One Star
This was my first Tawny Weber and first Harlequin Romantic Suspense novel. I am sad to say this book just wasn’t for me. From the flimsy plot to the excess of dialogue, not much worked. This book follows a spunky entrepreneur heroine, Lila, who witnesses a crime in Costa Rica. No one believes her, but luckily, injured and surly former Navy SEAL Hawk is there to rescue her.
Let me start first by saying, I like the idea behind this book. The tropical setting, the conspiracy, the romance, it’s all good in theory. Unfortunately, it was executed poorly. The part that bothered me the most about this book was that it is so easy to skim. Mostly because Lila and Hawk just bicker about small stuff most of the book. Not sexy, flirty bickering either, just filler conversations. I will point out, this is not a long book! It’s less than 300 pages, which I guess just shows you how weak the plot is.
Speaking of the plot, I don’t mind predictable, but boring in another thing. Really, not much happens in this story. I mean a large part of the book involved Lila and Hawk “staking out” a restaurant in plain sight, for DAYS. And nothing happens. Also if you were hoping for romance, you don’t get ANY until the last quarter of the (very short) book. No romantic words or scenes, just fun sex, which is fine, but added exactly zero depth to this story or its characters.
The characterization was awful as well. I couldn’t picture either villain in my head; both were just hazy and easily interchangeable bad guys. Lila was slightly whiny and flighty at the best of times and irresponsible and irrational at the worst times. Hawk was a condescending jerk face. I know I just said Lila was flighty, but it was brought into stark contrast by the way Hawk talked down to her all the time.
Overall, I am not quite sure why I finished this book, I mostly just wanted to see if my theory about the bad guy was right. It was.
**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**
Romance Reader 