Sub-Genre (primary)
Survival Instincts, #1
Heat Factor: There’s only one sleeping bag!
But most of the heat comes from kisses because it’s too cold to actually remove clothing. (Don’t worry! There’s still danger banging!)
Character Chemistry: It’s amazing what stripping away everything but survival will do for a couple.
Plot: Trek across Antarctica in the winter while being chased by scary bad guys.
Overall: Starts with a bang, ends with…less of a bang.
Heartbreaker Bay, Book #6
Heat Factor: There’s innuendo and sexy kissing in the first 90 pages
Character Chemistry: Eh
Plot: Bad Santa, Alpha Male Posturing, and some other stuff
Overall: DNF
A Season for Scandal, Book #3
Review of A Season for Scandal, Book #2
Heat Factor: Steam city!
Character Chemistry: For the first time, her skills are appreciated.
Plot: Angelique is desperate for money, so she’s been counting cards at the vingt-et-un table at Alexander’s gaming club. (NEVER DO THIS.) When she gets caught, Alexander offers her a job. And then her brother is arrested for murder.
Overall: This is the most romantic suspense-y of Bowen’s books I’ve read, but it works pretty well
Triskelion Security, Book #1
Heat Factor: It’s a well-seasoned pot of sex chili
Character Chemistry: They’re immediately heavily into each other and it’s everything but dessert until marriage for these two.
Plot: Riona is working at a coffee shop at the airport when she meets Hardin, a mercenary whose actual job is “confidential”. When Ree and Hardin spark up a heated romance, they end up going into business together, too—and Hardin’s enemies start to come out of the shadows.
Overall: This was a fun read—suspenseful/romantic/entertaining.
Ash and Juliana, Book #1
Heat Factor: One kiss
Character Chemistry: Solid
Plot: Juliana wakes up after her (traumatizing) wedding night in a pool of her husband’s blood. Naturally, she is the prime suspect. She enlists the help of lawyer/investigator Ash to save herself from the gallows.
*Content Warning for violent sexual assault before the book opens. It’s never described, but it is frequently referred to, and enough details are included throughout the text for the reader to get a pretty good idea of how bad it was.
Overall: Disappointing
