This guest post is by Heidi Angell, author of Creative Exercises to Inspire and Royal Prince Vince. For more on Heidi, visit her website at http://angellslife.com/
Genre: Crime, Thriller, Romance
Synopsis: Lust introduces (I think) the big plot of the series with a little teaser, then spends the rest of the book giving us the background story of Secret Service Agent Elaine Brogan, why she became an agent, how she became an agent, and how becoming an agent led her to fall in love.
My Thoughts: This is really hard, because I have A LOT of thoughts about this book... unfortunately most of them are from an author's perspective. So, I am going to (try to) take a step back and go at this from a readers perspective. As a reader, I was really engaged with the opening (I believe he called it a prologue, and prologue it really was! That story I want to read!!) Then chapter one went from being a crime thriller, to really feeling more like a drama. Maybe you could even call it chick lit on the dark side. For me it was blah, blah, blah, poor Elaine. It felt like a Lifetime movie. (Don't get me wrong, I like some of those movies, sometimes. But I don't like reading lifetime movies, I like watching them!) As a reader, I did not like feeling that I was baited and switched. Prologue: awesome set up for a crime novel. Rest of book one: Lets get to know Elaine. Also (and mind you, this will probably put me in the minority compared to most readers) I didn't really like Elaine. I could not relate to her. She is the reason that I do not like to read books from the female perspective. Mad props to Mike from attempting that gender jump. For a lot of girls, maybe it will ring true, but since I'm not like most girls, it didn't work. My final complaint is that the book just ended.... the story didn't resolve at all. It felt more like the old-school serials in the newspapers, than a book in a series. I felt cheated... which really sucks because I got the book for free.
All that being said, Wells has a strong narrative. The book is grammatically sound, the details are realistic. I'm guessing he did some research into counterfeiting. If not, then he sold the plausibility of the information provided. He went into intricate details about applying for Secret Service that I found more interesting than the rest of the story. If you like The author Sandra Brown, and her typical female leads, then you may very well enjoy this. I might suggest that rather than buy this copy, you opt for the all three books in one that is currently available on Amazon.
I will be posting a review of the book from my own blog, http://anangellslife.blogspot.com/ if you want to know more on what I thought about the story!!
About the Author: Well, after about 20 minutes of research on-line, I can tell Mike Wells is a very private man! All sources say that he is a teacher in the creative writing department at Oxford, and a best-selling thriller and suspense writer. I did read a couple of his interviews and he is pretty witty and willing to talk about writing and his books, though he does not talk about his personal life at all. Despite my lack of interest in his stories, I am absolutely intrigued by his complete and utter privacy!! You can check out his blog at http://www.thegreenwater.com/ and one of his interviews that I liked best at http://www.books-writing.com/interview-with-author-mike-wells/
Rating: *** Three out of five stars
