In His Safekeeping (Harlequin Intrigue, No. 656)

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but...
Review: Although I'm a book-aholic and am on planes every week where I am trapped with whatever book I've taken along, I'm afraid I fell asleep during this one.

I liked the premise: Tara Ford, the heroine, is a government witness and Brad Harrison, the hero, is a deputy Marshal who decides that the Government is being too blase in their attitude towards the deaths of every other witness in the case.

I initially had some doubts that even the Government could be quite so obtuse, but bureacracy is infamous for just such incompetance, so I figured with a little good writing, this could work. The writing wasn't too bad, but the main characters just couldn't carry the story.

Tara was really dull and pathetically (can I say, terminally?) stupid and I wasn't particularly impressed with old Brad, either. In fact, given the choice between Brad and a good Colt revolver, I'd rather have the Colt. Tara and Brad are both described in attractive terms, but they have the flatness of glamour magazine models with a lot of surface shine but none of the murky or quirky depths most humans expose sooner or later. Frankly, after the first chapter, I was hoping some really irate secondary character, having witnessed all of their breathless attraction for one another, would quietly and tragically run the pair over.

If this seems harsh, it probably is. This isn't a bad book if you are laying around on a beach and are on your third or fourth drink. I'm considering trying to read it again when I'm not so tired. Maybe Tara improves after the first 100 pages...

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but...
Review: Although I'm a book-aholic and am on planes every week where I am trapped with whatever book I've taken along, I'm afraid I fell asleep during this one.

I liked the premise: Tara Ford, the heroine, is a government witness and Brad Harrison, the hero, is a deputy Marshal who decides that the Government is being too blase in their attitude towards the deaths of every other witness in the case.

I initially had some doubts that even the Government could be quite so obtuse, but bureacracy is infamous for just such incompetance, so I figured with a little good writing, this could work. The writing wasn't too bad, but the main characters just couldn't carry the story.

Tara was really dull and pathetically (can I say, terminally?) stupid and I wasn't particularly impressed with old Brad, either. In fact, given the choice between Brad and a good Colt revolver, I'd rather have the Colt. Tara and Brad are both described in attractive terms, but they have the flatness of glamour magazine models with a lot of surface shine but none of the murky or quirky depths most humans expose sooner or later. Frankly, after the first chapter, I was hoping some really irate secondary character, having witnessed all of their breathless attraction for one another, would quietly and tragically run the pair over.

If this seems harsh, it probably is. This isn't a bad book if you are laying around on a beach and are on your third or fourth drink. I'm considering trying to read it again when I'm not so tired. Maybe Tara improves after the first 100 pages...

Rating:
Summary: In His Safekeeping
Review: Author Shawna Delacorte returns for her third Intrigue with "In His Safekeeping," a muddled tale that fails to engage. Tara Ford has tried to get on with her life after testifying against her former boss. Then U.S. Marshal Brad Harrison comes to tell her that the other five witnesses in the trial have all been killed. She's the only one left. Brad vows to protect her. Can he resist his attraction to the vulnerable beauty long enough to figure out who is after her?

"In His Safekeeping" was an acceptable read. It wasn't a terrible book. It wasn't a good one either. The beginning is awkward and I had trouble getting into the story. This is another book where the characters feel an instant attraction and immediately begin fixating on the other person's body. Sometimes it can work. Here it felt too forced and unbelievable. The author tells us they are attracted to each other instead of showing it or making me feel it. Tara is also a very weak heroine, both foolish and naïve. Some of the information she withholds from Brad because she doesn't think it is relevant is so obvious I had to shake my head in disbelief. The setup is also slightly unbelievable and the story is occasionally hard to follow.

On the plus side, "In His Safekeeping" improves on the fatal flaw of Delacorte's last Intrigue, "Secret Lover," where so much time was spent on the secondary characters that the hero and heroine weren't a big part of the story. Here the focus is mainly on Tara and Brad. Delacorte does a reasonably good job keeping the suspects balanced so any one of them could be the guilty party. "In His Safekeeping" is an okay book, but not one I can recommend.

Rating:
Summary: In His Safekeeping
Review: Author Shawna Delacorte returns for her third Intrigue with "In His Safekeeping," a muddled tale that fails to engage. Tara Ford has tried to get on with her life after testifying against her former boss. Then U.S. Marshal Brad Harrison comes to tell her that the other five witnesses in the trial have all been killed. She's the only one left. Brad vows to protect her. Can he resist his attraction to the vulnerable beauty long enough to figure out who is after her?

"In His Safekeeping" was an acceptable read. It wasn't a terrible book. It wasn't a good one either. The beginning is awkward and I had trouble getting into the story. This is another book where the characters feel an instant attraction and immediately begin fixating on the other person's body. Sometimes it can work. Here it felt too forced and unbelievable. The author tells us they are attracted to each other instead of showing it or making me feel it. Tara is also a very weak heroine, both foolish and naïve. Some of the information she withholds from Brad because she doesn't think it is relevant is so obvious I had to shake my head in disbelief. The setup is also slightly unbelievable and the story is occasionally hard to follow.

On the plus side, "In His Safekeeping" improves on the fatal flaw of Delacorte's last Intrigue, "Secret Lover," where so much time was spent on the secondary characters that the hero and heroine weren't a big part of the story. Here the focus is mainly on Tara and Brad. Delacorte does a reasonably good job keeping the suspects balanced so any one of them could be the guilty party. "In His Safekeeping" is an okay book, but not one I can recommend.

Rating:
Summary: In his Safekeeping
Review: We haven't read the other books to this series. But we, the office group, enjoyed In His Safekeeping. It was not initially
dripping with the usual romance formula. It's uniqueness, the
moving suspense story, truly made it a hit with us. More sex?
yes, we seemed to have run out of story to read. But then there is hope...this being part of a series. Enjoy!