Tag: Tara Janzen

Cutting Loose by Tara Janzen

Posted January 14, 2008 by Casee in Reviews | 4 Comments

Genres: Romantic Suspense


Book description:

CIA operative Zachary Prade made his name taking out world threats. But now he’s tracking a very different kind of danger and her name is Lily Robbins. Lily holds the key to a valuable encoded file that’s about to fall into the wrong hands. All Zach has to do is retrieve the key and forget the rain-soaked beauty who came to his Central American plantation seeking shelter from more than the weather.

Lily knows him as Alejandro Campos, the seductive drug lord who saved her life. They met when she traveled to El Salvador to film a documentary…and got caught in the middle of a nasty drug-and-guerrilla war. Now, back in the U.S., hunted by spooks and assassins, Lily has to trust Campos again. Except his name isn’t Campos, and he’s arousing a passion so hot it’s criminal. That is, if they can survive long enough to enjoy it…

Damn. This book starts off with a bang and just doesn’t quit. I loved it.

After finding out that the enigmatic Alejandro Campos was going to be the hero of this book, it couldn’t come quickly enough to suit me. He’s the ideal bad boy b/c he’s really not bad. He’s just hot. He’s sexy, too.

Lily Robbins knows all about Alejandro Campos. What she doesn’t know is that Alejandro is also known as Zach Prade, CIA Agent extraordinaire. After coming home from South America where she planned on filming a documentary, Lily vows to forget all about the man who saved her life. That’s easier said than done, of course and Lily is horrified that she can’t stop thinking about the biggest drug lord in South America. When strange things start happening after she returns home to New Mexico, Lily doesn’t question her paranoia, she starts making plans to go home to Montana.

Before she can get on a plane, Zach shows up at her house. Chaos ensues.

Zach was pulled out of deep cover to find out if Lily has a macabre bracelet that was missing from a dead pilot that she had contact with in South America. Knowing full well that she must have it, Zach has to find out if Lily is the innocent he thought she was, or if she has plans to sell the bracelet to the highest bidder. Arriving at her house none too soon, Zach catches two men sneaking into her house. Taking Lily and fleeing, all Zach has to do is get from New Mexico to Denver where he can take refuge at the Steele Street loft.

Nothing ever goes according to plan. See, there’s other people that want the bracelet. People that will do just about anything to get it. It doesn’t help that the car that Zach has is an extremely rare Shelby Mustang. Red w/ white racing stripes. It was pretty amusing to think about these two remaining incognito in this car.

Even though this book took place over the course of 24 hours, the romance was completely believable. I’m not sure it would have been if Lily and Zach hadn’t previously met. There was also some good scenes between Skeeter and Dylan. I hope Janzen continues to show readers how that relationship changes and grows. Zach was officially the last Steele Street boy to come home, so it’ll be interesting to see where the series goes from here.

4 out of 5.


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On the Loose by Tara Janzen

Posted November 8, 2007 by Casee in Reviews | 3 Comments

Genres: Romantic Suspense

Book description:

Keeping cool under pressure is the credo C. Smith Rydell lives by. That’s why he was handpicked by the Special Defense Forces for a mission few men survive. So why has the ex–DEA superstar been reassigned to Panama City, playing bodyguard to a blond in a black string bikini? Except Honey York isn’t your average pampered socialite. She’s the woman Rydell caught smuggling cash into El Salvador four months ago. And now she wants him to take her back.

All Honey has to do is find the guerrilla camp, deliver the goods, and get the hell out of the jungle—all in forty-eight hours. Only one man is up for the job. But sharing an unforgettable one-night stand was nothing next to being stranded with Rydell on some third world mountaintop. And with bullets flying and all hell breaking loose, now is not the time for passion. As if these two could possibly resist it….

The plot of this book is so unbelievable it borders on ridiculous. That obviously didn’t effect me, b/c I started reading it and could not put it down. All the sub-plots that were happening really should have detracted from the “real” plot of the book, but somehow they didn’t. To be honest, I’m not sure I really get what the real plot of the book even was.

Basically, this is what we have (when it comes to sub-plots):

-A lover thought long-dead, who now wants to kill Rydell b/c he knows a secret about her that she thought died when he died (yes, they both think the other is dead).

-A nun pregnant by the (evil) leader of the CNL.

-A drug lord who actually seems to have a conscience.

-A teacher from Albequerque, NM who headed to Panama City with big dreams of making a difference.

This is addition to the main plot, which is somewhat confusing as it is, so bear with me.

Honey York-Lytton never thought she’d see C. Smith Rydell again. After their passion filled night and his subsequent help with delivering money to her sister, Julia (a nun), Honey went home thinking that was that. The end. That all changes when the CIA threatens to charge her with treason (for taking money to her sister in Panama City, which they have photographs of) unless she undertakes a mission. Her mission? Meet Smith, recover a flash drive in a plane that crashed, taking five Louis Vuitton suitcases full of who-knows-what along with a briefcase to Alejandro Campos. Alejandro Campos would be the drug lord with a conscience.

Oh and she must do it in 48 hours. If she fails to accomplish her mission, she’ll be forever exiled from the United States and Smith will be arrested for treason.

As for Smith himself, he is dumbfounded by what has happened to get him to Panama City. After finding out that the lover that tried to kill him is really not dead, Smith has his own set of problems without taking on Honey. He’s not surprised to find out that Honey’s agreement to come to Panama City really has nothing to do with the CIA and everything to do with Julia.

I really enjoyed this book. After reading the cluster that was Crazy Sweet, I really didn’t know if I would like On the Loose. Honey and Smith’s story started in Crazy Sweet and for me, that’s what saved that book. Without them it would have been completely awful instead of just kind of awful.

I loved that there was more to Honey than met the eye. Usually people took Honey at face value. I’m sure the name Honey didn’t help. Smith was really the only person that ever looked past her physical attributes to see what lay beyond. Their banter was highly amusing. I loved the story of what the “C” stood for in C. Smith Rydell. I also loved how Honey teased Smith about it (I would have too).

There was a lot of action and hot sex in this book. Definitely worth the read.

4 out of 5.


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Review: Crazy Love by Tara Janzen

Posted June 13, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 12 Comments

Review: Crazy Love by Tara JanzenReviewer: 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
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars

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

four-stars


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Review: Crazy Kisses by Tara Janzen

Posted June 11, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 13 Comments

Review: Crazy Kisses by Tara JanzenReviewer: 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
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

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

four-half-stars


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Review: Crazy Wild by Tara Janzen

Posted June 7, 2007 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Review: Crazy Wild by Tara JanzenReviewer: Rowena
Crazy Wild (Steele Street, #3) by Tara Janzen
Series: Steele Street #3
Also in this series: Crazy Hot (Steele Street, #1), Crazy Cool (Steele Street, #2), Crazy Kisses (Steele Street #4), Crazy Love (Steele Street #5)
Publisher: Dell
Publication Date: January 31st 2006
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 386
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

It’s a long way from the jungles of Colombia to a Colorado library, where Special Forces operative Creed Rivera is staking out one of the world’s most dangerous women. With her prim librarian looks, Cordelia “Cody” Stark doesn’t look like a nuclear arms broker. But nabbing her is Creed’s latest mission–until a trio of thugs shows up and he’s suddenly forced to play hero....

Armed with secrets that could ignite a global inferno, Cody was already running out of places to hide. And now a hotshot government agent has blown her cover by throwing himself between her and certain death. Trusting the hero who just saved her life is not an option. Resisting him is something else entirely. And when bullets start to fly, a man and a woman running out of time are gearing up for the wildest adventure of their lives….

The third book in the Crazy series and Creed Rivera’s book. This story takes place in the jungles of Denver where Tangos, or terrorists known to us civilians are running wild trying to find, Cordy Stark. Creed has just gotten back from South America where he was with Kid, killing everyone that had a hand in torturing him and killing JT. Creed hasn’t been the same since he witnessed JT’s death and even after the whole killing spree, he’s still not all there.

With everyone out, Dylan Hart has no choice but to send in the Jungle Boy on an assignment to capture and keep a well known terrorist, Cordelia Dominwhatever safe until he can turn her over to Dylan and Dylan can turn her over to General Grant and he can turn her loose on the government peeps that want her. Cody is in negotiation with every bad terrorist in the world over some nuclear bomb that only she knows where its at. The location of the bomb is hidden in the depths of a book that Cordy has and that’s what everyone wants.

After a few hours in her company, Creed has decided that she’s basically innocent and and then after just one night with her, he’s convinced that he’s in love with her.

And she’s in love with him too.

So he’s waiting for the perfect opportunity for him to sweep her away and not let her serve any jail time because of course she’s innocent and she doesn’t want him to die or get in trouble because she loves him so of course she’s going to try to fix things and blah blah blah.

This story wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good either. I mean, I guess the timing of this whole story was off for me because in the other books, Creed was mostly in the background and while I was reading this book, I still felt like Creed was a background character to Skeeter and Dylan’s story.

I didn’t get a sense of what kind of man Creed was, only a troubled one because of what he went through with JT. It would have been nice to see Creed’s family, get to know Creed a little better all the while he’s jumping through flying bullets to save Cordy’s life and well, I just didn’t feel like I knew Creed, the way I knew Christian or the way I knew Quinn after reading their books. And what is up with the falling in love after one night thing?

With Quinn and Christian, their books were the falling back in love with their first loves and then with Kid and Creed, it’s the after one night with these women, they’ve fallen deep in love. Are you serious? One story, maybe I can believe, I guess the way Kid and Nikki met, Kid was sent to protect her and she wasn’t the bad guy but with Creed…she WAS the bad guy and in ONE NIGHT, he falls in love with her and is ready to run from the law just so he can stay with her?

Yeah, it was just hard for me to believe and their chemistry was just rushed. They met one minute and the next, she runs from him and he’s like, “Damn but I love her” okay so that’s a gross exageration but still…it’s kind of hard to believe that Creed, stone cold ghost killer that he is, would fall in love so fast with someone he just met….who is supposed to be a Tango! Let’s be real now.

And Cordy, I just couldn’t really get a fix on her. I knew she wasn’t bad since she was the heroine of this story but she didn’t really wow me with anything. With other heroines, I can see why the hero would fall for them but I didn’t get that with Cody. I got, ohh I feel sorry for her but that’s not enough for me to be like, “Oh she’s perfect for Creed” …I just didn’t get that with this story.

I did love the little snippets of Skeeter and Dylan. Man but I’m excited to read their story, even if nobody liked it (did anyone like it? I’ve only heard bad things about Dylan, am I going to hate him? Oh hell no). I love Skeeter, I think she is so awesome with her platinum blonde pony tail, her scar on her forehead and just her personality. She’s going to be a kick ass heroine and I’m so excited to read her book. I also love me some Dylan Hart too and am anxious to see what he turns out to be in his own story…man, but I love that man and his little crush that he’s got on Skeet is SO cute. BRING IT ON!

This whole story was just too fast and too furious and had too slow to start. Throughout this book, I looked forward to the Dylan and Skeeter parts more than the Creed and Cody parts and then half way through the middle I wanted to hurry up with the book so that I could start Kid’s book already. I’m really really excited for Kid’s book.

So was this story good? It was okay. It was average. Regardless of the lack of depth to the characters in this book, I found it enjoyable but it’s not going to get a reread anytime soon and it’s a good set up for Dylan and Skeeter’s book which is next after Kid’s book, right? YAY…so yeah, read this because it’s part of the series but don’t expect fireworks or anything because you’ll end up only with a couple of BOOMS and that’s about it.

Grade: 3 out of 5

three-stars


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