alternates between sizzling, tense and nice sweet “aww” moments then I suggest you pick up this book.

I give this 5 kisses.

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posted by Michelle @ 3:32 p.m. Comments: 0