Cracked: Prelude to Passion

by Ruby Storm

Prelude to Passion By Ruby Storm Nightly, the beautiful silver-eyed woman haunts Quinn Morgan. Whenever she appears in his dreams, he fantasizes every detail of making passionate love with her, his mind swirling with the sweet bouquet of her perfume, the velvet touch of her skin. The sensual perfection of this figment of his imagination has touched his heart. Calli Lemont suffers Raine's gentle hands as they caress her in perfect promise. Madness. After all, he's dead. But each time she strokes her piano's ivory keys he appears to her, easing the chilling vulnerability she's felt since his passing. Life without him has left her empty and lonely. Past secrets begin to collide, drawing Quinn and Calli together. She has found the one man she can't resist. And, miraculously, he's found his dream woman. But providence can be deadly. They soon find themselves plunged deeply into the underworld of a Colombian drug cartel. As they struggle to survive and set right the past, Quinn's and Calli's bond strengthens, but love and commitment might not be enough to put to rest the evil that surrounds them.

267 pages, Trade Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

About the author

Picture Ruby with her hair on fire! Yup, that's her every morning when she bounds out of bed and heads for her home office. Ruby thanks her lucky stars that she's a full-time writer and a part-time matchstick. Although, there is a hint of a bulldog somewhere in there, too. Once she sticks her teeth into something, there's no turning back until it works. Her husband says she reminds him of that little mouse who stares up into the sky at a swooping eagle (this would be the mouse with his middle finger up) daring that darn bird, and just about anyone else, to screw up her day when she's got writing on the brain.

Ruby loves to write, plain and simple. So much so that she took a leap of faith in herself and quit her 'professional' job, stuck her butt in front of a computer, and finally discovered what brings her true happiness in the wilds of Minnesota.

Some might think that the life of a writer is glamorous and enviable. This is what Ruby has to say about that: "Glamorous? Think of me in sweats and an old t-shirt just beneath that flaming head of mine, typing with one hand and beating out the fire with the other. Envious? Most times my 'new' job consists of long hours of dedication and damn hard work, cramping leg muscles from sitting too long, and a backside that for some reason is widening by the week. But I wouldn't change my life for the world."

Most people who fantasize about strange people and occurrences are sitting on the sixth floor of some psychiatric hospital. Not Ruby—she gets paid for it!

Reviews

[Jane Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good romantic suspense for the first ¾. The last ¼ was bland and predictable. Lots of sex scenes but just ok.

STORY BRIEF:
Calli is a pianist for the Boston Philharmonic. Her husband Raine died in a car accident one year ago. Calli is still grieving. Sometimes when she plays the piano at home, Raine’s ghost materializes. The ghost doesn’t speak but he and Calli have sex and he feels real to her. These dreams started six months ago.

Quinn is a police detective. At the same time Calli has sex with her ghost, Quinn dreams that he is having sex with Calli. What she does with her ghost, Quinn is doing in his dream. He has never met Calli.

Quinn eventually meets Calli in person. A Columbian drug cartel causes suspense.

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
I was impressed with the story for the first ¾ of the book. There were some unexpected events. Some things surprised me. It had a good romantic suspense feel. But the last quarter of the book was bland. It was predictable. It went from a good story to a “get finished and be done with it” story. But I was pleased that the book did not have my pet peeves.

Character development was pretty good

Being Ellora’s Cave, one expects a lot of explicit erotic sex scenes. Yes it has that, but they were sort-of-average. I’ve read others that had more sensuality and hotness. The sex scenes included toys, self-pleasuring, and rear door activity. Unfortunately the last three sex scenes were on the boring side. I skimmed through them. I think I wanted something more emotional going on to make them more enticing.

CAUTION SPOILERS – Lack of Logic:
There were two areas that needed more work. Some money and drugs were stolen from a drug cartel. The cartel killed the thief before they found out where the stolen property was. That didn’t fit. Those kinds of bad guys would torture him or his loved one in his presence to find out where their property was – before they killed him. At the end of the book we knew where the money was but not the drugs.

The cartel kidnaps Calli and then lets her go. They plan to follow her until she sees Quinn and then they will capture him. Why didn’t they keep Calli and have her call Quinn, making Quinn come to them?

DATA:
Story length: 259 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 12. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 39. Setting: 2003 Boston, Massachusetts. Copyright: 2005. Genre: erotic romantic suspense.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read. Great characters with an intense plot. When it came out that the heroine's deceased husband had been working for the drug cartel, I did wonder when he had time. He was a full time member of a major orchestra, he had private students, and an attentive wife - how did he have time to rise to a major position within the cartel and keep up his role with all that? Talk about overscheduled...

Irregardless, it was a good read and I enjoyed it. Well written.