Bad to the Bone by Wendy Byrne Published by Entangled: Ignite
Publication Date: September 7th 2015
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 190
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
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Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.
When her Uncle Jack is arrested on drug charges, Sammie Murphy hops the first plane to Key West. Being rescued isn’t on her uncle’s to-do list, though. When he admits guilt and instructs her to go home, Sammie knows with 100% certainty something is seriously wrong.
Veteran DEA agent Enrique Santos knows when a bust is solid. So why is he allowing Jack Murphy’s niece to mess with his head? He’s been set-up and nearly killed by a woman like her before, and he’s not about to make that mistake again.
But then things at Murphy’s bar take a turn for the dangerous, leaving Sammie entangled in Enrique’s dark past. Forced to second-guess his convictions, Enrique has no choice but to kidnap the one woman who could destroy everything…including his heart.
Review
When Sammie Murphy’s uncle Jack is arrested on drug related charges, Sammie is positive that there has been a huge mistake. She would know because of her background and what she and her uncle have overcome and she heads off to Florida to secure his release. But there is more to the case than meets the eyes because her uncle is terrified and insistent that she leave Florida. Sammie is not going to let her uncle languish in jail without doing anything so she decides to run his bar while trying to clear his name even if he is uncooperative, starting with locating the undercover cop behind the arrest. She certainly does not have time to fall for hot and tatted bad boys like Enrique Santana neither can she trust him with her secrets.
DEA agent Enrique Santos got Jack Murphy cold on the possession and distribution. With Sammie’s arrival in Florida, he has reason to wonder if she’s a part of the operation and he poses as a patron of the bar to get close to her and investigate her. The more time Enrique spends with Sammie, the more doubts he has about her involvement but he can’t trust his gut because he got taken in by his ex-wife in a similar situation and almost lost his life and his career. He’s still trying to rebuild his career and can’t risk the damage that trusting the wrong woman could cause him but he can’t stay away from Sammie.
I’ll admit that when I read the blurb of this book, I expected lots of action but there was little of that. The suspense in BAD TO THE BONE is more of the psychological variety and there is a lot of it. Sammie is being threatened personally and via phone calls, her uncle’s employees are being attacked and she has no-one to confide in but she is too stubborn to give up and is determined to prove her uncle’s innocence. Unfortunately for Sammie, she and her uncle have unknowingly been drawn into a revenge plot as pawns and even the target is unaware of the scheme.
Ms. Byrne did an amazing job spinning the mystery and the suspense, completely drawing me in and keeping the identity of the perpetrator a secret until the very end of the book. There were more questions than answers and I was reading fast to get to the end and have my questions answered. I was so engrossed in the mystery and suspense that the romance took a back seat.
The characters were very interesting. I really liked Sammie and felt sorry for her that she did not have any one to turn to in Florida and I love how fierce she was in defense of her uncle. However, I feel that the trust issues between Sammie and Enrique were resolved way too fast and too easily. In spite of this, I enjoyed BAD TO THE BONE and would recommend it to any lover of romantic suspense.
About Wendy Byrne
endy Byrne was born and raised and still makes her home in the Chicago area. She’s married and has two grown sons, a great daughter-in-law and two adorable grandchildren.
Wendy has a Masters in Social Work and worked in the child welfare field for twelve years before she decided to pursue her dream of writing. She joined Romance Writers of America in 1999 where she met an incredible group of women who shared her passion and helped her learn her craft.
Her first published novel Fractured was released in 2011 and was picked up by a major book club and made available in hardcover. Her second book, Mama Said…., was released in 2012 and was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Contest in the romantic suspense category.
She self-published The Christmas Curse in 2012. She published two books with Entangled Publishing: Bad to the Bone (2015) and The Millionaire’s Deception. She has three books out with Gemma Halliday Publishing: Hard to Kill (2014), Hard to Trust (2014) and Hard to Stop (2015). She also has two short stories out with Gemma Halliday Publishing that are part of a anthology.
Between teaching college classes, trying to get her morbidly obese cat to slim down and tempering the will of her five-year-old granddaughter, who’s determined to become a witch when she turns six so she can fly on her broom to see the Eiffel Tower and put hexes on people—not necessarily in that order—somehow Wendy still manages to fit in writing. She spends the remainder of her days inflicting mayhem on her hero and heroine until they beg for mercy.
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