Rating: 2.5 / 5
Review:
There seem to be a lot of good reviews and ratings of this but I was rather disappointed in the book. It bored me for the most part. I was expecting a lot more from it.
Series Note:
Second book in Adair's “Cutter Cay” series about the Cutter brothers and their marine salvage business. I don't think you have to read the first book in order to read this one.
Summary:
Princess Gabriella “Bria” Visconti is livid that her brother invested their country's much needed funds into a salvage dive being run by Nick Cutter. If her brother, the king of her island country, can't make a bank loan payment by the end of the month, the country will revert back to Italy. So she goes to Nick Cutter to beg for a refund of the money.
What Bria doesn't know when she boards Nick's ship, the Scorpion, is that Nick is helping out a counterterrorism group who is trying to stop the sale of blood diamonds. And Bria has landed smack dab in the middle of a dangerous situation.
For Nick, who always keeps his emotions buttoned up, having Bria around tests everything in him. He doesn't know whether to trust the beautiful princess. But that doesn't stop him from wanting her, and wanting to keep her safe. And as the danger escalates, Nick must decide whether to let Bria in or keep her at arm's length away.
Review:
This book didn't really give me anything I wanted out of it, except for a fairly decent romance. I was just disappointed all the way around.
I guess a large part of that is because I love romantic suspense books. They are my favorite romance sub-genre out there. And this book was supposed to be a romantic suspense, but it doesn't exactly come across as one for the first two-thirds of the book.
I was bored for a majority of this book. There's so much that is supposed to be going on with the storyline...with the plot to catch the people selling blood diamonds, an attack on Bria her first night on the ship, the issues with Bria's brother and other threats on Bria and Nick's lives. There's just a wealth of plot aspects to add tension and action to the story. And yet for the first two-thirds of the book, all you really get is constant interaction between Bria and Nick. Them sitting on the deck, them looking at stars, them working out, them in the hot tub, them sightseeing, them arguing, them screwing. Maybe in a traditional contemporary romance that would be fine. But when I'm reading a romantic suspense, I want plot development, not an almost sole focus on the H/h. It just made the first two-thirds of the book very boring for me.
My disappointment also lies in the lack of attention to the salvage diving aspect of this series. For me, that's a fascinating story point. I just think salvage diving is very interesting. And in this book, it's not given much attention at all. Bria looks at some finds the divers brought up, and they do one sightseeing dive, but other than that, there's not much else about the topic. I was disappointed in that. I wanted to read more about the dives, finding the treasure and all that.
And honestly, I could do without the tie-in to Adair's “T-Flac” series. For me, it's just a totally unnecessary addition to the series. The connection is just not needed to make the series work. And because of the nature of T-Flac, as a counterterrorism group, it means a terrorism aspect is added to the series. That's another thing I could do without. Terrorism is such a popular romantic suspense topic these days that I get a little tired of it and want to read something different. I thought that's what this series would give me when it's focused on three brothers who run a dive salvage operation. But in both books so far, Adair has added in a terrorism aspect and tie in to T-Flac. It's another thing that's just not working for me in these books.
But I will still read the next book. I'm interested enough in the characters to want to find out what happens to them.