Guest Review: Leverage by Janie Crouch

Posted September 7, 2015 by Jen in Reviews | 0 Comments

Genres: Romantic Suspense

leverage
Jen’s review of Leverage (Omega Sector #4) by Janie Crouch.

He’d been hired to transport precious cargo–and it put a beautiful twist in his solitary life

Former operative turned pilot Dylan Branson has one mission: deliver vital codes to Omega Sector before millions of lives are lost. Surprisingly, the codes reside in the photographic memory of Shelby Keelan, a beautiful computer expert who’s so far survived two murder attempts.

Used to doing things solo, Dylan will get Shelby to Washington, DC, then walk away. So he’s stunned to discover she’s as much a loner as he is–and how much that appeals to him. Now, with both their lives in danger after his plane is sabotaged midair, Dylan no longer thinks of Shelby as just a job. Or that he’ll be able to let her go once it’s over.

This book is the final installment in the Omega Sector series, which I’ve really enjoyed. The series centers on a “covert interagency task force” and the four Branson siblings who work there. Not a new concept and nothing particularly groundbreaking in the series, but it’s got solid hooks and some interesting characters and it kept me reading. You can enjoy this book without reading the others, but there is a larger storyline throughout the books, so you’ll get the most out of it if you read them all.

Leverage is about the fourth Branson sibling, Dylan. Actually, Dylan USED to work for Omega but quit to be a private pilot after his wife and unborn child were murdered as part of an operation gone wrong. He’s a loner and while he loves his siblings, he keeps major distance between him and anyone else since losing his family. He agrees to help Omega by transporting Shelby Keelan, who has vital information that could stop DS-13, the terrorist organization Omega has been battling. Shelby too is a loner, mostly due to social anxiety. She’s a computer programmer and genius with numbers, but she doesn’t like being around people and gets easily overwhelmed by social interactions. When it becomes clear someone is targeting Shelby, Dylan’s simple delivery mission turns into a job keeping Shelby and himself alive. They have to make their way to DC, decipher the code, and discover who in Omega might be a mole trying to sabotage their mission.

Let me just start by saying I love Shelby. She is brilliant and kind and weird in the best ways. I loved her almost as much as I loved Megan, the also-genius heroine from book 2 and Shelby’s best friend. Even better, Shelby is a tough lady. She’s not an agent and doesn’t do heroics, but she isn’t a complainer, isn’t overly dramatic, and is self sufficient. She knows how to take care of herself emotionally, and she’s not afraid to say what she thinks. She has self-doubts, especially because most people in her life are not accepting of her quirks, but she doesn’t fall apart when Dylan jerks her around. I imagined her as a kindred spirit, and I wish I could be friends with her in real life!

I liked Dylan too, but I didn’t like the way he flip flopped through most of the story. He says some incredibly obnoxious things to Shelby when he’s hurting, and he keeps doing it until way too late in the book. I can understand being wary of getting emotionally involved, but the mean things he said to her were unacceptable. I love the way he tries to make up for it in the end–he demonstrates that he understands Shelby and loves her for who she is–but I would have liked a bit more to prove he’d changed. I did feel like they were a good match, though. It’s almost comical when Dylan realizes he’s met a woman who likes to be alone even more than he does! Neither feel the need to fill silence with idle conversation, both appreciate solitude, and both are good at giving non-verbal support. They were complimentary and could understand the other in a way most others could not.

I liked the plot and the way the larger series threads were tied up, but I felt like the pacing was a little uneven in the book. There were periods of action, but then lots of periods of strategizing and waiting. I felt like the last part of the book dragged a little bit because of it. I think the other books did a better job of balancing the action with the mundane. I also felt like there was a bit too much time spent with the previous heroes/heroines even though I liked them all. My favorite parts of Leverage were when it was just Dylan and Shelby on the run. I would have liked more of that, less of everyone else.

Now that many Harlequin category titles are $4.99 (or close to it), I find myself being a bit harsher with them than I have been in the past. IMO, that’s a lot of money to spend on short books that frequently turn out to be not worth reading! (I received a review copy of Leverage, but I purchased the other books in the series.) I can’t say whether its “worth” it for every reader, but as someone who enjoyed Intrigues, I think this book and series are above average. The plots are engaging and the romances are touching. Book 2 was my personal favorite, but they all were entertaining. (Trigger warning: book 3 deals with the aftermath of an assault and rape.) I’m happy I found this series, and I’ll be looking forward to more from this author in the future.

Grade: 3.75 out of 5

This book is available from Harlequin Intrigue. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


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