Review: "If Looks Could Chill" by Nina Bruhns

If Looks Could Chill by Nina Bruhns

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Based on Shoot to Thrill, the 1st book in the series, I knew I had to suspend disbelief to enjoy this read. I had no problem with that - in fact, this book wasn't as far-fetched as the previous one. :)

Ms. Bruhns knows how to write action scenes. As far as I can tell, she's got the military lingo right - but I'm no expert - and even though I knew the good guys would win in the end, she's kept me on the edge of my seat. The torture scenes were nasty but less cringe-worthy than the ones in the 1st book - not that I'm complaining. Overall, I really enjoyed the suspense in this book.

Now, the romance... I'm sorry to say, it didn't work that well for me. It wasn't the lack of it; on the contrary, there were three romances going on in the book: Marc/Tara, Quinn/Darcy and Alex/Rebel/Wade - the last one was a love triangle, not a ménage. It was all too much and none of them had enough "screen time" to be developed the way they should have been. Based on the book description, Marc and Tara were the H/h, but that's not the impression I got while reading the book because the other romances had as many pages/scenes as theirs. The way it was, Ms. Bruhns couldn't make me connect with any of the characters. Sure, I wanted them to find their HEA, but I can't say I was devastated when one of them didn't.

The love/sex scenes were hot as expected, but I skimmed though the last ones. Come on, with three couples doing it whenever they got the chance, there were times I wanted to tell them to stop and give me a break - after all, this isn't erotica/romantica, LOL.

Besides the three romances, there was also another storyline going on: Gina's. Her story started in the 1st book and it wasn't finished in this 2nd book, so I guess I'll have to read the next book to find out how it will end.

All in all, this wasn't a bad read. It was too busy and crowded, which prevented me from getting to know and understand the characters well enough to love them, but it has its fun moments.



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