I would never put a book willingly to harm, but this is one of those books I would like to put into a meat grinder, just to see it getting shredded to pulp. I really disliked this book.

Nick was impersonally grateful for her help and always courteous. Sometimes she even worked with him in the evening, though he made it clear that he regarded her contribution as something she gave to the people of San Francisco, and not to him.

Sara, however, knew this was not altogether so. Being a woman, it was Nick whom she must serve first.

Yeah, the whole lovestory aspect of this book doesn´t work for me:

0 stars. Review completed January 27, 2014

Bound by Lies fails miserably. Geez, what an awful book. It's among the worst books I've ever read.






Heaven help me. I am so wrong about his eyes. They aren't brown. They are the intense green of rough seas, turbulent and luring with depths that I might never be able to swim out of. And Lord, do I want to swim in them. Naked.

His voice sinks into my skin like a bite, sending heat into my blood.

A deep sadness fills me like rust-colored water into an empty glass vase when I realize the answer is yes.
I turn my back to him and slip on the jacket, transferring my heels from hand to hand. The inside of it is warm, and his scent brushes up my neck to my nose in a soft caress. God, I could lose myself in his smell and this warmth. I almost believe that this jacket is bulletproof.

He straddles the motorbike and it seems to sigh under him.

The motorbike growls to life under him like a waking lion.

My limbs work of their own volition, moving me towards him like a ship returning to harbor. 



And all I can think about is this beautiful man and how right it will feel to get very, very naked with him. Every second without him inside me, every inch of air between our bodies is a tragedy. 

It sure is a tragedy that I even considered reading this book. *shudder*

My stomach pains as if someone is wringing it in their hands. 



My insides shatter and I am liquid stars. Unable to support myself anymore, I start to fall like dust and ash returning to the ground. But I don't land. I smell wood smoke and home as he cradles me in his arms. I feel myself floating and floating. Then the softness of the mattress underneath me. 





At first it is just a press, his soft lips, tasting of sweet grapes and rosemary, touching mine. It is butterflies and falling leaves and it makes my skin tingle like those sparkles of sunlight that dance upon a babbling brook. 

Yep, who's babbling here?

I feel a small wet line all the way in my belly. Then he sucks, starting an energy in me like the distant rumble of earth under hooves. 



His tongue teases my mouth and at my heart, coaxing it to open for him like a flower. I part my lips for him and he enters me with his tongue. Like a jolt of electricity, I awake. My body lights with fire, aching, consuming fire. I begin to move with him, searching for his taste, exploring his lips and his mouth, tilting my head so our breaths can fuse even more. 



On his face I see an inner tragedy play out. 

My review won't crush this book cos the author sure as hell took care of that herself. Tons of atrocious style blossoms and cheese suffocated Bound by Lies. It's safe to say that Hanna Peach didn't make me feel peachy at all. Again, I do love flowery writing when it's done right. The writing in Bound by Lies, however, is disastrous. The author tried way, way too hard to wax lyrical and in the end failed miserably. Everything felt incredibly awkward and embarrassing. Excuse me but is this a bad joke? Also, the constant switch between past and present didn't facilitate a smooth flow of the plot. And I couldn't for the life of me connect with the shallow and absolutely trivial main protagonists, either. Oh my, I had to deal with yet another whiny and dumb heroine. Concept, storyline (what storyline?) and execution are less than 'blah', and don't get me started on the BDSM elements and the silly sex scenes. Honestly, there is no nice way to say it. Nothing, absolutely nothing, worked out for me. Bound by Lies is a terribly bad read. I'm sorry for being harsh but this book should never have seen the light of day.

And we rock. He moves faster. And I swear my underwear is just going to burn away from all this heat and friction. My head and my body are almost hurting from all this pressure inside. God, I just need him. 

God, my head and stomach are hurting, too. If I had bought a paperback I would have burned the book. *facepalm*



A shot of heat hits the back of my eyeballs and I look away before I start to cry.

The love on his face cracks open the shell of pain across his features when he realizes what I am doing. 



Oh, and please, no more kitten. No. More. I. Mean. It.



"Kitten, I want to make love to you."
"Yes," I cry. The aching need under my skin crackles like electricity. 

Yes, I'm going to stop this whole nonsense now. DNF at 40 %. I want my money back.






P.S. Bound by Lies was a total PITA. And while I felt the need to hit my head on my table, I couldn't help doing this…



READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I'd call this a guilty pleasure, but I won't. Mostly because I've been reading this genre for waaaaaay longer than I have YA or romance or UF. I like action, I like drama, I love romantic tension, and if you throw in a good sense of humor and character development, I'm a very happy reviewer. 

Also, Carolyn Crane is easily one of my favorite authors. Her Disillusionist series is one I keep putting off, not because it's bad, but because I want to prolong the experience (talk about backwards logic) and her Associates novels.... whoo, hand over the fan, it got really hot in here!

"Off the Edge" is the second book in the Associates series, but it's not a sequel to "Against the Darkness", so you can start off in the middle and you won't miss anything. The story follows Macmillan, an associate to a super-duper secret non-government spy agency, sent to Bangkok to foil the sale of a weapon of mass destruction, and Laney, a singer on the run from an abusive ex who works in the hotel where the auction will be held. As part of his inquest of the weapon salesman's identity, Macmillan seduces Laney, and then ends up in deep shit when it turns out she's more deeply involved in the whole business than either of them suspected.

Right off the bat, you can see one of the major appeals of this story. Bangkok! Spies! Seduction! Also, Macmillan's special powers, beyond the average Secret Agent shtick, is linguistics, which just adds so many levels of awesome to it, I can't even! (As a sort of language affecionado, this tickles me in many, many ways.)

But "Off the Edge" is more than its shiny (and in this case, scaly) face. Those of you who have read some of my UF reviews, (particularly Once Burned) will know one of my major peeves with these stories is the kind of gender imbalance that rolls in every time a supposedly sassy, confident lady is forced to sit out the action because Action Man swaggers into the scene. (While Action Man, reluctantly, admits that she brings out the goodness and sensitivity in him.) 

"Off the Edge" has some of that - Laney is no Wonder Woman and Macmillan admits that he doesn't want to get attracted to her - but rather than make this the main conflict of the series, Crane builds up on it, has the characters move past those superficial problems, and then wade in deep into worse conflicts! More to the point, rather than Macmillan grumble about "Them emotional women and their feelings making me human" and then accept it with maximum reluctance, (Raphael, I'm looking at you, you fucker!) he actually treats Laney with respect and acknowledges the validity of what she's going through. Not everyone can be stoic all the time, and that's perfectly okay.

I feel bad that I say this, but not many books go out of their ways to show that.

Overall, I loved this, and I can't wait for more Associates novels. Go, Carolyn!

Note: A copy of this book was provided by the publishers via NetGalley for the purposes of this review.

I've been on a book rut for the last few weeks--in the last month I've finished two books.  Two.  That's a new low for me.  I haven't read this little since before I was in high school, which seems longer and longer ago with each passing day.  I'm currently reading Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Keyplas, but the book I really want to read right now is Thankless in Death by J.D. Robb.

It is the one book I've been looking forward to for months, but unfortunately I'm 43rd on the library's waiting list.  Hopefully, in another few weeks (in time for actual Thanksgiving), I'll be able to get my hands on it.

I also want to read The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand.  I wasn't crazy about The Chocolate Kiss, but I've heard this one is much better than that one.  As a matter of fact, the people involved in the Smart Bitch's chat really seemed to like it.

Last, is the Smart Bitch pick for the October book club, The Rosie Project.  After reading the synopsis on Amazon, I can't help thinking that the hero is going to be a lot like the guys on The Big Bang Theory, and as I love me some nerdy heros, so this should be good.