An entertaining mashup of Bond, beignets, and bondage.
A CIA hit man struggles to protect a woman from a revenge killer—and his own dark desires—in this debut erotic thriller.
Kael Brady, member of The Group, a “division within a division within a division of the CIA,” is in Jamaica, having killed his latest target the night before. He sends Zelie, his Taiwanese “asset” and willing BDSM sex partner, to the spa and meets with fellow agent Luke, another BDSM fan, on the beach. They check out local women, but Kael, somewhat haunted by both his profession and sexual proclivities, seems reserved. Then Rain Howard, a beautiful tourist from Raleigh, North Carolina, enters his view. Kael falls hard and convinces her to extend her vacation, to the dismay of Kael’s departing friend, Charlotte, who was a witness to his killing. The couple spends some sweet, sex-free time together, but the idyll ends when Kael learns that someone is out to take revenge on him and could hurt Rain. Kael leaves the island immediately to track down the potential killer. The novel then jumps ahead two years, with Kael arriving in Raleigh, believing the threat has passed. Rain, initially wary, soon succumbs to his overtures; she also ditches her corporate gig to open a cafe and become a professional beignet maker. She soon learns that she likes having rough sex with Kael. By novel’s end, though, they face a showdown with the surprising killer. Debut author Smith wisely has Zelie say, “What’s the big deal? Thanks to that stupid book, the BDSM lifestyle is totally normalized,” teeing up this novel’s Fifty Shades of Grey–type tone. Indeed, Smith’s erotica should please fans of E.L. James’ work, even if her couple’s enjoyment of asphyxiation may be too edgy for some. Her special-ops plot generally creates excitement, as well, although her use of multiple first-person narrators (mostly Kael and Rain, but also Luke and Charlotte) is ambitious, as is the introduction of an assassination subplot late in the proceedings. Still, Smith has plenty to spur on an ongoing series.
An entertaining mashup of Bond, beignets, and bondage.Pub Date: May 17, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-61923-237-2
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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