A-

Blamed

by Edie Harris
November 3, 2014 · Carina Press

Erotica/Erotic RomanceHistorical: EuropeanRomance

This book was an amazingly pleasant surprise and I lost track of the number of good book noises I made while reading it. I’m still getting my feet wet when it comes to romantic suspense, but I picked a good book to try out.

It opens with the heroine post-torture. So I’d definitely issue a trigger warning for violence. Later on, there are some semi-graphic descriptions of said torture. Admittedly, dropping me into the middle of things is a quick way to grab my attention as I’m one of those people who constantly tries to work things out before they’re revealed. Seriously. I recommend not watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit with me unless you’re in the mood for some heavy commentary.

The timeline of the book isn’t linear whatsoever. Beth and Raleigh, our spy protagonists, aren’t strangers. Beth works for Farraday Industries, which is contracted by the U.S. government. Raleigh works for MI-6. In their history, they’ve crossed paths several times up until Beth decides to go into retirement after a mission gone wrong. I will also issue another trigger warning and say the botched mission involves the death of children.

Over the course of the book, we get to relive those moments of Beth’s time as a spy and her interactions with Raleigh. The first time they meet in the field. The first time they kiss. They first time they have sex in a sexy ocean bungalow (as you do). But all while reliving those sweet, perfect moments, there’s the fact that it’s short-lived. At some point along the way, Beth gets captured by someone and tortured. It’s a heartbreaking way to tell a story and a masochistic part of me loved every minute of it.

It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling a number of things, like how Beth arrived in that awful situation, who is responsible, and why. The only thing I can tell you is to read it.

Like most series romances, the characters revealed in the book create the basis for future pairings and I loved getting to know Beth’s family members who help run Farraday Industries. She has three brothers and a sister. Her brothers consist of a suave steely suit, a rough and tumble field spy, and a charming bisexual hacker. Her sister is a genius weapons developer currently being guarded by an FBI agent; I can smell this plot a mile away and it smells an awful lot like catnip. The author, Edie Harris, has definitely insured I’ll be continuing the series with characters like those.

However, when more and more characters are introduced, it does become hard to keep them straight. Colleagues in the field. Cop buddies. Raleigh’s MI-6 cohorts. It’s a lot and I found myself losing track at times. I certainly wouldn’t have minded a flowchart. Oh, oh! Or a makeshift dossier at the front of the book. You can have that one, Carina Press. It’s on me.

I will also say that there’s a bit of an age difference between Beth and Raleigh. I could never suss out an exact number, but it was around thirteen years and Beth is in her mid-twenties during the stuff happening in the present. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, but Raleigh first meets Beth in the field when she’s sixteen. They aren’t romantically involved until later when she’s of age, but there are frequent references to him always loving her and waiting for her and all that jazz. Raleigh is actually the first person she sleeps with and (I believe) the only person. Some people only have sex with one other person their whole life and that’s totally cool, but I felt that for someone was well-traveled and as worldly as Beth, I wish she had dated around (hard when you’re a spy, I know) or did a bit of oats-sowing before deciding Raleigh was the end all and be all.

Those complaints aside, it truly is a beautifully written book. It’s emotional and engaging and truly exemplifies what I want in my romantic suspenses.

I think I’ll leave you with this exchange and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Raleigh has had reconstructive surgery after being buried under rubble from an explosion. The features Beth had come to recognize on him are now gone.

Recognition tickled the back of her brain. “I know you,” she whispered, uncertain. “I know you, but…but I don’t see someone I know in your face.”

“Being crushed in a pile of rubble tends to give a man a good excuse to pretty himself up.”

Her mind blanked. Rubble. Crushed. “Wh-what are you saying?”

“I need you to know me, love, and it’s killing me that you don’t.”

And that’s less than a quarter into the book! Seriously. It’s one of the best romances I’ve read all year.