Odelia "Odie" Frank and Jagger "Jag" Benney are both
operatives for a secretive agency known as TES. They are
assigned by their boss, Cullen, to investigate Hersch, an
arms dealer in Washington, D.C. But before they can set out
on their trip, Odie receives a package that someone else is
willing to kill her to get a hold of. Before Odie can even
exam the entire contents, she and the package are taken from
her home. Fortunately, Jag is able to rescue her, but the
person who took them (and the package) disappears over a cliff.
This begins their adventure, and Jag is suspicion of Odie
when he begins to think that she is not being honest about
the package. This is confirmed a few days later when Odie's
friend (and contact who had sent the package) Kate ends up
dead. Since Kate's memorial service is in Washington, they
simultaneously decide to investigate her death, since it
seems that it may have to do with their original assignment
regarding Hersch. As they begin to investigate, however,
they find out this is no simple case, and it may be tangled
up with the deaths of Odie's husband and father.
Meanwhile, the chemistry between Odie and Jag can not be
ignored. When Sage died, she decided to focus on her
career. She had the love of her life, but that chapter had
ended, and she had moved on. But she never expected someone
like Jag to walk into her life.
The plot of this book was action-packed and mostly
satisfying, if a bit predictable. The romance seemed a
little forced, and there were places when some of the more
intimate scenes seemed a bit abrupt. Odie and Jag were
supposed to be hot on the trail of their investigation, but
they certainly had plenty of time for love! The author also
used several acronyms that were never (or rarely enough that
it was difficult to find) defined, which was confusing.
Another confusing thing was that Odie used text messaging,
which is perfectly reasonable in this age of technology, but
there was no offsetting font to designate when Odie was
reading a text, as opposed to having a thought.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of the book, however, were
the character names. There was a Cullen and a Calan Friese.
Part of the time, the latter was referred to as Calan (so
the reader had to keep Cullen and Calan separate), but the
other part of the time, he was referred to as Friese. Then,
there was Fraiser Darby, who is not to be confused with the
character Dharr. It frustrates me when an author has the
pick of thousands of names, yet chooses very similar names.
Odie is a solidly-written character, though. She's not a
typical romance book character, which is refreshing. She's
very strong, independent, and intelligent, and she doesn't
define herself based on her relationship status. She's the
type of character I'd love to read about again.
As far as Odelia Frank is concerned, her heart went into
lockdown the day her agent-husband was killed in action.
Then Jagger "Jag" Benney is assigned to help her
investigate a notorious arms broker, and the invincible
intelligence officer feels a glimmer of vulnerability she
hasn't felt in years….
Despite their chemistry, Jag has his own suspicions about
Odie, and the secrets he knows she's hiding. But as a
deadly conspiracy explodes, Odie will have to decide if her
too-quiet, too-clever, too-sexy partner is someone she can
trust—or just a terrible reminder of what happens when you
mix duty and love.
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