Express Male

OPUS #2

by Elizabeth Bevarly

Why is everyone calling her "Lila"?

Music teacher and part-time lingerie saleswoman Marnie Lundy's biggest thrill is playing piano at the local mall...until the night everyone seems to think she's somebody else!

Suddenly she's being addressed in code, menaced by a man who claims to know her intimately and rescued by a handsome spymaster who thinks she's a threat to national security!

But OPUS agent Noah Tennant has the feeling she's more Mata Hari than Mother Teresa. Could a woman this sexy truly be innocent, or is Marnie his opponent in a deadly game of spy vs. spy?

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Fiction, Chick Lit

376 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Elizabeth Bevarly was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and earned her BA with honors in English from the University of Louisville in 1983. Although she can’t recall ever wanting to be anything but a novelist-oh, all right, she toyed briefly with becoming an archaeologist, until she realized how awful she looked in khaki and flannel, and there was a brief fling with the interior decorator thing, until she realized she had trouble distinguishing chintz from moiré, and… (Where was I? Oh, yeah. My brilliant career.) Anyway, her career side trips before making the leap to writing included stints working as a bartender, a waitress, a movie theater cashier, a soap-hawker for Crabtree & Evelyn, an apparel-hawker for The Limited, and a bridal registry consultant for a major department store. She also did time as an editorial assistant for a medical journal, where she learned the correct spellings and meanings of a variety of words (like microscopy and histological) which, with any luck at all, she will never use again in this life.

She wrote her first novel when she was twelve years old. It was 32 pages long-and that was with college rule notebook paper-and featured three girls named Liz, Marianne and Cheryl, who explored the mysteries of a haunted house. Her friends Marianne and Cheryl proclaimed it “Brilliant! Spellbinding! Kept me up past dinnertime reading!” Those rave reviews only kindled the fire inside her to write more.

Since sixth grade, Elizabeth has gone on to complete more than 60 works of contemporary romance. Her novels regularly appear on the USA Today and Waldenbooks bestseller lists, and The Thing About Men was a New York Times Extended List bestseller. She’s been nominated for the prestigious RITA Award, has won the coveted National Readers’ Choice Award, and Romantic Times magazine has seen fit to honor her with two-count ‘em TWO-Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been translated into two dozen languages and published in three dozen countries, and there are more than ten million copies in print worldwide. She has claimed as residences Washington, DC, northern Virginia, southern New Jersey and Puerto Rico, but she now resides back in her native Kentucky with her husband and son and two very troubled cats where she fully intends to remain.

Reviews

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this book again, it was so good, and I can't wat to finish off the series!

*First Read September 3rd, 2011*
Great book, really funny, I loved it! Can't wait for book 3!

[Tabatha Shipley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea where this book came from. Does anyone else ever have that problem? I'm an avid reader so I regularly buy gently used from my favorite second hand store. I also pick up books from the library overstock sale. Plus, people know I'm a reader so I'm always being handed books that people think I will enjoy. I have no idea which category brought me this one.

Here's what I do know: it's a romance (not my favorite genre), It had a really pink cover (my least favorite color), and it claimed to be the second in a series. Three strikes before I even opened it.

Imagine my surprise when I actually enjoyed it. Sure the language was a little cliche at times, but overall the story was fun. If I'm going to read a romance story, I like there to be some action or story line involved and this delivered that.

I'm going to land on two smiles and a blush for this one. If you like romance and don't shy away from adult scenes, you'll enjoy this one.

http://tabreviewd.blogspot.com/2018/0...

[Theresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ewwww. I'm sorry, I just cannot get over the gross factor and Freudian weirdness of the main character sleeping with the heroine's twin sister...and later falling in love with the heroine (and no, that's not a spoiler -- it's revealed within the first few chapters). Just...ew.

Also, the secondary story is only connected to the main in the very loosest of ways and didn't really have much of a reason for being there.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this was ok. Just couldn't seem to get into the characters. It's a cute spy romance.

[Barbara Cryer · Rating 3 out of 5]

while I liked the duality of the plot, the MFCs were lame.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marnie is your typical woman going through the motions of life, but not really living it. She is living in her deceased father’s home, teaching piano lessons and her night out consists of her making a little extra money playing the piano in the evenings at a department store. But her life is about to be turned upside down when she is approached by three different men convinced that she is a lethal woman named Lila. The first man in awe gives her undercover papers, the second man threaten her intimately while the third man rescues her by kidnapping her.

This book was a quick paced romance with action and mistaken identity thrown into the mix. I enjoyed the witty character that Marnie contains throughout the novel. She hides her terror when faced with violence with smooth lies and quick responses that throw off the dangerous adversary and give her just enough edge to make it through to another day.

I didn’t really understand the title of the book, but it could be something to do with it being the second book in the series. I haven’t read the first book, but as far as I’m concerned this book could stand alone. It had good character development and growth. I wasn’t a big fan of the secondary story line but I still really enjoyed the novel as a whole.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this romantic comedy, the heroine is a piano teacher who also works playing piano at an Ohio (Cleveland, I think) department store. Then one night, as she's walking out to her car, she's apparently mistaken for someone else. Someone who is a spy? The hero is absolutely convinced she's his old partner in the spy business. He takes her in, because she's apparently gone rogue, but he can't break her story. The shrink they bring in says that's because she's lost her mind, and believes she really is a piano teacher, not a spy. But when the hero tries to prove her wrong, he learn all sorts of startling things, which he then reveals to the heroine, turning her whole world upside down, and dragging her into his world to boot. While this book is wrapped around a spy plot, it's definitely not a romantic suspense. It's got a lot of angst, coming from the hero's revelations, and the growing romance between them, but Bevarly's wry voice keeps things light. I enjoy her voice and the way she writes, but sometimes a little goes a long way. Still, this was a fun read.

[Ashley P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book and I found it to be just the thing I needed after having practically melted my brain attempting to finish a semester of school and then deal with Christmas vacation.

I was expecting nothing more than a cheesy romance novel when I was given this book by a friend of mine and I was wrong, because it was truly enjoyable. I loved the moments of suspense such as those at the beginning and was truly glad when they didn't go into the details of what kind of training someone in such a situation would go through.

I do wish there had been more interaction between Marnie and Lila but all in all I found the book to be humorous and lovely.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review will seem familiar because the same review will go for every book in this series, and that's not a bad thing. It was a fun and fast read. I would recommend to anyone who was looking for something that didn't require a lot of thought. It was cute and worth a beach read or a rainy day read to fill your time. I am giving it a two star even thought I would like to give it a two and half star because even though the book wasn't very deep it was still greatly entertaining.

[Diane ~Firefly~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed the secondary romance much more than the main one. The ending for both seemed a bit rushed and I'm not sure why they had to tell two completely different stories only linked by the fact that Ellie works for Noah. The main romance didn't have enough build up and Noah isn't a very interesting character. Ellie and Daniel were a lot of fun, but the pacing suffered from sharing a book.

[EJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A music teacher is mistaken for her government twin who she does not know exists. It is a great read. The characters are strong and funny. The prior book You've got male needs to be read first so that you understand whats going on in this book.

[Barbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky and funny. Music teacher and part-time lingerie saleswoman Marnie Lundy's biggest thrill is playing piano at the local mall...until the night everyone seems to think she's somebody else!
Then the fun begins....

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3rd in the series. cute book, but it felt lacking at the end. the ending in all the books has been that way...you are left waiting for the next book to tie things up.

[Christianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was very cute and held my interest. I actually finished it months ago but hadn't been able to update the status due to lost password.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hilarious! I loved the weird twist at the end. I only wish that Noah hadn't slept with every female character in the book...

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern

[ChampagneL8T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spy Novel. Good duel romance story lines. Left you wanting to jump into the next book because the mystery never gets solved. Really nice surprise twist at the end.

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frothy lightweight.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute but I think you need to start with the beginning of the series.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book, it had such a slow pace. I kept waiting for that ah ha moment. Never got one.

[Chrissy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Read.
Nice story fast read.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the fire up start of Express Male, it was witty, funny, and original. However the farther I got into the story the more lost I became. For two of the characters I really had no clue how they fit with the story so every time the chapter switched to them I cringed. Most likely this is due to not having read the first book. If I had known this was the second book in the series I would not have chose it but nothing on the cover or inside pages indicated it was a series.

Despite loving the start I will not be continuing the series.