Reviewer: Rowena
Crazy Love (Steele Street #5) by Tara Janzen
Series: Steele Street,
Also in this series: Crazy Hot (Steele Street, #1), Crazy Cool (Steele Street, #2), Crazy Wild (Steele Street, #3), Crazy Kisses (Steele Street #4)
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: June 27, 2006
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 368
Add It: Goodreads
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Government operative Dylan Hart has survived some of the riskiest missions known to man. But no nemesis could have prepared the Special Defense Forces commander for the newest member of his team. A street-smart heartbreaker in Day-Glo pink and black leather, Skeeter Bang has been recruited to aid and abet Dylan’s latest mission: steal a top-secret file and bury it before all hell breaks loose.

Teaming up with a man who may be the last bona fide defender of the free world is a risk Skeeter’s ready to take. Until a black-tie Washington soiree erupts in a bullet-flying free-for-all. Now Skeeter’s got danger on her trail and Dylan arousing every bad-boy fantasy she ever had. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is about to plunge one man and woman right into the sizzling line of fire….

Okay, this is the second to the last book of the series and the second to the last book of my TBR Challenge that Ames and I started in the beginning of the year.

YAY ME!

Finally, we have Dylan Hart’s story. The story that brings Dylan Hart and Skeeter Bang (LOVE HER NAME) together forever, woo hoo!

I’ve been looking forward to reading this book for some time now, I think since Superman’s book, I totally wanted to skip Creed’s book and then read Kid and Dylan’s book. I was super excited to finally be able to read it and though I thought the book was better than I expected (I heard a lot of people didn’t really care for the book and for Dylan’s character in this book), it’s not my favorite of the books.

And Kid is still my favorite.

But, I really didn’t mind this whole storyline, I mean, Dylan is taken captive and then escapes, he’s been pumped with drugs that could at any moment end his life but he lives and he makes some boneheaded decisions but none of that matters because in the end, he ends up with the woman of his dreams.

He ends up with Skeeter Bang.

And what a woman to end up with, Skeeter Bang is a kick ass heroine. I mean, she can really kick ass but I hated that TJ felt the need to make Skeeter Bang a better shot than Kid Chaos. I think she could have been kick ass without having to steal Kid’s thunder but hey, that might be just my love for Kid talking, who knows. I’m not a fan of goth, punk girls outfits, you know the whole fishnet stockings, and leather, leather and more leather pants/skirts and then the whole chain mail stuff, yeah not my thing but it seemed to totally work for Skeeter, I wanted to know how she would have looked in that Versace dress though. It would have been nice if I got to see that but I guess it was all about fishnet stockings and pink bras and lace shirts.

Oh well.

Dylan Hart didn’t turn out into the man I thought he was going to turn out to be. I wasn’t really disappointed, but his constant issues with loving Skeeter did get on my nerves a bit. I mean, he didn’t want her on the mission even though Christian Hawkins, SUPERMAN for crying out loud said that she was the best person for the job, yet still Dylan didn’t want to take her. Christian read off how many missions she’s been apart of, the experience she got and still Dylan was like, “Nope, fat chance, not on my watch” and all because he was secretly in love with her, it got to be a pain sometime.

When Skeeter turns out to be a blessing on the mission, after the whole mission was shot to hell, I kept waiting for Dylan to thank her for the great job she did, SAVING HIS ASS!

And even though he disappears after everything goes down and leaves for a couple of months, I didn’t really get mad when Skeeter let him off the hook really quick, it was probably because I just wanted them to hurry up and be together already, they only had sex once in the whole book and I just wanted them to hurry up and get it on.

Some things that bothered me in the book was all the…

Stupid.
Crap.
Sentences.
Like.
This.

It was like, hello? Get on with the story already and It irked me how many times Dylan’s heart broke just by looking at Skeeter, all of the “She was so beautiful, she broke his heart.” crap, there were a few of those in there and I’m like, for all the times your heart broke just by thinking, looking and smelling Skeeter, it was no wonder that accompanied with the drugs in your system didn’t kill you clean off this Earth, I wanted to shake him and be like, GET OVER IT!

But I still loved Dylan. LOL.

I did love the way the book ended, with the whole “Screw You” thing going on, I just thought it was cute. Just like this book, it was cute, it flowed well, the story didn’t really drag any where, there was a nice secondary story with Travis James and Gillian, though I’m disappointed because I kind of liked Jane whatever her last name was.

Why couldn’t Travis end up with her? So that’s it, we don’t find out what happens with the James kid, he just disappears, we don’t get to find out how Jane is doing in L.A. Why couldn’t Travis be with her? Goodness, I liked Jane.

Another thing, I liked Gillian the way she was, I’m not really digging the whole amnesia thing that I glimpsed in the first chapter of the book (which was included in the back of Dylan’s book) …why couldn’t Travis fall in love with the girl he met, the Gillian that I liked, what was wrong with her? Ugh, now she’s this billy bad ass killer girl and meh, I’m really not a fan of amnesia books so I’m not looking forward to reading this book, but I’m going to…Ugh.

Should you read this book? Yes, because Dylan is still hot as all get out and the story is fast paced and just not what I expected, but it was still good and enjoyable. So yeah, you should read it and you should enjoy it, I did.

Grade: 4 out of 5

Reviewer: Rowena
Crazy Kisses (Steele Street #4) by Tara Janzen
Series: Steele Street #4
Also in this series: Crazy Hot (Steele Street, #1), Crazy Cool (Steele Street, #2), Crazy Wild (Steele Street, #3), Crazy Love (Steele Street #5)
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: February 28, 2006
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 384
Add It: Goodreads
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Series Rating:

Professional soldier Kid Chronopolous moves in stealth and shadow to take out the world’s deadliest threats. Now, after barely surviving a hair-raising mission in South America, the Special Defense Forces agent comes home to Panama City for some sorely needed R & R…and finds a bikini bottom that can belong to only one woman.

Nikki McKinney has never forgiven Kid for vanishing from her life after the mind-blowing passion they shared. Now he’s suddenly back on the planet, where she’s rising to the top of the local art scene. But her safe, sheltered world is about to be rocked to its core. Because there’s a bounty on Kid’s head–and his enemies don’t care if they take him dead or alive. With dangerous people gunning for him, Kid’s got Nikki running for cover…and right into his arms. Keeping her safe is his latest mission. Keeping their hands off each other is out of the question….

The fourth book in the Crazy series, I’ve got 2 more books to go before I’m done with this series. Dylan’s book and Travis’ book. But finally, I was able to read my sexalicious Kid’s book.

Kid frickin’ Chronopolous.

The ghost killer, the man of many talents, shooting you from way the hell back, keeping you in his sights long enough for him to blow you to pieces. There isn’t a person on the earth that Kid is scared of, there isn’t a person on the planet that Kid won’t hesitate to take out if you try to harm anyone he cares about.

He’s steady and he’s sure and he’s so hot damn sexy it makes me ache.

I loved Kid, even when he was being stupid and couldn’t get the words right with Nikki, I still loved him. I loved him for all the reasons I loved him in all the other books but more so because of the sweet gesture he did for Nikki. I loved how he loved Nikki even though he was so messed up in the head over his brother’s killing. I loved how even though she was engaged to someone else, he still loved the hell out of her. I just straight out loved Kid Chronopolous. I wonder if he was really stupid in the head and did something that irritated the hell out of me if I would still love him, I’m thinking yes because this guy couldn’t really do any wrong in my eyes, I LOVED HIM TOO MUCH!

Great job on that one, TJ!

Nikki, I liked this girl right from the time we met here in Regan and Quinn’s book, when she’s all into her painting of a naked Travis and not giving a damn what anyone thinks. I love that she acted her age, she was 21 and she acted that way, she wasn’t the most perfect of heroines who always made the right decisions, who was always so perfect in everything, I loved that she talked way too much when she was scared and I loved how her love for Kid stayed with her, every time that he up and left her. I loved that her love for Kid was solid and strong.

Even when he was breaking her heart.

The story as a whole was just great, I mean we’ve got Kid, the best killer in all the land trying to keep the woman he loves safe from HIS enemies, the enemies he made while avenging the brother he was closest too. The brother he loved with all that he had and grieved endlessly over. The killing of his brother changed him in so many ways from the man that Nikki McKinney fell in love with and when Nikki flies out to Panama or wherever Kid was, she’s almost killed by just being in the same house as the ghost killer.

It kind of put things into perspective for her, I think. I mean, it explained why he stayed away from her for so long or why he stayed away from home because he was still trying to kill everyone that was trying to hill him and for him to find the time to do what he did for Nikki, just solidified my love for this man. Goodness, that was just SO sweet, Awwwww…

Kid’s biggest enemy, Juan Consuelos is looking for him and gunning to get him since Kid is the bane of his existance, not only is Kid killing off all of his men, but he’s putting a real wrench in his drug dealing business, the man hates him some Kid and wants to destroy him and everything he loves.

But in true romantic form, the good guys come out on top (YAY KID) and I was quite content with the way this book ended, I loved the very last chapter because it was just sweet of girly girl Nikki to do something for Kid, make one of his dreams come true like he does for her, this entire book was really good and has made me ever so curious about Travis James and his book. I’m not like jumping at the chance to read it (I’ve got too many new books to peep out to be excited about any one book) but I did like the Travis and Jane bits.

It was nice getting to know the Rat Queen and Travis better, I even like Travis’ cop friend, Cody. It’ll be nice to see him try to get at Skeet in her book to Dylan, I started Crazy Love and so far so good but I’m not completely blown away or anything but it’s Dylan and I love him so I can’t wait to keep reading more! =)

The only thing that I didn’t really care for in this book was Kid’s inability to talk to Nikki, everything for him in the beginning (even in the other books) was all about sex with her. He doesn’t know how to tell her exactly how he’s feeling at any given time so he just doesn’t say anything and just kisses her until they’re doing the wild monkey dance, it’s like, COME ON, SAY SOMETHING MEANINGFUL already…but other than that, the book is a sure winner for me!

This book was a good read, I loved Kid’s story second of all, Kid is my favorite Crazy man but Superman’s book is still my fav of the series, there’s just something about that Superman that I absolutely love! Read this book, it’s really good and you’ll totally enjoy it and plus, Kid kicks some serious ass in this book and it’s hot!

Grade: 4.75 out of 5