NAKED SUSHI

TITLE: NAKED SUSHI

AUTHOR: JINA BACARR

Pages: 89

Date: 18/10/2013

Grade: 3-

Details: A Cosmo Red Hot Read

  Received from Harlequin

            Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“One day I'm getting canned from my job as a computer programmer for having wild copy-room sex with a guy I thought was the new game designer. The next, I'm crashing my ex-boss's business lunch in a creative attempt to get my job back and men are eating sushi off my naked body!

That's when I realize:

a) My ex-boss is a hiding corporate secrets

b) Hot copy-room guy is an undercover FBI agent

c) I would make a kick-ass spy!

Then Special Agent Hottie brings out his cuffs, and things get really interesting…”

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It is a shame but it has to be said, this novella disappointed me. The idea behind the story is interesting enough; geeky computer programmer works late and runs into a man she doesn’t know but assumes is a new colleague, in the copy-room. Next thing you know they’re all but naked and having sex only to be interrupted by the office manager. Pepper, the geeky girl, loses her job and goes to desperate lengths in order to get her job back. This includes lying all but naked in a restaurant where her former boss as well as the man she encountered in the copy-room, are eating sushi off her body. When it becomes clear that the mystery man is in fact a FBI agent named Steve trying to prove her ex-boss is up to his neck in illegal transactions, it takes very little for Pepper to become involved and get the opportunity of making her dream of being a spy come true.

This story-line might have worked very well in a full length novel. In a novella counting less than 90 pages it was just too much. Especially since this book is trying to be more than just a light-hearted and funny spy story. We are also in the middle of an erotic adventure and dealing with the traumatic backgrounds both Pepper and Steve are burdened with. The word count just wasn’t high enough to carry all these plot lines. The result is a story that can’t quite make up its mind as to what it is and doesn’t really satisfy on any level. Just when you’re getting all caught up in the tension of the spying the mood switches to an erotic encounter which in turn might suddenly become a rather dark look at either Pepper or Steve’s past.


For me this was a rather frustrating reading experience because I never got the opportunity to settle into the story. Whenever I started to get comfortable with and involved in what was happening on the page the story would change and I would have to adjust to what could almost be a different book. As a result none of the elements I normally enjoy in a book – the mystery, the love story, the erotica – had the opportunity to come to fruition, leaving me slightly confused and frustrated.


Like I said, in a longer book this set up might have worked very well. In fact, I would probably have enjoyed spending more time with Steve and Pepper because both of them, but especially our geeky girl, showed great promise as characters. This could have been a quirky and enjoyable read if it either had been longer or contained fewer elements. As it was it left me rather bewildered and dissatisfied. 

CUT & RUN

TITLE: CUT & RUN

AUTHOR: MADELEINE URBAN & ABIGAIL ROUX

Pages: 376

Date: 27/08/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 1 Cut & Run

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“A series of murders in New York City has stymied the police and FBI alike, and they suspect the culprit is a single killer sending an indecipherable message. But when the two federal agents assigned to the investigation are taken out, the FBI takes a more personal interest in the case.

Special Agent Ty Grady is pulled out of undercover work after his case blows up in his face. He's cocky, abrasive, and indisputably the best at what he does. But when he's paired with Special Agent Zane Garrett, it's hate at first sight. Garrett is the perfect image of an agent: serious, sober, and focused, which makes their partnership a classic cliché: total opposites, good cop-bad cop, the odd couple. They both know immediately that their partnership will pose more of an obstacle than the lack of evidence left by the murderer.

Practically before their special assignment starts, the murderer strikes again – this time at them. Now on the run, trying to track down a man who has focused on killing his pursuers, Grady and Garrett will have to figure out how to work together before they become two more notches in the murderer's knife.”

Let me start with saying that I need a new series to fall in love with like I need a hole in the head. And yet, I allowed friends to convince me that I should really read this book. And I did in the full knowledge that if I did like “Cut & Run” there would be at least another six books I want to read. And - since I have friends with good taste - I find myself loving the story and the characters in it and frantically looking for ways I can convince myself that buying the sequels is actually a necessity rather than a luxury and therefore not only allowed but required.

And boy did I love this book. From the moment I picked it up I was hooked. Ty Grady and Zane Garrett had my attention from the moment they appeared on the page. Even while they were hating each other and exchanging one rude remark for another the chemistry between Ty and Zane is palpable while at the same time they made me smile and at times laugh out loud. Once the hate turns into something else – something neither of them is willing to name or fully acknowledge – the story really kicks off. And that is just the romantic part of this story. The suspense part is equally fascinating and addictive. The combination of the reluctant attraction between these two men and the constant threat they’re facing makes this an adrenaline filled read, near impossible to put down.

Usually when I read “Romantic Suspense” I get impatient with either the romantic or the suspenseful part of the story because I just want to know how the other part is going to conclude. Not so in this book. I was just as eager to find out who is trying to kill Zane and Ty as I was to see their volatile relationship develop.

What I really admired in this book is that the authors didn’t go for miracle solutions for either the relationship or the mystery. This relationship between two men who each have enough issues to break a person down completely, was never going to be smooth or easy and, thankfully, the authors didn’t give the story some unconvincing twist to facilitate an unrealistic happily ever after. And the same can be said for the mystery Ty and Zane are trying to solve. While they did stumble on part of the solution by accident, it happened in a convincing way and didn’t come with a sudden transformation from “completely clueless” to “full insight”. 

Taken from The Original Gray's Tumbler

I loved that we get this story from both Ty and Zane’s point of view. We can see both men struggle with each other and with themselves. I liked that while both men had heterosexual relationships in their pasts, there was no belly-aching over this attraction to each other. While both of them had great difficulty sharing their feelings with the other, or even acknowledging them to themselves, they just went with their attraction and turned it into something beautiful and very erotic. And, I can’t help feeling that the dynamics between these two men will only get more intriguing and a lot hotter as the stories continue.

So, it may be clear from what I wrote above that I loved this book. Then why, I hear you ask, did I “only” grade it 4.5? There are a few reasons.

First of all I had the killer pegged from the moment he entered the story. I was hoping it would turn out to be somebody else but I turned out to be right. And while you might think I’d relish the fact that I got it right in one go, I am in fact always a bit disappointed when the big reveal doesn’t surprise me.

Secondly, I wasn’t entirely convinced by the sudden change in character Ty and Zane went through in the middle of the book. It certainly was intriguing but really didn’t make a whole lot of sense even if more or less plausible reasons were provided.

My last and main reason though is that I have been reliably informed that the books in this series only get better. Rating this book 4.5 rather than 5 means that I will be able to raise the score if it turns out that I indeed end up loving these books and these characters more with every subsequent title.

Of course, falling in love with a series of books this much leaves me in a bit of a quandary. As much as I would love to read the next six books back to back I’ve committed to too many reviews to give in to that urge. While I fully expect to read these books in rather quick succession in the near future, those prior commitments force me to take it slow. That is not altogether bad though; I know myself well enough to realise that I’m going to be heartbroken when I finish reading the last available title. So maybe I should be grateful that I don’t have a choice but to take it slowly. After all, every successful relationship requires patience.