Review: Hold Me – Beth Horvath

Hold Me by Beth Horvath
Series:
Release Date:  September 5, 2011
Publisher:   Carina Press
Page Count:  306
Source:  NetGalley

  

Katie McCabe’s life is going nowhere fast when FBI Special Agent Lucas Vasco jumps into her car at an intersection. Luc, his undercover guise blown, is on the run from the Mafia and expects to be killed at any moment. What he doesn’t plan on is finding himself attracted to the firecracker beside him. He feels compelled to protect her when her life is threatened, and insists she stay with him for her own safety. After learning she has become the target of a psychotic hit man, Katie is whisked off to Luc’s house to hide. Once there, she’s shocked to discover that she and Luc have an unexpected connection—a connection Luc already knew existed, but withheld. Will their intense attraction reach flashpoint despite their misunderstandings and the pain of the past?

Buy on Amazon

Katie McCabe’s had a bad couple of months.  She walks in on her fiance having a private meeting with his secretary on his desk and then she had to explain to the nice officer that she was justified beating him with a broom.  So when a strange man jumps into her stalled car at an intersection she figures getting car jacked is just the icing on the crap cake she’s being force fed.

Lucas Vasco is on the run, after having his cover blown on his latest assignment.  He figures the sturdy Chevy Nova was his saving grace and could get him out of this sticky situation.  He wasn’t expecting the wild woman with the lively red hair to start screaming at him or to become entangled in the crime syndicate case he was working on or become entangled in his heart.

I was surprised by this one.  The suspense with the crime syndicate and the creepy nephew to the “don” wanting to kill Katie for humiliating him was well written and kept you on the edge of your seat.  But what kept me riveted to this story was Katie and Luc.  Forget about the connection they have with Melanie (foster sister to both of them), it was the chemistry between the two of them and the internal struggle they both had with themselves over their feeling and with each other and their attraction.

Katie struggled with Luc because she was certain he wasn’t the type of man she would want to be with.  He was too much like her father and her ex-finance, always wanting to be in control and never expressing their true feelings for her.  Katie wanted a man who would profess his love for her and she wouldn’t ever question that.  Unfotunately, Luc gave her plenty of reasons to question all of that.

Luc has obvious abandonment issues.  His family abandoned him after his mother died, leaving him to foster care and the abuse from those families.  Luc’s solution his issue is to push anyone who gets to close to him away, under the guise that he’s not good enough for them, or the type of person they think he is, or any other excuse he can think of.  Fortunately for Luc, he has a best friend that got into his face and planted the seeds of doubt about his course of action and whether it was for the best or not.

The secondary cast was great, but we were left with many “but what about…” moments.  What happens with Katie’s parents?  What about David (it’s obvious there is a clear story there after his little speech to Luc)?  What about Nemes?

A thoroughly enjoyable romantic suspense that has you hoping good will prevail over good evil, crazy, mob members with a need for revenge.