Ok, but a bit lacking somewhere.

I have a love/hate relationship with books by this author. 80% I love, 20% I hate. Unfortunately this time I was not lucky.

Hayley goes to a male dominated business/social event in a conservative Muslim country in a slinky gold evening gown, and then wonders why all the alpha males present are not exactly focused on her business acumen. A potential client greets her by trying to kiss her mouth, but she nevertheless instantly agrees to a meeting in his hotel suite, and is surprised when he, too, is not interested in her business skills. She escapes his rape attempt by climbing into the room occupied by Quentin, an FBI hostage negotiator, who she has never met before. After he offers her a place to hide for the night, she decides she fancies a one night stand, so about 15 minutes after meeting him, she presents herself to him dressed only in a towel. Wow. Soooo romantic. Not.

The story did improve somewhat once the action started, but I did not warm to Hayley who spent a lot of time in her own head - if the internal musings of both lead characters are removed, the book would be half the size. I am also getting a little jaded with sexual encounters at incredibly inappropriate times and places.
This book should have been really good, but it just fails somewhere. Too much time was spent with the couple who feature in the next book, including the ridiculous premise that a victim of kidnapping, violent gang rape and abuse, would want sex a week later with one of her rescuers as therapy.

The book tried to cover the problems of a couple brought together in unusual circumstances, trying to move their relationship into “real life” but it’s all over the place. Hayley worries that Quentin would stifle her working abilities, but then gets annoyed when he does not tell her all the details of an ongoing FBI investigation, and peeved when he works unusual hours. Quentin makes a big deal over the need to protect his FBI career from any fallout over his relationship with Hayley, but then takes her to Australia with him to interview a key witness. The ‘big reveal’ when the baddie conveniently explains everything to the people he intends to kill, left me feeling cheated. I actually guessed the baddie early on but dismissed it, because the scale of the crime just did not fit the perceived benefit to be gained.

This is not a bad book, and compared to many its actually pretty good. I just have high expectations from this writer, as she has done some brilliant work, and I just felt a little disappointed with this one.

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