Just ok, good at the beginning kinda stupid in the middle and just ok at the end ( )

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to describe this book. It has an odd paranormal element to it that kinda freaked me out but overall I think I liked this book.

Drea Rousseau is a mistress to Rafael Salinas, a very dangerous crime lord and malicious killer who hires assassins to do his dirty work. After one such hit job, the assassin asks for a few hours with Salina's mistress as part of his payment so Salinas just gives Drea to him, and they spend some hours in some scorchingly hot sex. Whew! The assassin is a cold blooded killer and the "hero" of the book and we eventually find out his name is Simon Goodnight. Both the "hero" and "heroine" are both thoroughly unlikeable characters. Drea has been playing stupid in front Salinas for a long time but now she is desperate to get out of her situation. She outsmarts him and pulls some sneaky moves and gets away with a mountain of money. But Salinas sends "The Assassin" after her.

I don't want to spoil the story for you so I'll just say that Drea ends up turning her life around and totally redeems herself. Simon eventually realizes he loves her and protects her from Salinas. I really came to like Drea. Now Simon is a total mystery and we never find out who he really is and what makes him tick. The ending was rather abrupt but I liked it anyway. I don't think this book will appeal to everyone but Linda Howard is a must read for me. (GRADE: B-) ( )

Andrea Butts didn't grow up with money, popularity, or anything else anyone would want. But by using her looks and her body, she's managed to survive and even excel at being a dumb blond for Rafael Salinas, a mid-level drug dealer. Hiding her brain under a fluffy blond act keeps her in diamonds and certainly has its perks. She has an exit planned, but not for a while - until Salinas trades her to a hitman for services rendered. Shattered, and unable to continue her charade, Drea puts her escape plan into action and walks away clean with over 2 million of Salinas' money.

Salinas sets a killer on her trial, but the deadly hunter has his own agenda, and after an accident leaves Drea a changed woman, leaving her old life behind her may be far more complicated than she ever dreamed.

Howard manages to take two characters who, on the surface, seem the height of unappealing and make them sympathetic and readable. I was pleasantly surprised. It still isn't my favorite of her books, but it wasn't a bad read. ( )

This is a very strange book. It's nominally romantic suspense, but I didn't find the relationship between a drug kingpin's (soon-to-be-ex-) mistress and a professional assassin particularly romantic. Also, halfway through the book, something happens that is so utterly impossible that my disbelief became thoroughly unsuspended.

Despite all that, this is still an enjoyable book. Howard is an excellent writer, and managed to pull it off well enough to keep me reading. This is one I won't be re-reading however, unlike a lot of her others. ( )

There are a number of 1 star reviews at Amazon for this one, and to be honest, I find it puzzling. I know not everyone is going to enjoy the same books, but I really enjoyed this one.

It’s a story of redemption – for both the hero and the heroine. Drea Rousseau (nee Butts) is the arm candy of a drug dealer. While she acts like and air-headed ditz, underneath her hair she is quite savvy. She is making plans to escape her current squeeze, but everything is speeded up when he ‘gives’ her to an assassin. The time they spend together has a profound effect on Drea and she knows it’s time for her to make her escape. But hot on her trail is the assassin. While he admires her for the way she scammed Silas, the drug lord, he has been offered two million dollars to kill her. He’s not quite certain what he’s going to do when he catches her. Before he can though, Drea is in an accident and ‘dies’. But she is given a second chance and takes on a new identity. But Simon, the assassin (we don’t learn his name until half way through the book) has also been profoundly affected by her death and when he discovers by some miracle she survived, he hunts her down.

This is an interesting book. After given a second chance, while Andie who is she has become, has changed, she’s no longer living only for herself, but looking to help others, she is still a lot the same person as she was before. And I think this works well. She’s different enough that we can like her, but still enough of her old self to make her interesting.

And Simon is an interesting character too. We don’t learn very much about him at all – and I think this was done deliberately – and it also works for me. What we do know of him though, is that he is now 100% determined to take care of Andie. While naturally very leery of Simon – he was an assassin after all – she finally lets her guard down enough to see how completely alone he is and her love for him becomes her main priority.

It was SO good to read a Linda Howard book that I really enjoyed again and since I read this one in one day, I know I’ll be rereading it, slower this time, to really savour it. ( )