Review: Summer Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
This is book three of a series, Stolen Hearts.  While this one can be a stand-alone read, it would have helped me to better understand the key characters to have read the other books, especially book two. It would have added to its length and perhaps was not necessary to full understand what was going on, but it sure would have helped me to have some back story/history of what had been and is still on-going with the three of the characters, Rafe, Sophie and her husband Agent Vince Gage.  As it is, with no back story, I started to detest Vince Gage from the get-go.  In the story, he is an agent, but he sure didn’t act like most of the other agents I have found in other stories.  He was totally insensitive, abrupt and outright rude in most of the scenes where he appeared.  He really didn’t care much for his now pregnant wife, Sophie, the brother of Rafe. When she had problems with the pregnancy, Gage was nowhere to be found.  He even left Sophie way out in the “country” (rural area of town) with no friends to turn to when he was “unavailable” under cover during her pregnancy and despite the fact that she was lonely and hated the area. Rafe had to find him (Vince Gage) through his agent friends.  The way in which he treated Rafe also was despicable, considering Rafe was his wife’s beloved twin brother, the only real family she had, and someone Agent Gage needed to help bring in the jewel thief he was chasing. Rafe was a model in the story, but not too enthusiastic about his career—he planned to leave it.  I am not sure the company who had previously hired him for an underwear shoot would have fired him without paying him when Rafe got entangled with Bridget, a suspected jewel thief and someone Agent Gage was chasing, and made front page news.  After all, being in the spotlight is the real name of the so-called publicity game, and Rafe’s notoriety would have only enhanced their publicity campaign.The storyline involves a would-be heist of a blue sapphire necklace.  Rafe is a model and meets up with Bridget while helping his brother-in-law in his pursuit of the soon to be heist of a necklace, with some disastrous results that impact heavily on his modeling career and latest job as an underwear model.  However, Rafe is smitten, and pursues Bridget from Europe to the US, where Bridget’s past catches up with her, and she becomes an unwilling part of this planned heist.  How it all comes together makes for an interesting plot, though I think I would have understood and appreciated it more with some good back fill on the characters and their histories by the author.The story is a quick read and moves along quite nicely.  The development of the characters and their romance in this story (Rafe and Bridget) is well done, though it was tough to really see much chemistry between them, as they chased one another around the Boston area. Both seemed to act independently at all times, even within each other’s company, disregarding the other’s needs and wants at many times. I enjoyed the close family relationship that Rafe had with Sophie and the way he dropped everything to come her assistance during a pregnancy scare, but found it difficult to understand how her own husband, Agent Gage, could just disappear, with no way to reach him, and the way he did not really appreciate Rafe’s care and concern for his wife—something he should have been grateful for. Agent Gage’s fellow Agent DeMarco seemed to be friendlier toward and to care more about Rafe than his own brother-in-law, Agent Gage.Still, despite the shortcomings, the story is a good one and will appeal to those who enjoy a good cop-chase story, with some romance thrown in. This is a good summer read, fast and easy, but with some substance.  However, I gave it only four stars because of the shortcomings I mentioned. I received this from Library Thing to read and review.