This time out is Debra Webb, with her newest release Nameless (St. Martin's). Vivian Grace is not the most experience FBI agent around, but she's on an important case, and when the man who's kidnapped a little girl says to get former agent Ryan McBride on the case, she does. Ryan's been torturing himself for several years after his one and only failure on the job, and when Vivian finds him, he's suffering his latest hangover with his latest bimbo in his bed. Now he's got to sober up and get back into super-agent mode to find out just who this villain is who's determined to get Ryan back to work. Then Ryan and Vivian have to make sure no one is seriously hurt by the lunatic. Neither Vivian nor Ryan surprised me throughout this story; I felt after the first twenty pages or so that I knew both of the characters very well, that nothing they did for the rest of the book would be unexpected, and, unfortunately, that was the case. Makes for some tedious reading for the next three hundred pages. Despite his behavior at the beginning of the story and the serious grudge he has against the Bureau, you know Ryan will come around and do the right thing: he'll save the day by capturing the bad guy and he'll win the heroine. But it won't be exciting. Vivian, as the rookie, and with her own troubled past, is almost too perfect a heroine. The most interesting character for me was the villain, though he has moments as well where you just know what's coming and feel let down when you're right. When the bad guy is the character you most want to see, there's something wrong with this romance. I'm afraid this one just isn't a keeper for me. It's earned only two of Cupid's five arrows.
Until next time, happy reading!
