★★★☆☆
Genres: romance, suspense, thriller, mystery
Pages: 352
Series: Book 1 of the ARES Security series
Published by Kensington Books
Release date: December 29th, 2015
*I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
A 2.5 stars would be more accurate for this book.
Annie White is a CPA with a haunted past and recently she’s been plagued with nightmares or rather visions that are linked to her past. She found a home with a foster mother and lived a somewhat normal life. Annie is the daughter of the man who was allegedly the “Newton Slayer” a serious killer from Newton, Iowa who targeted young mother’s. Since the visions began she decided to travel back to the source of all her adult issues, Newton.
Rafe Vargas is a military man with extensive knowledge regarding intelligence and surveillance, accompanying him are his brother in arms and they have taken it upon themselves to begin a new life as “ARES Security.” Rafe is in Newton handling some family affairs when he stumbles into Annie.
That’s where the story picks up. The initial meeting for me was more than a little corny and as the story goes on the romance between the two is, even more, worthy of eye rolling. If you are a fan of those sultry, easy romance novels then this is perhaps a book for you, but in my personal opinion the cheap sex scenes draw away from the real focus of the story and that is the mystery involved in it – the murders that are taking place.
It doesn’t take long for the two to tumble into each other’s arms and I’m not overly keen on how weak Annie is made out to be considering she had the moxie to return to a home which plagued her mind. Rafe seems to think she’s this weak waif of an individual and from his perspective you’d certainly think so.
The mystery in and of itself was a fairly decent one, but the romance just threw it off for me, it really brought the book down in rating for me.
There is also a supernatural flare to the series, those of you who are an Alexandra Ivy fan will not be surprised.
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