Review: A true LMR hero: hot, sexy, intense, dark and deep
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2012
This has many of the hallmarks LMR is known for, and if you're a fan, you'll easily recognize those: the detailed descriptions of setting and scene; the artistically inclined and beautiful heroine; and certainly not least, that very alpha of heroes. THE ITALIAN reminded me of some my very favorite LMR titles, and you know from the blurb that you're getting a romantic suspense read concerning our hero, a judge, trying to bring down a top Mafia boss in Sicily. All that leads to elements of danger and betrayal, and at around 110 kindle pages, this book is like a condensed version of what LMR can do. Still very good and hot, just shorter.I do wish this story had been maybe twenty-five pages longer, as I was enjoying it that much, and it moves along pretty quickly. I did want more time with Stefano and Jamie being together, and I also wanted more with that ending, as there is the climax and then, feeling somewhat sudden, the story ends. That just felt a bit abrupt to me personally. I guess I needed more hand-holding there, so I definitely would have liked an epilogue for that reason. I would have loved that!Another LMR hallmark is the hot sex she is known for, and here she did not let me down at all. One thing I can always count on this author for is that very intimate type of sex. It's not only the erotic detail; there is also a real connection between hero and heroine, despite the time constraints of this being a shorter story. The reader always feels that connection between LMR's main leads. And in this one, we also get one thing LMR really does best, in my opinion, and that is that whole bareback sex thing. So very hot, it gets me every time, that feeling of raw sexual need, her intention to give the reader something urgent, even messy and gritty sex. That scene where Stefano and Jamie first get it together is so hot that it actually made my breath hitch and my heart speed up. Just classic LMR action.I would love this to be a series somehow, and I can think of two characters I'd love to know more about. I just didn't want it to end, and as I said, I really wanted more. I enjoyed the story a lot, loved the sex, loved the off-the-charts sexual chemistry, and I loved that hero. He's so proud and true, a wound-up tight man, very Italian and intense, dark and so sexy, and very much into the heroine. A shorter read, true, but totally an offering of what LMR can do best.