Looking for a sexy, romantic suspense novel?
A Killer Instinct Novel
Dawn Altieri
January 27, 2020
Entangled Amara
Blurb: Three years after Emma Sloane’s wealthy fiance’s mysterious death, she’s finally ready to move on and pursue her own dreams. But her plans are derailed when she’s attacked outside her New York City apartment in what she thinks is a random violent incident. Then other women who look just like her start turning up dead…
Homicide Detective Jake Quinn is haunted by the one case he couldn’t solve. When he’s put in charge of a new high-profile murder case, he interviews a victim who escaped a similar attack—and to his shock it’s Emma, the former fiancée of his unsolved murder victim.
Neither expects the sparks of attraction between them. But the killer escalates, clearly targeting Emma, and Jake’s job is on the line. Can he solve this case before it’s too late for both of them?
Dawn Altieri’s Dangerous Desires jumps almost immediately into action and then doesn’t let the tension slip from there on out, whether it’s thriller tension or sexual.
While I love romantic suspense novels, I frequently find that the authors can’t balance the elements. I didn’t find that here. Although I guessed who the killer was early on (due to a diet of procedural dramas and reading mysteries), my interest never waned.
Detective Jake Quinn has never been able to get Emma, the fiance of a hit-and-run, out of his mind, even after three years. Now there’s a killer who murders women who resemble Emma, and it’s clear that he is after Emma.
Jake wants to protect Emma but is wrestling with his strong attraction to her while Emma isn’t wrestling with it at all. She wants Jake regardless of the outcome.
The muscles in his throat worked a hard swallow. “I can’t, Emma. I told you I wouldn’t take advantage of you like that.”
“I promise, you won’t be taking advantage.”
Dangerous Desires is a fast-paced, nail-biting read that keeps the reader’s attention. The only reason why I’m not giving this one a higher rating is because of an ambiguity (oversight?) in the first quarter of the novel that had me convinced that the suspect wasn’t who I was certain it was. Hopefully that’s vague enough not to be a spoiler.
Jake and Emma are well-written with enough background to give their reactions substance. The secondary characters probably could have been fleshed out a bit more as their reactions were sometimes over the top or unemotional depending on the character and situation.
Regardless, a great debut novel!
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
rating:
3 butterflies and a ladybug out of 5 butterflies
Wow that’s totally my cup of tea!