Monday, December 13, 2010

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Review: No Place To Run by Maya Banks

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Title: No Place To Run
Series: KGI
Author: Maya Banks
Read copy: eBook
Published: December 7, 2010
Publisher: Berkley
ISBN: 1101455373
ISBN-13: 9781101455371

Sam Kelly was her first love.

The last person Sam Kelly expected to pull wounded from the lake was Sophie Lundgren. Once they shared a brief, intense affair while Sam was undercover and then she vanished. She's spent the last months on the run, knowing that any mistake would cost her life and that of her unborn child—Sam's child. Now she's resurfaced with a warning for Sam: this time, he's the one in danger.

Now he's her last chance.

Sam has too many questions to let her slip away again—like why she disappeared in the first place. This time he vows not to be seduced. But one look in her eyes, and the passion burns again, and Sam knows he’ll do anything to keep her and his child safe. However, Sophie’s dark past is more dangerous than he imagines, and the only way for either to survive it is to outrun it.

My rating:

Five months after he left her in a hotel room in Mexico, came back and found her gone, Sam fishes Sophie out of the lake. She’s bruised, bloody, and spouting “prophecies” about his impending doom. Oh, and she’s carrying his child.

This was a great story, even more intense, gripping, and suspenseful than the previous (first one) in the series. I loved Sam, not as much as I loved Ethan, but still loved him to bits. There wasn’t as much “family time” as in the previous book, but still enough to keep things lively and interesting. The banter between brothers was still there, not as funny as in Ethan’s story, but that’s probably because they were fewer in numbers. And I even came to like Rusty. She’s improved, she’s starting to come out of her tough-girl shell and it was so sweet seeing her genuinely care for Marlene and Frank.

Yes, this was indeed a great storyBut then Ms. Banks went and ruined it all with an obnoxious heroine. I knew it! I just knew it I jinxed it all by loving The Darkest Hour. I knew a biatch was due, and we got her.

I HATED Sophie. Hated her with a passion, and no matter what happened in the end, no matter if she “redeemed” herself, I just couldn’t bring myself to come around. She was a stereotypical, whiny, self-centered, I’m-so-tough heroine, I just wanted to shake her. And her constant reminding everybody and their mother how she was just trying to protect her child, was just another sign of selfishness since she ended up endangering herself, the baby, and everybody around her.
And the whole trust issue. Oh, please. She lied to Sam from the start, and continued lying even when she begged him to protect her, kept things from him...And then she expected him to automatically trust her? Trust is earned, baby, not given because you’re baking his bun in your oven. Especially since you kept that bun a secret from him until you needed him. And if you automatically expect trust and respect from him, shouldn’t you extend the same courtesy? Apparently not in Sophie’s book.
This trust issue on both sides could’ve been a great angle for the story, but it was botched up and ended up being extremely annoying.

Now, to the second biggest (and the last for this review) issue I had with this story. Sam’s reaction to the bundle-of-joy to-be. I have no problems with big, military, scowling, Alpha men going all soft and gooey when the time comes (not too soft, mind you), but Sam’s reaction was a little over the top for me.
Come on, the guy thought he’d never see her again, and here she is, pregnant with (supposedly at that moment) his child and he’s doubtful. Right, so far, so good. But then the little critter kicks his hand and he’s suddenly oh-so-excited to be a Daddy. Sorry, I don’t buy it. Maybe for a man who was trying to be a Daddy such a reaction would work, but not for a guy taken totally by surprise with the news. This about face from doubtful soldier to happy papa-to-be was a bit too sudden and a bit too easy to be plausible, no matter how the author tried to convince me Sam loved watching pregnant women in all their pregnant glory.

So, yeah, I was disappointed (and I keep hoping Garret’s story will be worth the effort of reading it).

5 stars for the story (that could’ve been)
1 star for the heroine
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Average: 3 stars

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