Rules of Engagement
Romantic Suspense
Setting – Iran
Berkley (September 6, 2022)
Hardcover : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 0593439392
ISBN-13 : 978-0593439395
Kindle ASIN : B09N6FR6YH
Love is a game of chance in this romantic suspense novel by New York Times bestselling author and American politician and activist Stacey Abrams, writing under her pen name, Selena Montgomery.
Dr. Raleigh Foster, an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn’t hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she’s assigned a partner—brooding, sexy Adam Grayson—to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all…is falling in love.
Adam blames himself for the botched mission that got his best friend killed by Scimitar, and he believes that Raleigh may have contributed to the man’s death. But the closer he works with his alluring partner, the more his suspicions turn to trust—and intense desire. Now, as he and Raleigh untangle a twisted web of secrets and lies, the tension mounts between them…until their masquerade as a couple proves too tempting to resist.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
The mission failed, people died, or did they? Now Dr. Raleigh Foster with Adam Grayson posing as her lover are going back to clean up the mess they left.
Notice how short my recap is of the book, too bad the author didn’t realize less can be more.
I have wanted to read a book by this author for a while but boy did I pick the wrong book. I was ready to give up this overly wordy book at the halfway point but I had committed to review this book so I kept going. It didn’t get any better.
The characters were strange and the relationships are muddy. They had no depth. Raleigh and Adam had worked together before. Supposedly Adam fell in love with her. Now three years later readers are to believe he didn’t recognize her. Then when they started working together again they fought like children. He couldn’t handle she was in charge of the operation but still was interested in her romantically. Just too much bickering for me.
As for this espionage plot, it was all over the place and overly complicated, and hard to follow. The romance scenes were okay but seemed off-putting. I didn’t think the characters had any chemistry. I really started to feel the book just went on and on until the author met the necessary word count.
I admire Stacey Abrams’ political strengths and would definitely vote for her if I lived in Georgia but this book just missed on so many levels. She has a lot on her plate running for Governor and her work boosting voter turnout, maybe she should stick to that right now because it seems clear she lost her focus on this book.
Rules of Engagement
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
