Check Mate

Family Secrets #12

by Beverly Barton

SUBJECT: Jake Ingram, world financier
FAMILY HISTORY: Leader of the Extraordinary Five siblings
DEEPEST SECRET: His quest to defeat the Coalition might be the Extraordinary Five's undoing

Financial genius Jake Ingram had always known he was different, a feeling that kept the handsome millionaire from getting close to others. And now the truth was out: He was one of five genetically engineered siblings created by a top-secret government organization to do its evil bidding. But Jake's brilliant logic served him no good when he found himself in the hands of his enemy once again. His only escape was to gain the trust of Mariah Daley, an undercover agent ordered to brainwash him. But would Jake's thirst for vengeance and fear of trusting others destroy them both -- and the family Jake had risked everything to reunite...?

Five extraordinary siblings,
One dangerous past.
Unlimited potential.

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Beverly Marie Inman was born on 23 December 1946 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. Daughter of Doris Marie and Walter D. Inman Jr. A born romantic, she fell in love with The Beauty and the Beast epic at an early age, when her grandfather bought her an illustrated copy of the famous fairy tale. Even before she learned to read and write, her vivid imagination created magical words and fabulous characters inside her mind. Movies fascinated her, and by the time she was seven she was rewriting the movies she saw on television and at the local theater to give them all happy endings. By the age of nine she'd penned her first novel. She wrote short stories, TV scripts, poetry, and novels throughout high school and into college.

After her marriage to Billy Ray Beaver, the "love of her life", and the births of her two children, Beverly continued to be a voracious reader and a devoted moviegoer, but she put her writing aspirations on hold until her children were teenagers. At every age of their lives, from infancy to adulthood, the children had been a true joy to her. She devoted herself to her husband and children and considered herself one of the many selfless "supermoms" who put their family's needs first. She believed she had had it all, just not all at the same time.

In her mid-30s, Beverly returned to her former passion — writing — as a hobby, but before 40, she decided that she wanted to make writing a full-time career. And when she rediscovered an old dream — of becoming a published writer — no one was more supportive of her aspirations than her family. Her children were her greatest cheerleaders and her husband was her biggest supporter. After writing over 40 books and receiving numerous awards and nominations, as well as having books on the USA Today list and consistently on the Waldenbooks bestseller list, her career was indeed a dream come true. Having a fantastic family and fabulous friends, as well as making a living doing the one thing she had loved doing since childhood, she considered herself truly blessed. Beverly died suddenly of heart failure on 21 April 2011.

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the end of the last story, Jake, the only one of his siblings untouched by love, volunteers to take Gideon's place in retrieving the doom-for-the-Coalition disk hidden in Gideon's quarters. Only Jake is captured before he can reach it. He wakes up in a house in the middle of Arizona, the "guest" of two lackeys and a Dr. Mariah Brooks, who has instructions to prepare him to be reprogrammed and controllable. Mariah isn't actually in the Coalition, she's an undercover FBI agent who is under orders to protect Jake at all costs. She sets out first to earn his trust, which is no easy task, but she succeeds. They both agree they need to escape. But here their opinions on what to do next diverge. Jake wants to go after the disk and to rescue his brother Gideon, who has been recaptured. Mariah wants to follow orders and bring Jake in to protect him and let the FBI deal with getting Gideon back if they can. While all of this is going on, Mariah and Jake are also dealing with a rather inconvenient attraction to each other. Trust issues abound and are all wrapped up once Mariah decides that love and support are more important than orders.

So this succeeds very well in the suspense department, which I'd kind of hoped for given that this is the last in the "Extraordinary Five" part of the series. I mean, we still had to take down the Coalition and do something about Agnes and Oliver. This gets wrapped up and it feels like the Coalition proper is dealt with - no more threats to the siblings. Yay. And this is pretty decent suspense, hearkening back to Zach's story, with two people trying to escape a kidnapping/hostage situation, an over-amorous lackey, etc. Not a boring moment or slow pace to be found.

Now the romance was a bit underwhelming for me, but I think that had to do with the situation and Jake and Mariah as characters. Jake is written fairly well...as I imagined him throughout the series, but I find that I didn't like how those characteristics played out in a romance. He's over-protective of his siblings, the LEADER who is responsible for their well-being and he is determined to be in control - these are the aspects that get played out in this story. In previous stories though we've seen glimpses of vulnerability, tenderness towards his siblings/mother and a real likeable guy. Unfortunately the kidnapping situation didn't allow for much of this to come out. Jake was all reaction and all control the entire time. And he had a lot of anger also. So I don't feel like we got to see the best side of Jake in this story and this comes across clear as day in the romance. He makes plans to use Mariah's attraction to him to escape (which let's face it, that's practical...it's just also kinda cold in a romance), he refuses to forgive her for putting his safety (her job) over his desire to rescue his brother, he angry-sexes her against a wall and then informs her it means nothing... you get the idea. There's not a lot of softness there. And there can't be, the story doesn't really allow much time for it. But I noticed the lack and wanted more examples of his good traits so that I could believe Mariah would fall in love with him.

And about that. I didn't understand Mariah and her sudden decision to sacrifice her career and everything she's worked for to cave to Jake's demands to go after Gideon. This was especially baffling considering he'd just had rough and meaningless sex with her and then told her she meant nothing to him. So she goes outside and ponders it all and then decides to sacrifice her livelihood. Makes no sense to me. But after she decides to put aside her interests and "stand by her man" Jake gets a lot less angry with her. I did like that Mariah is no pushover in a fight situation. She can take care of herself in a fight rather than relying on the hero to save her.

My only other complaint is one I see a lot of stories, across the genres, when authors don't want to go too far in making their villains vicious. Agnes has been reputed to be a cold-hearted and ruthless woman throughout the series. In this story, she has a chance to prove it. But, to add more drama and suspense, Agnes basically ends up being idiot villain. Which was unfortunate - I like a well-written villain. When Agnes decides she wants Mariah dead, instead of whipping out a gun and taking care of the issue there and then or even taking care of the task in some other personally satisfying way, Agnes tells the over-amorous lackey to drive Mariah somewhere to rape her and kill her. Facepalm. This puts a ridiculous amount of trust in a lackey who she's just given permission to think with the brain in his pants, so he's not exactly focused and gives Mariah ample opportunity to escape and get help. That's just not a smart move however you slice it. Then, after Mariah is "dead" Jake, the super-genius, is still tied up in the living room. Agnes goes to bed...I mean literally leaves the room and tells the second lackey to watch Jake closely because he might escape, and then locks herself in another room so she can sleep peacefully, confident in the knowledge that her captive won't be able to escape. It's surprising to me that a villain this controlling hasn't learned that if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. This is still entertaining stuff and whatnot, but it just slightly dims my enjoyment of the story when I see villains making such obvious blunders. At least she never did the extra-long villain monologue.

[Marion Hogervorst · Rating 1 out of 5]

OMG she (meaning Beverly Barton) totally blew it. I kinda liked Jake through the series but in this book. Gawd did he have to go all He-Man? NO that was not Jake. No stars is even a better rating for this total waste of paper and ink.

[Erotic Horizon]

Check Mate (Family Secrets) by Beverly Barton (2004)