Review: Twisted

TWISTED
LOST #2
Cynthia Eden
Romantic Suspense
384 pages
Avon
Available Now
Source: Finished copy from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
n the second seductive LOST novel from New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Eden, an obsessed Last Option Search Team agent goes looking for trouble--and finds her in the Big Easy.

Dean Bannon comes to New Orleans for one reason only: to track down a missing sixteen-year-old girl. That's before he meets the drop-dead gorgeous con artist who makes him want to lose his legendary control.

With her past, Emma Castille doesn't claim to be psychic. She just notices things other people don't. Like the fear in a runaway's eyes--or the pain in an ex-FBI agent's heart. Her chemistry with Dean is blistering, but Emma follows her passion... not someone else's orders.

Then a madman breaks into Emma's home and leaves a twisted message: You're next. Now Dean refuses to let her out of his sight until he pries every last secret from her full, sexy lips. And suddenly Emma's aching to give him everything he wants.

MY THOUGHTS
Twisted walks us through the bustling streets of New Orleans with another member of the LOST team, and introduces us to a new killer who sees blood and pain as moves in a sadistic game of chess. Ms. Eden changes the suspense element a bit from book one, giving us the killer’s identity fairly early on so that our attention shifts from the who to the how and when he’ll be caught before shifting things on us once again. What results is a night spent reading instead of sleeping, making our guesses as to how things are going to unfold and then flipping the pages as fast as possible to see if we’re right.

Given this series is romantic suspense, the relationship between LOST agent Dean and next-on-the-killer’s-list Emma is as prominent as the hunt for the man himself. Things start out just a touch rocky with Dean, his habit of continually reminding Emma of his Incredible Hulk-like tendency to be dangerous when he loses control something that has us wondering if we’ll ever be able to take him as seriously as he takes himself. His fear of letting his control slip might have given us appropriate pause should we have been privy to a few quick flashbacks to times when he’s been as dangerous physically or emotionally as he claims, but aside from one instance that was clearly self-defense, there’s nothing about Dean that warrants his early game of hot and cold with Emma.

Before too long however, Dean gives up on warning Emma off and finally starts taking what Emma is more than willing to give, allowing us to settle into their romance in a way we feared we might not be able to in the first third of the book. As always, Dean’s LOST team all play minor roles as well, giving us peeks into their personalities that are just long enough to build our anticipation for their inevitable stories, but never so long as to have us wishing we could return to our lead couple. Overall, Twisted starts out a little weak on the romantic front, but the killer’s sick games keep us fully invested until the romance catches up strength-wise, and we’re left nothing short of satisfied as we look forward to Sarah and Jax’s book.

Rating: 3.5/5

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.