This book was okay, But... According to the back cover, the book was supposedly about Marc Lafayette and Tara Reeves but there were so many characters that their story was not given justice. Not even a third of the book, I would guess, was about them. It was difficult to say whether the book was about Marc and Tara or Bobby Lee and Darcy or Rebel and Wade or Alex.

There were too many abrupt scene/character changes. You were just getting into one aspect of the story when you were jerked into another persons story. Lots of minnie cliff hangers, I guess to make you keep reading. There was never enough time given to a character to really delve into their motivations. I didn't feel that I ever really knew where any of the characters were coming from other than brief stereotypes. For example Bobby Lee grew up poor. Marc has 5 sisters. Tara's father was a stern military type who convinced her she had no worth and her mother died of pollution caused cancer and for some reason Darcy feels unlovable. That's about it for background and there was little description of the characters. Also, inexplicably Alex stays in his engagement with Helene when he seems to want Rebel, etc. Other reviewers mentioned Alex and Rebel as an item but I didn't care about Alex in conjunction with Rebel. As the situation is presented, he needs to man up. Cloudy unexplained motivations all around. I believe the author is trying to write a series similar to Suzanne Brockman's where characters and story line carry over from book to book which is fine but I need to know the characters a little more in depth in order to care.

The supposed heroine, Tara is a bit too wussy. She's a state trooper supposedly good at her job, (which we never see her doing at all), but she lets herself be pushed around. Also, she has sex with the hero less than 24 hours after she meets him (in a bit of a demeaning scene which made me cringe, where she basically lets herself be treated like a piece of meat)for your first romantic encounter, you want a man to respect you it might not be a good idea to let him push you to your hands and knees on a dock in the bayou and f**k you from behind less than 24 after you meet. Total 'I'm a 'ho' fibe. and is madly in love within 3 days. This didn't ring true for me which might have been why I liked Bobby Lee and Darcy's story much better since they had known each other for 5 years.

Finally as to the terrorist threat that the whole story supposedly revolved around, there was no real sense of urgency. The author told us we should care but the suspense was just not there.

So final verdict is that I didn't hate it, didn't love it. May or may not pick up the next one. Might flip through another one to find out what happens with Rebel and Wade. Might not. But I won't be giving it to my sister and reading buddy as a must read. ( )

Don’t read these books out of order!
They are not standalone stories. If you haven’t read the first book I don’t think you’d find much at all to enjoy about this one, and you're not going to get many answers unless you read the one after this too.

This was better than the first book. There weren’t so many humongous plot holes, and I liked most of the characters far more than I did in book one. It was decent romantic suspense but had major structural issues. It’s a pity, because there was a lot of interesting stuff happening in this story.

The biggest problem with is that the hero and heroine aren’t the main characters. Yes, you read that correctly! In fact, they come in about fifth and sixth for importance to – and time appearing in – the story. Without a focus, this book has a lot of potential, but ends up rather a mess.
The book is 355 pages long, and the supposed hero and heroine are given at most maybe a few dozen pages together. They part ways on page 204, and there’s nothing at all with them even in the same state (and not even a phone conversation; in fact they’re not really even in the story) again until page 287! Eighty-three pages is a bit long for a so-called romance story to go without the hero and heroine!
When they finally do run into each other in a hotel hallway on page 287, Tara tells Marc off for not calling her that day! Uh, excuse me dear, but you’ve both been a little busy fighting terrorists, and you’re not finished yet! But the allegedly tough State Trooper heroine is having a tantrum because a post-sex phone call wasn’t made at the exact moment she wanted it! No matter the hero was actually on his way to his room to call her!

Maybe I’m not a demanding enough person, but I’d be far more understanding if my superhero boyfriend had just spent a few hours saving the world for me!

The ‘Louisiana Speak’ got to me. Even if everyone and their alligator spoke like this, reading an accent written phonetically is enough to put me in a padded cell in a straightjacket.

“You sure dis da right place?”
“Well, now, lesee.”
“You try dem fils for starters. Dey not available, dey prob’ly recommend you some other fils.”
“Dis here is sort of a waterin’ hole for our local outdoor types."

What’s the book about? Islamic extremists are in Louisiana, where they’ve kidnapped Gina (who was featured in the last book, and is heroine of the next) and tortured her and forced her to work with them to create a bioweapon or something. The secret government superhero organisation most of the characters work for is trying to stop it, but State Trooper Tara gets involved for some reason. Once she’s in, apparently she gets to skip all training and security clearances and all the rest, and become one of the team.

You practically need a phrasebook to read this one. I appreciate the bilingual efforts, but it was far, FAR too much of a good thing.

“We’re going to get these fils du putains, Dr Cappozi.”

“No joy, eh, fille?”

Le bon Dieu. Kick was a true artist.

Marc thought. Salleau prie.

Alors. Not bad.

Especially the parts in between. Le foutu tayau! He had to ball his fingers into tight fists to keep from stalking over there and wrapping them around Rand’s nerdy little neck.
Le bon Dieu mait le main.

Then there was: "What are you thinking about, cher?” he interrupted her burgeoning panic from behind her, breaking the tense silence between them. “Your back is stiff as a week-old baguette.”

The main couple – no matter what the author and publishers seem to think – actually consists of Quinn and Darcy. The first chapter of the book is about them; I went back a couple of times to read the blurb because I couldn’t figure out why I was promised a book about Tara and Marc and instead given one about Darcy and Quinn! It becomes confusing though, because depending on which part of the book you’re reading, Darcy is alternately called Zimmie, and Quinn is called Bobby Lee – like there weren’t already too many characters without giving them more than one name! I really liked their story, and they were far more involved with the terror plot and the action. Their romance was far more engrossing (and believable, as it wasn’t some spur of the moment thing).

Darcy was a strong woman without losing her femininity. I became enormously annoyed at Marc and his love story because he spent the whole time thinking about the differences between strong women and feminine women. It annoyed me he thought of Tara that way; the implication was you can be Strawberry Shortcake or GI Jane, but you can’t have strength and femininity. I hate those stereotypes.

I will give the author credit though for generally creating female characters who hold down difficult jobs in ‘a man’s world’ and allowing them to maintain their personalities and be fairly interesting to read about. I liked most of the people in this book.

Nina Bruhns displays a strange habit in this book I didn’t notice in the one before. She tends to overlap her scenes. For example, when they are going to rescue Gina, we see the scene from Quinn’s point of view; him hearing her scream, Kick kicking the door in ("Kick kicking"!). But then the next scene takes us back and shows the whole thing all over again from Gina’s point of view.

I liked a lot of things about this story. In the end I even liked how Marc and Tara’s relationship was dealt with. But after a whole book of them being absent, it was hard to care much about the emotional conclusion. I liked Darcy and Quinn. I liked Rebel and Alex (though you have to read the next book to know why they 'can't' be together). I even liked Gina’s story.
I liked so many things, but they were all separate to each other, and they didn’t gel enough for me to really like the book. ( )

If Looks Could Kill is an exhilarating romantic suspense that has plenty of goings-on in the Bayou of Louisiana. When several odd deaths occur, state law enforcement officer Tara Reeves is on the case. She hires Marc Lafayette as her swamp guide, but is unaware of his undercover status as a Special Ops agent searching for a terrorist.

Needless to say, Marc is not so enthusiastic about being side tracked with Reeves except for the fact that he is wildly attracted to her. This love story however, is not just about Tara and Marc, but simultaneously follows the lives (and love stories) of several other agents in the field. As all of the stories begin to converge together, so does the heat. Bruhns does a great job of making sure you read this one all the way to the end. And leaves enough hanging that you will definitely need to read the next installement. ( )