Mr. Real (Code of Shadows #1) by Carolyn Crane

MR. REAL (Code of Shadows #1) by Carolyn Crane (Release Date October 30, 2012)

BOOK BLURB:  He finds the girl of his dreams…with the secret agent of his nightmares.

Alix Gordon is a woman who doesn’t take life too seriously. What’s the fun in that? So when she stumbles across occult software that can bring any computer image to life, she conjures up lots of awesome outfits and accessories. And then, on one drunken, horny night, she conjures up Sir Kendall, the sexy TV ad spy . . . who looks exactly like Paul Reinhardt, the super-sexy martial arts teacher who kicked her out of class three years ago.

Fighter Paul Reinhardt has good reason to hate Sir Kendall, the character he brought to life to land a part in a TV ad; he’d do anything to forget him. A cross country road trip seems just the thing . . . until Paul finds himself inexplicably drawn to Minnesota and is shocked to discover Sir Kendall – in the flesh – with the girl he’d once loved from afar. He barges into Alix and Sir Kendall’s love nest, determined to stop the madness – somehow.

But is superspy Sir Kendall transforming into something more dangerous anyone can imagine? And what will Sir Kendall do when Paul and Alix finally give into their mad lust for each other?

Review:

Alix never feels like she is enough. She feels like she is overshadowed by everyone, her over achieving sisters and her friends. She covers it up by hiding behind her “Crazy Alix” personality. And, she was devastated when Paul kicked her out of his martial arts class, and has pined away for him ever since. And, unbeknownst to her, he had also pined away for her.

The premise of this story is a solid one. Things were revealed about Paul’s traumatic childhood that should have enhanced the story. Instead, the way it was brought to the forefront seemed forced and didn’t flow into the story that had already been building. Sir Kendall was a “persona”, if you will, that Paul was forced to assume at the hands of his tortuous step-brothers. And how he ultimately dealt with it was, in a word, strange.

When Alix conjured up Sir Kendall, she had no idea that she had also conjured up another “character”……… And when they all come together at the climax of the story, it, in my opinion, fell short.

To say Alix is a little flighty would be slighting her. LOL!!!! Her thought process was laughable at times, but in the end she tried her hardest to make everything “right”. There were some funny moments in the story and some downright strange ones. However, in the end, there is a happily ever after. I understand that this is the first in a trilogy and hope that the next one “brings to life” something a little less chaotic.

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Vickie M.