Once and Always
Julia Harper. Grand Central/Forever, $6 mass market (368p) ISBN 978-0-446-55063-5
Historical romance author Elizabeth Hoyt (Darling Beast) fills the pages of this contemporary romantic thriller, her first as Harper since 2009’s For the Love of Pete, with rip-roaring and somewhat improbable action. Maisa Burnsey first meets small-town cop Sam West when her great-uncle, a former member of the Russian mafia, moves to sleepy Coot Lake, Minn. After a lot of speeding tickets—and a one-night stand—she decides it’s safer to stay far away from the handsome lawman. Sam, on the other hand, is determined to win Maisa’s heart. Their romance is interrupted by a suitcase mix-up that puts Maisa, Sam, and the entire town of Coot Lake directly in the path of a ruthless Russian mobster determined to exact revenge from an underling who stole several million dollars’ worth of diamonds. After a promising start, a good chunk of the book reads like a one-dimensional action film—lots of people getting shot or meeting far-fetched calamities of one type or another—at the expense of romance and plausibility. (Mar.)
Details
Reviewed on: 01/19/2015
Genre: Fiction
Open Ebook - 400 pages - 978-1-4555-0538-8