Jennifer B’s guest review of On The Loose by Tara Janzen
Romantic suspense published 30 Oct 07 by Dell

Flawless.

Just f’ing flawless.

I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed Janzen’s voice. Her characters. The laugh-out-loud moments. The heat. All of it there in On The Loose. Truly, this was the most enjoyable read I’ve had in months.

He’s a special agent who never loses his cool.

She’s the heat-seeking missile headed straight for his heart.

Keeping cool under pressure is the credo C. Smith Rydell lives by. That’s why he was handpicked by the Special Defense Forces for a mission few men survive. So why has the ex–DEA superstar been reassigned to Panama City, playing bodyguard to a blond in a black string bikini? Except Honey York isn’t your average pampered socialite. She’s the woman Rydell caught smuggling cash into El Salvador four months ago. And now she wants him to take her back.

All Honey has to do is find the guerrilla camp, deliver the goods, and get the hell out of the jungle—all in forty-eight hours. Only one man is up for the job. But sharing an unforgettable one-night stand was nothing next to being stranded with Rydell on some third world mountaintop. And with bullets flying and all hell breaking loose, now is not the time for passion. As if these two could possibly resist it….

Read an excerpt.

The romance first.

We met Smith and Honey in Crazy Sweet. And it was more than a cursory introduction. Their story featured prominently and, for many, was a welcome relief from the intensity of that book’s primary romance.

In On The Loose, we get to know them so much better—we learn things that surprise, especially since neither feels like a stranger in the first place. Watching Janzen layer their experiences and motivations was like finding a quiet spot by the river with only the gentle rushing of water over rocks as background noise. Amidst torrential downpours and lurking dangers, Janzen found perfectly secluded moments to unwrap this romance. Her character development here is solidly, naturally paced against the action and secondary story arcs.

Also on the romance, I have to try to find the right words…to describe the impact of the simplest of quirks. All of Janzen’s heroes to date seem to obsess over all the womanly details. There have been many references to the mystery of the woman’s bathroom—all that girly stuff, lingerie hanging, drying everywhere, all the frou-frou, sweet-smelling stuff. The jumbled mess of cosmetics. Then there are all the observations of their heroine’s bodies—the curves, scents, how they manage to package themselves just so in their clothes. Remember when Superman snagged clothes for Kat? What he thought was a shirt she managed to wear as a dress? And Dylan’s never-ending awe of Skeeter’s wardrobe? This obsession both seduces and humors.

In On The Loose, Smith is forever thinking of Honey in terms of her curves, “Not a straight line on her anywhere.” Such a simple sentence, but one that elicited a sigh and a thrill. Janzen succeeds—as no other does—in giving us heroes that cherish and covet the heroine, like they want to eat her up. It doesn’t get more romantic than that. Read this book and you’ll find yourself taking the first opportunity to indulge in a pedicure, choosing a pretty pink or sexpot red polish to make you feel like a girl.

The action and concurrent story arcs were complex enough to interest, but not so much so that you couldn’t follow along or connect in a matter of paragraphs. Janzen deftly unfolded events, revealing more of her secondary characters again, in a way that felt seamless, natural. So gently in fact that by the time the story winds down, the reader is surprised to find an all-over-tingle, completely irresistible attraction to one of her secondary characters. Readers spend the bulk of the book watching him, wondering at his motives, his intentions, not really seeing—certainly not trusting—the man, until BAM! Janzen knocks you on your ass with his power, sex appeal and mystery. And when she gives us just a hint of his connection to Steele Street in the end, we’re breathless, muttering, “Fuck.  When do we get more of this guy?”

Overall, just a fabulous, fabulous book. I’m as hooked on Janzen as I am on Robb and Brockmann. Theirs are unique worlds with unique-thinking characters. Always, always tinged with a dry, male-adolescent humor that endears me.

Grade: A+     (Definite squeeing here.)

Cutting Loose, avbl 26 Dec 07 (Zachary & Lily)