Sting

Starred review from June 27, 2016
This exceptional romantic thriller from bestseller Brown (Friction) pairs Shaw Kinnard, a handsome hired killer, and his beautiful target, Jordie Bennett, the owner of a New Orleans event-planning business, in a spirited contest of wills and wiles. Rather than kill Jordie, Shaw kidnaps her from a bar in the boondocks of Louisiana, hoping for a bigger slice of money. Jordie’s crooked brother, Josh Bennett, helped his boss, Billy Panella, defraud investors of some $30 million, and Jordie may be the key for Shaw to get a share of the loot. No one knows the whereabouts of Billy—or Josh since he escaped from federal protective custody. Brown doesn’t neglect other key figures, such as the two FBI agents searching for Billy and Josh, but the principal focus never strays far from the sexual tension between Shaw and Jordie: her aim to stay alive and his to squeeze from her the information he needs. Brown handles the romance with her usual panache and adds some nifty plot twists that will keep readers guessing. Agent: Maria Carvainis, Maria Carvainis Agency.

March 15, 2016

When Shaw Kinnard encounters the incongruously elegant Jordie Bennet in a seen-better-days bayou bar, it's not love at first sight. He's there to kill her. Instead, he abducts her, eager to get hold of the $30 million her brother has pocketed from his badly bent boss. Now they are on the run from said boss--and the FBI. Brown's last title, 2015's Friction, debuted at the top of the New York Times best sellers list, which explains the 400,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2016
A rock-jawed bad guy and a sexy entrepreneur feel the mutual heat in Brown's latest story of a damsel in distress and her tarnished knight.Jordie Bennett is having a bad night. One minute, the gorgeous woman sits nursing a drink in a run-down Louisiana bar, and the next, she's been kidnapped by a murderous hit man. The hit man in question, Shaw Kinnard, shoots his partner, fellow killer for hire Mickey Bolden, before Bolden has a chance to kill Jordie, then abducts her and drives around and finally holes up with her still a hostage. Her abduction isn't random, though. Seems Jordie's brother, Josh, worked for a famous criminal named Billy Panella. Panella is at the top of law enforcement's fugitive list after he swindled millions out of their nest eggs, like a more modest Bernie Madoff. Now, Shaw's in a race to find Josh--an escaped federal witness--before the FBI or Panella can beat him to it. And everyone, including FBI agents Wiley and Hickam, who are hot on Josh's trail, believes that his sister, Jordie, holds the key. Although Brown is an excellent and almost effortless writer, over the years her plots have devolved into paint-by-numbers efforts: a hunky, distant bad boy ends up in reluctant contact with a beautiful-beyond-belief woman in peril. The chemistry is undeniable, and much heat ensues. The woman struggles with the bad boy's past while the bad boy struggles with his feelings for the beautiful lady. Readers won't have to be prescient to figure out what happens in this typical entry into the Brown playbook because the outcome is as predictable as the humidity and mosquitoes that plague the Louisiana bayous in the summertime. Brown moves her besieged female characters around to different locations but persists in employing the same tired trope over and over in books saved only by her smooth writing and savvy dialogue chops.

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August 1, 2016
Shaw Kinnard is hired to help assassinate Jordie Bennet, the sister of the accountant involved in an infamous financial scam. Her brother, Josh, made a deal with the FBI in exchange for details about the man he worked with. But Josh escapes the FBI, and his old boss now wants Jordie dead, then Josh. And everyone wants the $30 million that never reappeared after the con. Shaw takes out the first hit man and kidnaps Jordie. He keeps her for 36 hours, until she wounds him and then gets help. During her captivity, she is interrogated about everything she knows about Josh's whereabouts. She and Shaw also start falling for each other. When she is under FBI protection, she learns that Shaw is not who he said he was, and they have to work together to try and save themselves and Josh. Prolific, best-selling Brown crafts facets and depths of characters in a taut novel full of surprises. Fans of Linda Howard and Julie Garwood may also enjoy this.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)