Rowena’s review of Caught in the Act by Jill Sorenson.
Hero: Adam Cortez
Heroine: Kari Strauss
Some desires are too dangerous to embrace.
As the owner of a flourishing Latin American crafts boutique, Karina Strauss should be basking in her success. Instead she’s worried about her troubled sister, the girlfriend—and prisoner—of drug lord Carlos Moreno. Kari wants no part of that life, but when she helps a friend cross into the United States illegally, two men on opposite sides of the law take notice: Moreno and Adam Cortez, the handsome border protection officer who lets Kari off the hook. It’s not just Kari’s tantalizing flash of skin that catches Adam’s attention—her drug cartel connections bring back the demons of his past.
Moreno demands that Kari smuggle a package for him in exchange for her sister’s freedom. Adam also gets dangerously close, tempting her to surrender and fulfill her wildest desires. As Kari prepares for the drug run, dark secrets, violent criminals, and deadly consequences lurk around every corner. But concern for her sister drives Kari toward a terrifying act, despite Adam’s warnings, despite her overwhelming fears—and despite the odds against coming out alive.
I’ve been knee deep in a reading slump for the past few months and this is the first book that I picked up and started, that I actually finished. It’s safe to say that I enjoyed this story. Not only was this the first book that I’ve finished in months but it’s also the first romantic suspense that I’ve read in a long time.
This book follows Kari Strauss as she falls head over heels in love with the Border Patrol guy, Adam Cortez. Kari owns a boutique in San Diego and travels to Mexico weekly to pick up new products to sell in her store. Her Mom and Dad are dead and the only family she has is her younger sister Sasha who is the girlfriend to a known drug lord, Carlos Moreno. Kari isn’t too thrilled with her sister’s choice of boyfriends and lifestyle but she’s failed at trying to get her sister away from that crowd so it is what it is.
It’s amazing how much can happen in a week. On a trip home from Mexico, Kari helps smuggle a young woman named Maria that she befriended while on one of her many trips across the border. They hit it off instantly and become really good friends. True friends that would ride or die for a sister and I really enjoyed seeing their friendship blossom over the course of this book.
So much pops off in this book and I ate it all up. Kari’s sister has wracked up a huge debt with her mobster boyfriend and if Kari wants to save her sister (from the killing those drug punks are gonna give her) then she has to smuggle some drugs on her trips to Mexico. If she doesn’t, her sister gets it. As you can imagine, that freaks Kari the hell out and she has no idea what to do. She never pictured herself as a criminal and all in a matter of a week, she’s smuggled an illegal immigrant across the border (and got away with it) and now has to smuggle drugs across the border to save her sister’s life.
Enter Adam Cortez. Adam Cortez is a border patrol police officer with a chip on his shoulder. The chip’s name is Carlos Moreno. He’s responsible for killing his girlfriend, Penelope and Adam hasn’t forgotten, nor has he let go of his vengeance. Unofficially, he’s been tracking Moreno’s activity and when Karina Strauss comes into his lane at the border, he decides to add her to his list of people to investigate. And investigates her, he does. He does an unofficial background check on her, he stakes out her house and wonders if she’s doing anything dirty for that dirty bastard, Moreno. When he sees Moreno’s henchmen coming out of her house, he knows that she is. To further his investigation, he makes contact with her. He buys things from her shop and gets close to her to try to get some information, any kind of information that would bring Moreno down and like they always do in romantic suspense novels, feelings develop.
The romance between Adam and Kari happens really fast but I couldn’t be bothered by that because I liked the two of them together. Adam was a smexy beast and I liked him for Kari. I really enjoyed getting to know Kari and seeing how strong she was in this book. She tried to live a good life but sometimes you had to do bad things to take care of the people you love and she didn’t shy away from doing what she had to do to keep her sister safe. I liked that and everything she went through, all of the emotions that she showed throughout the book rang true with me and I just really liked her.
I enjoyed the secondary romance between Ian and Maria too. Their story is left hanging at the end of the book so I’m hoping that means that they’re getting their own story soon. Does anyone know? I’m anxious for it if it’s on the way. I want their story, I’d like to get to know Maria more. She was such an interesting character, so strong and independent and I want to know more about her. Ian too. I liked his friendship with Adam. When he tells Moreno, “If you shoot my best friend, I’m gonna freaking kill you.” I laughed out loud because I would so hope that my best friend would say the same thing to a drug overlord that we were working with to save our true loves.
I really enjoyed this book and am glad that I picked it up. Sorenson does a great job of throwing us readers right into the thick of things and she has a way with words that kept me anxious for more. Thanks for the great story and please, please…write Ian and Maria’s story.
As much as I enjoyed this story, the amount of infractions that both Adam and Ian did in this book where their jobs were concerned, I thought it was unrealistic that they didn’t get into more trouble then they actually did but aside from that, this was a delightful read.
Grade: 4 out of 5
This book is available from Bantam. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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