Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780373773367
Edition: Reprint
ISBN: 0373773366
Label: HQN Books
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: HQN Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2008-11-01
Publisher: HQN Books
Studio: HQN Books

When Pete Taylor first offered his services as a bodyguard, Annie Morgan wanted nothing to do with him. She was sure that the death threats against her weren't serious. While the Native American mask she was working on was valuable, it wasn't worth killing for.

One murder attempt later, Annie was glad to have Pete around. She owed him her life. Suddenly she was beginning to believe in heroes—and dreams. But Pete wasn't a fantasy—he was real, and at the moment he was the only person she could allow herself to trust, no matter who he was.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Hero Under Cover
Comment: I have lived in AZ and been to the native lands of many of the tribes. This book was fine with not giving away too much into their customs.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Eh...Comme Ci, Comme Ça
Comment: This book was originally published in 1994.

Dr. Annie Morrow, archaeologist, art historian, and artifact authenticator, is under investigation by the FBI and CIA for some European museum thefts and tragedies. The government agencies have been harassing her and investigating her for months and are no closer to the truth. When a threat is made against Annie's life, the CIA seizes its opportunity and plants one of it's agents in her home as a bodyguard. Kendall Peterson takes on the persona of Pete Taylor and moves in.

Annie is not happy about the permanent shadow but is forced to accept it. The mystery surrounding the European thefts and bombings only increases as she and Pete get into an easy routine and love grows beneath the deceptions and omissions.

With so much potential for an exciting, intriguing read, I just found it a bit flat and slow moving. The main characters have some heat, but not enough to rescue this tepid tale.

When the mystery finally wraps up, I was less than enthused and a little disappointed. I thought the discovery, confrontation and conclusion to be too quick. It was almost like an afterthought. Suzanne Brockmann is one of my favorite writers, but this is not one of my favorite works. I find myself not hating it, not liking it, just sort of ambivalent.

Cherise Everhard, November 2008

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Comment: I love just about anything that she writes. This was not a seal book but it was just as good.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: ok but not fantastic
Comment: This is an early Brockmann that was written in 1994 and resurrected and published in 2001. The suspense part of the plot takes a little bit of a back-seat to the tons of lusting that goes on. But I did find the underlying reason for the actions of the villains to be believable.

The heroine is an archaeologist who is suspected by the FBI and CIA of being involved in a series of museum bombings. The CIA hero is placed under cover as her bodyguard when she's threatened and has her home/lab broken into by some shadowy group trying to get their hands on an old death mask she's currently authenticating. The agency hope is that the hero will get earn her trust and learn something to help them nail her for the bombings.

Most of the book centers on him watching her and watching out for her. There is
a sprinkling of information on authenticating artifacts but I don't know enough to tell if Brockmann did her research or not. There is a heck of a lot about what the heroine eats. What I did find hard to believe is the fact that the heroine doesn't immediately go to work on authenticating the piece that is causing so much trouble. The FBI and CIA use the fact that the heroine is being threatened for handling it as a cover to have its owner put a 24 hour guard on her for weeks and she just lets it sit in her safe while working on other pieces? I would think she'd want to get rid of it quickly but then we'd have no story.

I also thought the change in whether or not the hero believed her innocence very quick and would have expected to have a few scenes of him poking around through her stuff and listening in on phone calls. Instead he just seems to accept that she had nothing to do with the bombings. But it's a series book so maybe space was a factor here. All in all, it's not bad but has an awful lot of lusting.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Re-issued in the dual collection "Her Guardian" [2001]
Comment: This is the story that started the ongoing catch phrase between me and my best friend: "There are those who climb and those who don't." The point being that Pete, the body guard, is a climber, [a key element to the plot] and the heroine, Annie, I and my friend are NOT--definitely with all capital letters; the classic definition of "fear of heights."

This is one very memorable story that you will want to add to your "Suz Collection" if you have started one.

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