Spotling Tour and Review: Dangerous Desire by Annie Seaton

October 9, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

Dangerous Desire BCC:

A desperate search…
Schoolteacher Gracie James has never seen more danger than her Kindergarten classroom, but when she goes searching for her missing sister, she’s thrown into a world of sex, crime…and passion. Following a hot lead, she sneaks onto a stranger’s boat—and gets caught. Their one-sided conversation convinces her of two things. One: the guy is seriously sexy. Two: he knows something about her sister. Oh, yeah. And did she mention he’s sexy?

And a sizzling attraction…
Jake Alexander, former cop, is staking out a yacht brimming with criminal activity, for an insurance company, when a woman, dressed to kill and totally irresistible, stumbles into his dangerous undercover op. If he hadn’t tackled her, she’d have tottered straight onto the questionable yacht in those ridiculous high heels. Then she’d be dead. Or worse. As much as he’d like to kick her off his boat, he can’t risk her going off on some hare-brained scheme—but he can’t keep her around to muck up his job. Oh, yeah. And did he mention she’s distracting as hell?

Lead to dangerous desire…
Unfortunately, she has a keen mind of her own. And a body any man would die for. Jake’s attempt to keep Gracie safe quickly morphs into a reluctant alliance. And a whole lot more… But Gracie finds herself knee deep in more trouble than she bargained for, with secrets revealed and the criminals coming after her. Unless they find a way to trust each other, they’re finished. Oh, yeah. And did they mention they’re in love?

Book Excerpt:

In the dim light coming through the small hatch, sheer terror filled her expression. Wide-eyed, she lay on her back half under the table, pulling her dress down to cover her bared thighs. He held out his hand and she looked at it for a long moment, before placing her trembling hand in his. Pulling her to her feet in the narrow space, he braced himself on his good leg for balance. Her soft breasts pushed into his chest as he pulled her up and he jumped as a jolt of desire shot straight to his groin. 
He put his hand on her shoulders and tried to ignore the reaction of his body, disgusted with himself.
Christ, she’s got eyes as wide as rabbit caught in a spotlight and I’ve got a hard-on? I’ve been on this job too bloody long.
What he had to do was ignore his reaction and find out what she was doing on his boat. All his instincts were screaming she had something to do with what had been going down on the Midas and she wasn’t going anywhere till he found out.

My Review:

“I can’t get you out of my mind, Gracie. Ever since you stepped 

onto my boat in that sexy, red dress you’ve been in my blood. 

I’m a sucker for a steamy Romantic Suspense, and when I read the blurb to this book I was sold. Add in to that mix the gorgeous setting this book is set in, and you have a recipe for a fantastic story. Right? Well…almost.
Unfortunately, there were just a few things that kept this from being a 5 star read for me. Let me start with the things that I loved. 
Jake. He was just what I like in my heroes; broody, slightly broken, and sexy as sin. As much as he tries to fight his attraction to Gracie, I loved reading him inevitably fall for her.
The suspense. I’ve seen some reviewers call it a bit anti-climactic. I don’t agree. I had my suspicions, but the author managed to completely surprise me with where she took it. I did not see that ending coming at all. 
So what about it didn’t quite work for me? The heroine. I’ll admit, I tend to be extremely picky when it comes to MC. Particularly so with the heroines. Romantic Suspense is a genre I read quite a bit, and my expectations have been set pretty high at this point. Unfortunately, Gracie really did not rise up to the challenge here.
I wanted to like her, but never found myself connecting with her. I didn’t feel her actions matched her personality at all. She’s supposed to be somewhat boring and innocent, yet at one point in the book she comes on to Jake and uses sex to get what she wants. This did not add up to me at all. She was all over the place. She’s attracted to him, and stays with him yet at the same time thinks he might be a criminal? 
Because of my disconnect to Gracie, I never really connected to Gracie and Jake as a couple. As much as I loved Jake, I did not love them together. Gracie was all over the place with her behavior that she drove me up the wall. So the progression of their relationship didn’t seem natural to me. They have this instant attraction, yet she never fully trusts him. She has sex with him, but still thinks he’s involved in criminal activity. 
While the revelation in the end did catch me by surprise, I also felt that it wrapped up too quick. I would have liked to get just a little bit more.
As far as my rating:
Hero: 4.5 stars
Heroine: 2.5 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Steam: 3.5 stars
I will average my rating to a solid 3 stars. I think I would have loved this book had it not been my dislike of the heroine.
The one thing that really peaked my interest was Annie’s sister. I would absolutely LOVE to get a book for her. Given the information that we get at the end of this book, I feel like that would be a book I would be ALL over.

ARC courtesy of publisher in exchange for an honest review

Annie Seaton Bio:

Annie Seaton lives with her husband, and ‘Bob’ the dog and two white cats in a house next to the beach on the east coast of Australia. She sits in her writing chair, gazing at the ocean and writing stories.  Their two children are grown and married and she loves spending time gardening, walking on the beach and spoiling her two grandchildren. She has always been fascinated by all things romantic and has found her niche in life writing romance novels, ranging through contemporary, historical, suspense and paranormal…but all with romance of course.

Her love of reading and history began at an early age and she was a child who always carried a book (or two) no matter what she was doing. Several of her favourite books were confiscated from beneath her desk by teachers who had no understanding of her capacity to read while she was doing her schoolwork!

Her working life has seen her through several major career changes and Annie has now retired from the world of full time work and has fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a published author.

Annie’s debut full length novel, Holiday Affair, a contemporary romance set in the South Pacific was released as part of Entangled Publishing’s Indulgence line in March 2012 and has been a best seller on both Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. The sequel Italian Affair was released in June 2013, and will be followed shortly by Outback Affair. Annie has more books being released in 2013 and 2014 with Entangled Publishing in the Bliss, Entangled Ignite and Covet imprints.

In appreciation of the supportive author community, Annie has written a book on promotion to share the secrets of her success: Promotional Tips and Tricks for Aspiring Authors in the Digital Landscape.

Author Links

Annie loves to hear from readers at: annieseaton26@gmail.com

Leave a Comment · Filed Under: Uncategorized · Tagged With:

Speak Your Mind

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2015 · Dirty Girl Romance

%d bloggers like this: