Tabs’ review of Crazed (Blood Money, Book 3) by Edie Harris
Romantic Suspense published by Carina Press 11 Jan 16
I don’t tend to read very much romantic suspense, because I am a complete and total wuss. I can’t handle tension. I end up spending the whole time on the edge of my seat, worried about who is going to die and what’ll happen when the bad guy goes off the rails. This book is no exception. I was totally tangled up and worried about what would happen next. Unfortunately, I also spent a lot of time muttering “that makes no sense” and “don’t be stupid, stupid.”
When his youngest brother is kidnapped by a Columbian cartel, Casey Fariday is forced to revive a (mostly) dead cover in order to gather enough intel for an extraction. Unfortunately, major complications ensue when it turns out that his dead secret wife is not only very much alive but also very firmly entrenched with the cartel leader who has his brother.
Casey isn’t a very complex character. He’s been kind of a shell of a person since he thought he lost his wife. He’s also determined to rescue everyone and get the hell out of Dodge. He does some things that are pretty dumb for an operative, but he’s not terrible. He’s a decent romantic hero, but not much more.
Not-dead-Ilda, on the other hand, is an incredibly frustrating character. Her actions are very inconsistent and, at times, downright maddening. The Ilda who Casey married was a smart, fiercely independent, strong-willed woman who knew what she wanted and went for it. She’s a superbly interesting character. Present-day Ilda initially seems to still be that person. She does things that clearly indicate that she’s trying to extract herself from the cartel lifestyle. But then she hems and haws and hems and haws some more. She puts everyone in even more danger than they already are for no good reason, and it’s very frustrating to follow.
I wanted to like this book. I dug the premise and appreciated how smoking hot together Casey and Ilda are, but things went downhill really fast for me. I pretty much wanted to shake all of the characters and yell at them to get their shit together and/or be better at their jobs. I’m not sure yet where I’m going from here. I liked the first book, still have book number two in my TBR, and am somewhat intrigued by the next one coming up. I’ll probably give this series one more go before calling it a day.
Grade: C
Summary:
Casey Faraday was a soldier before he was a spy, but family always came first, no matter what.
When a member of the Faraday clan is snatched off the streets and dragged halfway across the world, it’s Casey who follows the kidnappers’ trail to South America. Thrust into the heart of the cartel he barely escaped during an undercover assignment four years earlier, he’s unprepared for the shock awaiting him on Colombian soil.
Ilda Almeida—the only woman to ever tempt Casey into madness, the beautiful wife he’d mourned for years—is very much alive. And keeping a secret that will forever change life as he knows it.
Casey can’t control his hands—or his heart—around Ilda, but neither can he abandon his rescue mission. When cartel violence turns the jungle into a bloodbath, he can only protect one family: his.
Other books in this series:
