Title: Edge of Sight Series: The Guardian Angelinos
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: July 27, 2011
Publisher: Forever
ASIN: B003YFIV86
The killer she can't escape...
The heartbreak she can't forget...
The one man who can stop them both.
When Samantha Fairchild witnesses a murder in the wine cellar of the restaurant where she works, the Harvard-bound law student becomes the next target of a professional assassin. Desperate for protection the authorities won't provide, Sam seeks help from Vivi Angelino, an investigative reporter who recruits her brother, Zach, to protect Samantha. A Special Forces vet with the scars to prove he's equally fearless and flawed, Zach takes the job, despite the fact that he and Sam once shared a lusty interlude that ended when he left for war and disappeared from her life. Now, as they crack a conspiracy that leads to Boston's darkest corners, Sam and Zach must face their fears, desires, and doubts, before a hired killer gets a second shot...
My rating:
Three years ago they shared nineteen days of bliss before he returned to war. As goodbye, she told him she loved him. He didn't respond. And he didn't contact her again.
Now, she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a killer and turns to her old friend for help. The sister of the man who broke her heart. Only it's not Vivi Angelino that awaits her on her doorstep, but her brother Zach. Only he's a different man. Scarred, darker, broodier...And the only man who can keep her safe.
The re-read knocked it down a star, but reading preferences can change in eight years.
Let's start with what would've kept the same rating. The characters.
I loved the brooding, tortured hero with a heart of gold, but who thinks he doesn't deserve to be loved and fears the emotion, because love ends (mommy issues!). The Zach in this story was completely different from the funny, suave and seductive Zach of three years ago, but it worked for the story. The changes in his personality (because of what happened to him and what he witnessed), the darkness and hardness in him augmented the feel of danger and urgency the suspense brought. Not to mention his sixth sense flaring to life whenever danger was close or when a puzzle piece fell into place.
Then there was Samantha whose life completely changed after Zach marched out of it. Because of an old mistake she keeps second guessing herself, her decisions, her memory...The only things she's sure of is her feelings for Zach and the knowledge she'd get hurt again, if she didn't protect herself. I liked the fact she wasn't a damsel in distress and, when the time came, protected herself and her friend before Zach came to the rescue.
Then there was the extended Rossi-Angelino family that provided the needed levity, some humor and family drama and makes the reader want more of them.
The romance, though it re-started on shaky legs, also kept its rating. What happened between Zach and Sam before and his initial behavior toward her created a nice conflict that dragged on for just long enough to keep it interesting without descending into annoying, the romance had just the right balance of sweetness, angst and drama, and the hotness factor was pretty high.
It's the suspense that didn't convince me this time around. There was just too many players involved, the motive for the initial murder rather convoluted, the twists and turns got annoying after a point...The only real surprise was the wily killer-for-hire with his chameleonic appearance.
A pretty good story with nicely fleshed-out characters, a sweet second-chance romance, though the suspense subplot started to plod along toward the end.
4 stars, bodyguard/military/merc/gov/cop/spy, contemporary, favorites, re-read, Roxanne St. Claire, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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