Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 4.5 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 4 / Suspense: 5 // Laughter: 14 / Tears: 0
In the six 'Crazy' books of the series Janzen interwove into the main story line a mini-romance involving future protagonists. Unaware of the spin-off, I was fully expecting to read two romances in On The Loose. Rather than write a mini-romance between the two characters that were to be featured in the next book of the series, Janzen choose instead to introduce the hero- and heroine-to-be and ignite a bit of interest between them as they played out their respective roles in Smith and Honey's story.
Janzen again entertained the readers with the great chemistry and fun exchange between the couple introduced in Crazy Sweet, C. Smith Rydell and Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton. No couple in the series has created as many laughs as Smith and Honey. Absolutely love this couple. The only thing missing from the story was Smith's lists. Sure did enjoy his lists!
Smith has been loaned to the DEA's Counterdrug Operations in Peru because they are looking for an inside leak in their agency. Smith and a young counterdrug agent (Rufio Cienfuegos) have located another drug lord's airstrip and were performing surveillance. Smith is shocked to find that the amazing pilot the agency is looking for is none other than Irena Polchenko, an ex-lover. He believed Irena was dead because six years ago her plane crashed and burned back in Afghanistan after she sold him to Jamal Abdurrashid, an Afghan battle lord, to finance her entry into the drug trafficking trade. Before Smith and Rufio could radio the supporting contingency to arrest the bad guys on the airstrip, Irena manages to escape.
Smith is not a happy camper when he is pulled from his case to become bodyguard to none other than Honey York-Lytton. He knew she had strings to pull, but this was beyond acceptable. But the truth was that Honey's strings had been pulled; by none other than the Special Defense Force's behind-the-scenes leader, White Rook. She was being blackmailed to deliver weapons and a beat up, locked black briefcase to Alejandro Campos, a drug and arms dealer in El Salvador. (White Rook was mentioned in connection with Dylan back in Book Five, Crazy Love. One has to wonder if Janzen is setting up a suspenseful structure for future books.)
Another truth was Honey wanted to make the trip to El Salvador because she has not heard from her sister, Julia Ann-Marie Bakkert (a perpetual do-gooder) in twelve weeks. Julia is a nun working for St. Joseph's Orphanage and School near Cristobal, close to the camp of governmental rebels, Cuerpo Nacional de Libertad. Honey had heard a rumor (from Father Bartolo) leading her to believe that Julia might be pregnant by the rebel leader, Diego Garcia (and knew it would not have been a consensual joining). Honey did not, however, reveal this fact to Smith -- she just keep shooting down his efforts to keep her from making the trip.
As Smith and Honey travel to El Salvador to deliver the weapons and briefcase to ransom the governmental pouch that Diego Garcia confiscated from the plane that crashed near his camp, they renew their relationship. Neither Smith nor Honey have forgotten their short time together in San Luis. They have amazing, revealing dialogue. Instead of lists, Smith now has descriptive nicknames for his intelligent, wealthy, beautiful (but wealthy), girly-girl. Like: "Little Miss Cigar-Smoking Sparkle Toes".
The suspense and action increase exponentially as two other vital participants make their point of view appearance. First, the pilot, Irena. Second, the drug lord, Alejandro.
Irena is one brilliant, conniving, self-serving, cold-blooded bad guy (who has built a large, thriving drug-dealing business). She will let no one interfere with her riches and power, much less an ex-lover who was supposed to be dead (along with her most well-guarded secret). Irena calls in favors and spends thousands of dollars in her pursuit to assassinate Rydell. Not only is Irena a gifted pilot, she is also an incredible marksman. (Sure do seem to have a lot of female gunslingers in this series.)
Irena is aided by two characters that play very minor roles in the story. Aristotle "Ari" Alexander Poulos, Irena's chief of security, is also a close friend and reluctantly joins her as she searches for Rydell. Irena sent her chief of operations, a former East German Intelligence officer, Hans Klechner, to take care of the other man that saw her on that hilltop near Cuzco.
Since one of my compulsive behaviors is to collect all the books of a series before reading even the first one, it stands to reason (that by Book Seven) it was easy to pick up on Janzen's obvious hint about Alejandro Campos' true identity. Two facts made it obvious. Fact one: one of the original chop-shop boys disappeared years ago (Book Six, Crazy Sweet). Fact two: Alejandro was introduced in On The Loose as he was hot-wiring a car (thinking he was too old to be stealing cars in alleys). (Fact three: my personal Tara Janzen list, showing the order in which her Steele Street books should be read as well as listing the hero and heroine of each book.)
One could not help but be charmed by Alejandro and awed by the razor-sharp edge he was walking. To successfully play the part of being a drug lord for so long spoke highly of his loyalty, honor and strength of character. Janzen also hinted to the reader that Alejandro would soon be giving up this role. Several of his close friends kept telling him it was time to leave, to go home.
One more wrinkle was thrown into the works. Lily Robbins, a naive Albuquerque high school teacher, had traveled to St. Joseph's Orphanage and School to film their good works. Only she bit off more than she could chew. She filmed evil beatings and murders instead the warm fuzzy moments of nuns caring for orphaned children. Then the nun, Julia, sent her to a drug lord, no less, for safety when Diego Garcia came after her camera. Amazingly enough, she found the charming, gorgeous, flawed drug lord did make her feel safe and did, indeed, protect her from Garcia.
After going to great effort to develop the many characters and multiple story lines of these numerous different factions, Janzen then leads them all to Campos Plantation, Morazán Province, El Salvador for a big, action-packed, spine-tingling, and a bit surprising finish.
Janzen has written another top-notch winner! On The Loose has all the features that make for an interesting, enthralling read. {1} Action and adventure from start to finish. There is always something happening. {2} Edgy suspense following each action. Could not wait to see how Janzen was going to write her way out of all corners she got Smith and Honey into. {3} The romance was vivid. Smith had not called Honey since meeting her in San Luis four months ago, but he kept track of her, through the Washington Post society section, no less. Smiles here! Honey was just as enchanted with Smith. She spent so much time researching him that she found out what the "C" stood for. Warm fuzzies here! {4} The sexual chemistry between Smith and Honey was potent and spicy. They generated heat when they made love. Just wish they had made love more often.
Janzen has obviously made her way on to my "Favorite Authors" list. Cannot wait to read Book Eight, Cutting Loose.
--Vonda M. Reid (Sunday; 18, 2010 : 2:03 p.m.) [129]
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
On The Loose Quotations:
| 292 | Dawn was not Campos's favorite time of day. For his money, dawn could have been done away with completely, and days would start about ten-nish or so, . . . |
| 321 | He'd spent two days in the woods with a Force Recon team once and heard less chatter than he had in the half hour he'd been on the trail with Honey -- six guys with a job to do, and they'd managed it without hardly speaking a word. |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
On The Loose Links:
| Rated | Posted | Site | Notes, Comments, Etc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.50 | 10-....-2007 | A Romance Review | |
| C / Hot | 12-04-2007 | All About Romance | hasn't read previous books in series |
| 4.13 average | {15 reviews} | Amazon | as of: May 31, 2012 |
| 4.06 average | {19 ratings} | Barnes & Noble | as of: May 31, 2012 |
| 3.00 | 08-08-2010 | Curled Up With A Good Book | also on Amazon |
| B | 10-31-2007 | Dear Author | |
| -- | -- | Fantastic Fiction | List of Books |
| -- | -- | Fiction DB | List of Books |
| 3.94 average | {34 reviews} | Good Reads | as of: May 31, 2012 |
| 3.78 average | {17 ratings} | Library Thing | as of: May 31, 2012 |
| 4.50 | 09-21-2007 | Night Owl Romance | [qv] |
| B / Hot | 03-06-2008 | Renée Reads Romance | also on Library Thing |
| 4 Roses | 11-14-2007 | Romance Reader At Heart | |
| 4.56 average | {9 reviews} | Shelfari | as of: May 31, 2012 |
| B+ | 11-14-2007 | The Good, The Bad, The Unread | Holly, from Book Binge |
| A+ | 10-18-2007 | The Good, The Bad, The Unread | Jennifer, like her take on the frou-frou aspect |
| 5.00 | 11-26-2007 | The Long and Short of It | liked {1} the voice {2} the words |
| 3.00 | 11-18-2007 | The Romance Reader | |
| 4.95 | 05-31-2012 | Wolf Bear Does Books | posted: Amazon, GR, Shelfari // shorter: B&N, fdb, LT |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tara Janzen -- Crazy Sweet
Rated: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
{5.00}
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥.♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5.5 / Romance: 4.5 / Sensuous: 4 / Suspense: 5 // Laughter: 20 / Tears: 5
Avidly reading the Steele Street Series, one book right after the other. Each book has been great. But Book Six, Crazy Sweet, was awesome. Once I started reading, I did not want to put it down (for any reason: to feed the dog, to sleep, etc.) This book deserved the big 5.0 rating. It so engaged my emotions that I had to give the emotional aspect of the book a 5.5 out of 5.0.
Crazy Sweet was a book of great contrasts. Dark versus Light. Good guy versus Bad guy. Humor versus Seriousness. Sweet versus Cold and Hard.
Giving this book a 5.0 rating was difficult because I hated what Gillian Pentycote had become. I hated her treatment of the love of her life. But that's what made me realize it deserved a high rating. Janzen created such a flawed personality with such depth that she was able to draw strong emotions from the reader -- the whole idea behind writing a book -- to engage the reader -- to draw her in. Janzen succeeded with flying colors!
The extent of the change in the hero and heroine's characters was so drastic. Travis James was introduced in Book One, Crazy Hot, as the laid-back, drop-dead gorgeous EMT with Boulder County Search and Rescue, who posed naked for aspiring artist Nikki McKinney. In Book Two, Crazy Cool, Travis's protective instincts are exposed when he decides to walk Skeeter Bang home from the Gallery, even though she was the street-rat. His eyes were opened to the un-safeness of the world when a street gang harassed them. In Book Four, Crazy Kisses, the really nice, non-confrontational conflict resolution-believing Travis took up arms against the men holding Kid and Nikki at gun point. By Book Five, Crazy Love, Travis has become the New Guy for the Special Defense Force. But through all the changes of Travis from a laid-back, take-things-as-they-come guy to a lethal, gun-wielding, take-the-bad-guys-out guy, there was that knowledge that Travis was still a sweet, caring, loving, loyal man underneath all that hardness..
Not so with Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote. When Gillian was introduced in Crazy Love, she was clueless. She was a sweet thing who was falling apart at the seams. Her character charmed me as I watched her walk towards Travis (the Angel) with her shirt mis-buttoned; her skirt not quite zipped up; her glasses taped together; her shoelace coming untied, etc. There was no gradual change in Gillian's personality. She was wrongfully kidnapped and the evil warlord had her injected with an experimental truth serum, XT7. XT7 totally scrambled Gillian's brains and body functions. Wham! Sweet, messy Gillian Pentycote was no more! The amnesiac, cold, emotionless, can shoot better, run faster, think quicker Red Dog took her place.
Whenever Red Dog started having XT7 after-effect spasms, Travis utilized his famed sexual imprinting skills to relieve the tense muscles and then he made love to Gillian. But even the spicy, hot sexual scenes could not remove that hint of darkness surrounding Red Dog.
Red Dog remembered only four things from her past life. Two held importance for her. One was her Angel, Travis. The other was the man who caused her life change, ex-CIA Agent, Tony Royce. For two years, Hawkins, Kid, Creed and Travis trained Red Dog for her new life as a contract mercenary, a hired assassin. She took to it like a duck to water. For two years, Red Dog was vengefully searching for Royce. For two years, her Angel stood by her through thick and thin. And it was mostly thick.
Even though Red Dog admitted that she loved Travis, he did all the giving in the relationship, Travis was every woman's dream come true. He gave. He supported. He loved. He watched her back. While watching Travis bestow all these precious gifts on Red Dog, one kept hoping for even a teeny-tiny glimpse of Gillian. Not one speck of the sweetness remained! There just seemed to be a constant feeling of darkness as Red Dog planned her betrayal of Angel.
Dylan, Skeeter and Hawkins made appearances in Crazy Sweet because Red Dog not only betrayed Travis, she also put the entire Steele Street operation in jeopardy. Red Dog's single-minded pursuit of Tony Royce caused her to make the decision to cross the line that stood between the good guy and bad guy. The SDF killed only by orders from above, usually General Grant. Red Dog further handicapped the Steele Street boys' by making them have to choose to eliminate her if she went totally rogue, if she did cross that line and killed in cold blood.
The suspense was intense. Would Royce come for Red Dog? Who would win the fight between Royce and Red Dog? Would Red Dog cross the line? Would the Steele Street boys have to kill a friend? Would Gillian ever come back? Would Travis be able to get past Red Dog's betrayal? (It is their book and is supposed to end in happily-ever-after, but how much should one man take from the woman he loved?)
Even through there was a strong connection between Travis and Gillian, it was still difficult to forgive Red Dog for her treatment of Angel. There was hope for their happily-ever-after though. Janzen lead the reader to believe that a bit of the sweet Gillian was going to appear in the life of the cold Red Dog.
Thankfully, Janzen lifted the reader from the darkness surrounding Red Dog and Travis by shining a bright, happy light on the other romance in the book. The romance between C. Smith Rydell (the next new SDF guy) and Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton. Even though Travis and Gillian took top billing in Crazy Sweet, Smith and Honey stole the show.
C. Smith Rydell was fascinating back when he was introduced saving Kid Chaos in 'superman-style' in Book Four, Crazy Kisses. Kid was sure that Smith was still too young to be in the DEA and he was always wearing that shit-eating grin. Even though he looked too young, happy and carefree, Smith proved that he was capable of getting the tough jobs done.
One really engaging thing that Smith did was create lists in his mind. These lists injected priceless bits of humor into even the most dire of situations. For instance in Book Four, Crazy Kisses {page 111}:
Janzen did a great job of relieving the path into darkness by interweaving Angel and Red Dog's story with Smith and Honey's budding romance. Smith's humor and lightness was so laugh-inducing. Smith was such a man's man and Honey was so über feminine. Those personalities played well against each other. When they eventually made love, the scene was spicy and there was a sweet connection between them even though they were definitely light-years apart on the social stratosphere. Cannot wait to read their book, On The Loose, the seventh book of the series.
Crazy Sweet is a must-read for anyone who enjoys an emotional, action-packed, edge-of-your-seat suspense. It is even a must re-read for anyone who wants to laugh and cry the day away.
Although Crazy Sweet had enough background details about each of the characters to make it a good stand-alone read, I feel that the book is much more vivid because I had already been introduced to the protagonists. There are just so many details about Travis in the previous books of the series that explain why he was the perfect hero for Red Dog's fractured character. Would strongly suggest that the series be read in order.
--Vonda M. Reid (Friday; July 16, 2010 : 6:46 p.m.) [128]
Crazy Sweet Links:
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥.♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5.5 / Romance: 4.5 / Sensuous: 4 / Suspense: 5 // Laughter: 20 / Tears: 5
Crazy Sweet was a book of great contrasts. Dark versus Light. Good guy versus Bad guy. Humor versus Seriousness. Sweet versus Cold and Hard.
Giving this book a 5.0 rating was difficult because I hated what Gillian Pentycote had become. I hated her treatment of the love of her life. But that's what made me realize it deserved a high rating. Janzen created such a flawed personality with such depth that she was able to draw strong emotions from the reader -- the whole idea behind writing a book -- to engage the reader -- to draw her in. Janzen succeeded with flying colors!
The extent of the change in the hero and heroine's characters was so drastic. Travis James was introduced in Book One, Crazy Hot, as the laid-back, drop-dead gorgeous EMT with Boulder County Search and Rescue, who posed naked for aspiring artist Nikki McKinney. In Book Two, Crazy Cool, Travis's protective instincts are exposed when he decides to walk Skeeter Bang home from the Gallery, even though she was the street-rat. His eyes were opened to the un-safeness of the world when a street gang harassed them. In Book Four, Crazy Kisses, the really nice, non-confrontational conflict resolution-believing Travis took up arms against the men holding Kid and Nikki at gun point. By Book Five, Crazy Love, Travis has become the New Guy for the Special Defense Force. But through all the changes of Travis from a laid-back, take-things-as-they-come guy to a lethal, gun-wielding, take-the-bad-guys-out guy, there was that knowledge that Travis was still a sweet, caring, loving, loyal man underneath all that hardness..
Not so with Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote. When Gillian was introduced in Crazy Love, she was clueless. She was a sweet thing who was falling apart at the seams. Her character charmed me as I watched her walk towards Travis (the Angel) with her shirt mis-buttoned; her skirt not quite zipped up; her glasses taped together; her shoelace coming untied, etc. There was no gradual change in Gillian's personality. She was wrongfully kidnapped and the evil warlord had her injected with an experimental truth serum, XT7. XT7 totally scrambled Gillian's brains and body functions. Wham! Sweet, messy Gillian Pentycote was no more! The amnesiac, cold, emotionless, can shoot better, run faster, think quicker Red Dog took her place.
Whenever Red Dog started having XT7 after-effect spasms, Travis utilized his famed sexual imprinting skills to relieve the tense muscles and then he made love to Gillian. But even the spicy, hot sexual scenes could not remove that hint of darkness surrounding Red Dog.
Red Dog remembered only four things from her past life. Two held importance for her. One was her Angel, Travis. The other was the man who caused her life change, ex-CIA Agent, Tony Royce. For two years, Hawkins, Kid, Creed and Travis trained Red Dog for her new life as a contract mercenary, a hired assassin. She took to it like a duck to water. For two years, Red Dog was vengefully searching for Royce. For two years, her Angel stood by her through thick and thin. And it was mostly thick.
Even though Red Dog admitted that she loved Travis, he did all the giving in the relationship, Travis was every woman's dream come true. He gave. He supported. He loved. He watched her back. While watching Travis bestow all these precious gifts on Red Dog, one kept hoping for even a teeny-tiny glimpse of Gillian. Not one speck of the sweetness remained! There just seemed to be a constant feeling of darkness as Red Dog planned her betrayal of Angel.
Dylan, Skeeter and Hawkins made appearances in Crazy Sweet because Red Dog not only betrayed Travis, she also put the entire Steele Street operation in jeopardy. Red Dog's single-minded pursuit of Tony Royce caused her to make the decision to cross the line that stood between the good guy and bad guy. The SDF killed only by orders from above, usually General Grant. Red Dog further handicapped the Steele Street boys' by making them have to choose to eliminate her if she went totally rogue, if she did cross that line and killed in cold blood.
The suspense was intense. Would Royce come for Red Dog? Who would win the fight between Royce and Red Dog? Would Red Dog cross the line? Would the Steele Street boys have to kill a friend? Would Gillian ever come back? Would Travis be able to get past Red Dog's betrayal? (It is their book and is supposed to end in happily-ever-after, but how much should one man take from the woman he loved?)
Even through there was a strong connection between Travis and Gillian, it was still difficult to forgive Red Dog for her treatment of Angel. There was hope for their happily-ever-after though. Janzen lead the reader to believe that a bit of the sweet Gillian was going to appear in the life of the cold Red Dog.
Thankfully, Janzen lifted the reader from the darkness surrounding Red Dog and Travis by shining a bright, happy light on the other romance in the book. The romance between C. Smith Rydell (the next new SDF guy) and Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton. Even though Travis and Gillian took top billing in Crazy Sweet, Smith and Honey stole the show.
C. Smith Rydell was fascinating back when he was introduced saving Kid Chaos in 'superman-style' in Book Four, Crazy Kisses. Kid was sure that Smith was still too young to be in the DEA and he was always wearing that shit-eating grin. Even though he looked too young, happy and carefree, Smith proved that he was capable of getting the tough jobs done.
One really engaging thing that Smith did was create lists in his mind. These lists injected priceless bits of humor into even the most dire of situations. For instance in Book Four, Crazy Kisses {page 111}:
"Spending the next nine hours with a crying woman was real close to the top of his "Avoid At All Costs" list, right under untimely death and a desk job."Smith created several more lists as he was forced to deal with the rich, high maintenance, girly-girl, Honey York as they hunkered down in the Hotel Palacio in Sun Luis, El Salvador. Smith could not believe his eyes when the obviously lost, blond (wearing a white with red polka dots halter-top dress) showed up on the wrong side of town. When Royce's goons started coming after the 'cupcake', Smith was forced to hide her in his room. Because rebels started bombing the town, Smith and Honey spent many long hours entertaining readers with their antics and dialogue.
Janzen did a great job of relieving the path into darkness by interweaving Angel and Red Dog's story with Smith and Honey's budding romance. Smith's humor and lightness was so laugh-inducing. Smith was such a man's man and Honey was so über feminine. Those personalities played well against each other. When they eventually made love, the scene was spicy and there was a sweet connection between them even though they were definitely light-years apart on the social stratosphere. Cannot wait to read their book, On The Loose, the seventh book of the series.
Crazy Sweet is a must-read for anyone who enjoys an emotional, action-packed, edge-of-your-seat suspense. It is even a must re-read for anyone who wants to laugh and cry the day away.
Although Crazy Sweet had enough background details about each of the characters to make it a good stand-alone read, I feel that the book is much more vivid because I had already been introduced to the protagonists. There are just so many details about Travis in the previous books of the series that explain why he was the perfect hero for Red Dog's fractured character. Would strongly suggest that the series be read in order.
| note: | Am curious about one thing. Have read on the discussion boards about how readers opine that cheating, done-her-wrong heros need to spend more time on their knees groveling before the heroine forgives him and takes him back. Wonder if those same women feel that Travis should have made Red Dog spend time on her knees groveling before him? {Red Dog did not do any groveling. Travis just forgave!} |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Crazy Sweet Links:
| Rated | Posted | Site | Notes, Comments, Etc. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.00 | 9-....-2007 | A Romance Review | |
| B- / Hot | 12-09-2006 | All About Romance | |
| 4.41 average | {17 reviews} | Amazon | as of: May 30, 2012 |
| 3.48 average | {21 reviews} | Barnes & Noble | as of: May 30, 2012 |
| -- | -- | Fantastic Fiction | List of Books |
| -- | -- | Fiction DB | List of Books |
| 3.79 average | {34 reviews} | Good Reads | as of: May 30, 2012 |
| 3.46 average | {6 reviews} | Library Thing | as of: May 30, 2012 |
| 3.67 average | {6 reviews} | Shelfari | as of: May 30, 2012 |
| C | 04-24-2009 | Vagabond | |
| 5.00 | 05-30-2012 | Wolf Bear Does Books | posted: Amazon, GR, Shelfari // shorter: B&N, fdb, LT |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Tara Janzen -- Crazy Love
Rated: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ . ♥ {4.85}
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 4.75 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 4 / Suspense: 4.5 // Laughter: 12 / Tears: 0
Finally, Dylan Hart's book. The brains behind the Steele Street boys. The most cool, emotionally unavailable man in the Special Defense Force. The man who has been behind the scenes, helping to save his chop-shop buddies since they were introduced in Book One, Crazy Hot, of The Steele Street Series. Skeeter was not the only female fascinated by Dylan. Each time he appeared in a 'Crazy' book, I just wanted to know more about him.
Dylan is the only Steele Street boy who is not allowed to walk away from SDF. He has two options: [1] succeed at every mission he is given or [2] federal prison. Why? When he was a green kid, he was set up in a dicey operation in Moscow to expose his benefactor, White Rook. The CIA still does not know who White Rook is. Neither does Dylan (even though Dylan saw him at the end of Crazy Love).
Dylan's mission (in this fifth book of the series) is to steal some very career-damaging, top-secret papers (the Godwin file) from a vault in Senator Whitfield's mansion. One has to then wonder: if the government can cover up the not-supposed-to-have-happened details of some high-ranking officials, why can't the same governmental agencies hide Dylan's operation-gone-bad. Naturally, one must assume that the government wants to have something to hold over this head.
Another unanswered question. Dylan's childhood angst was not truly exposed. Yes, he hates his mom. But just because she married another man one month after the death of his beloved father is not reason enough for a fifteen-year-old to run away from home. There were no other details to tell readers why Dylan would rather make a living running a chop-shop (as explained in Book Three, Crazy Wild) than live with his mother. Readers with no imagination (like me) need to have these things spelled out for them.
Not only was Dylan's past left in the shadows, but so was Skeeter's. What happened the night Skeeter's drunk, drugged-out father hit her across the face with a whiskey bottle? Anyone reading the previous books of the series has been made aware of Skeeter's scar across her forehead. And how that scar came to be. But Janzen never told the whole story of the night Skeeter got the scar. Expected to hear that story in her book.
Skeeter and Dylan's fascination with each other was exposed in Book Three, Crazy Wild. The attraction has not gone away, but Skeeter is frustrated because Dylan has been so determined to make sure nothing happens between them that he hardly ever returns home to 738 Steele Street. Janzen does a great job with the sensual and romantic attraction between Dylan and Skeeter. It just seems to ooze off each page. They cannot seem to keep their eyes or thoughts off the other. When they finally do make love (in a car, no less) the heat and connection was heart-poundingly potent.
Dylan has spent so much time away from Steele Street that he does not know that Hawkins has been taking Skeeter on missions. His protective instincts rise to the fore when he hears that Skeeter received a minor wound during her last operation. He does not care that Skeeter handled herself with incredible fortitude during the mission or that she out-gunned Kid, he is just furious because she put herself in the line of fire.
To further complicate matters, Dylan has just returned from another successful, but disaster-ridden operation that took place in Jakarta. Dylan has either suddenly become sloppy or someone is setting him up for failure. It doesn't take Skeeter's clairvoyance to determine that the latter is true. Ex-CIA Agent, Tony Royce, who expressed his displeasure towards Dylan in Book Three, Crazy Wild, loses his job because the SDF boys out-maneuvered him in that book. In retaliation, Royce joins forces with Indonesian warlord, Hamzah Negara, who held Dylan captive on his island, Sumba, before he managed to escape.
Skeeter and Hawkins recognize that something horrific happened to Dylan when he was in Jakarta; that he is not firing on all cylinders. They are not willing to let him handle the supposed-to-be-easy theft of the Godwin file during Senator Whitfield's reception for the British ambassador. Hawkins is conveniently in a cast because he broke his ankle on his last mission. The other SDF boys are away on another mission. That leaves Skeeter to watch his back. Hawkins and Skeeter have to go forward with their plans despite Dylan's resistance.
Skeeter, determined to prove to the boss that she can be a competent, capable SDF agent, contacts a new member of the team, Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote (General Grant's new assistant) to supply her with enough arms and equipment to support a small army. In typical alpha-male fashion, Dylan tells Skeeter to get rid of it. In typical, alpha-female fashion, Skeeter pretends to obey his orders and hides the arms and equipment from Dylan.
As in the other books of the Steele Street Series, Janzen includes a secondary mini-romance. Travis is again the secondary hero of Crazy Love. Only he falls for a different girl. (In Book One, Crazy Hot, he was in love with Regan. In Book Two, Crazy Cool, he was interested in Skeeter. In Book Four, Crazy Kisses, he was intrigued by Jane.) Travis is hoping that he will someday become fascinated with a woman who will return his interest.
When Skeeter realizes she needs additional SDF support, she calls Travis to Washington. Then she sends Red Dog to Dulles to pick up an angel. Loved the vivid description of this new character. Who would have thought to pair drop-dead gorgeous Travis with a coming-apart-at-the-seams mess like Gillian. Gillian's shirt is mis-buttoned; her shoelace is coming untied; her skirt is not quite zipped to the top, etc. And Travis wants to put her back together. But only after he takes her apart. The reader cannot help but wear the same big, silly smile that Travis and Gillian are wearing after they experience their own hot love scene (in a car, no less).
Even though their parts were small, Travis and Red Dog almost stole the show. Janzen did such a great job of continuing to develop Travis's character (as he comes to terms with becoming a member of the SDF team). And then she introduces a 'my life is as messy as my attire' character to finally end Travis's lack of a love life.
Travis and Gillian almost stole Dylan and Skeeter's thunder because much of their personality had already been developed in the previous books of the series. Yes, Janzen gives the readers of Crazy Love enough details about Dylan and Skeeter's past to become very involved with them (in this book alone), but they were much richer, fully-developed characters because I had read the previous books of the series.
Janzen has been using two tools to tie the Steele Street 'Crazy' Series together. One: the SDF boys all have a passion for muscle cars; and two: General Richard "Buck" Grant is the man-in-charge who keeps the government alphabet from their doorstep. Janzen has made Skeeter 'one of the boys' with regard to the muscle cars. She helps the boys all rebuild and take care of their special, named cars.
The muscle car scene in Crazy Love had a contrived feel to it. Skeeter is mad at Dylan, so she takes Mercy out to race at the Midnight Doubles. However, the interaction Skeeter had with the 'POS' [piece of shit] car (while running from the bad guys) was much more realistic and flowed more seamlessly with the story (and revealed Skeeter's mechanic skills to the reader).
General Grant did not appear in Crazy Love, but he was mentioned. He is still recognized as a very important part of the SDF team and now he has a new assistant to add more flavor to his office.
Janzen continues to enthrall Romantic Suspense enthusiasts. Crazy Love is another winner! It embodies all the elements that make it a keeper. {1} The romance starts on page one and gives the reader the requisite happily-ever-after at the end. {2} A sense of action and adventure seems to run through the whole book. {3} The suspense in always in the background; making the reader wonder if Skeeter will be able to save Dylan; if Dylan will have to save Skeeter; how will the good guys be able to outwit and beat the bad guys. {4} The sensuality and love scenes were potent, hot and great reading. {5} Was so emotionally invested in the characters that just wanted to spend more time with them.
Want to thank Janzen for letting us get a brief glimpse of Superman again. His role is relatively small, but it was nice to see him again and to witness his role as a new father. Janzen did a great job of keeping Hawkins in his totally alpha-male role and yet see him as a loving, doting, new father. (Talk about warm fuzzy moments.)
Great series. Can't wait to read Book Six, Crazy Sweet, Travis and Gillian's story.
--Vonda M. Reid (Thursday; July 15, 2010 : 1:15 p.m.) [127]
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 4.75 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 4 / Suspense: 4.5 // Laughter: 12 / Tears: 0
Dylan is the only Steele Street boy who is not allowed to walk away from SDF. He has two options: [1] succeed at every mission he is given or [2] federal prison. Why? When he was a green kid, he was set up in a dicey operation in Moscow to expose his benefactor, White Rook. The CIA still does not know who White Rook is. Neither does Dylan (even though Dylan saw him at the end of Crazy Love).
Dylan's mission (in this fifth book of the series) is to steal some very career-damaging, top-secret papers (the Godwin file) from a vault in Senator Whitfield's mansion. One has to then wonder: if the government can cover up the not-supposed-to-have-happened details of some high-ranking officials, why can't the same governmental agencies hide Dylan's operation-gone-bad. Naturally, one must assume that the government wants to have something to hold over this head.
Another unanswered question. Dylan's childhood angst was not truly exposed. Yes, he hates his mom. But just because she married another man one month after the death of his beloved father is not reason enough for a fifteen-year-old to run away from home. There were no other details to tell readers why Dylan would rather make a living running a chop-shop (as explained in Book Three, Crazy Wild) than live with his mother. Readers with no imagination (like me) need to have these things spelled out for them.
Not only was Dylan's past left in the shadows, but so was Skeeter's. What happened the night Skeeter's drunk, drugged-out father hit her across the face with a whiskey bottle? Anyone reading the previous books of the series has been made aware of Skeeter's scar across her forehead. And how that scar came to be. But Janzen never told the whole story of the night Skeeter got the scar. Expected to hear that story in her book.
Skeeter and Dylan's fascination with each other was exposed in Book Three, Crazy Wild. The attraction has not gone away, but Skeeter is frustrated because Dylan has been so determined to make sure nothing happens between them that he hardly ever returns home to 738 Steele Street. Janzen does a great job with the sensual and romantic attraction between Dylan and Skeeter. It just seems to ooze off each page. They cannot seem to keep their eyes or thoughts off the other. When they finally do make love (in a car, no less) the heat and connection was heart-poundingly potent.
Dylan has spent so much time away from Steele Street that he does not know that Hawkins has been taking Skeeter on missions. His protective instincts rise to the fore when he hears that Skeeter received a minor wound during her last operation. He does not care that Skeeter handled herself with incredible fortitude during the mission or that she out-gunned Kid, he is just furious because she put herself in the line of fire.
To further complicate matters, Dylan has just returned from another successful, but disaster-ridden operation that took place in Jakarta. Dylan has either suddenly become sloppy or someone is setting him up for failure. It doesn't take Skeeter's clairvoyance to determine that the latter is true. Ex-CIA Agent, Tony Royce, who expressed his displeasure towards Dylan in Book Three, Crazy Wild, loses his job because the SDF boys out-maneuvered him in that book. In retaliation, Royce joins forces with Indonesian warlord, Hamzah Negara, who held Dylan captive on his island, Sumba, before he managed to escape.
Skeeter and Hawkins recognize that something horrific happened to Dylan when he was in Jakarta; that he is not firing on all cylinders. They are not willing to let him handle the supposed-to-be-easy theft of the Godwin file during Senator Whitfield's reception for the British ambassador. Hawkins is conveniently in a cast because he broke his ankle on his last mission. The other SDF boys are away on another mission. That leaves Skeeter to watch his back. Hawkins and Skeeter have to go forward with their plans despite Dylan's resistance.
Skeeter, determined to prove to the boss that she can be a competent, capable SDF agent, contacts a new member of the team, Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote (General Grant's new assistant) to supply her with enough arms and equipment to support a small army. In typical alpha-male fashion, Dylan tells Skeeter to get rid of it. In typical, alpha-female fashion, Skeeter pretends to obey his orders and hides the arms and equipment from Dylan.
As in the other books of the Steele Street Series, Janzen includes a secondary mini-romance. Travis is again the secondary hero of Crazy Love. Only he falls for a different girl. (In Book One, Crazy Hot, he was in love with Regan. In Book Two, Crazy Cool, he was interested in Skeeter. In Book Four, Crazy Kisses, he was intrigued by Jane.) Travis is hoping that he will someday become fascinated with a woman who will return his interest.
When Skeeter realizes she needs additional SDF support, she calls Travis to Washington. Then she sends Red Dog to Dulles to pick up an angel. Loved the vivid description of this new character. Who would have thought to pair drop-dead gorgeous Travis with a coming-apart-at-the-seams mess like Gillian. Gillian's shirt is mis-buttoned; her shoelace is coming untied; her skirt is not quite zipped to the top, etc. And Travis wants to put her back together. But only after he takes her apart. The reader cannot help but wear the same big, silly smile that Travis and Gillian are wearing after they experience their own hot love scene (in a car, no less).
Even though their parts were small, Travis and Red Dog almost stole the show. Janzen did such a great job of continuing to develop Travis's character (as he comes to terms with becoming a member of the SDF team). And then she introduces a 'my life is as messy as my attire' character to finally end Travis's lack of a love life.
Travis and Gillian almost stole Dylan and Skeeter's thunder because much of their personality had already been developed in the previous books of the series. Yes, Janzen gives the readers of Crazy Love enough details about Dylan and Skeeter's past to become very involved with them (in this book alone), but they were much richer, fully-developed characters because I had read the previous books of the series.
Janzen has been using two tools to tie the Steele Street 'Crazy' Series together. One: the SDF boys all have a passion for muscle cars; and two: General Richard "Buck" Grant is the man-in-charge who keeps the government alphabet from their doorstep. Janzen has made Skeeter 'one of the boys' with regard to the muscle cars. She helps the boys all rebuild and take care of their special, named cars.
The muscle car scene in Crazy Love had a contrived feel to it. Skeeter is mad at Dylan, so she takes Mercy out to race at the Midnight Doubles. However, the interaction Skeeter had with the 'POS' [piece of shit] car (while running from the bad guys) was much more realistic and flowed more seamlessly with the story (and revealed Skeeter's mechanic skills to the reader).
General Grant did not appear in Crazy Love, but he was mentioned. He is still recognized as a very important part of the SDF team and now he has a new assistant to add more flavor to his office.
Janzen continues to enthrall Romantic Suspense enthusiasts. Crazy Love is another winner! It embodies all the elements that make it a keeper. {1} The romance starts on page one and gives the reader the requisite happily-ever-after at the end. {2} A sense of action and adventure seems to run through the whole book. {3} The suspense in always in the background; making the reader wonder if Skeeter will be able to save Dylan; if Dylan will have to save Skeeter; how will the good guys be able to outwit and beat the bad guys. {4} The sensuality and love scenes were potent, hot and great reading. {5} Was so emotionally invested in the characters that just wanted to spend more time with them.
Want to thank Janzen for letting us get a brief glimpse of Superman again. His role is relatively small, but it was nice to see him again and to witness his role as a new father. Janzen did a great job of keeping Hawkins in his totally alpha-male role and yet see him as a loving, doting, new father. (Talk about warm fuzzy moments.)
Great series. Can't wait to read Book Six, Crazy Sweet, Travis and Gillian's story.
--Vonda M. Reid (Thursday; July 15, 2010 : 1:15 p.m.) [127]
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Monday, May 28, 2012
Tara Janzen -- Crazy Kisses
Rated: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ . ♥ {4.75}
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 4.5 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 3.75 / Suspense: 4.25 // Laughter:12 / Tears: 0
Was disappointed to open Book Four of The Steele Street Series, Crazy Kisses, and find Kid's story starting right up with no indication whatsoever that General Grant was going to receive a scathing memorandum from the Department of Defense. It doesn't make or break the book (or the series) but it was such an interesting touch to get a glimpse of how the governmental defense world viewed the Special Defense Force. And it was a clever way to tie the Steele Street Series together. General Grant was not even mentioned in this book.
Another feature that Janzen used to unify the Steele Street boys was the fact that they named their bad-boy muscle cars. They had such a reverence for their cars that they almost loved them more than the women in their lives. The only part muscle cars played in Crazy Kisses was when Corinna (Kid's 1967 Pontiac GTO) was used as a vehicle for Kid, Nikki, Travis and Skeeter to sit in and contemplate the action-packed, hero-saves-the-day adventure that had just occurred (at the end of the book).
But one thing that Janzen is consistent with in Crazy Kisses is providing the absence of heros and heroines that have starred in the first three books of the series. It seems that once a hero participates in the story that delivers his happily-ever-after, he is not involved in the action or day-to-day lives of the current hero and heroine. Naturally, they are mentioned but they make no appearances (unless you count their appearance in Nikki's paintings). Even the heroine's sister (Regan, from Book One, Crazy Hot) made no appearance in Nikki's book.
But that could be perfectly understandable as the bulk of the plot of book four happened in only a two-day time frame. But before Kid and Nikki's story took off, a wounded Kid and his new DEA partner, C. Smith Rydell, were running for their lives after destroying the Putumayo airfield of Columbia drug lord, Juan Conseco.
When a Panama City hospital worker revealed to the drug lord's minions the name of el asesino fantasma, ("the ghost killer"), the man who had been killing Conseco's men and destroying his operations, he placed a half million dollar bounty on Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous. Against his Uncle Drago's advice, Juan Conseco followed el asesino fantasma to Panama City to see to his death personally.
Juan was not the only person who went to Panama City to find Kid. Nikki McKinney, the love of his life, came to say good-bye to Kid. What a good-bye it was. The minute they saw each other, they could not get their hands on each other quickly enough. In fact, they didn't make it past the closed gate of the neighbor's yard before they were making hot, monkey-sex love. Obviously, being in love and being unable to keep their hands off each other was not the problem in their relationship. In Nikki's mind, the fact that she hadn't heard from Kid in seven long months was an issue. In Kid's mind, the fact that she was engaged to Rocky Solano, fiber artist, was an issue.
The morning after, one of Kid's worst nightmares came to pass. He had to kill Juan's two assassins in front of Nikki. They had no time to do anything but flee. They fled to Denver where the second story of Crazy Kisses was taking place.
As in previous books of the Steele Street Series, Janzen interwove a secondary story line into the hero and heroine's story. Although the weave in this case was very, very loose, the principal characters to evolve in the subordinate story were: {1} Skeeter Bang, the SDF's all-around mechanic, computer geek and office administrator; {2} Travis James, Nikki's top model; and two brand new characters {4} Jane Linden, Toussi Gallery's new worker and ex-street rat, "Robin Rulz" and {4} Fast Jack Spencer, new leader of the Castle Rats (name given to young, pickpocketing street kids).
There was also a mini-romance set in place. Travis was extremely attracted to Jane. She, however, had just returned to Denver after a two-year absence, was trying to put her life on the right side of law and order (with the help of Christian Hawkins) and would hardly say two words to him. It didn't help that she saw Nikki's paintings of Travis and was half in love with the beautiful angel in those paintings before she even knew he was a real person. Fast Jack Spencer then brought to light Jane's past and tried to involve her in the life of the Castle Rats again.
As Kid and Nikki ran from the danger of a pursuing Juan Conseco, they were trying to come to terms with the difficulties that Kid's lifestyle presented to their relationship. The biggest issue between the couple was Kid's inability to talk about his whereabouts and activities. Not only because they were usually classified governmental operations, but by the very nature of being a sniper. Kid did not want Nikki to see that side of his life.
This was incredibly difficult for Nikki, a woman who prided herself on her ability to reveal a man's secrets. That is what she did in her artwork. She painted and photographed naked men. She was well-known for putting those men through the secret-revealing wringer when they modeled for her.
The background development of Kid and Nikki was not extensive in Crazy Kisses. If one had not read about their romance (that started in book one, Crazy Hot, and continued in book two, Crazy Cool) they would be unaware of some personality quirks. For instance, Kid knew that when Nikki was scared she had a need to talk. Subject matter didn't count, she just had to keep rambling on. It was particularly entertaining to listen to Kid's thoughts as he zoned out during Nikki's nervous-induced tirade.
Although Crazy Kisses, could easily be a stand alone novel, it is so much easier to understand all the nuances between Kid and Nikki, having read the previous books of the series. It also made sense to the reader that Kid and Nikki would immediately make love when they saw the other. That is how they always seemed to react to the other. It also indicated that, while Kid suffered from pangs of jealously when he found out Creed and Hawkins posed for Nikki, he didn't even blink when Nikki talked about her favorite model, Travis. That is because Kid had already dealt with those particular feelings of jealously in the previous books.
Those readers who prefer lots of action and adventure in their romantic suspense, will love Crazy Kisses. There was a sense of action taking place through the entire book. The reader was in constant suspense wondering how Kid and Nikki were going to escape from such a vengeful, driven villain. And wondering what role the Castle Rats would play in the resolution of Juan's vendetta against Kid. It only made sense that Janzen would introduce these characters to utilize them in some way to help free Kid and Nikki from the bad guy.
A powerful sense of sensuality and romance was always present between Kid and Nikki. Even when they had determined to leave the other behind. There was just something special between them that they couldn't escape. Kid's most romantic action was to find and secure Nikki's dead parents' wedding rings from Inca ruins in Peru. Again, this action is easier to understand having read about Nikki's desire to have those rings in book one. (Janzen also managed to increase the reader's interest in the possibility of future books, that would eventually reveal whatever Kid found at the Inca site, (but would only share that information with Nikki's grandfather because it was too sensitive for Nikki to hear).)
Crazy Kisses is just another keeper in a lengthening list of must read Janzen books and joining the other books in the series on the "to be re-read" list. There is a flavor of Suzanne Brockmann's style in this series. The author's use of {1} telling the hero and heroine's story throughout several books of the series; {2} continuing the development of secondary characters who are sure to have their own future book; and {3} introducing new potential future hero's and heroines. Janzen weaves these characters together in an almost seamless manner. Upon occasion, the interruption of Kid and Nikki's story (to see what was happening back in Denver) was expected, but annoying -- wanted to find out what happened next -- wanted the focus to stay on them.
Would readily recommend Crazy Kisses (as part of a series) to any reader who loves a good special ops-type romantic suspense.
--Vonda M. Reid (Monday; July 12, 2010 : 11:30 a.m.) [126]
Crazy Kisses Quotations:
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣.♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 4.5 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 3.75 / Suspense: 4.25 // Laughter:12 / Tears: 0
Another feature that Janzen used to unify the Steele Street boys was the fact that they named their bad-boy muscle cars. They had such a reverence for their cars that they almost loved them more than the women in their lives. The only part muscle cars played in Crazy Kisses was when Corinna (Kid's 1967 Pontiac GTO) was used as a vehicle for Kid, Nikki, Travis and Skeeter to sit in and contemplate the action-packed, hero-saves-the-day adventure that had just occurred (at the end of the book).
But one thing that Janzen is consistent with in Crazy Kisses is providing the absence of heros and heroines that have starred in the first three books of the series. It seems that once a hero participates in the story that delivers his happily-ever-after, he is not involved in the action or day-to-day lives of the current hero and heroine. Naturally, they are mentioned but they make no appearances (unless you count their appearance in Nikki's paintings). Even the heroine's sister (Regan, from Book One, Crazy Hot) made no appearance in Nikki's book.
But that could be perfectly understandable as the bulk of the plot of book four happened in only a two-day time frame. But before Kid and Nikki's story took off, a wounded Kid and his new DEA partner, C. Smith Rydell, were running for their lives after destroying the Putumayo airfield of Columbia drug lord, Juan Conseco.
When a Panama City hospital worker revealed to the drug lord's minions the name of el asesino fantasma, ("the ghost killer"), the man who had been killing Conseco's men and destroying his operations, he placed a half million dollar bounty on Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous. Against his Uncle Drago's advice, Juan Conseco followed el asesino fantasma to Panama City to see to his death personally.
Juan was not the only person who went to Panama City to find Kid. Nikki McKinney, the love of his life, came to say good-bye to Kid. What a good-bye it was. The minute they saw each other, they could not get their hands on each other quickly enough. In fact, they didn't make it past the closed gate of the neighbor's yard before they were making hot, monkey-sex love. Obviously, being in love and being unable to keep their hands off each other was not the problem in their relationship. In Nikki's mind, the fact that she hadn't heard from Kid in seven long months was an issue. In Kid's mind, the fact that she was engaged to Rocky Solano, fiber artist, was an issue.
The morning after, one of Kid's worst nightmares came to pass. He had to kill Juan's two assassins in front of Nikki. They had no time to do anything but flee. They fled to Denver where the second story of Crazy Kisses was taking place.
As in previous books of the Steele Street Series, Janzen interwove a secondary story line into the hero and heroine's story. Although the weave in this case was very, very loose, the principal characters to evolve in the subordinate story were: {1} Skeeter Bang, the SDF's all-around mechanic, computer geek and office administrator; {2} Travis James, Nikki's top model; and two brand new characters {4} Jane Linden, Toussi Gallery's new worker and ex-street rat, "Robin Rulz" and {4} Fast Jack Spencer, new leader of the Castle Rats (name given to young, pickpocketing street kids).
There was also a mini-romance set in place. Travis was extremely attracted to Jane. She, however, had just returned to Denver after a two-year absence, was trying to put her life on the right side of law and order (with the help of Christian Hawkins) and would hardly say two words to him. It didn't help that she saw Nikki's paintings of Travis and was half in love with the beautiful angel in those paintings before she even knew he was a real person. Fast Jack Spencer then brought to light Jane's past and tried to involve her in the life of the Castle Rats again.
As Kid and Nikki ran from the danger of a pursuing Juan Conseco, they were trying to come to terms with the difficulties that Kid's lifestyle presented to their relationship. The biggest issue between the couple was Kid's inability to talk about his whereabouts and activities. Not only because they were usually classified governmental operations, but by the very nature of being a sniper. Kid did not want Nikki to see that side of his life.
This was incredibly difficult for Nikki, a woman who prided herself on her ability to reveal a man's secrets. That is what she did in her artwork. She painted and photographed naked men. She was well-known for putting those men through the secret-revealing wringer when they modeled for her.
The background development of Kid and Nikki was not extensive in Crazy Kisses. If one had not read about their romance (that started in book one, Crazy Hot, and continued in book two, Crazy Cool) they would be unaware of some personality quirks. For instance, Kid knew that when Nikki was scared she had a need to talk. Subject matter didn't count, she just had to keep rambling on. It was particularly entertaining to listen to Kid's thoughts as he zoned out during Nikki's nervous-induced tirade.
Although Crazy Kisses, could easily be a stand alone novel, it is so much easier to understand all the nuances between Kid and Nikki, having read the previous books of the series. It also made sense to the reader that Kid and Nikki would immediately make love when they saw the other. That is how they always seemed to react to the other. It also indicated that, while Kid suffered from pangs of jealously when he found out Creed and Hawkins posed for Nikki, he didn't even blink when Nikki talked about her favorite model, Travis. That is because Kid had already dealt with those particular feelings of jealously in the previous books.
Those readers who prefer lots of action and adventure in their romantic suspense, will love Crazy Kisses. There was a sense of action taking place through the entire book. The reader was in constant suspense wondering how Kid and Nikki were going to escape from such a vengeful, driven villain. And wondering what role the Castle Rats would play in the resolution of Juan's vendetta against Kid. It only made sense that Janzen would introduce these characters to utilize them in some way to help free Kid and Nikki from the bad guy.
A powerful sense of sensuality and romance was always present between Kid and Nikki. Even when they had determined to leave the other behind. There was just something special between them that they couldn't escape. Kid's most romantic action was to find and secure Nikki's dead parents' wedding rings from Inca ruins in Peru. Again, this action is easier to understand having read about Nikki's desire to have those rings in book one. (Janzen also managed to increase the reader's interest in the possibility of future books, that would eventually reveal whatever Kid found at the Inca site, (but would only share that information with Nikki's grandfather because it was too sensitive for Nikki to hear).)
Crazy Kisses is just another keeper in a lengthening list of must read Janzen books and joining the other books in the series on the "to be re-read" list. There is a flavor of Suzanne Brockmann's style in this series. The author's use of {1} telling the hero and heroine's story throughout several books of the series; {2} continuing the development of secondary characters who are sure to have their own future book; and {3} introducing new potential future hero's and heroines. Janzen weaves these characters together in an almost seamless manner. Upon occasion, the interruption of Kid and Nikki's story (to see what was happening back in Denver) was expected, but annoying -- wanted to find out what happened next -- wanted the focus to stay on them.
Would readily recommend Crazy Kisses (as part of a series) to any reader who loves a good special ops-type romantic suspense.
--Vonda M. Reid (Monday; July 12, 2010 : 11:30 a.m.) [126]
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Crazy Kisses Quotations:
| 246 | She needed help. She couldn't do this . . . anymore, skating on the edge by the seat of her pants, always expecting disaster and seldom being disappointed. |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Tara Janzen -- Crazy Wild
Rated: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ . ♥ {4.95}
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 3.75 / Suspense: 4 // Laughter: 8 / Tears: 4
Creed Rivera (Cesar Raoul Eduardo Rivera) is a tortured hero, literally. Creed is trying to recuperate both mentally and physically from the wounds he suffered after having been captured by Columbian rebels along with his best friend and partner J.T. Chronopolous.
Note: There is a sense of Janzen building up for a suspenseful future read because Creed believes he and J.T. were set up to be ambushed by the National Revolutionary Forces. Can just see the Special Defense Force boys (i.e., Steele Street boys) making an effort to find out who was responsible for betraying them.
Crazy Wild is the third book in Tara Janzen's The Steele Street Series. As with the previous two books in the series (Book One, Crazy Hot), (Book Two, Crazy Cool), other members of the SDF team played prominent roles in Crazy Wild. Initially thought Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous would continue his mini romance with Nikki McKinney since he and Creed were still in the jungle exacting revenge upon the last two NRF rebels responsible for J.T.'s torturous death. However, Creed left Kid in the jungles of South America when he returned home to Denver.
Squeamish readers may have a problem with the verbal pictures that eventually appeared regarding J.T.'s torture, but they were not so detailed that it was difficult to read. The description just portrayed why Creed was suffering nightmares and such angst about his inability to save his best friend. Why he thought he was going to go "crazy". The descriptive details of J.T.'s death tended to draw tears as the reader felt the team's, particularly Creed's, loss instead of revulsion.
One of the things that ties the series together is the prologue. In each book, the SDF's commanding officer, General Richard "Buck" Grant receives a letter from the Department of Defense regarding his boys. In Crazy Wild, General Grant is told to get Kid and Creed out of South America because they are causing quite a stir down there. (There is a sense of that future book here too. That is, whoever betrayed Creed and J.T. is now getting antsy.)
The other tie-in to the previous books of the series, was the Steele Street players' need to name their muscle cars. This particular aspect was neatly woven into Crazy Wild but there were not any entertaining scenes where the heroine (or another secondary character) had to grab hold of the console and/or seat to hang on for dear life as the hero's muscle car roared to life.
Kid and Nikki's romance was not furthered in this book, but Janzen started a new mini-romance between the two other Steele Street team members who played strong supporting roles in this book. Team leader, Dylan Hart, was attracted to the street rat Hawkins' rescued, Skeeter Bang. (Yes, folks, that's what her parents named her.) Skeeter was the computer guru and administrative manager for the Steele Street boys. While Dylan tried to fight his attraction to Skeeter for everything he was worth (he is twelve years older than her), Skeeter had no such restrictions with her attraction to Dylan. Janzen began fleshing out their personalities for their future book.
It is easy to see prospective clashes with these two personalities. When Skeeter had to go into Dylan's office for a conference, she found a sanitized room. There was nothing on his desk besides two laptops (up and running). No paper. No pen. Not even a paper clip. Yet, when Dylan had to go to Skeeter's apartment to get help finding Creed's location (via Skeeter's tracking device), he was overwhelmed by all the "junk" on every surface, none of which he could see. An obsessive neat-nick meets a hoarding slob.
But back to Creed and Cody's story. Creed's assignment is to find, protect and return to CIA custody, international arms' dealer, Dominika Starkova, (aka: Blonde Bimbo with the Bomb). Only Dominika was not blond. Nor a bimbo. Nor an arms' dealer. She was just in over her head. When she went to Prague to find her father, she found he was not the charming Professor she envisioned, but a conscious-less, deep in debt (to the Russian Mafia) former general of the Soviet army (who knew where a warhead missile was hidden in Tajikistan). Dimitri Starkova died leaving the "map" to the missile's location in his daughter's hands. And his daughter in the hands of the Russian Mafia.
Intel had Creed in the Denver Public Library watching a dumpy, frumpy, "brown" librarian stacking reference books. When Dominika's ex-KGB colonel boyfriend, Sergei Patrushev's right-hand man, Reinhard Klein and his three goons arrived at the library, the chase was on. Creed had never seen such a fast quick-change artist. He found the brown librarian's clothes and ankle brace in various stacks of the library as he pursued her.
The suspenseful pursuit and fast-paced action took center stage as Creed caught Cordelia "Cody" Stark (aka: Dominika Starkova) in the library and then tried to keep her alive as they escaped into the blizzard hitting Denver. Not only was Creed fighting Russian Mafia thugs, he was also fighting flashbacks (about J.T.) and his attraction (of all things) to a terrorist.
Cody was not only trying to escape from the Russian thugs who had held her hostage and killed CIA agent, Keith O'Connell, but she needed to get away from the wild, crazy man who was now dragging her through Denver (even thought he had saved her life back there in the library). And he had warmed her up when she was freezing to death. And he gave her such a wonderful, soft kiss before he went off to shoot the bad guys.
With Skeeter and Dylan's help, Creed and Cody finally make their way back to Steele Street (where she spots the weatherproof sign). They retreat to Creed's room where they emotionally connect and have hot steamy sex. But not until Janzen delays their coming together for forty (or so) pages. When Creed and Cody arrived in Creed's apartment, they were all kissy-faced, but instead of getting the expected love scene, interruptions started appearing. Kept thinking, enough already, let them make love.
There was one other little thing that Janzen didn't tell readers. She let the reader be aware of Cody's efforts to keep the Russian Mafia goons at arms-length during her captivity by playing the blonde bimbo. What she didn't explain was Cody's implication that there was a reason for Sergei not wanting her. What reason? Were we supposed to assume that he was gay?
Janzen wrote another winner in her Steele Street Series. She wrote about another hunky, tormented, alpha hero who saved an intelligent, beautiful heroine. Action enthusiasts will enjoy all the adventures the protagonists face. Emotional enthusiasts will shed tears and become involved in the hero and heroine's angst. Suspense lovers will be on the edge of their seat wondering how Creed is going to save Cody from such an un-save-able, un-fix-able situation. And although it took a while for them to get there, the sensuality and romance was hot, yet healing.
Am anxious to get to the next book of the series, Crazy Kisses, Kid and Nikki's story.
--Vonda M. Reid (Wednesday; July 7, 2010 : 10:02 p.m.) [125]
Crazy Wild Quotations:
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5 / Romance: 4 / Sensuous: 3.75 / Suspense: 4 // Laughter: 8 / Tears: 4
Note: There is a sense of Janzen building up for a suspenseful future read because Creed believes he and J.T. were set up to be ambushed by the National Revolutionary Forces. Can just see the Special Defense Force boys (i.e., Steele Street boys) making an effort to find out who was responsible for betraying them.
Crazy Wild is the third book in Tara Janzen's The Steele Street Series. As with the previous two books in the series (Book One, Crazy Hot), (Book Two, Crazy Cool), other members of the SDF team played prominent roles in Crazy Wild. Initially thought Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous would continue his mini romance with Nikki McKinney since he and Creed were still in the jungle exacting revenge upon the last two NRF rebels responsible for J.T.'s torturous death. However, Creed left Kid in the jungles of South America when he returned home to Denver.
Squeamish readers may have a problem with the verbal pictures that eventually appeared regarding J.T.'s torture, but they were not so detailed that it was difficult to read. The description just portrayed why Creed was suffering nightmares and such angst about his inability to save his best friend. Why he thought he was going to go "crazy". The descriptive details of J.T.'s death tended to draw tears as the reader felt the team's, particularly Creed's, loss instead of revulsion.
One of the things that ties the series together is the prologue. In each book, the SDF's commanding officer, General Richard "Buck" Grant receives a letter from the Department of Defense regarding his boys. In Crazy Wild, General Grant is told to get Kid and Creed out of South America because they are causing quite a stir down there. (There is a sense of that future book here too. That is, whoever betrayed Creed and J.T. is now getting antsy.)
The other tie-in to the previous books of the series, was the Steele Street players' need to name their muscle cars. This particular aspect was neatly woven into Crazy Wild but there were not any entertaining scenes where the heroine (or another secondary character) had to grab hold of the console and/or seat to hang on for dear life as the hero's muscle car roared to life.
Kid and Nikki's romance was not furthered in this book, but Janzen started a new mini-romance between the two other Steele Street team members who played strong supporting roles in this book. Team leader, Dylan Hart, was attracted to the street rat Hawkins' rescued, Skeeter Bang. (Yes, folks, that's what her parents named her.) Skeeter was the computer guru and administrative manager for the Steele Street boys. While Dylan tried to fight his attraction to Skeeter for everything he was worth (he is twelve years older than her), Skeeter had no such restrictions with her attraction to Dylan. Janzen began fleshing out their personalities for their future book.
It is easy to see prospective clashes with these two personalities. When Skeeter had to go into Dylan's office for a conference, she found a sanitized room. There was nothing on his desk besides two laptops (up and running). No paper. No pen. Not even a paper clip. Yet, when Dylan had to go to Skeeter's apartment to get help finding Creed's location (via Skeeter's tracking device), he was overwhelmed by all the "junk" on every surface, none of which he could see. An obsessive neat-nick meets a hoarding slob.
But back to Creed and Cody's story. Creed's assignment is to find, protect and return to CIA custody, international arms' dealer, Dominika Starkova, (aka: Blonde Bimbo with the Bomb). Only Dominika was not blond. Nor a bimbo. Nor an arms' dealer. She was just in over her head. When she went to Prague to find her father, she found he was not the charming Professor she envisioned, but a conscious-less, deep in debt (to the Russian Mafia) former general of the Soviet army (who knew where a warhead missile was hidden in Tajikistan). Dimitri Starkova died leaving the "map" to the missile's location in his daughter's hands. And his daughter in the hands of the Russian Mafia.
Intel had Creed in the Denver Public Library watching a dumpy, frumpy, "brown" librarian stacking reference books. When Dominika's ex-KGB colonel boyfriend, Sergei Patrushev's right-hand man, Reinhard Klein and his three goons arrived at the library, the chase was on. Creed had never seen such a fast quick-change artist. He found the brown librarian's clothes and ankle brace in various stacks of the library as he pursued her.
The suspenseful pursuit and fast-paced action took center stage as Creed caught Cordelia "Cody" Stark (aka: Dominika Starkova) in the library and then tried to keep her alive as they escaped into the blizzard hitting Denver. Not only was Creed fighting Russian Mafia thugs, he was also fighting flashbacks (about J.T.) and his attraction (of all things) to a terrorist.
Cody was not only trying to escape from the Russian thugs who had held her hostage and killed CIA agent, Keith O'Connell, but she needed to get away from the wild, crazy man who was now dragging her through Denver (even thought he had saved her life back there in the library). And he had warmed her up when she was freezing to death. And he gave her such a wonderful, soft kiss before he went off to shoot the bad guys.
With Skeeter and Dylan's help, Creed and Cody finally make their way back to Steele Street (where she spots the weatherproof sign). They retreat to Creed's room where they emotionally connect and have hot steamy sex. But not until Janzen delays their coming together for forty (or so) pages. When Creed and Cody arrived in Creed's apartment, they were all kissy-faced, but instead of getting the expected love scene, interruptions started appearing. Kept thinking, enough already, let them make love.
There was one other little thing that Janzen didn't tell readers. She let the reader be aware of Cody's efforts to keep the Russian Mafia goons at arms-length during her captivity by playing the blonde bimbo. What she didn't explain was Cody's implication that there was a reason for Sergei not wanting her. What reason? Were we supposed to assume that he was gay?
Janzen wrote another winner in her Steele Street Series. She wrote about another hunky, tormented, alpha hero who saved an intelligent, beautiful heroine. Action enthusiasts will enjoy all the adventures the protagonists face. Emotional enthusiasts will shed tears and become involved in the hero and heroine's angst. Suspense lovers will be on the edge of their seat wondering how Creed is going to save Cody from such an un-save-able, un-fix-able situation. And although it took a while for them to get there, the sensuality and romance was hot, yet healing.
Am anxious to get to the next book of the series, Crazy Kisses, Kid and Nikki's story.
--Vonda M. Reid (Wednesday; July 7, 2010 : 10:02 p.m.) [125]
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Crazy Wild Quotations:
| 376 | He plunged into the story, trying to remember all the details, which was incredibly difficult. Guys ate lunch. Women expected a whole helluva lot more from the hours between noon and two, especially if they were with a friend. |
| 377 | It wasn't even talk, what women did. They chatted, and it was an art, and he was getting it down, this way of weaving a whole bunch of things together until it didn't make sense anymore and neither one of them could even remember where they'd started -- chatting. |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tara Janzen -- Crazy Cool
Rated: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ . ♥ {4.75}
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5 / Romance: 5 / Sensuous: 3.5 / Suspense: 4.5 // Laughter: 9 / Tears: 7
One of the things that really draws me in when I read series books, like Tara Janzen's The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series) is the on-going interaction between the characters that tie the series together. Janzen does a great job of featuring several Steele Street characters in Book Two, Crazy Cool, including: {1} Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous (and his on-going mini-romance with {2} Nikki McKinney); {3} Travis James (and his on-going appearance as Nikki's favorite nude model); {4} Skeeter Bang (and her on-going support of the SDF team). Brief, but important appearances were made by: {5} Dylan Hart ("Shadow") as he continues to use his leadership skills to help Hawkins. Even more brief appearances were made by {6} Creed Rivera, who recuperates from torture after being captured in Colombia; {7} Quinn Younger ("Captain America") and {8} Regan McKinney Younger, Quinn's new wife.
When Christian Hawkins ("Superman") was introduced in Book One, Crazy Hot, he was portrayed as one of the most dangerous, almost mean members of the Special Defense Force. Although he exuded an animal magnetism, the reader almost felt a sense of danger just being in the same book with him. Already a hardened street kid, Hawkins had become even more steel-tempered at nineteen when he was imprisoned for two years. Dylan got the wrongful murder conviction overturned and Hawkins was now Steele Street's number two man. It was hard to imagine Janzen creating a woman strong enough to bring such a hardened warrior to his knees.
Apparently, the heroine had no strength at all. Katya Dekker was none other than the prom queen, the fluffy, poor little rich girl who Christian fell in love with thirteen years ago. The woman who cost him two years in prison. Kat was the daughter of Senator Marilyn Dekker, who was often spoken about with such endearing terms, the nicest of which was being "meaner than a junkyard dog." Kat was so afraid of her mother that she tended to hyperventilate whenever she thought about her.
Another thing that appeals is that Janzen opened this second book of the series in the same manner as book one. General Richard "Buck" Grant received an unwelcome directive from the Department of Defense. General Grant was ordered to remove Hart and Hawkins from a volatile situation in Colombia to perform lowly security duty at a Denver high-society art auction. General Grant wondered about the incompetent political shenanigans that brought about this disaster.
The disaster escalated when Hawkins had to rescue none other than Kat Dekker at the art auction when the stage and palm trees seemed to explode with fireworks. Hawkins was sure that he could retain his "cool" (as in Crazy Cool) long enough to take Kat to Doc Blake to see if she had a concussion. A sense of déjà vu hits Christian. He took Kat to Doc Blake thirteen years ago when he rescued her from her fellow Wellon Academy schoolmates, better known as the prom kings. Christian takes his first walk down memory lane. There were many such walks down memory lane by both Christian and Kat.
Janzen spent many pages in the minds of Christian and Kat as they remembered their intense, passionate time together thirteen years ago. Both were determined that they would not fall in love with each other again. Kat because she felt guilty and Christian because he felt betrayed. But the magnetism and strong emotional connection was impossible to ignore. Janzen has a flair for keeping the sensual heat on high. Hawkins entertains the readers with some pretty lurid, sensual imagines as he tries to talk himself out of being attracted to the woman he gave his heart to all those years ago.
As expected, Christian and Kat give in to their desires. But instead of the sexual energy being all hot and heavy (even though Janzen wrote wonderful love scenes) there was more of a romantic feeling that pervaded their love making than raunchy, raw sex, which is what one would expect from such a dangerous, hardened man like Hawkins. In fact, even though Hawkins briefly displayed his special black ops skills, most of the book catered to the softness within him whenever he was in close proximity to Kat.
Another way Janzen ties the series together and exudes such a sense of masculinity about the characters is that the Steele Street men name the cars they love. All the Steele Street boys have a past involving car theft and they all drive muscle cars. Janzen had me laughing out loud when reading the scene where Hawkins, who kept Roxanne in immaculate condition, could not believe the amount of cracker crumbs, orange peels, etc. one woman could get in one car. It was not the only time Kat destroyed Christian's calm regarding Roxanne's upkeep.
Janzen entertains the reader by creating characters with real foibles and quirky personalities which cause bursts of laughter to erupt. She also provides them with angst which causes the tear ducts to engage. Her ability to create characters which draw our emotions is not her only skill, she also keeps readers on the edge of their seats in suspense. While Hawkins and Kat are fighting their attraction (and remembering when they fell in love), they are also on a quest to find out why they had been maneuvered into the dangerous situation they found themselves mired in. It seems Christian and Kat are not the only characters remembering their past, the villain (obviously one of the prom kings) joins them in that interest.
Janzen seems to have compared notes with Suzanne Brockmann. As with Sam and Alyssa in Brockmann's Troubleshooter Series, Kid and Nikki continue their tumultuous romance in Crazy Cool. Kid was called away to Columbia at the end of Crazy Hot and Nikki had not heard from him in seven weeks. Nikki's star is rising. Kat is a gallery owner, with a high-profile in the art world and is featuring Nikki's work. Nikki is not sure how to act when Kid shows up at the opening. There is much angst between these two young (Kid twenty-three; Nikki twenty-one) people who fell in love in book one of the series. It does not reach the happily-ever-after stage in book two either. Kid must return with his team back to Colombia.
Another supporting character that was well-developed and added depth to the plot and interest to the reader was Kat's secretary, ex-police officer Alex Zheng. Janzen amazingly creates an integral player with such descriptive and emotionally drawing words. One could not help but feel sorry for Alex, for the difficult fence he was forced to straddle because of his relationship to Kat.
Travis James was given a short, but potent point of view role in Crazy Cool. He supports his friend Nikki at her gallery opening when Kid arrives to throw her for a loop. Then he is attracted to the street-wise, fifteen-year-old-looking Skeeter Bang when she came to the gallery looking for Kid. Janzen seems to be teasing the reader with little bursts of information about the characters to star in her future books. I know that I am looking forward to reading their stories.
Tara Janzen has risen in the ranks on my favorite authors list. This series has quickly drawn me in and I can't wait to get to the next book. Janzen is a wonderful author who is able to give the reader the necessary requirements for a great romantic suspense series. Crazy Cool had: {1} Hunky, ultra-masculine alpha hero. {2} Quirky, yet loveable ultra-feminine heroine. {3} Action galore. {4} Nail-biting suspense from page one until the villain is caught at the end of the book. {5} Interesting, well-developed supporting characters. {6} Off-the-charts romance. {7} Spicy, yet warm sensuality between protagonists. {8} Cute, masculine tidbits that unify the team.
Anxious to get to Book Three, Crazy Wild.
--Vonda M. Reid (Monday; July 5, 2010 : 2:44 a.m.) [124]
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
Action: ♠♠♠♠♠ / Emotion: ♣♣♣♣♣ / Romance: ♥♥♥♥♥ / Sensuous: ♦♦♦.♦ / Suspense: ♠♠♠♠.♠
Action: 5 / Emotion: 5 / Romance: 5 / Sensuous: 3.5 / Suspense: 4.5 // Laughter: 9 / Tears: 7
When Christian Hawkins ("Superman") was introduced in Book One, Crazy Hot, he was portrayed as one of the most dangerous, almost mean members of the Special Defense Force. Although he exuded an animal magnetism, the reader almost felt a sense of danger just being in the same book with him. Already a hardened street kid, Hawkins had become even more steel-tempered at nineteen when he was imprisoned for two years. Dylan got the wrongful murder conviction overturned and Hawkins was now Steele Street's number two man. It was hard to imagine Janzen creating a woman strong enough to bring such a hardened warrior to his knees.
Apparently, the heroine had no strength at all. Katya Dekker was none other than the prom queen, the fluffy, poor little rich girl who Christian fell in love with thirteen years ago. The woman who cost him two years in prison. Kat was the daughter of Senator Marilyn Dekker, who was often spoken about with such endearing terms, the nicest of which was being "meaner than a junkyard dog." Kat was so afraid of her mother that she tended to hyperventilate whenever she thought about her.
Another thing that appeals is that Janzen opened this second book of the series in the same manner as book one. General Richard "Buck" Grant received an unwelcome directive from the Department of Defense. General Grant was ordered to remove Hart and Hawkins from a volatile situation in Colombia to perform lowly security duty at a Denver high-society art auction. General Grant wondered about the incompetent political shenanigans that brought about this disaster.
The disaster escalated when Hawkins had to rescue none other than Kat Dekker at the art auction when the stage and palm trees seemed to explode with fireworks. Hawkins was sure that he could retain his "cool" (as in Crazy Cool) long enough to take Kat to Doc Blake to see if she had a concussion. A sense of déjà vu hits Christian. He took Kat to Doc Blake thirteen years ago when he rescued her from her fellow Wellon Academy schoolmates, better known as the prom kings. Christian takes his first walk down memory lane. There were many such walks down memory lane by both Christian and Kat.
Janzen spent many pages in the minds of Christian and Kat as they remembered their intense, passionate time together thirteen years ago. Both were determined that they would not fall in love with each other again. Kat because she felt guilty and Christian because he felt betrayed. But the magnetism and strong emotional connection was impossible to ignore. Janzen has a flair for keeping the sensual heat on high. Hawkins entertains the readers with some pretty lurid, sensual imagines as he tries to talk himself out of being attracted to the woman he gave his heart to all those years ago.
As expected, Christian and Kat give in to their desires. But instead of the sexual energy being all hot and heavy (even though Janzen wrote wonderful love scenes) there was more of a romantic feeling that pervaded their love making than raunchy, raw sex, which is what one would expect from such a dangerous, hardened man like Hawkins. In fact, even though Hawkins briefly displayed his special black ops skills, most of the book catered to the softness within him whenever he was in close proximity to Kat.
Another way Janzen ties the series together and exudes such a sense of masculinity about the characters is that the Steele Street men name the cars they love. All the Steele Street boys have a past involving car theft and they all drive muscle cars. Janzen had me laughing out loud when reading the scene where Hawkins, who kept Roxanne in immaculate condition, could not believe the amount of cracker crumbs, orange peels, etc. one woman could get in one car. It was not the only time Kat destroyed Christian's calm regarding Roxanne's upkeep.
Janzen entertains the reader by creating characters with real foibles and quirky personalities which cause bursts of laughter to erupt. She also provides them with angst which causes the tear ducts to engage. Her ability to create characters which draw our emotions is not her only skill, she also keeps readers on the edge of their seats in suspense. While Hawkins and Kat are fighting their attraction (and remembering when they fell in love), they are also on a quest to find out why they had been maneuvered into the dangerous situation they found themselves mired in. It seems Christian and Kat are not the only characters remembering their past, the villain (obviously one of the prom kings) joins them in that interest.
Janzen seems to have compared notes with Suzanne Brockmann. As with Sam and Alyssa in Brockmann's Troubleshooter Series, Kid and Nikki continue their tumultuous romance in Crazy Cool. Kid was called away to Columbia at the end of Crazy Hot and Nikki had not heard from him in seven weeks. Nikki's star is rising. Kat is a gallery owner, with a high-profile in the art world and is featuring Nikki's work. Nikki is not sure how to act when Kid shows up at the opening. There is much angst between these two young (Kid twenty-three; Nikki twenty-one) people who fell in love in book one of the series. It does not reach the happily-ever-after stage in book two either. Kid must return with his team back to Colombia.
Another supporting character that was well-developed and added depth to the plot and interest to the reader was Kat's secretary, ex-police officer Alex Zheng. Janzen amazingly creates an integral player with such descriptive and emotionally drawing words. One could not help but feel sorry for Alex, for the difficult fence he was forced to straddle because of his relationship to Kat.
Travis James was given a short, but potent point of view role in Crazy Cool. He supports his friend Nikki at her gallery opening when Kid arrives to throw her for a loop. Then he is attracted to the street-wise, fifteen-year-old-looking Skeeter Bang when she came to the gallery looking for Kid. Janzen seems to be teasing the reader with little bursts of information about the characters to star in her future books. I know that I am looking forward to reading their stories.
Tara Janzen has risen in the ranks on my favorite authors list. This series has quickly drawn me in and I can't wait to get to the next book. Janzen is a wonderful author who is able to give the reader the necessary requirements for a great romantic suspense series. Crazy Cool had: {1} Hunky, ultra-masculine alpha hero. {2} Quirky, yet loveable ultra-feminine heroine. {3} Action galore. {4} Nail-biting suspense from page one until the villain is caught at the end of the book. {5} Interesting, well-developed supporting characters. {6} Off-the-charts romance. {7} Spicy, yet warm sensuality between protagonists. {8} Cute, masculine tidbits that unify the team.
Anxious to get to Book Three, Crazy Wild.
--Vonda M. Reid (Monday; July 5, 2010 : 2:44 a.m.) [124]
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Books In The Series: "The Steele Street Series (aka: The Special Defense Force Series)"
| # | Date | Title | Hero | Heroine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. | 10-2005 | Crazy Hot | Quinn Younger "Captain America" | Regan McKinney |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 02. | 11-2005 | Crazy Cool | Christian Hawkins "Superman" | Katya "Kat" Dekker |
| secondary: | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney | ||
| 03. | 02-2006 | Crazy Wild | Cesar Raoul Eduardo "Creed" Rivera "jungle boy" | Dominique Cordelia "Cody" Stark |
| secondary: | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang | ||
| 04. | 03-2006 | Crazy Kisses | Peter "Kid Chaos" Chronopolous | Nicole Alana "Nikki" McKinney |
| secondary: | Travis James | Jane Linden | ||
| 05. | 07-2006 | Crazy Love | Dylan Hart "Shadow" | Skeeter Bang "Baby Bang" "SB303" |
| secondary: | Travis James | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote | ||
| 06. | 11-2006 | Crazy Sweet | Travis James "Angel" "Angel Boy" | Gillian "Red Dog" Pentycote |
| secondary: | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton | ||
| 07. | 11-2007 | On The Loose | C. Smith Rydell | Honoria "Honey" York-Lytton |
| introducing: | Alejandro Campos | Lily Robbins | ||
| 08. | 01-2008 | Cutting Loose | Zachary Prade | Lily Robbins |
| introducing: | Dr. Gabriel Shore | Cherie Hacker | ||
| 09. | 09-2008 | Loose And Easy | Juan Aurelio "Johnny" Ramos | Esme Alexandria Alden |
| introducing: | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | |||
| 10. | 08-2009 | Breaking Loose | Daniel Axel "Dax" Killian | Suzanna Royale "Suzi" Toussi |
| introducing: | Conroy Farrel | Scout | ||
| 11. | 02-2011 | Loose Ends | Conroy Farrel | Jane Linden |
| introducing: |
♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦ . . . . . . . . . ♠ . . . . . . . . . ♣ . . . . . . . . . ♥ . . . . . . . . . ♦
Notes:
♥ Disclaimer: I Purchased This Book
♥ Very Subjective Rating
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