Review: "Street Game" by Christine Feehan

Street Game by Christine Feehan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I love the GhostWalkers series, so it was a given that I had to read Street Game even if I didn’t particularly love the previous book, Murder Game. When I heard this new book was going to be about a whole new team, I was a bit wary. Why introduce a bunch of new characters when there’s still a lot of characters from previous books whose stories haven’t been told yet? Well, there was nothing for me to do but go along with Ms. Feehan’s decision and enjoy the read…

Master Gunnery Seargent Mack McKinley is the leader of this new GhostWalkers team. Jaimie Fielding is the girl that got away, and Mack wants her back – not necessarily on the team, but mainly in his life. The way he sees it, they belong together and she’d better accept that. He was taken by surprise when she took off 2 years ago, but now that he’s found her again, he’s going to keep her for good. Jaimie doesn’t want Mack and the GhostWalkers back in her life, but she hasn’t much say in the matter when it becomes clear that someone has gone to great lengths to reunite them and her life might be in danger. So Mack and his First Seargent Kane Cannon move into her house, while the rest of the team scatter themselves in her neighborhood to protect her. One woman, surrounded by several testosterone-driven men at her service… If this was a Lora Leigh book, Jaimie would be one very busy lady, LOL. Anyway, I digress…

While Mack struggles to rebuild his relationship with Jaimie, he also has to figure out who set them up and catch some terrorist who, by coincidence or not, happen to have a big load of illegal weapons stored in a warehouse near Jaimie’s. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, Jaimie’s also working "in the shadows" to find evidences against Dr. Whitney and his wrongdoings. It’s obvious that Dr. Whitney is still as powerful as ever, and it’s hard to tell who’s friend or foe – especially when it looks like their own CO Seargent Major Griffen can’t be trusted and there seems to be a traitor in the team.

So, have I enjoyed this read? Yes, absolutely. But I didn’t love it, and I "blame" Mack and Jamie for it. Their romance didn’t raise my temperature. Don’t get me wrong, their love scenes were steaming hot – except the one where he was "interrogating" her, which was kind of uncomfortable to me – and I had some fun with their banter, but there was no real conflict in their relationship. Simply put, there was no reasonable explanation for them to be apart. Jaimie was the one who left, so she should have a plausible explanation for that, right? Well, I doubt she knew why she had left... First, it was because she wanted a commitment Mack wasn’t willing to give; then, it was because she couldn’t stand the violence that surrounded the GhostWalkers way of life; later, it was because she was investigating Dr. Whitney’s dirty deeds and she didn’t want to put Mack and his team in danger; then, it was back to Mack’s commitment issues… Lather, rinse, repeat. Get it together, woman! As for Mack, he was one of those alpha males I love to hate. He had a one-track mind when it came to Jamie, and I had no problem with that. Yes, I wanted to smack him in the head a couple of times, but I ended up understanding why he had to be so dominant. His sense of humor was key to make me more sympathetic towards him. Without it, he’d be nothing more than a big bully.

Considering how disappointing I found Mack and Jaimie, you might be asking why I gave this book 4 stars. Well, the romance was meh, but the rest was great. The whole GhostWalkers concept is very fascinating to me: even though the series has become more far fetched as it progressed, it still contains some elements that I could see happening in real life and I love this mix of PNR with a twist of reality. I also love the "tech talk". I know most readers don’t care for it, but I’m a computer geek so I can’t help it. :) Last, but not least, I can’t forget to mention the action scenes: Ms. Feehan really knows how to write them. I was on the edge of my seat, even though I knew the good guys would win in the end. Great job there, Ms. Feehan!

As expected, this book introduced a lot – and I mean A LOT – of new GhostWalkers. Two of them, Kane and Brian, should be familiar to those who have been following the series, but all the others were brand-new heroes in the making. I admit I got a bit confused in the beginning of the book, having to learn all those new names and trying to remember who was who, but it didn’t take long before I saw them as longtime friends. Kane, Javier and Gideon have already claimed a piece of my heart. Hopefully, one of them will be the hero in the next book in the series. Can’t wait! ;)



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