The saga of the legendary White Star amulet finally picks up some steam in the series’ third installment, Kristin Hardy’s Caught. The first two books (Lori Wilde’s Angels and Outlaws and Hidden Gems by Carrie Alexander) didn’t do much with the mysterious relic, but Hardy reveals its history here. However, a somewhat thin story and lackluster romance make for an uneven read.

At the end of the previous book, the main characters discovered they had the White Star in their possession. Rather than contact the police, the two geniuses decided to get it appraised first to make sure it was the real thing. That kind of decision is sure to end badly, and that’s precisely what happens. Because when they take it to Julia Covington at the New York Museum of Antiquities to get her opinion, Jean Luc Allard – the thief who stole the White Star from the private collection where it once resided in the first place – follows them there, determined to recover it.

Julia immediately suspects the amulet could be genuine and asks to keep it for a few days, promising it will be safe at the museum. Of course it won’t. Later that night, when just about everyone else has left the museum for the weekend, she takes the amulet to the conservation lab in the basement to inspect it further. Allard follows her, but he’s preceded by Alex Spencer, the museum’s marketing director – and her lover.

After divorcing her controlling husband, Julia set out to cut loose and do every crazy thing she never would have had the guts to when she was with him. That included falling into a fling with Alex, a carefree charmer who’s all wrong for her but perfect for something purely physical. Now she’s ready to get back to being her boring, practical old self, and that means breaking things off with Alex. He isn’t willing to go quite so easily when things are so good between them. Sure enough, when he follows her into the vault they’re soon going at it like rabbits. But when they’re finished, they discover the White Star is gone (Allard made off with it) and the door is closed, leaving them locked in the lab with no way to get out or contact help and a long weekend ahead of them.

The book begins promisingly, adding another compelling piece to the legend of the White Star that has kicked off each of the previous books. Then an attention-grabbing prologue shows Julia skydiving, remembering all the crazy things she’s done over the last eight months, and deciding it might be time to get back to her routine. But the story takes its first hit with the beginning of Chapter One, which shows Alex and Julia post coitus after apparently amazing sex. I couldn’t help thinking how odd it was that the author brought us in after the sex was done. It would have been much more effective had we seen him show up on her doorstep, witnessed her inability to resist him, then saw the potent sex that followed. Not only would that have been a very sexy beginning, it would have helped to establish the attraction between them right off the bat. Instead, those feelings take longer than they should to become apparent, with the author simply telling us about this amazing connection rather than letting readers see them for ourselves. As for the book’s overall sensuality level, it’s explicit but not all that hot, because the sex scenes are rather short and too few to build up much steam.

The story of two people locked in a room for an entire weekend might not sound too exciting, and at first, it isn’t. The initial stages of their captivity, though competently written, are dull. Their exploration of their surroundings, contemplation of futile ways to escape, and the glimpses of the security staff heedlessly going through their duties read like so much padding. Thankfully, the story does pick up after a while. The second half kickstarts the suspense both inside and outside the vault, as Julia and Alex make some mysterious discoveries and we see what’s happening with Allard and the amulet. The final fifty pages are the book’s strongest, with good action and some surprise moments. As slow as the beginning was, I tore through the ending.

Julia and Alex’s research into the White Star’s history makes for the best reading. With nothing much to do and plenty of books and databases at their disposal, they begin to track its ownership back through the centuries, discovering the myriad personalities who owned it and what happened to them. This was all fascinating and nicely done. Hardy’s Blazes are generally well researched, with an authentic feel; the museum setting and all the little details the author uses ring true. But this is a romance novel, and there’s not much I can say about that aspect of the story. The character development is perfunctory, Alex isn’t very interesting, and the love relationship isn’t given a thorough exploration. However, viewed more as a turning point in their romance than the entire thing, it works better. The story closes on a very nice, and realistic, final note.

I finished Caught with a better impression than I had for most of the early stages, enough to call it ever-so-slightly above average. It’s an uneven read, yet decent overall, and it left me more eager to read the next installment than the previous books did. While the main characters get their happy ending, the book ends with a cliffhanger of sorts setting up the fourth book, Jeanie London’s Into Temptation. I’ll be there.