Sunday, April 7, 2013

A Profiler's Case for Seduction - Carla Cassidy (HRS #1748 - Apr 2013)

Series: Vengeance in Texas (Book 4)

"YOU NEED TO TRUST ME."

Dora Martin had escaped her past, been given a second chance. She wasn't going to waste it. A good education, a job she loved-all she had to do was stay on the straight and narrow. That meant no more disastrous relationships. No more men, period. Not even the oh-so-appealing Mark Flynn.

FBI Agent Mark Flynn is in Vengeance, Texas, to help solve three brutal murders. Dora Martin was a source of information, that's all. Instead, he couldn't stop thinking about her. But the gentle, gray-eyed beauty is hiding a secret that might solve the murders-or get her killed. He won't let that happen. For his case-and his heart-he will protect her....


Fantastic conclusion to the series.  I really liked both Dora and Mark.  Dora is an older heroine who has finally started to overcome some poor choices made in her youth.  Her older brother and sister pulled her out of her downward spiral and gave her the opportunity to start a new life.  In spite of that rescue, and living in the same town, she hasn't gotten close to her sister Melinda.  She hasn't pushed for a relationship because she doesn't want her bad past to taint her sister's stellar reputation at the college and in town.  Dora made the decision when she went back to school that she was going to concentrate on school and not get involved with any men.  When she met Mark there was an immediate attraction between the two, but she insisted that there would be friendship only.  I really liked the way that she had worked so hard to overcome her past.  I thought that she had an incredible amount of inner strength to be able to have come so far without any bitterness.  I really enjoyed her developing relationship with Mark.  Even though she kept telling herself not to get involved her connection to him was just too strong.  One of the things I loved about her was how well she understood him.  She also didn't want her past to affect him and tried to keep it a secret from him.  When all her secrets came out she was sure it would be the end of everything.

Mark was a really interesting man.  As a young man his intelligence and abilities earned him an invitation from the FBI to work for them as a profiler.  He has an uncanny way of being able to get inside a criminal's mind to be able to figure out who they are and what motivates them.  But because of this he feels a constant darkness in his soul that makes him keep people at an emotional distance.  He first got to know Dora because he thought she would be a good source of information.  He didn't expect thoughts of her to be constantly with him, even when working on the case.  He soon found himself wanting to spend time with her that had nothing to do with his work and everything to do with the way she made him feel.  She was the first person who seemed to understand the way his mind worked and to be able to pull him away from the darkness.  For all of the growing feelings he had for her he sensed that she had secrets that she wouldn't share with him.  When those secrets came out he felt betrayed at first then he became really worried that those secrets could cost her her life.

I really loved seeing the way that Mark's mind worked and how it saw things so clearly.  In spite of the fact that no one else believed his theory, he kept after it.  The suspense as the story built to the conclusion kept me turning the pages just as fast as I could read.  While there was no doubt that the story would end well, the journey was definitely a heart pounding one. There was one fascinating thing about this book in that Dora's older brother Micah starred in his own book (Mercenary's Perfect Mission) that was just as intense as this one.



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