Alias Smith and Jones

Tremaine Tradition #1

by Kylie Brant

He called himself Jones and was more pirate than charter boat captain. His protective streak was suffocating. His kisses devastating. And the bullet scar on his back, the gun tucked in his pants, told Ann that there was plenty the sexy stranger wasn't telling her. Perhaps even more than she wasn't telling him.

Because she wasn't Ann Smith, island-hopping rich girl. She was Analiese Tremaine, and she was there to find and rescue her missing brother. But how long could she hold on to her carefully constructed identity when her search had already landed her in deep trouble with no one but Jones to help her out alive?

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 25, 2002

About the author

The mother of five children, Kylie Brant claims she began writing to save her sanity. Plotting stories became her method of escape from the reality of constant ball games, chauffeuring kids, and refereeing "minor" disagreements between her perfect offspring.

In 1992 she was elated to get a call from Silhouette offering to buy her second novel. Home with laryngitis at the time, she still managed to croak out agreement, and her career was born. A few months later she went on to sell Rancher's Choice, the first manuscript she’d written.

Kylie is married to her high school sweetheart, and they make their home in Iowa. She insists that all her heroes are based on her husband of 23 years because he possesses that most heroic of make qualities — ironing skills. Those abilities come in handy, as she juggles a full time teaching job with writing and a family.

Doing things the easy way has never held much appeal for this multi award-winning author. She graduated with high honors from the University of Northern Iowa. A graduation photo shows her in cap and gown holding her two sons, one aged 16 months and the other three weeks. She went on to obtain a teaching job working with learning-disabled children while completing her master’s degree at night and during summers.

"There was a time in my life when I could imagine myself as a life-long student," she recalls. "I actually toyed with the idea of pursuing a doctorate. But instead, my life took a spin and I ended up writing romances. I’ve never regretted it!" Her family has since been completed by the birth of another son and a set of twins, a boy and a girl.

Kylie’s books are regularly featured on bestseller lists such as Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller. With over a million copies of books in print, her novels have been distributed in 20 countries and released in seven languages.

Family and friends are the main focus of Kylie’s life. When she isn’t writing or teaching, she enjoys reading and flower gardening. She loves traveling, preferring beach, ocean, and room service.

Reviews

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

Review pending.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

SIM #1196

[Josette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was just OK. I like Kylie Brant's writing style, but I just could not quite get into the storyline and found myself, for the majority of the book, wishing I was just done with it. The book has a plot that is easy to follow from the start, which I recently came to realize is something that certain books definitely lack. The author gets right to the point that this is a spy novel, with some romance thrown in here and there. I was interested at the beginning but, perhaps because I read only a few short pages at a time, the book moved very slowly for me. I was not pulled into the storyline of Ana, a young woman searching for her missing brother, who vanished while on assignment as a spy for the American government. I did not really care about the growing relationship between Ana and Jones, the captain she hires to sail her to the island where she believes her brother to be. From the title of the book, I immediately deduced that both main characters are in disguise, so clearly the author did not intend to fool the reader on that level, but she does mislead the reader to an extent as far as the plot is concerned. The first three quarters of the novel unfold at an easy, believable pace, as Ana and Jones arrive at the island and quickly get into trouble with the local government, but then the last quarter of the book takes a much quicker and choppy pace, skipping over whole days at a time and glossing over whole sections as if the author just didn't feel like dealing with them. I felt that the inconsistent pace made the ending seem rushed, and though by that point I just could not wait for the book to be over so I could move onto something else, I felt like the author cheated me out of a better-developed conclusion.

I recommend this book to romance enthusiasts, and I will say that the ending was nice enough to interest me in reading the next installment of "The Tremaine Tradition," which apparently continues the storyline.

[Ayu Wirdha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kakaknya menghilang selama 2 minggu ketika mengunjungi sebuah negara bernama Laconos (negara ga jelas). Ann mencoba menyelidiki ke Laconos dgn cara menyewa perahu milik Jones yg menurut informasi kapal yg sama ditumpangi kakaknya Ann. Spt biasa, cukup gregetan membaca sepak terjang Ann yg (sok) berani (or stupid) dlm mencari info mengenai kakaknya tsb. Usaha penyelamatan Ann oleh Jones lumayan jg, walau pas terakhir2nya kok begitu saja, mana ga ada epilog pula.
3.5 stars