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Guest Reviewer at: Reading Between the Wines book club
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Arden is a DEA agent who has found the love of a good woman and has put notice in for a nice comfortable desk job. Of course, on his last mission he ends up getting shot in the arm and the drug lord that slipped through his grasp decides to get his revenge by sending men to kidnap Arden's girlfriend Lucy. Lucy knows Arden's job is dangerous but is totally unprepared for when the danger comes knocking on her door.
Taken by Love is the first in a new series by Sharon Kleve and at under 50pgs it is a quick read. It is also an incomplete confusing mash up of romantic suspense tropes. Let me put it this way, I spent longer checking and rechecking to see if I had been given a chopped up preview instead of the complete book, than reading the story. Our lead couple is already dating when the story starts and the extent of their interaction is one or two conversations consisting of hi/bye with a couple kisses thrown in.
Lucy was a Jane Doe who never read the survival book her boyfriend bought her and yet manages to escape the two men who kidnapped her. Arden was a DEA agent who felt sad because his job put Lucy in danger. There was a secondary couple in there that consisted of Lucy's cousin who is dating Arden's friend, reluctant kidnappers, and a talked about but never seen drug lord. In fact, a lot of the story was talked about but never seen, Arden leaves for weeks to take down the crazy drug lord that ends in a violent shoot out. What the book gives us, Lucy sad because she hasn't heard from Arden for a while and Arden sitting at a bar with his arm in a sling from the shoot out.
The story was choppy, incomplete, and had mechanical no depth characters. There seems like there could be something there to the author's writing and this hint of a promise is why I'm rating it 1.5 stars. However, as the first of a series this definitely doesn't work to entice me to continue onto the next book.