Overall Rating: 4.15 // Action: 3.5 / Emotion: 3.5 / Romance: 4.25 / Sensuous: 2.75 / Suspense: 3.0 // Laughter: 1 / Teary: ½

Michele Albert:
A truly gifted writer. There is just something about Albert's writing style that holds a strong appeal to me.

Hide In Plain Sight: 4.15
Albert draws her readers into this book and holds them spellbound as she weaves a fascinating story about a hunky, alpha hero and a seemingly ordinary, yet apparently brave-hearted heroine. If one were to write a headline that prefaced this book, it would be: "Legendary Super Agent is Felled by Bookworm During His Mid-Life Crisis."

Griffith "Grif" Laughton: 3.50
A skilled super agent who was gorgeous, charming, suave, and debonair who was dealing with his life choices. The lack of details about Grif's background made him feel like a half-developed character.

Fiona Kennedy: 3.50
The proverbial 'girl next door' who was leaving her cocoon to offer solace and compassion to a man who betrayed her. It was easy to identify with Fiona because she felt so ordinary. Fiona's sense of self-worth and her ability to stand up for herself made her an interesting heroine.

Action: 3.50
As appropriate for any book containing a special agent, Albert entertained with several action and adventure scenes in this book as Grif defends himself and Fiona as they are pursued by the bad guys.

Emotion: 3.50
Although there was an emotional connection to Grif and Fiona, the intensity did not reach that special level that Albert usually provides to make her books so outstanding.

Romance: 4.25
The romance factor was prevalent as Grif and Fiona immediately gave in to their attraction . . . and then fought about the feelings that arose within them for the remainder of the book.

Sensuous: 2.75
This book is peppered with hot, sensual, fiery scenes in which Albert reveals her talent as a writer who knows how to pen powerful lovemaking scenes.

Suspense: 3.00
Although not at a nail-biting level, a degree of suspense flowed throughout the entire story regarding Grif and Fiona and Avalon Investigations, it's operatives, it's leader, and it's number one villain.

Secondary Characters: 3.00
The secondary characters were minimally developed. Nevertheless, they were memorable enough to prompt an interest in reading the future books in this series to learn more about them.

See Wolf Bear Does Books (http://goo.gl/zllyQ) for a more in-depth, detailed review of *Hide In Plain Sight*. ( )

From BackCover:
APPEARANCES ARE DECEIVING

Fiona Kennedy can tell a forgery from the genuine article in a snap. Drop-dead-sexy Grif Laughton, however, is not so easy to read. He's clearly a masterpiece of the male variety -- and the attraction he sparks is definitely the real thing. But Grif is a man of secrets, and the potentially priceless manuscript he's asked her to appraise is just one of them.

PASSIONS ARE DEADLY

But someone is willing to kill for the manuscript, and Grif reveals that he's a mercenary, hired to protect Fiona. Is he really who he seems, or is he just using her as bait? On the run from an unknown enemy, Fiona gives in to her all-consuming need for the man who may be her one chance for survival -- or her final chapter. ( )

Now Anne Stuart can write this sort of book, it would have an extreme hero, who was losing his soul and an innocent but not stupid heroine who helped him find it again. This is not of that calibre. It's a pleasant book about an organization to recapture stolen art and artifacts (way too well resourced) with an agent called Griffen Laughton, who stalks the innocent bookdealer Fiona Kennedy because her husband of 10 years (!!) turns out to have been corrupt and faked his death 5 years ago - or did he? No tension at all, either from the villians or sexual. Not a wall banger but totally forgetable nonetheless. I wouldn't bother with it, there are far better versions out there - try Cherry Adair or Anne Stuart (the grand mistress of this particular sub genre) instead. ( )

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