This is the second in a series featuring the children of former con man Tobias Black. I didn’t read the first and initially had trouble figuring out what was going on. By the time I figured things out, I didn’t really care. I’m just grateful this was short as it didn’t work for me in any way.
Maya Black used her computer hacking skills to help her father with his cons from an early age. She cut her family out of her life six years earlier when the woman her father was involved with set her up. Since then, Maya has lived a straight life under an assumed name.
Simon Barton, an FBI agent, has been tailing Maya on his own time. He hopes to use her to take down her father and earn a major promotion. In a bit of a convoluted turn, Maya invites Simon – a virtual stranger – to come with her to her home town for her brother’s wedding. Maya has learned her father is dating a former high school mean girl and rival and she doesn’t want to appear pathetic. Simon figures it’s the perfect opportunity to investigate Maya’s father and jumps at the invitation.
In some ways Maya and Simon are a perfect couple. He’s using her. She’s using him. Neither of them do emotions. And of course, they’re both hot. Within days they’re having sex. In fact, it seems as It there are more pages of sex than dialogue. He thinks she’s incredible, not because she’s a wonderful person, but because she’s sexually adventurous, his every fantasy. She thinks he’s amazing and that they’re the best lovers ever. Other than great sex, I didn’t find anything about them incredible or amazing, just rather empty.
I guess I’m supposed to feel sorry for Maya. Instead of being a poor little rich girl, she’s a poor little con artist. But for me to feel sympathy I’d have to know more about her than that she owns a cat, has gone straight, and makes no attachments. Simon isn’t much better. It seems as if ambition is his overarching motivation and, if he has any common sense, he doesn’t use it in this investigation. I had problems believing that a supposedly smart FBI agent would take vacation time to investigate a con artist without official approval, and then expect to gain a major promotion.
The plot felt rather thin, with too many things thrown into the mix. We have Maya’s father dating her former rival. Then there’s her brother’s wedding. There are multiple questions about Maya’s father. Is he dealing drugs? Is he dealing guns? Or is he still running cons? Frankly, I just didn’t care.
Worse yet, for a romance, I just wasn’t convinced that Maya and Simon were in love. In lust? Definitely. But this just didn’t feel like a love story. I’ve read a lot of good category romances over the past few years; this isn’t one of them.
Sensuality: Hot
Publication Date: 2012/02
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