Review: Hot in Handcuffs

Reviewed by Allison

Arresting Desire
Shayla Black

When FBI Agent Jon Bocelli went undercover in the mafia, he met and never forgot the beautiful Lucia DiStefano. When his brother ends up in jail and won’t talk to get out or save his life, Jon decides he has to come calling to his old “family” contacts to make sure his brother gets out alive. After spotting Lucia across the club, he decides that since she’s waited this long to save herself, he would be the one to finally deflower her. Aggressively. After much “protesting.” There was a mystery surrounding her father and somehow it all tied back to Jon’s case when he was undercover but to be honest, it wasn’t all that interesting. Definitely hot, but pretty underwhelming otherwise.

Grade: C

On Fire 
Sylvia Day

Deputy Marshal Jared Cameron blows into Fire Inspector Darcy Michaels’ small town in order to aid an investigation of a series of arson attacks destroying their community. The chemistry between these two is explosive & immediate. It starts as just an itch to scratch, but quickly (and I do mean quickly) moves to much more. Even though I’m not usually a fan of the “we’re meant to be” after 24 hours in bed, for some reason it totally worked with these two. You could just feel it, you were swept up in the passion and knew that there was no one else who could answer the others needs like they could for each other.

“Good.”
The rush of relief he felt almost made him dizzy.
“So we make it work.”
“It’s going to be work. A lot of it. We’re too volatile. Too…greedy.”
“Like a thirst you can’t quite quench,” he agreed softly.
“The flip side being that every time you take a drink, it’s the best fucking thing you’ve ever tasted. If that’s not worth working for, what is?”

Right?! (*sigh*) The on-the-job chemistry worked really well, too, as Jared and Darcy worked together to figure out who was behind the fire and another mystery that pops up. I had an inkling who the culprit was but she definitely surprised me! I definitely enjoyed this short story and look forward to reading more by Ms. Day!

Grade: B+

The Unwilling
Shiloh Walker

Mica Greer is a cop trying to solve a strange series of brutal murders of women when her ex-FBI ex-boyfriend, Colby Mathis, gets called in to consult on the case. He is “psychic” and probably their last chance at finding the bastard before he hits again. As they work together to find whom they’re coming to believe is a fellow cop, the passion they once shared is reignited in their search for the truth.

The psychic twist to this one didn’t really float my boat. I love paranormal stories but this one didn’t seem to add to the story much.

Ms. Walker is an incredibly talented writer, but this story was too graphic and creepy for me to find it the least bit sexy. If you like to get in the killer’s head, be steeped in the mystery, and get creeped out, then this story is for you. It most assuredly wasn’t for me.

Grade: C (This is based on the fact that it wasn’t my cup of tea, because it really was well written and constructed.)

Click to purchase: Amazon

Hot in Handcuffs

by Shayla Black, Shiloh Walker, Sylvia Day

Release Date: July 3, 2012

Publisher: Berkley