Unleashed was a pleasant surprise. It was hot and sexy, had a vaguely unlikely plot but it was also probably the most reasonable plot I’ve read in a romantic suspense. It is part of an overarching story of three brothers who have a private security company called Gemini Security. They’re a little cheesy at times – like the fact that they all wear GPS watches to show them where they are at all times. And there’s the typical strain of too much saccharine when the men find happiness with a woman. This is common in romantic suspense. Families all love each other and protect each other in this really over the top way. But okay, I accept that as part of the genre.
When Caroline, his high school love, comes to him asking him for help in solving her husband’s murder, he accepts because there is a link to his mother’s vanishing, some eighteen years before. If it sounds like a strained connection, it is. But it eventually ties up pretty nicely. Basically they discover that her husband was involved in an illegal adoption ring, getting young girls pregnant and then selling the babies. His mother had volunteered at the shelter, and Caroline’s husband – eighteen years ago – had killed her because she stumbled onto the conspiracy.
The relationship is written very well. Danny wants to fuck Caroline because he’s always found her hot – and he has fond memories of their high school sex. It starts as a sort of hate fuck – which is pretty hot – and then he just can’t handle it, and he becomes a surly jerk. The Surly Jerk is a sort of romantic suspense trope. They all have to be jerks so the woman can ‘tame’ him and make him civilized. But the sex is twinned with some genuine emotion, so the relationship works on all levels.
His moment of realization that he still loves her was very touching. I found myself being mad at myself that I actually liked it. Very sweet, and hot, sex followed.
The climax was good except the author rather gratuitously makes sure that Caroline is nude when she’s kidnapped, a rather obvious and pointless fact that really did take away from the action.
After she’s kidnapped, life seems like it will be fine for Danny and Caroline. Yet, Danny turns on his surly act. Caroline finally grows a spine and tells him that she can’t live with that anymore. He has to be able to communicate. So he just vanishes for a few weeks. It reads a little over dramatic. He becomes a slobbering drunk. It’s really unattractive.
Then his father talks to him about he should have worked harder to please his mother before she was murdered. This is one of those cringe-worthy cheesy moments I described earlier. It’s just too uncomfortable for me. Anyway, he literally chases her down on a mountain in New Zealand (she’s hiking with a group, and he runs up the mountain for her). He professes his love, vows to change, and they have sex.
Overall, it’s a good book and a good example of its genre. I would recommend it with the caution that there are those cheesy moments are very cheesy, and they’re embarrassing to read. But they thankfully don’t last long and you can move on to some awesome sex.