Review: Romantic Suspense at It's Best
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2014
I got so excited to pick this one up.  I am so vested in the series.  I love how the author balances giving a new brother and his heroine their story even as the series story arc plows ahead with each book too.  These books really needed to be read in order because of that.This book opens up with the clock still ticking down for the Dean brothers on the microchips embedded in their backs that will kill them unless they access the computer programs and the codes for them.  Nate is in DC pursuing the one person he is certain will have access to this information along with a few other things he wants to know and she is the last person he wants to be near after she broke his heart when she confessed that she was just part of one of the endless experiments run on him.  She said her feelings were real, but how can he believe that when she chose the sadistic people running the experimental program over him.  To help deal with the microchips and find Jory, he will confront Audrey Madison, the daughter of the scientist who brought him and his brothers into existence in a test tube and then treated them like science experiments.Audrey can’t believe her eyes when she spots Nate.  He can’t be there.  The Commander’s men are watching her and he’ll be captured.  She knows he must hate her for her part in hurting him.  Nate confronts her about where their baby is, where Jory is and his need to get the code on the kill chips inside him and his brothers.  Audrey has no answers for him, but she is determined to get them.  She will help him any way she can because she never stopped caring, but she can’t let him discover her own secrets because he will try to stop her.Nate isn’t sure how far he can trust Audrey, but the longer he is with her just proves that he can’t stay emotionally distant.  He never got over her.  Now someone is systematically killing people for either their involvement in the military allocation funds controlled by the senator Audrey works for or that it is something to do with Audrey herself since they seem to want her blamed for the murders.  Secrets and plans start to be revealed and soon Nate and Audrey are scrambling for their very lives.It’s almost par for the course that I’m going to pick a Sin Brothers book up and be engrossed from page one.  There is always so much going on in a good way.  There are the machinations of the Commander and Dr. Madison, the overall mission of the guys to find their brother and find away to prevent their own deaths, the romance and, if all that wasn’t enough, a bit of suspense and murder mystery are tossed in for good measure.  While the last book had me clueless to the very end about the mystery, this one I figured out around the half-way point.  This did not take any enjoyment away from the book for me because I was still left with the other plot threads that I had no idea how they were going to play out.The pacing is good.  With the build up of character development followed by a sudden action or passion sequence, there really aren’t any slow spots.  I love the fight scenes and I’m glad the author doesn’t chintz on them.  These guys are super-soldiers and it makes the story more credible when the challenges are bigger for them and they go through a lot including gritting out a torture or wound or two.The other thing that moves along is the romance.  There is a conflict in this one and they have to deal with the past, but these two don’t dink around repairing the damage.  They deal with stuff like mature adults even as they acknowledge feelings and try to figure out where that leaves them in a seeming impossible circumstance.Nate has his conflicting priorities as does Audrey.  Nate’s made sense because its his brothers or Audrey when it comes to his choices, but Audrey, I got some of her issues, but I wanted her to get a clue about her mother.The romance was so good and these two are a great team.  Nate, just like his brothers, is more than the sum of his parts.  He’s a trained, gifted, lethal killer who prizes family and the woman he loves.  He is tender and protective toward Audrey and she frustrates him to no end because of the stuff she is involved in.  He is scared for her.  Nate is a passionate lover and an exciting fighter.Audrey grew up nearly as loveless and deprived of good experiences as Nate because of who her mother is, but she doesn’t become like her mother.  She falls in love with Nate the moment she sets eyes on him and never stops loving him.  Audrey is a fighter in her own way too, but she has to rely on subterfuge to fight her battles.  I cracked up when the guys were all trying to give her advice about a feminine matter with things they learned on the internet.  It was a cute downtime moment.This one felt like the set up for the big grand finale book.  They are just a little closer to the end and it looks like everyone is going to converge on one place for the epic battle stuff with the clock ticking down.  Can’t wait!I recommend this series to those who enjoy Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance, but even Sci-Fi and Paranormal Romance lovers would enjoy it too because of the blend of elements.My thanks to Net Galley for providing the book in exchange for an honest review.