Saturday, April 3, 2021

Review: Shiver of Fear by Roxanne St. Claire

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Title: Shiver of Fear
Series: The Guardian Angelinos
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: April 1, 2011
Publisher: Forever
ASIN: B00495ZE3U

The legacy that haunts her...
The mystery she must solve...
A man who threatens to reveal her secrets...
and break her heart.

Burned by a failed marriage, former FBI agent Marc Rossi wants back in the investigation game with no emotional strings attached. Taking an assignment for his enterprising Angelino cousins, he heads to Northern Ireland to pry a key piece of evidence from a missing socialite—any way he can. But when the ice queen turns out to be warm, beautiful, and on a secret mission of her own, the job becomes a passionate reminder of what happens when duty and desire mix. The daughter of an infamous fugitive, Devyn Sterling has survived betrayal only to find that her mother has mysteriously disappeared. When her search uncovers secrets, lies, and threats, Devyn and Marc must trust each other when every instinct says they can't...and a terrorist wants to make sure they won't live to try.

My rating:

Intent on finding her "roots", newly widowed Devyn Sterling, follows her elusive birth mother to Northern Ireland, where everybody seems more than eager to get rid of Devyn.

But not only in Northern Island. The FBI wants Devyn out of Belfast as well, so they hire the Guardian Angelinos and one of their former own, Marc Rossi to follow Devyn and get her out.

Marc bristles at the need-to-know bullshit, but that's life. The mission is bound to be a piece of cake anyway...Until he gets a good look at Devyn Sterling...and bullets start flying.


Damn it! What's with heroines ruining perfectly good stories lately?

I loved the suspense part of the book. Loved it. Twisty and turny, intense, gripping and engrossing with the reader as much in the dark as the protagonists, wondering who the good guys were, what were the angles, which shadowy agency would appear next...And that last major twist, the ultimate double-cross was like a kick to the gut.

It also served to snap the heroine out of her idiotic frame of mind, but unfortunately that major twist came too late in the story. I wanted someone to slap Devyn silly. Not because of her "quest" for answers, which I understood, but because of the reason for her quest and her inability to see just how stupid and silly she was being.

With all the stuff going on and my annoyance with the heroine, I didn't "believe" the romance, though. It could've worked in the frame that it was presented (the constant danger bringing people closer, augmenting the feelings etc.), but I felt it needed a couple pages more. As it was written, it seemed rushed and rather a cop-out than anything genuine.
And, let's face it, once Vivi and Colt became a possibility, everything else paled in comparison. I sure hope their romance works better than this one.

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