Hero: Mark Callahan
Heroine: Annabella Monroe
Grade: 4 out of 5
When ex-Military Intelligence officer Mark Callahan discovers that someone is murdering members of his former unit, he must join forces with the only team member more dangerous than himself—his estranged wife, Annabelle Monroe. A private investigator, Annabelle would rather trade in her gun for a slingshot than partner with Mark. But she can’t deny her old loyalties—or the sudden threat to their safety. So together, she and Mark will follow the bloody trail of a killer, only to come face-to- face with betrayal—and an overpowering desire…
I really need to quit this fascination I have with starting a series in the damned middle of the series because this is like the upteenth book that I’ve started that is either the third in the series, the last in a series or some other such number that isn’t the first in the series. This particular book, Always Look Twice is the third addition to the Callahan Brother’s series by Geralyn Dawson. This book is Mark Callahan’s story and a lot of background information that I’m sure was peppered in the other stories (of which I have now ordered and will be reading soon because my nosy behind needs to know everything about the Callahan’s) made little to no sense to me in this story and I’m sure my feelings for Mark would have been a whole lot stronger had I read the other books before this one. This isn’t one of those books that you could read as a stand alone, there was too many things that popped off in this book that left me wishing I had read the other books but even with all of the confusing bits, I still ended up really enjoying this book.
I thought about this book while I was at work and I couldn’t wait until I got home so that I can concentrate on what I was reading instead of reading in between bouts of work and then forgetting what I read and having to start all over again, so that should be an indication on how much I still enjoyed the book.
I knew that I was going to enjoy this book but my only gripe is that I didn’t read this book completely comfortable that I knew everything that I needed to know. I felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle and so I rushed out and bought the first two books in this series so that I can fill in the missing pieces of the Callahan puzzle.
You see, the thing about this story is that the hero and the heroine were already married when the book began and though their marriage wasn’t a very conventional one, once Annabelle wanted more from their marriage in the form of children and actually living together, Mark cut her out. He stopped calling and then he stopped talking to her but no, he never stopped wanting her. I thought that was so lame, he wants her so much and he cares about her so much but he doesn’t want her to have his kids, he doesn’t want a normal marriage, he just wants to continue meeting her in exotic places all over the world and have wild, crazy monkey sex with her. I hated that and I think what made me hate that whole thing even more was for so long in the book, Annabelle wants a family, she wants her own kids and her own family and she wants all of that with Mark but he can’t and won’t give it to her so he divorces her. But when things are starting to work out for them again, Annabelle suddenly thinks, oh well, maybe it wasn’t kids that I wanted but a real commitment from him.
I hated that she did this 180 turn and was like, I just want you to love me Mark kind of thing. If she would have stuck to her guns about wanting kids and all that, I would have been a much happier person and since I’m talking about what disappointed me in this book is we spend the entire book trying to figure out who is trying to kill off Mark and Annabelle’s teammates. There are two different sets of people trying to off them and after we get the big ol’ showdown with one killer, the other killer’s big showdown falls totally flat on its face. I was expecting this big blow up but there wasn’t one and that threw me off a bit but even with all of this disappointing stuff, I still enjoyed the book. I enjoyed getting to know dummy Mark (and he’s hecka Alpha so he gets points for being smexy and in charge) and I cheered Annabelle on each and every time that she put Mark in his place and I enjoyed the bits and pieces of both of their families. I liked that we got to spend a significant amount of time with both of their families and Geralyn Dawson did a great job of hooking me in because she sure did bring out the emotions in me. I was cheering, growling and all that other good stuff with this book and I already bought the other books in this series so stay tuned for those reviews because I will be finishing this series out, there’s going to be another book after this one because this book left off with quite a bit of a cliffhanger so I’m anxious to read that one after I get to know Luke and Matt Callahan a lot more. Woo hoo, these Callahan men sure are sexy studmuffins and I can’t wait to read more.
Should you read this book? Yes and see if Mark gets on your nerves and then makes you sigh and then makes you fall in love with him and all of his dumbness anyway, you’ll want to know these Callahan men because their a studly bunch but in all seriousness, this book was great but it’s one of those books where you’ll enjoy this book a whole lot more if you read the other books before this one first.
This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
