Flirting With Danger by Suzanne Enoch

I thoroughly enjoyed this restrained romance between burglar Samantha and billionaire Rick. Published in the Avon Romantic Suspense series which means there's a lot of 'who cares' plot which climaxes in a gobsmackingly violent denoument scene. The heroine gets her head battered repeatedly by the baddie. Unbelieveably she seems to make a complete recovery in just about 2 weeks. I felt all her pain even if she didn't.

There are no secondary romances (praise be) and reading Sam and Rick together was a nicely sensuous experience.

Sometimes I didn't really like how Samantha speaks but that wasn't a big concern. After all the story is set in Palm Beach and we all know the wives/girlfriends of Florida millionaires are foul-mouthed. Another point is that the brit lord, Rick Addison, is mostly portrayed as refined, rich and classy when towards the end of the novel he is shown to be mean and vengeful. Not to mention the fact that he was too dumb to notice that a long term employee and old friend were robbing him blind. The american heroine is too often called a no-class whore by other characters in the book when she's nothing of the sort. Also 'Mr Wonderful' Rick totally fails to protect Sam from harm. And he stops wearing 'body armor' after only 2 days into their biblical relationship. (try that with me sonny and see what happens.) What I liked is how Rick talks to Sam and how he talks about his feelings for her. Other reviewers have said that the main couple are basically 2 highly strung individuals who don't seem to belong together. But that's the aspect I enjoyed.

I feel obliged to add that the food the main, supposedly rich, couple eat is totally disgusting...fried chicken, pie, chicken and parmesan, endless sandwiches...guaranteed to turn them both into obese blimps within the next 5 years. Sometimes I had to work hard to stay with the character of the heroine and not hear the voice of a cynical west coast author.

With each twist and turn in the plot I kept asking myself 'Why does he stay with her,' or 'Why does she stay with him.' And I liked the fact that the answer wasn't necessarily 'He has money,' or 'She's beautiful and clever.'

I'm buying the rest of the series definitely.

In the end I read the story about 2 or 3 times. And each time I felt more sympathy for Sam, the burglar heroine. Ok, she's an unconvicted felon. But basically she goes through the whole story with some quite serious, deep cuts on her back and leg. Which she got when she protected Rick from the bomb blast. Yet she rarely complains nor does she allow her injuries to cramp her style. And she gets so emotional about having feelings for her guy. Lovely.

Plus. It's not her fellow criminals who are doing all the killing.

btw. In popular culture a beamer is not 'a James Bond car'....actually its a dealers vehicle of choice. On the other hand. Nice to read about the lure of the Bentley.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who's a bit bored by Eve n Roarke. Although other reviewers say it's not in the same class, I found it satisfyingly more emotional than the 'In Death' books. With no crappy Mavis n Delia-wannabes in sight. Nor the now slightly annoying futuristic setting. And absolutely no sermonising. Thank goodness.