Cutting Loose (Steele Street, #8) in Romance Series Lists

Apr 04, 2008 jenjn79 rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-romance-suspense, reviewed, info-full, series-steele-st, 2009, published-2008, stars-4

I was all set to give this book a solid five-star rating...then the last page came and went, leaving me feeling like one of the main dynamics of the story had been ignored. And it left me feeling rather unsatisfied so I bumped down my rating an entire point to four stars.

Cutting Loose is the eighth book in Tara Janzen's Steele Street series, and the second book in the "Loose" subset. It's important to note that this book is NOT a standalone. Events in this story are directly related to what happ I was all set to give this book a solid five-star rating...then the last page came and went, leaving me feeling like one of the main dynamics of the story had been ignored. And it left me feeling rather unsatisfied so I bumped down my rating an entire point to four stars.

Cutting Loose is the eighth book in Tara Janzen's Steele Street series, and the second book in the "Loose" subset. It's important to note that this book is NOT a standalone. Events in this story are directly related to what happened in the previous book, On the Loose. It's basically a continuation of things that happened in "On the Loose." So you really should at least read that one first. It would help to read the others to understand character dynamics and the basic set up, but you could probably get by just reading "On the Loose" first.

In the previous book, schoolteacher Lily Robbins took a sabbatical from her job to travel to El Salvador where she planned to make a documentary on the nuns of an impoverished Catholic orphanage. But when she got there, all she saw was violence and death. She filmed the last words of a CIA pilot, shot down and tortured by rebel forces, and unknowingly accepted a top secret item from him. The only way she managed to escape the ordeal alive was from the help of local coffee grower/drug lord Alejandro Campos - a man who is actually a deep cover CIA operative.

Now, three weeks later, Alejandro - who is actually Zach Prade, one of the original Steele Street chop shop boys - has been called back to Washington. The CIA has realized that Lily Robbins is in possession of a macrame bracelet with a microdot code fiber embedded inside. Whether she has it on purpose or by accident, they don't know. They do know that they aren't the only ones to realize what she has. Lots of underworld people are now gunning for Lily. So it's Zach's job to get to Lily (a woman he hasn't been able to stop thinking about), get the bracelet and get out. Easier said than done. Someone gets to her before him and now the two are running for their lives...trying to get to Denver, and for Zach, trying to get home.

Right from the start I was hooked into this story. Alejandro - Zach - was such an intriguing character in the last book so I was very interested in his story. He's the last lost Steele Street boy, and I wanted to see how that played out, see how he returned to the fold and the reunion with his friends.

Plus, there was some great chemistry between him and Lily right from the start. There was an enjoyable dynamic between them that was fun to read. I liked Lily a lot. Very strong heroine material.

One of the aspects of this book that I enjoyed the most was ironically the thing that was lacking in the previous book for me - the Steele Street vibe. This book very much felt like a Steele Street story. It's fast paced, action packed, edge-of-you-seat suspense. The whole book takes place in only about a day, but you hardly notice it because the story is so interesting. And I loved that the Steele Street crew (or at least some of them) actually played a role in this book. Dylan, Skeeter and Gillian all played supporting roles (plus some face-time for Honey and the introduction of two new characters, Cherie Hacker and Gabriel Shore, Red Dog's brother). I just really enjoyed having Dylan, Skeeter and Gillian in the book. Skeeter is one of my all-time favorite heroines. But having them present gave the book a much stronger Steele Street/SDF feel. Oh, and the cars were back...I LOVE the Steele Street cars. Zach had a Shelby Mustang, which is just SO not fair ;)

So up until the end of this book, I loved everything about it. Then the end left me wanting. One of the main themes was that of Zach going back home, back to Steele Street and to his "family." There were scenes throughout the book between Zach and SB303 (Skeeter) that were great and Dylan telling Zach to come home so he could meet Dylan's wife. Plus the anticipated reunion of Zach and Dylan, which started at the end of the previous book. So I was really waiting for that. I really wanted to read that in-person reunion with Zach and his past.

And it never happened. He gets back to Denver at the very end, the plot resolves, he's unconscious when Gillian finds him. Then the story ends with 2 scenes...one of Zach in the hospital with Lily visiting him, then a final chapter four weeks later between Lily and Zach (the HEA). There was no face-to-face reunion with Zach and Dylan or Zach and any other of the SDF people, no meeting of Zach and SB303 (Skeeter - Dylan's wife). It was so disappointing. I was waiting the whole book for that and was left hanging. Sure, the plot was resolved, some threads were left for upcoming books, and there was an HEA for Lily and Zach, but having that one aspect left undone left me feeling unsatisfied when I finished. It was such a running theme throughout the story, and to not have it dealt with was just a big let down. Plus Zach's future was a bit sketchy. There's like a 3 sentence thing about how he'll now be doing jobs for General Grant and SDF and all I could think was, wait! That's all I get? How did this come about?

So yeah, I finished this book and all I could think about as I was falling asleep after was how annoyed I was with the ending and how disappointed that one of the things I'd looked forward to most in the book never happened. It leaves a bit of a sour taste and turns a five star book into a four star. The book is fantastic...up to the end. But I'd still recommend reading it for those that have enjoyed the other books in this series. I enjoyed it a lot, just wished that one issue had been dealt with at the end. ...more

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Apr 15, 2008 Auntee rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2009_reads, romantic-suspense

Apart from a little slow down mid-book (too much technical info overload and too many bad guys to keep track of) this latest edition in the 'Steele Street' series was a rip-roaring good time! It felt like one of the earlier reads from the series--the first five are actually some of the best combinations of hot romance and gripping suspense that I've read. I felt like the series was tailing off though with the sixth and seventh books, sort of losing the romance and the plots becoming a bit more c Apart from a little slow down mid-book (too much technical info overload and too many bad guys to keep track of) this latest edition in the 'Steele Street' series was a rip-roaring good time! It felt like one of the earlier reads from the series--the first five are actually some of the best combinations of hot romance and gripping suspense that I've read. I felt like the series was tailing off though with the sixth and seventh books, sort of losing the romance and the plots becoming a bit more complicated. But I'm happy to say that I think Tara Janzen is back on track again with "Cutting Loose".

That being said, before you read this book it is very important that you read ALL the books before this one, or you will be hopelessly lost. Even if you've read them all, you may feel lost a time or two, especially if some time has passed since you've read the previous book (like me). This book picks up where the previous one left off, with schoolteacher Lily Robbins now back in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after a wild adventure at the El Salvador plantation of drug lord Alejandro Campos.

Lily doesn't know it, but the simple macrame bracelet that she came back with (given to her by a dying pilot from the CIA) is wanted by a bunch of bad guys, as well as her own government. It has an encoded message woven in it, some top-secret, foreign-policy-shaking intelligence linking Russia and Iran, and the CIA wants it back, and some various baddies want it for their own reasons, and there's a high market value for the bracelet for whoever retrieves it. So the CIA send agent Zach Prade to get it. The last time Zach saw Lily was 3 weeks ago, when he was still deep undercover as drug lord Alejandro Campos. Zach and Lily had some serious chemistry going on in El Salvador, and Zach has not been able to get Lily out of his thoughts. But his job is to retrieve the bracelet by however means possible. He's not expected to protect Lily from any bad guys gunning for her. But not long after he arrives in Albuquerque, and while staking out her house, he notices a couple of the bad guys breaking in. He's not going to let the baddies get that bracelet before him, and most importantly, he's not going to let anyone harm Lily. So isn't he surprised when Lily pulls out a gun, and blows one of the baddies away herself? Seems like Lily may know a little bit about defending herself. Quite a turn on for Zach.

Zach and Lily go on the run, dodging all kinds of baddies, and on the way Zach also hooks up with some people he hasn't seen in a long, long time--the SDF (Special Defense Force) guys from Steele Street. It seems that Zach was one of the original chop-shop boys from Steele Street when he was a teen, and he and the SDF's leader, Dylan Hart, share quite a past. Now Dylan (and his young wife Skeeter) are helping Zach and Lily find their way to Denver, helping them avoid all the people gunning for them. There's lots of high speed (120 mph) driving in a tricked out '68 Shelby Cobra, lots of murder and mayhem, and along the way, Lily and Zach find themselves unable to deny the chemistry going on between them.

What I liked most about this one was the relationship between Zach and Lily. Yes, Zach was this hardened agent with the CIA, used to going undercover for years at a time, yet underneath it all he was just a sweet guy looking for love. He just seemed like a guy who really needed to be loved, and had a lot of love to give. The author didn't go too deep into his past, but what she revealed was rather heart-breaking. I was so glad he found a woman like Lily, who although was totally innocent and unaware what the macrame bracelet contained, certainly was a smart cookie, able to put two and two together, and was even able to protect herself. I liked that about her, and was glad that even though she had people gunning for her, she didn't freak out and lose her head.

I also liked the little tidbits that the author gave about some of the Steele Street guys' pasts. I really wasn't expecting to hear about how the 'sorceress' Alazne was linked to some of the guys--verrry interesting.

I liked the two new characters that were introduced--Cherie Hacker (computer geek extraordinaire) and techno-nerd Dr. Gabriel Shore, who just happens to be Gillian ("Red Dog") Pentycote's younger brother. I predict hot times for these two characters in the future.

What I didn't like was when the author went into too much detail about the various computers, guns, hi-tech equipment, and even the muscle cars (which are almost characters themselves, complete with names like Charlotte, Charlene, and Roxanne). For me, a little bit of this is enough--too much and my mind starts to wander--I'd rather read about the romance aspects of the plot, which were very well done. It was hard to believe that Zach and Lily's romance took place in the space of one day. I totally bought into it, and I especially liked the little follow-up that basically happened after the action part of the story was resolved. It was very sweet and sexy. Zach was just a total sweetheart in my opinion, and I really wanted him to have a HEA--he deserved it. Tara Janzen has a real knack for making her alpha heroes sweetly vulnerable, and I like how they often come undone by a woman.

So, for those of you following the series, this was a mostly fast-paced, exciting read. I think the author is back on track with this one, and it has the flavor of the earlier books. It also helped that we got a nice glimpse of the guys and gals from Steele Street, and characters like Dylan Hart and Skeeter Bang actually played a pretty important role. I loved Zach and Lily, and thought their love scenes were sweet, sexy, and hot too. I will definitely start on the next one, Loose and Easy soon, and look forward to the release of Breaking Loose this summer. 4 1/2 stars. ...more

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Jul 22, 2008 Christa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: booksfree-com

Cutting Loose is another great book in what has become one of my favorite series. While I have truly enjoyed each book in the Steele Street series, Cutting Loose was one of the best. The hero, Zach Prade, has been mentioned in several of the other books, and he played a prominent role in the last one in his undercover identity of Alejandro Campos, Salvadoran drug lord. I have been looking forward to his story, and I was not disappointed.

Alejandro Campos has been called to Langley for the first Cutting Loose is another great book in what has become one of my favorite series. While I have truly enjoyed each book in the Steele Street series, Cutting Loose was one of the best. The hero, Zach Prade, has been mentioned in several of the other books, and he played a prominent role in the last one in his undercover identity of Alejandro Campos, Salvadoran drug lord. I have been looking forward to his story, and I was not disappointed.

Alejandro Campos has been called to Langley for the first time in his eleven years undercover with the CIA. His eight years of deep cover as a Central American drug lord have ended after a fiasco that left the CIA missing a coveted bracelet containing an important encrypted key. The CIA is in a race to find the macrame bracelet before it lands in the wrong hands, and they believe that it must be in the possession of Lily Robbins. Lily is a teacher from New Mexico who inadvertently filmed the death of the CIA pilot who had the bracelet. Alejandro is given the task of recovering the bracelet from Lily, who sought refuge at his home when her trip to El Salvador took a frightening turn. After clandestinely liberating his 1968 Mustang from SDF headquarters in Denver, he heads to New Mexico, arriving at Lily's home to watch two men break and enter. Alejandro spirits Lily away, but not before she shoots one of the intruders. Soon Alejandro and Lily are on the run from the police, as well as more than one organization who desire possession of the encrypted key. While at his villa three weeks previously, Lily developed an unwilling attraction to this Central American drug lord, but she is frightened and angry when he first seizes her. Alejandro soon realizes that tracking and computer devices in the Mustang allow communication with SDF. Dylan Hart, lead agent of SDF, caught sight of Alejandro Campos when the drug lord helped Lily and SDF agent C. Smith Rydell back to the U.S. three weeks earlier, and he realized that the man was Zachary Prade. Zach/Alejandro decides that Lily will have protection if he takes her to Denver, so Dylan puts his resources into helping them reach SDF headquarters safely. As they travel from Albuquerque to Denver, Lily hears Zach's conversations with SDF and realizes that he is a government agent. The attraction flares between them and erupts into passion as they stop and hide away for most of the day. Back on the road, Zach again utilizes the help of his former associates as he finally tries to go back home to Steele Street.

It was nice to see that this book also features a few of the SDF operators from previous novels - Dylan Hart, Skeeter Bang, and Gillian Pentycote. The others are off on various pursuits during this story. Zachary Prade and Lily Robbins were both strong, likeable characters. Lily was very self sufficient and able to handle danger, but still sensitive enough that she was bothered afterwards. Zach and Lily fell for one another quickly, and once she realized that he was a government agent, neither of them tried to deny their strong emotional connection. This book is extremely fast paced and contains plenty of action. Most of the story takes place on one day. The backgrounds and connections between characters are so important to this series that I strongly recommend reading them in order. It would be hard to make sense of the Steele Street books if they were read out of the context of the series. I loved Zach's story, and I eagerly await the opportunity to read the next book. ...more

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