Rowena’s review of Crash Into Me by Jill Sorenson.
Hero: Ben Fortune
Heroine: Sonny Vasquez
In this heart-stopping novel, Jill Sorenson delivers a romantic thriller featuring one too-tough female agent, one too-hot male suspect, and a head-on erotic collision.…
Though he’d gone into virtual seclusion, Ben Fortune was still the world’s most famous surfer, known as much for his good looks as for his skill. He’s also a suspect in a series of brutal murders that may have begun with his late wife. Now FBI Special Agent Sonora “Sonny” Vasquez has been sent undercover to the elite beach community of La Jolla to make friends with Fortune. With her fierce beauty and take-no-prisoners attitude, she’s more than equipped for the job, and soon she and Ben have collided in an affair that is both intense and irresistible. But for the first—and worst—time in Sonny’s career, her emotions are threatening to get the better of her. Could this sensual, wounded man, who is genuinely anguished over his troubled daughter, really be a killer? And could falling in love blind Sonny to the greatest danger of all?
The main draw for me with this book was the setting. It was set in La Jolla, California which reminded me of my days of living in Oceanside, California. I had a friend that lived near La Jolla and every Tuesday we had dinner at her house and this story made me think about those days and miss those days. I picked this book up at the Used Bookstore because I remembered different reviews of the book and was curious enough to want to read it.
I’m glad that I did because of the three books that I was reading, I think this is the book that sucked me right out of my reading slump. This is the book that I kept wanting to go back to and this is the book that took me the least amount of time to read. It was very easy to drop into Ben and Sonny’s (Summer, whatever) world. Jill Sorenson did a great job of making me feel like I was apart of their world, their story. It was a very three dimensional story for me and I enjoyed getting to know each character.
We first meet Sonny when she’s proving her mettle in the boxing ring against another agent who made me roll my eyes down the hall. She dropped him like a bad habit and immediately we find out that she’s got a history of abuse.
I love looking at surfers. Whether, they’re out in the water surfing their little tales off or they’re relaxing on the beach or in a bar, I love to watch them because to me, they’re so smexy. I work with a surfer boy and he is really easy on the eyes and it was actually him in my head while I was reading about Ben. Weird, huh? Oh well, Surfer Boy here in the office would make a totally hot Ben. As far as Ben’s character went, I loved him. Almost from the beginning because you can see him struggling to do right by his teenage daughter while trying to just get by. I adored him.
To say that I enjoyed this book would be putting it mildly because I enjoyed the heck out of this story. I enjoyed the connections between Ben and Sonny but mostly I was drawn to the teenage love story between Carly and James. As much as I adored Ben, I think I loved James more because he was that tortured hero that fought against evil to continue to be good. He came from bad stock and yet he was such a good kid. I thought Carly was spoiled and rude but when James came into the picture, I enjoyed the influence he had over Carly because he fought so hard to be an honorable person. I loved him! I loved James and Carly together. I loved that their love wasn’t easy and it wasn’t good all the time because it made it all the more strong because it wasn’t a walk in the park. They were just so good for each other. I even liked James brother, Stephen. I totally admired him for all of his bad habits that he kicked so that he could be there for his brother.
This book was a good one, it was a very satisfying story that I completely adored and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is in the mood for a contemporary romance with a mystery thrown in as well. The characters were rich, the beach setting was fantastic and the story flowed extremely well. I can’t say enough good things about this book except that you should definitely read this book if you haven’t already.
Grade: 4.75 out of 5
This book is available from Bantam. You can buy it here or here.
Great review, Rowena!
I love this book, too, and you’re so right about Carly’s and James’ relationship. Jill really captures teens so well.
One of my favorite parts of her more recent book, Set the Dark on Fire, was the teen relationship. As much as I’m looking forward to another romantic suspense by her, I’d also love to see her write a YA book! 🙂
The story between Carly and James was amazing, wasn’t it? I remember being really surprised with how much I liked it. Jill Sorenson has an amazing ability to write teenage characters.
I look to Jill for all my sexy murder mysteries. I also love her secondary story with the teen characters.
Aw, you guys are so great! Thank you Rowena. It really makes my day to see a review like this.
Current project, almost finished, also has a teen romance subplot. I love writing those younger characters, so I’ll try to keep delivering…
😀
Renee,
I totally agree! The whole love story between Carly and James didn’t feel like a grown up kind of love, you never forgot that they were teens and yet it was still a very compelling storyline. One that I highly enjoyed so I was happy with it.
I haven’t read Set the Dark on Fire yet but it’s on my list. I’m hoping to read it soon. I think she would write great YA fiction.
@Jill: Can’t wait for #3! 🙂
Casee,
All the more reason for her to write her very own YA novel, don’t you think? I’d love it if she did that. This was a really good book.
KB,
Me too, I’m anxious to start the other book, I just need to pick it up! I’m excited!
Jill Sorenson,
Thanks for stopping by our blog and thanks for writing such a spectacular book, it did the job of getting me out of a reading funk I was stuck in the entire month of November. You do good work! =) I can’t wait to read more from you.
I bumped into an excerpt online and had no cash to fork out, so checked my library and it was on order. They notified me within two days – I was the first person evah! to check it out.
I normally read paranormal and I loved this book! The characterizations were, bar none, the best I’ve read in forever.
I finished it in a day and went to my bookstore to buy number two – they didn’t have it. But I haven’t forgotten, it’s in my shopping bag for when I have some extra cash. I will not check this one from the library, I will purchase it.
Keep ’em coming Jill…you’re the only contemporary writer on my auto-buy list.