Dream Huntress by Michelle Sharpe – Review & Guest Post

 

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Description:
Detective Jordan Delany has a gift. Through her dreams, she connects with dead victims of violent crimes. Her isolated life as a drug cop is perfect for hiding the freakish visions, until her newest investigation has her posing as a cocktail waitress in a down-and-dirty strip club. When she’s saved from a drunken customer by a handsome stranger, the heated chemistry is exactly why she intends to keep Mr. Arrogant at bay. But learning he’s the new bouncer for the corrupt club she intends to bust just might be the one reason why she can’t.

Tyler McGee suspects a drug ring operating out of the local club is flooding the streets of his hometown with heroin. Determined to get answers, he plays the part of a fallen cop and lands the job of head bouncer. What he discovers is that the club owner isn’t the only deadly obstacle he’s facing. His attraction to an intriguing cocktail waitress with a penchant for danger just might kill him first.

 

Review:

She could deal with the drunks, the hands, and the come-ons. Because at the end of the day, she’d not only bring the Bucks down, she’d enjoy every last minute of watching them crash and burn. And if she happened to come face-to-face with the son of a bitch who’d ordered the kill on their deep-cover cops, all the better.

A woman scorn…no…a woman with a badge and a purpose. Add Tyler, a hot bouncer, to the mix, and suddenly, the job becomes endurable. Dream Huntress by Michelle Sharp explores the world of Jordan, a St. Louis detective working undercover as a strip club waitress to shut down the long arms of a drug cartel. When Ty gets under her skin, however, making himself indispensable, Jordan’s demons go into overdrive setting up roadblocks to deter involvement. Yeah, good luck with that.

The banter was flirtatious and developed rapidly. The key here was in its frequency. Ms. Sharp let the characters dialogue regularly and those exchanges, the unconventional courtship, were always engaging.   The harder Jordan tries to create distance, the faster Ty closes in on those gaps. But never mind that (for now at least). Complications start to mount.

Ty is a disgruntled former cop and the FBI, to whom Jordan currently answers, suspects local enforcement is in thick with the shady dealings at Buck’s Nightclub. Ty is actually infiltrating Buck’s “enterprise” to dismantle from within. Ummm…communication, people – a biiiig heaping spoonful of it! Problem is: Jordan and Ty can’t break cover just because they’re attracted to one another (not to mention Jordan’s sixth sense). It’s a rule you never break. But after one sizzling kiss…

Danger flashed in her mind like a warning sign at a construction site. He could be working for Buck. Or more probable – and more frightening – he could be a good man with the innate ability to scale all her carefully placed walls. Neither option was good.

Different strategies, same goal. At the end of Chapter 6 (or 36%)…we love Ty…Ty rocks our world…but we still don’t know the details of his agenda or motives (what’s up with the ring he carries in his pocket?) We do know he’s one persistent mofo, “the man is a f*cking dog with a bone” and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, lol. His alphaness is a bit overwhelming, but he knows when to rein it in. Jordan’s in over her head at Buck’s and Ty’s radar is going ballistic. If Ty’s being honest, Jordan’s embedded herself under his skin so profoundly, and in no time at all, it’s beyond physical – he won’t settle for less than all of her. A girl could get used to that. But what is she thinking?! Duty calls and Jordan doesn’t have the time to lose herself in Ty. Again: Good luck with that! The steam in this book coupled with the unflappability of Ty culminates in many swoons, my friends.

I really enjoyed this book. My only critique, and it honestly did not bother me, is that the love story seemed to outshine the drug bust. There are action and background stories to layer the book — I just haven’t disclosed them because I’m a spoiler-free type of contributor. 😀 Ms. Sharp developed these characters so thoughtfully; you lose yourself in the romance. Hardly a complaint when she had me completely engrossed in their personal story.

Unlock the secrets Jordan and Ty have been keeping; truths that may be too much to handle. Dream Huntress is the whole package: Danger to keep you in suspense and romance to soothe you during the nightmares. So much to love!

Reviewed by Carmen

Copy provided by Publisher

 

Variety or Voyeur? By Michelle Sharp

The recent release of Dream Huntress has been a fun and fabulous few weeks. Actually, the most fun is when someone asks, “What’s next?” One friend called, genuinely concerned about whether Ty and Jordan will stay together and have that ultimate happily ever after. She explained that she usually gravitated towards the kind of series where you have the first hot brother and his story. And then in book 2, the story of the next hot brother, or best friend, or Marine buddy, so on and so forth.

It wasn’t the first time I had heard this. But it was the first time I decided there really are two different kinds of “romance series camps.” We’ll call the first camp—Camp Variety. Romance fans who plain old need a little change. They want a new hero and heroine in each book, diverse story arcs, and varied conflict in each book. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the way the romance world has operated for years, pretty darn successfully I might add.

However, I think there is a different camp becoming more and more popular in the romance genre. One comprised of inquisitive (perhaps obsessive) people like me. Camp Voyeur, if you will, infatuated with what happens after that, “Gee, I love you” moment. I mean seriously, you want good old fashioned conflict? When I look at my relationship with my husband, I realize that things didn’t get real until after we moved in together. Merging two lives into one can be explosive. Right?

So why must the fantasy end at I love you?

If I really fall for a character, I want the true grit that comes after all the firsts, too. What happens when an old flame comes back into town? What if one of the characters is wrongly accused of a crime, or hiding a deadly secret? How does the relationship work then? And man, OH, man—there is something to be said for reading a sexy love scene between two characters that know each other’s hot spots and history.

I get that books are supposed to be romance, fantasy—escape. No one wants to read about characters clipping their nails or arguing over the electric bill. But it still doesn’t mean I don’t totally want to be a voyeur while Roarke is washing Eve’s back in J.D. Robb’s In Death Series. (And screw tradition, because if Roarke did nothing more than clip Eve’s fingernails, I guarantee it would be sexy.)

I must, must, must know how Nick and Sam are doing in Marie Force’s Fatal Series. And don’t even get me started on Eva and Gideon. Sylvia Day has me hook, line, and sinker when it comes to those two.

My point is, I like the fantasy of the first kiss, the first time our characters make love, the moment the first “I love you” is spoken. But life happens. There is no greater thrill than exploring it with the characters I love. It’s like coming home to the familiar or visiting with family I haven’t seen in a while.

So to my friend I said, “Don’t worry, life will go on for Jordan and Ty. And because of Jordan’s gift, you can bet it will be a wild and complicated ride.”

I found that to be a perfectly politically correct response. But my friend said, “You’re seriously not going to tell me? You suck.” LOL. (But I know she still loves me.)

How about you? Are you Variety or Voyeur? Maybe we need a little of both camps to really keep the excitement flowing.

 

Michelle Sharp is a romantic suspense author from the Midwest. Although she has a degree in journalism from Southern Illinois University, she finds weaving tales of danger, deception, and love much preferable to reporting the cold, hard facts. Her goal in life? To team resilient, kick-ass heroines with the sexy alpha’s who love them. As most writers probably are, she is an avid reader. Her husband and kids would call it obsessive—but whatever. Her first choice is usually a story with a thrilling combination of danger and love, but any book with a great voice and intriguing story will keep her turning pages well past any reasonable bed-time.

Her debut novel will be published with Entangled Ignite in June of 2014. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and Missouri Romance Writers.

Website: michellesharpbooks.com / Twitter / Facebook: / Goodreads: