LynneC’s review of Classified (Colby Series, Book 46) by Debra Webb
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Intrigue 4 Oct 11
I picked up a copy of this book on NetGalley, and I’m really not sure why Harlequin chose to put this book up. It’s part of a series, and although the couple in the story play out their romance here, such as it is, the story is most definitely an ongoing one and doesn’t make for a satisfying individual read.
The story concerns an agency and a mysterious person who is no doubt getting the last book of the series to himself. To find out more about him, one of the agency owners, Lucas Camp, asks his goddaughter, Casey Manning, to investigate. Casey doesn’t work for the Colby Agency, she’s a CIA agent currently on probation for reckless behaviour, so she’s free to go to Mexico. Although she doesn’t use her agency credentials or her agency issue weapons, I’d have thought the Agency wouldn’t have approved of this.
I can’t say I warmed to Casey, I’m afraid. She is irritating in her take-charge-I-know-best attitude, and she doesn’t listen when Levi makes some suggestions, just goes her own way. We are told this, but I ended up on the Agency’s side.
Unknown to Lucas, his wife, Victoria, asks agent Levi Stark to investigate the lead, too. I found Levi a sympathetic character, although if he’s supposed to be the character in a frankly strange pose on the cover, he loses some votes right there.
So we have a basic Big Misunderstanding. Casey and Levi hook up fairly early in the book, but they won’t tell each other who they work for, so the basic suspicion goes on through the whole book and irritated me somewhat. Because it is a bit contrived and sometimes matters and sometimes doesn’t.
The adventure takes them through Mexico and they end up in a luxury hotel room in Acapulco. Which they take because the view is just right to target their quarry. Not because there’s a nice big bed there, which they don’t use at all, btw.
The romance is patchy and consists of a bit of lusting and a couple of kisses. At the start of the book there is little sexual tension, barely an awareness of each other, and then in one scene about half way through, they suddenly go into full lust mode, staring at each other and fancying each other like crazy. There is no below the waist touching and they never get close to sharing a bed. The end of the story is sudden and unpersuasive, but I can’t go into it without spoilers. But if you are looking for hot, then forget it. It’s not here. There is an inconsistency that doesn’t convince me that these two are meant to be together. I know critics sometimes complain about sex in inappropriate circumstances in other romantic suspense books, but really, I’d prefer that to this passionless on and off romance.
The style is also more descriptive and “telling,” rather than expository and “showing.” Take this sentence:
“Casey bolted forward and whacked him on the head with the beer bottle in her hand. Glass shattered on the floor.”
That tells you what happened, but not what it felt like to hit the unfortunate man on the head, if the impact jarred her arm, or if the glass cut the man, if there was blood, if he shouted. It doesn’t take the reader into the action, it doesn’t make you feel as if you’re there, experiencing it alongside Casey. So I read this with a sense of dissociation, as if I were watching from a distance. Not good for a romance book.
Plus, only part of the story is told in this book. I was constantly aware, from the flood of backstory at the beginning to the unsatisfactory ending, that this is wrenched from a series and isn’t a standalone. But this story isn’t enough to make me hunt out the rest of the series and discover who the mystery man is because I didn’t care enough.
Grade:
Summary: C-
Colby Agency investigator Levi Stark had been prepared for the worst when his boss sent him to find her agency’s deadliest enemy. But deep undercover in a Mexican mining outpost, Levi met danger from the unlikeliest source—an unknown blonde spitfire on the same trail.Casey Manning had been secretly sent by Levi’s boss’s husband. The benched CIA agent trusted no one and worked alone…until she and Levi found themselves outmanned and outgunned. Around her sexy new partner, Casey had a feeling that protecting her identity—and her heart—would prove tougher than keeping them safe from the Colbys’ most wanted.…
No excerpt available.
