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Antiquities Hunters #1
Enemy Mine
A New York Times Bestselling Author Rival antiquities experts Tyler St. James and Kane Pendleton find themselves in the middle of the Colombian wilderness, being shot at by an unseen sniper. It seems safer to team up in the search for a fabulous gold chalice. But while Tyler and Kane's rivalry has always kept them distant enemies, their forced partnership brings them together in ways neither ever expected.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1989
32 people are currently reading
631 people want to read
About the author
Kay Hooper
97 books2,447 followersKay Hooper (aka Kay Robbins) was born in California, in an air force base hospital since her father was stationed there at the time. The family moved back to North Carolina shortly afterward, so she was raised and went to school there.
The oldest of three children, Kay has a brother two years younger and a sister seven years younger. Her father and brother are builders who own a highly respected construction company, and her mother worked for many years in personnel management before becoming Kay's personal assistant, a position she held until her untimely death in March 2002. Kay's sister Linda works as her Business Manager, Events Coordinator, and is playing a major role in the creation and operation of The Kay Hooper Foundation.
Kay graduated from East Rutherford High School and attended Isothermal Community College — where she quickly discovered that business classes did not in any way enthrall her. Switching to more involving courses such as history and literature, she also began to concentrate on writing, which had been a longtime interest. Very quickly hooked, she asked for a Christmas typewriter and began seriously working on her first novel. That book, a Regency romance titled Lady Thief, sold to Dell Publishing in 1980. She has since published more than 60 novels and four novellas.
Kay is single and lives in a very small town in North Carolina, not far from her father and siblings. Deigning to live with her are a flock of cats — Bonnie, Ginger, Oscar, Tuffy, Felix, Renny, and Isabel — of various personalities who all like sleeping on manuscripts and whatever research happens to be spread across Kay's desk. And living amongst the many felines are two cheerfully tolerant dogs, a shelter rescue, Bandit, who looks rather like a small sheepdog, and a Sheltie named Lizzie.
The oldest of three children, Kay has a brother two years younger and a sister seven years younger. Her father and brother are builders who own a highly respected construction company, and her mother worked for many years in personnel management before becoming Kay's personal assistant, a position she held until her untimely death in March 2002. Kay's sister Linda works as her Business Manager, Events Coordinator, and is playing a major role in the creation and operation of The Kay Hooper Foundation.
Kay graduated from East Rutherford High School and attended Isothermal Community College — where she quickly discovered that business classes did not in any way enthrall her. Switching to more involving courses such as history and literature, she also began to concentrate on writing, which had been a longtime interest. Very quickly hooked, she asked for a Christmas typewriter and began seriously working on her first novel. That book, a Regency romance titled Lady Thief, sold to Dell Publishing in 1980. She has since published more than 60 novels and four novellas.
Kay is single and lives in a very small town in North Carolina, not far from her father and siblings. Deigning to live with her are a flock of cats — Bonnie, Ginger, Oscar, Tuffy, Felix, Renny, and Isabel — of various personalities who all like sleeping on manuscripts and whatever research happens to be spread across Kay's desk. And living amongst the many felines are two cheerfully tolerant dogs, a shelter rescue, Bandit, who looks rather like a small sheepdog, and a Sheltie named Lizzie.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 13, 2016
This was definitely a very easy to get into romantic suspense, and probably one of my favorite of all the Kay Hooper books I've read so far. This is actually one of Ms. Hoopers earlier works, written in 1989, so I could kind of pick out some of the more dated ideals, especially when it came to the romance. But for the most part, I hadn't really noticed.
Enemy Mine was an exciting adventure from beginning until the end, and not once did I really want to put the book down, and only did so when I had no choice (you know, work obligations and all that).
The Story:
Tyler St. James and Kane Pendleton have been rivals in antiquities since they first met three years ago. In fact, the two are the best at locating and collecting any priceless artifact their bosses desire, and have butted heads more than once no matter where they travel to around the world. After all, even the men they each work for are bitter rivals, so Tyler and Kane are both determined to stake claim on an artifact before the other.
Their latest mission involves a golden chalice that they have traced to be in a treasure cache in Colombia, South America. The chalice is stated to have been part of a pair of golden cups, once upon a time belonging to Alexander the Great, having been passed down and lost throughout the years. Their journey leads them from Colombia to Italy as they discover the whereabouts of the second chalice.
But even as they decide to team up to retrieve both relics, it seems that danger is always around every corner.
My Thoughts:
To be honest, this book felt like a typical, made for movie story. The action never stops, and a whole lot of stuff happens. But at the same time, the story line is also a little chaotic, and while our main hero and heroine are chasing after a specific artifact, the book itself actually feels like two different story lines. The Colombia setting is one story where they find the first chalice and face down a group of bandits. Then Italy is the second story when they set off to find the second chalice and end up facing down yet another danger.
Aside from the running romance plot and the whole "find the chalice" main story line, this book really could have been split into two separate ones. But then we'd have two really short books to follow and that just seems impractical, no? Either way, we get a nice adventure plot in the first half of the book, then we get a little espionage and mystery in the second half of the book.
I'm really not complaining. I really DID enjoy myself. This book was pretty addictive.
Anyway, this isn't the best book in the world, and many might find it a little lacking. But I honestly found it really enjoyable and entertaining. As I'd already said, it feels like watching an action movie unfold, because the suspense just kind of holds you in it's grip. Between the action, the adventure, the brief interludes into historical research, I really just couldn't take my eyes away from it.
The romance feels a bit unbalanced--when Tyler and Kane finally acknowledge the lust and their feelings individually, the focus becomes a bit too stuck on the romance. Tyler and Kane are typical romance hero and heroine: beautiful, independent, strong, heart of gold... perfect. But I always appreciate a nice strong heroine who can kick butt, so I'm going to gloss over it and just be happy I enjoyed the book. So the unbalanced focus on the romance didn't really bother me much since we get right back to the adventure and action plot. After all, this is a romantic adventure/romantic suspense.
Tyler and Kane had wonderful chemistry and I like how natural their strange partnership feels, from reading each other's minds, to having complete trust in one another to watch each others' backs.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book.
***
2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
Enemy Mine was an exciting adventure from beginning until the end, and not once did I really want to put the book down, and only did so when I had no choice (you know, work obligations and all that).
The Story:
Tyler St. James and Kane Pendleton have been rivals in antiquities since they first met three years ago. In fact, the two are the best at locating and collecting any priceless artifact their bosses desire, and have butted heads more than once no matter where they travel to around the world. After all, even the men they each work for are bitter rivals, so Tyler and Kane are both determined to stake claim on an artifact before the other.
Their latest mission involves a golden chalice that they have traced to be in a treasure cache in Colombia, South America. The chalice is stated to have been part of a pair of golden cups, once upon a time belonging to Alexander the Great, having been passed down and lost throughout the years. Their journey leads them from Colombia to Italy as they discover the whereabouts of the second chalice.
But even as they decide to team up to retrieve both relics, it seems that danger is always around every corner.
My Thoughts:
To be honest, this book felt like a typical, made for movie story. The action never stops, and a whole lot of stuff happens. But at the same time, the story line is also a little chaotic, and while our main hero and heroine are chasing after a specific artifact, the book itself actually feels like two different story lines. The Colombia setting is one story where they find the first chalice and face down a group of bandits. Then Italy is the second story when they set off to find the second chalice and end up facing down yet another danger.
Aside from the running romance plot and the whole "find the chalice" main story line, this book really could have been split into two separate ones. But then we'd have two really short books to follow and that just seems impractical, no? Either way, we get a nice adventure plot in the first half of the book, then we get a little espionage and mystery in the second half of the book.
I'm really not complaining. I really DID enjoy myself. This book was pretty addictive.
Anyway, this isn't the best book in the world, and many might find it a little lacking. But I honestly found it really enjoyable and entertaining. As I'd already said, it feels like watching an action movie unfold, because the suspense just kind of holds you in it's grip. Between the action, the adventure, the brief interludes into historical research, I really just couldn't take my eyes away from it.
The romance feels a bit unbalanced--when Tyler and Kane finally acknowledge the lust and their feelings individually, the focus becomes a bit too stuck on the romance. Tyler and Kane are typical romance hero and heroine: beautiful, independent, strong, heart of gold... perfect. But I always appreciate a nice strong heroine who can kick butt, so I'm going to gloss over it and just be happy I enjoyed the book. So the unbalanced focus on the romance didn't really bother me much since we get right back to the adventure and action plot. After all, this is a romantic adventure/romantic suspense.
Tyler and Kane had wonderful chemistry and I like how natural their strange partnership feels, from reading each other's minds, to having complete trust in one another to watch each others' backs.
I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book.
***
2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
August 7, 2009
What if Indiana Jones had a feisty female sidekick who gave as good as she got? This is the story of two archaeologists who are hunting the same treasure and join forces when their lives are threatened, the resulting sparks are fun.
It's pretty formula, but fun. Originally published in 1989 it does show some age in some of the attitudes.
It's pretty formula, but fun. Originally published in 1989 it does show some age in some of the attitudes.
September 22, 2018
I really enjoyed this book! The author calls it a romantic adventure and it certainly is. An older book by Kay Hooper it has all the stuff we love in this type of story--adventure, danger, suspense, hot romance, and great characters! You will love Kane and Tyler. Highly recommended!
August 12, 2011
Blah it was ok. There was a huge deal made out of an issue, then it's suddenly not an issue. The girl Ty bugged me for some reason.
April 11, 2021
I've been reading some of the old Kay Hooper books and every once in a while there is a good one. This is one of those as well as "The Haviland Touch". The story was fun and there was a bit of intrigue. The relationship was done well. The difficulties were explained and understandably dealt with. Will be keeping this book as well as the other and reading again sometime in the future
June 15, 2021
3.5 Entertaining adventure romance, split into two parts. Kane loses half a point for giving Tyler the nickname of "Baby", which I personally dislike. The ending seems a bit rushed and wraps up with the usual tropes, but the last line promises he won't always get his way. Tyler definitely knows how to handle her man.😏 I'm interested in seeking out the sequel.
July 23, 2017
Had to quit reading after the first couple of chapters. Just didn't connect with the characters or story. Too bored to continue. Just not my kind of book which is surprising as I really like the Bishop/Special Crimes Unit series.
September 3, 2017
This is an older one from Kay Hooper and a few things are a bit dated, but still fun to read. I have a few of her older books and I prefer this style to her FBI ones.
April 19, 2020
Very intriguing and will want to finish it as soon as you can.
library
July 30, 20210
September 30, 2021
Not the best story I have read by this author but still a solid (if a little predictable) story.
June 10, 2025
Very fast paced.
May 21, 2025
I read this book for the first time well over a decade ago, but I recently stumbled upon it and gave it a bit of a nostalgia re-read.
I always loved this story, but I'd completely forgotten how fast the end is. Beyond that, it's still a great time, even all these years later.
I always loved this story, but I'd completely forgotten how fast the end is. Beyond that, it's still a great time, even all these years later.
March 14, 2008
This was a nice change from her Bishope series. It really grabbed me and left me wanting to see where she went with the characters
April 7, 2010
Good fast read.
September 26, 2010
very good story, I would definately read Kay Hooper again. Wish I had read previous stories as there was a lot of reference to earlier meetings by Kane and Tyler. Really enjoyed this book though.
March 22, 2011
Throughly enjoyed the rivals chase for the 'gold' through the jungles and beyond. A really good story. Must read.
Read
July 28, 2011A good read...Tyler and Kane make an explosive couple! The book's got everything - adventure, romance, sizzling passion and a good suspense-filled climax...Kay Hooper delights readers in this one!
Want to read
November 27, 2011Patricia gave 5 stars 11/11
September 30, 2012
the story was really nice... even at the description you will already start reading because a good story a wait's..
April 13, 2020
One of my all time favorite books. Loved everything about the story and the relationships between characters and how the author put supporting characters without giving unnecessary details.
July 3, 2023
DNF... just could not get into this book although the synopsis sounded great.
April 18, 2017
Not a big fan of this book. I read book 2 a few years ago, had no idea it was a sequel. This book is NOT like the Bishop Crimes novels. Would recommend checking out one of those over this one.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews