Casee‘s review of Black at Heart (Black CAT Series, Book 3) by Leslie Parrish.
Wyatt Blackstone has done his best to mask his romantic feelings for Lily Fletcher, the brilliant but fragile young woman whose technical skills have helped him track countless violent Internet predators. But now he must fin out if the woman he loves has become a rogue agent obsessed with cold-blooded revenge…
Lily Fletcher has had a story arc from Fade to Black. Lily firsts starts tracking “lovesprettyboys” while trying to uncover the identity of The Reaper at Satan’s Playground (Fade to Black). Lily’s nephew was kidnapped and subsequently killed by a pedophile. Shortly after that, Lily’s twin sister committed suicide. To say Lily has an aversion to pedophiles is like saying she doesn’t like the sun. When she has a chance to take down lovesprettyboys in Pitch Black, she doesn’t hesitate.
From the beginning of this series, Lily has been the sweet IT agent that is like everyone’s little sister. The computer nerd rather than the field agent. Everybody in the office loves her. Her boss, Wyatt Blackstone, finds her shyness w/ him amusing. So when Lily is shot and supposedly killed at the end of Pitch Black, it devastates the Black CAT team. Wyatt, more than anyone, blames himself for letting Lily get involved in something that was so personal to her.
When Wyatt gets a call the day of Lily’s funeral from Lily herself, he rushes to her side. He also agrees to her plea to let her stay dead. There is little he can deny Lily. Taking her to his family home in Maine to recover, Lily will do anything not to be a victim again. For nine months, Lily stays holed up in the beach house. When Wyatt comes to tell her that someone is killing people trying to frame her, she knows it’s time to come out of hiding.
Wyatt really liked the “before” Lily, but he’s fascinated by the woman she has become. He never would have thought that the woman that stuttered whenever he came into the room could look him in the eye, while arguing with him. He knows that he isn’t the type for happily ever after, but the new Lily doesn’t want happily ever after.
Amidst someone murdering pedophiles and trying to frame Lily, her nephew’s killer is set free. The prosecutor declines to re-file since the only witness (Lily) is dead.
Out of the three books, this was definitely the best. It was emotional, suspenseful, and romantic. Wyatt was an enigma from the beginning. In Black at Heart, we finally gets to see what drives him. This is a hero that has a core of honesty that he will never let get compromised. And the fact that he loves Lily is clear.
He’d been waiting too long, waiting for her, waiting for them. Not just since that July night, not just since the night he’d saved her. Not since she’d come to work with him. No, Wyatt had been waiting for Lily his entire adult life.
How can you not love Wyatt?
4.5 out of 5.
This book is available from Signet. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Other books in the series:
I love Leslie Parrish’s BLACK series.
Thanks for the great review!
All the best,
@RKCharron
xoxo
I have this in my TBR pile. Was hesitant to start it bc didn’t like Lily too much in the 2nd book. But now I’m going to start it soon as I finish my current reading. Thanks for great review, as always.
I agree! Black at Heart was my favorite of the three Black CATs books, though all were fantastic.
I’ve read the first 2 books and haven’t picked up the 3rd yet.
AAR said it was light on the romance – do you agree/disagree?
Kaetrin, I disagree. Fade to Black was light on romance.
This series sounds really good. I can’t wait to read them.
Great reviews.
@ Casee. I read and enjoyed both of the first books but I thought it was the second one that was lighter on the romance (and steam for that matter) than the first. The second only had one love scene IIRC whereas the first had a lot more interaction – at least, that was the impression I was left with by the end of both books.
I am encouraged by the fact that there has been 9 months since Lily’s “death” in this book and, of course, Wyatt and Lily have known each other for a while before then anyway. In that 9 months of sharing such a big secret, I can see how the two can realistically draw very close so that by the time the book really starts, things can be believable between Wyatt and Lily.
The big “problem” with a lot of romantic suspense is that if the couple have just met and the whole thing is over in a a week or two, there’s not a lot of time or opportunity for the romance side – and that’s even when they do TSTL things like have unlikely sex when they’re about to be shot etc. This one sounds like it might avoid that problem because the time factor and the fact that the characters know each other better anyway makes it easier to accept the relationship and the HEA at the end.
I thought that Leslie Parrish did really well at keeping the suspense “real” in the first 2 books – the characters in law enforcement were believable – but, particularly in the second book, the romance suffered a bit (at least for me). I got the connection between the 2 characters, but I didn’t get enough of it. I can see there just wasn’t time or space in the book for it, but it did leave me feeling vaguely dissatisfied.
After seeing the AAR review I wondered if the third book would leave me feeling the same way and I vacillated about picking it up. However, your review makes me put it back up higher on the list.