Having a top spy for a father has its benefits--Grace O'Connor can out-think and outsmart most people--and its downside--her secret must remain one. But that has never stopped her from getting into trouble. That is, after all, the nickname her father gave her.
Taking an intern job at GNE for the summer at DC, she soon finds out the agency for which she works provides more than translation services. GNE sends out "recorders" to events of interest for the purpose of gathering and selling information. It doesn't take long before Grace is involved in the middle of a chase for an important list of corrupt politicians. Or maybe there's more to that because every spy agency seems to be after it too, including the arrogant and sexy Lance Mercy.
Mercy, top COS commando, has been brought in to 1) extract a Chinese dissident with information about some weaponry stolen from the US and 2) catch the mole among them. Everything seems to be running smoothly until the appearance of that confounding woman who might or might not be an enemy. He has never met someone quite like Grace O'Connor--seemingly too young, incredibly sexy, and absolutely up-to-neck in the thick of this crazy business.
Nuns on the run, suspicious double agents, mysterious Chinese words, dangerous daddy, non-aligned ghosts, three grains of rice, an assortment of spy games--falling in love would just be tempting trouble!
Jenn, as everyone calls her, likes to keep things simple. That's why she runs a roofing construction business, teaches, writes and does her own business taxes eight days a week. She considers herself a multi-cultural and well-rounded person. Workers leave her alone when she starts yelling at them in Chinese and Malay. She also studies German and Russian because she can't pronounce French very well. The most boring and interesting thing she ever did was translating documents from various languages into English, giving her an opportunity to see many countries. Having traveled extensively in her twenties, she now spends her thirties quietly with six noisy dogs. Shameless Promotion: Jenn was a RWA contest slut, having finaled in and won a bunch of them including the Marlene, the Merritt, and Indiana's Golden Opportunity. She is also a three-time finalist in the RWA Golden Heart contest before she became published. She would love to hear your comments about her books. She has been known to give away bookmarks and stuff to those who praise her.
AND, if your roof leaks, she can probably give you some advice!
Here are some wonderful writing friends of mine. I love their books!Please visit their sites and give them a try. Be careful. They are HOT WRITERS. Very addictive! Thanks--Jenn
4.5 Grace happens stars. Review completed August 25, 2014
"Come on, let me off the counter. We'll play it safe and go get your nuns instead."
Top spy Jed McNeil nicknamed his daughter, Grace O'Connor, Trouble. The fiercely loyal Grace is definitely Trouble with a capital T. Before going back to college, Grace who's fluent in Chinese and Malay, accepts an intern job at GNE as a translator. Soon though, she realizes that GNE provides more than translation services. The agency dispatches so-called recorders to events to gather intelligence in order to sell it to interested parties. Since Grace has been trained by the very best, her father Jed McNeil that is, she's involved in gathering intel in the search of a mysterious list of corrupt politicians pretty quickly. But not only GNE is chasing the important list, other agencies are crossing their path, including a very handsome lady-killer named Lance Mercy. Lance is a top tracker at COS commando (Covert-Subversive Command Center) and took on the task to hunt down a mole and extract a Chinese dissident who has information about stolen weapons.
It's been ages since I last read a book by Gennita Low and Tempting Trouble was prime entertainment from start to finish! There was not one single dull moment to be found throughout the entire story. Besides, reading this book was just proof how much I miss Jed, the Ice Man with his beautiful silver eyes. In my book, he's the absolute best and most intriguing character written by Gennita so far. By the way, writing fantabulous alpha males is a speciality of hers.
It happens not very often that a heroine makes it on my shelf of memorable heroines. More importantly, I think she might happen to be the youngest on that specific shelf because she's only twenty-two-years-old.
Grace can be described like this…
Whenever there is trouble, Grace happens.
Trouble is bound to happen when a gorgeous and determined alpha male meets a very smart, sassy, independent and obstinate heroine. Isn't it interesting that Grace chose a man who's more than a little bit similar to her father? Lance is handsome, a lady-killer, intelligent, a very tough and ruthless man and successful on every mission. Fact is, Lance and Grace are a perfect match for each other. Of course Lance enjoys to live dangerously and he can never resist a challenge. Certainly not a challenge in the form of a quick-witted and sexy woman.
"Don't I have a choice in this matter? she wryly asked. "I mean, if I've a choice between a young Adonis and an old man like you--" "Old?" he growled and smothered her laughter with a kiss. "Okay, seasoned," she cracked. He tickled her. "Weather-beaten," she squealed, trying to escape. He swung her onto her back, his weight punishing. "Experienced!" she gasped out. "Experienced and well-preserved!" She shrieked as he tickled her mercilessly. "Uncle! Uncle!" she finally pleaded.
Told in alternating POVs, Tempting Trouble was a highly entertaining read. I absolutely loved the snappy and witty dialogue. Plus, I'm a sucker for fabulous chemistry and that, I tell you, was utterly palpable. To me, sexual tension and chemistry including a captivating foreplay are almost more important than the act itself. Oh my, was it ever fun to observe these two in their foreplay endeavors. Lance the handsome, dominant, and rude devil who oozed sexual prowess was a successful seducer and great kisser and Grace tempted him like nobody else. He wanted everything. Her mind, her body, and her heart. And, of course, he wanted her secrets. Grace who kicked some serious ass was a somewhat mysterious woman and became Lance's obsession.
"Our world moves in and out of the same paradoxes, like those Escher prints on your wall," Jed said quietly. "We're the hands drawing ourselves; we're the reflection on the dewdrop. We're used to moving from shadow to light and back."
Bottom line, if you love a great RS, spiced up with Gennita's trademark spy-fi bits, then read this book. Tempting Trouble has it all. A fantastically bold hellcat heroine who can hold her own and enjoys to defy her counterpart, a tough and drool-worthy hero who has to pull out all the stops in order to conquer his love interest, compelling writing, a really great plot, good suspense (yes, I figured out who the villain was) and wonderful secondary characters made this an all-around winner. Loved it! As I see it, it can be read as a standalone. However, I'd like to encourage you to check out the two previous books in the series as well.
Gennita Low was the first author that made me fall in love with romantic suspense so I will always have a soft corner for her books and so I was very excited to read a new novel by her after a long time. Grace, is Trouble, she is the daughter of Jed, though this is a hidden fact because Jed is a VIRUS and his job has made them not have the conventional father-daughter relationship. I loved reading about how independent and fierce Grace was, she had to be since she practically raised herself and when the VIRUS were all attacked, her father trained her at the age of 16, so Grace can handle anything but is she prepared for COS tracker Lance Mercy?
Grace is still in college but doing an internship in DC, as a translator but it turns out that company is more, they are ghosts/recorder who sell information. The moment I heard her supervisor's name Sandra, I knew she was the woman mentioned in Jed's past in the Kirkland files. I liked seeing Sandra get closure with Jed and rekindle something with Ed.
It took me a while to get into the mystery because bits and pieces were dropped gradually. Lance is there to find a list which carries the names of Chinese arm deals and when his "nun" is kidnapped at a rally, he notices Grace talking with his target, and her posture indicates training, Grace thus becomes of interest to him.
Trackers are loners by nature, trained to hunt, seduce but Grace thwarts Lance at every turn. I loved how Grace despite being nine years younger than Lance could give him a run for his money. Jed too makes an appearance.
All I have to say is I missed Gennita Low's writing and I hope she gives us the next Virtually book and Alex and T's book soon and maybe also revisiting Lance and Grace.
The good: I really enjoyed Grace, the sassy minx. The mystery wasn't too trite. Grace's dialogue - with any of the other characters really but quipping with Lance especially - was always charming and downright funny at times. All of the elements are there for a truly fabulous and engaging story. But...
The bad: it just wasn't. Fabulous. Or engaging. It was overly complicated and the world building was not done well. This is my first read for the author and while, yes this book is in the middle of a series, if you're going to write series books you need to be prepared for readers to insert at any time. There were three footnotes in the book: two Chinese phrases and BOLO. Really? BOLO? I think most anyone who has seen one of the million police serials on TV can figure that one out. How about, instead, footnoting the various made up spy positions or the spy organizations themselves? Rather than being taken along on a suspenseful journey, I spent a lot of time backtracking to see if I'd missed the explanation for what a VIRUS is or what COS stands for only to find I had to figure it out for myself. Who is command? How are all of these organizations related? Why should we care? There were too many pages devoted to things that didn't matter at all, things that played no role in moving the story forward (cough...Sandy & Ed...cough) and not nearly enough information about things that were critical to the readers understanding of this spy-filled world.
The ugly: this author needs a much better editor. Sentence structures were just...wrong. Stream of consciousness paragraphs that took you nowhere. Poor grammar and missing words. Losing track of what was written previously so that Lance's BMW magically turned into a Porsche a few pages later and back again immediately after that. While that would be super cool IRL, in storytelling it's just jarring. And there were a bunch of random parentheses. Just one at a time hanging( out there, you know, for no reason whatsoever.
I'm bummed because there really were quite a few things that I really liked about this book had they not been mixed in with a bunch of words that just seemed like they were there to fill space. So I'm left bemoaning the potential of an intriguing vision that just wasn't executed as well as it could have been had we had more focus on what is important to the story and a much more competent editor. Having read other reviews of Ms. Low's works I get the feeling this super complex stream of consciousness thing may just be her writing style which leads me to believe this author is, sadly, just not my cuppa.
This book is a second read for me and a great addition to the series. It features the Big Cat, a tracker for COS, and Trouble, the daughter of COS virus, the Ice Man. The three first appeared in the Big, Bad Wolf and while it isn't necessary to read that book first, it does provide enlightening background. The author does a very good job with character development and world building. My only complaint is the unhappy lead up to the HEA ending. Otherwise it's a 5 star plus.
WOW! It took me a while to get through this book. I thoroughly enjoyed Lance and Grace's story. Even though Lance is nine years older, Grace has the maturity of a woman closer to his age. I love their bantering and how they actually compliment each other. I am happy that these two finally figure out how to make their relationship work so they can have a happily ever after. FANTASTIC job Gennita! I would recommend this book.
Um......It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to say in a review. The book kept my attention even though it hit on a lot of things that REALLY aren't my thing. So I have to give credit for keeping me reading despite so many tropes and what not that normally would have stopped me cold. This book was on sale and had really good reviews which is why I decided to take the chance on the book.
I really could have done without the constant metaphors about the lion (or the roses in the side romance). It was over the top for my tastes as well as being kind of weird. But hey, I don't think I am the usual reader for this type of book and maybe this is the kind of thing the author's readers love? The other metaphors were generally over the top for my liking too.
The hero was a complete and total alpha. I normally abhor these kind of heros. I think the thing that kept me from hating the romance in this book was the heroine. Aside from her strange lion obsession she was really strong and wouldn't let the hero dominate her like he wanted. It seemed like the power in the relationship was equal even though for most of the book there was a constant battle for control. This made me learn something about my tastes. I can tolerate a total domineering alpha male as long as the relationship stays on a level playing field. What I actually hate is wimpy spineless heroines who think they are strong only to give into the domineering hero. I can report that there is none of that here.
I can't honestly say that I liked either of the main characters completely. While I mentioned I don't like the type of guy the hero is I did like the heroine better in general. But she still did some things that bothered me. She cheated. Normally that is something that makes me put a book right down and stop reading. It was only saved by the fact that at this point she was clearly already trying to break up with her boyfriend but had been trying to do it slowly so as not to hurt him. But the second she started cheating she should have ended it stat. She is young, so I also let her off the hook a little for that. However, she never actually breaks up with her boyfriend. There is just this scene where he catches her making out with the hero and they fight and she stalks off mad that he got upset- like it means he viewed her as a possession. Say what???
I probably won't read any more by this author just because I don't think her books would be my ideal book fit. But I do give her credit for writing a book that kept me reading even though it wasn't really my thing and often times had me thinking "What the heck?". Do with that what you will.
I haven't read a better spy story ever.. Oh My God.. It was the most clever thing ever.. I loved every turn of it.. I loved that I had no Questions or I wasn't confused by anything because everything was answered at then one way or another.. I loved the easy humor and the little things that made this book the best... And of course I loved Jed.. And I loved that tiny mention of Hell because it gives me hope to think that it will be a good end for them too.. I loved this book.. Yeah I know I already said that but I can't stop thinking it.. What I love most is that it introdused me to Gennita Low and her amazing books.. Yes, I bought all of them the minute I finished Grace's story..
I've read most of Gennita Low's books and really enjoy them. There is always a lot going on and you have to pay attention to what is happening as there is usually a lot. It can be quite technical and involved. But there are some great characters and it's fast-paced.
I enjoyed this book as it includes Jed who has been an on-going character in a number of other Gennita Low's books and I'm really looking forward to reading more about him. He is quite a character!
The other thing I enjoyed is that there are two main pairs of characters' stories told in this book. And they intermingle well.
Great fun. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author.
Nothing was stand out fantastic - but it all was really interesting. The parts I enjoyed the most were the character arc mysteries that readers of her other books would have known right away - so definitely don't worry about picking this up as your first book of hers. I found it an advantage!
If she wrote another book featuring these two main characters, I would read it.
Grace is one of the strongest female characters I have ever read. Her mental ability to sort through data and situations, to thwart attempts to subjugate her in personal and professional relations are all admirable. That made watching her and Lance fall in love even more entertaining. Great spy-romance read!
This is one exhilarating read! Lance & Grace both have strong personalities yet their chemistry is simply to die for; plus the suspense will keep you on your toes. Highly recommended. Great job, Gen!
I liked this book and probably would read more by this author except that she said her heroine in this book wasn't like her usual tough, damaged heroine and that is why I liked this book. Grace was smart and she wasn't like the heroines in every other book out there.
This was a very entertaining book. Many twists And turns. I enjoyed the chemistry between characters and the lev els of their relationships good story good read