The Professional by Addison Fox
Series: Dangerous in Dallas (# 3)
Release Date: October 1, 2015
Publisher: Harlequin
Pages: 281
Source: book provided by BookTrib for review
Despite her job as a wedding planner, Violet Richardson doesn’t believe a happy-ever-after is in her future. And when she’s kidnapped by a killer, she’s surprised that rescue comes in the form of her tempting yet irritating neighbor Max Baldwin.
Trying to forget his dark past, Max never meant to take on his attractive neighbor’s troubles. But now the bickering pair must outrun a thug who’s determined to get his hands on mysterious jewels he thinks are in Violet’s possession. And as they race for their lives through Dallas’s summer heat, Max and Violet may finally open their eyes to the burning passion they share.
Review: I have to start by saying that I had not read the first two books in the series. There were moments that I really think that having read those book would have helped. There is an over-arcing plot that was advanced in The Professional, but was not resolved since there is at least one more book in the series. Ms Fox did a pretty good job of relaying backstory for those of us silly enough to jump into the middle of the series. But as I said before, there were a few times when it would have been better if I had read those books.
I gather that Violet and Max have been kinda circling around each other during the series. There are sparks, but neither of them really want a relationship or love. Violet had a crappy childhood and never had good role models when it comes to love and marriage. Max is carrying some weighty issues from his time in the military and I got the feeling he didn’t feel worthy of love. Both of them lash out at each other a little in an attempt to smother the sparks when they’re together. But since this is a romance, and a Harlequin romance at that, we know what’s going to happen in the end.
While the romance was actually pretty well formed, it was the suspense part that had me flipping the pages. I wish I’d read books one and two so that I really understood better what was going on. The long and short of it is that there were some rubies smuggled out of England during one of the world wars. They somehow ended up buried under the building that Violet and her friends run their business out of. When the rubies were discovered, the girls each took one. But there’s a bad guy who wants them. By the time we get to book three, the bad guy has one of the rubies and is now after the others… and has targeted Violet. From almost page one, the action is pretty constant. There are a couple moments for a breather and then it starts again. The bad guy, well… guys, are deliciously nasty and therefore had me rooting for the good guys even more so since I wanted the bad guys to get their just desserts.
In the end, I enjoyed this story. I will likely be picking up the earlier books in the series and definitely picking up bok four when it’s available since I want to see how this all pans out. It’s my first time reading a book from Addison Fox and I don’t think it’ll be my last.
