Let Me In

January 5, 2009
In this clunky romantic thriller from RITA-finalist Kauffman (The Great Scot
), Tate Winslow, a former operative for a covert U.S. government agency, goes into a witness protection program and becomes, somewhat improbably, Tara Wingate, a successful novelist living in Virginia’s Hebron Valley. Then one night her former boss, rogue agent Derek Cole, knocks on her door and announces that Tate’s former agency partner, CJ, whom Tate saw shot before her eyes three years earlier, is alive and needs their help in being extracted from an undercover operation gone bad. Before Tate and Derek can rescue CJ, they have to wonder—could CJ be a double agent? And given their growing mutual attraction, can they keep their hands off each other long enough to effectively deal with the villains? Romance pro Kauffman has much to learn about creating suspense, as shown by the slow, dialogue-driven plot, which begs for more action and more believable “agency” backstory.

February 15, 2009
After her last assignment left her literally tortured and broken, Tate vowed to live a simple, isolated lifea vow she has kept until her former commander, Derek, shows up beaten and drugged on her doorstep. He assures her that its not the drugs talking when he says her ex-partner CJ wasnt killedbut is alivebehind enemy lines. Now Tate must leave the secure world shes built and delve back into espionage to discover if CJ isfriend or foe and find out whats happening with the agency she left behind.She also must decide if life includes a new kind of relationship with Derek. Rather than action and suspense from start to finish, much of Kauffmans latest focuses onconversations between Tate and Derek as they try to unveilthe truth and their developing feelings for each other, and theirdeep-rooted, complex emotions do make for fascinating reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)