I’m a reader who loves to be surprised by a book. You see the book, you read the jacket and you think the book is one thing. But a couple pages into it, you realize you were dead wrong on what the book was going to be. Sometimes the surprise is a good thing, sometimes not. The surprise I got from Run Among Thorns was absolutely wonderful.

Our first moments with Jenny Waring find her in an unpleasant situation. Her workplace is being held up and the whole office is being held hostage. In a moment of clear thinking and quick action, Jenny expertly defends her coworkers against the attackers allowing them all the chance to live.

Unfortunately Jenny freed her coworkers a little too expertly and now the law is questioning just how she got to be such a good shot. All Jenny wants to do is go home and have a hot shower, but instead she finds herself turned over to a specialist named McAllister.

Trapped in a hovel in the middle of Scotland, Jenny knows she is in trouble. McAllister is clearly well trained at his job and is committed to finding out where her skills with a gun came from. One problem is that he doesn’t believe the truth. But Jenny’s got a bigger problem than that: she’s incredibly attracted to her interrogator.

Kier McAllister was the best at what he did. Nobody could keep a secret from him for very long, especially when locked up with him in the middle of nowhere subjected to his constant questioning. But somehow he knows this job is going to be different.

Seeing the evidence of Jenny’s abuse during the attack on her workplace, Kier feels something he’s rarely felt – sympathy. Time to get a grip on himself though, an interrogator has no room for sympathy, especially when his subject is such an attractive woman.

Kier had cracked beautiful women before, made them spill their guts to him in exchange for their freedom. This Jenny was tougher than she looked though. If he didn’t know better, he’d believe her when she told him she had no cover and was just being herself. No matter, he’ll get her to break. He’d never failed a job before and wasn’t about to start now.

From the first page, I couldn’t put down Anna Louise Lucia’s Run Among Thorns. The story was a fast and furious trip with two fascinating characters that drew me into their world before I knew what happened.

Filled with sexual tension overlaid on a well-built story, this romantic suspense novel was everything I could have asked for in a summer read. The only reason I did not give Run Among Thorns a full score of ten is because a few of the outcomes were predictable. By no means is that a reason to pass up this great read though; it is otherwise perfect.

Bravo to the author! Keep these great stories coming!
 
Reviewed By Sabine Maurier
© August 2008