Customer Reviews

Innocent as Sin: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Innocent as Sin is a terrific, can't put it down, story.

Kayla Shaw is a bright, world traveled free spirit who's finally settled down to work at a bank and ends up in the world of private banking, personally taking care of a few very wealthy clients.

Rand McCree is an artist and former agent trying to recover from a life changing incident.

One of Kayla's clients, a REAL bad guy, ends up bringing them together and sending them on the run.

I don't want to give any details away but, as usual, Elizabeth Lowell has written a wonderful romantic suspense. I love how she gives great detail about her characters and their lives and I find myself always learning about something new in her books (Like all the info about the gem industry in her great Amber Cove series)

I couldn't put it down...dinner was late tonight...LOL...and I loved every minute of it!

Elizabeth Lowell has done it again!

Like Lowell's last release, The Wrong Hostage, this book has an up-to-the-minute political issue as it's focus; this time, international gun runners and their exploitation of Africa. At least this time, the hero and heroine aren't nearly as annoying, although their deep feelings for each other are built on almost nothing. We learn little about who the hero is, other than that he's upset about the death of his brother, and he paints. He and the heroine share one night of passion (which lasts all of two pages), and then suddenly are willing to risk their lives for each other. After that, the plot takes over, and the remainder of the book is spent trying to straighten out the mess of international intrigue that's been created, with no further attention given to developing the characters.
Some authors are fantastic at weaving current political storylines into a romance - see Suzanne Brockmann - but Lowell isn't one of them. Her heavy-handed attempts at a "message" derail the romance, instead of using the romance to build the plot, and vice versa. If she wants to head that way, her publisher should reclassify her titles as "fiction" instead of "romance" when promoting them, and have bookstores shelve them accordingly.
For those like myself who felt The Wrong Hostage was the worst Lowell ever, guess what - the main characters are back, big time, in this novel. They continue to be idiots - what kind of man would not only take his teenage son along as his cover on an op where he knows there will be an assasination attempt, but then expose himself and his son to the enemy in order to gloat over a capture? What kind of fictional heroes are going to sit around waiting on a court order while millions of lives hang in the balance? Only those in St. Kilda Consulting.
I'm not giving up on Lowell completely yet - somewhere in there is the woman who brought us the Donovans, and the "Only" series. However, she's definitely become a "get it at the library" author, rather than a "buy it the minute it's released" author.

I will have to say I liked this more than The Wrong Hostage. I really just found Grace's character terribly annoying. However she and Joe are now married and in this book she is much more likable. Their son Lane appears off and on in it also and he is just a cool kid. That said this book kept my interest though Kayla's character was a little far fetched at times. I haven't read a lot of EL books but the ones I have the heroine suddenly becomes this alpha person taking on the bad guys and hello even taking the head villan out. Okay maybe that's EL's formula. Once in awhile that's okay but I find it a bit unbeliveable every time. I liked most of the characters, even the bad guys and when I say I liked them, it's meant that they lived up to their character protrayal. We can't list this with great literature but just for a few hours read it does what it's supposed to do; entertain. It's not the kind of book I will read again but it was an okay read and will probably read the next St Kilda book to see if our characters we've become acquainted with show up in it. I will say that EL must have a very qualified research department to come up with the correct banking procedures and even the information she would need to write about arms trade.

I generally enjoy Lowell's books but this one was formulaic and lacked punch. The heroine and hero, Kayla and Rand, are all but stock characters, and their relationship is totally uninspiring. Luckily then for a great villain, Bertone, and his beauty queen wife, whose horrific crimes, committed on an international scale, fill this novel with much needed suspense.
If only, Kayla and Rand were up to the challenge...

Reed and Rand McCree are identical twins and in the prologue are on a "photo" mission for St. Kilda Consulting (introduced in the "Wrong Hostage" book). They are in a blind and getting photos of the Siberian -- a gun runner who is messing with the politics in various African governments not to mention accumulating millions of dollars from his "trade." Unfortunately, they are spotted and Reed is severely wounded by a sniper shot from the Siberian and further wounded and killed by enemy helicopter strafing fire.

Five years later we are in Arizona where private banker Kayla Shaw has sold her family ranch, is looking forward to moving on with her life and has a very demanding client, the Bertones! She talks to her boss when this client threatens her and it turns out that her client was behind the very efficient sale of her ranch at the asking price. Her boss tells her to deposit the $22 million check in a special account in Aruba and he will take care of the rest.

In the meantime in Seattle, Joe Faroe (Wrong Hostage) has gone to see Rand McCree and have him get pictures of Kayla's client as St. Kilda's believes he is the Siberian who killed Rand's brother. Rand is a painter and agrees to go to the "Fast Draw" competiton as a party the Bertones are giving to benefit the Scottsdale Art Museum. He takes with him a camera that is two-in-one: a normal camera plus on the side at a 90 degree angle a second lense that takes digital pictures onto a small memory card.

Kayla knows that she is getting in deeper and deeper with the Bertones and hopes her boss will contact her soon with what she should do as she doesn't want to be involved in criminal activity. She also goes to their party and when she sees Rand's paintings she realizes this is the "R. McCree" on a painting she bought at an estate sale some time ago. Bertone asks her to meet him on his patio at 7pm after the prize presentation for the "Fast Draw". As she is waiting, lights go out and suddenly the sound system is blasting loud music and Kayla pulls a small knife from her purse as she is scared. Rand also notices what is going on and, of course, saves her from Bertone's henchman who was going to kidnap and torture her!!

How they gather evidence and finally are able to find out who all the "good" and "bad" guys are and the final climax are suspenseful and exciting. The romance between Rand and Kayla is also fun if a bit rushed. A book I couldn't put down until I finished it!!

Lowell delivers an excellent, suspense-filled novel that is wonderfully plotted and drawn with interesting and realistic characters. One of the things I liked best about this book is that the author builds in seemingly insignficant details at the beginning which she then uses to great effect later, especially during the climax. (No spoilers here--you'll have to read it to find out!)

The good (if slightly flawed) guys from St. Kilda are back in action, and characters from previous novels are used to great effect. Once again, Lowell has done excellent research, this time into gun running in Africa, that adds an authentic feel to the book. Kayla is no wimpy, waiting-to-be rescued woman-in-distress; she thinks on her feet and makes smart decisions once she realizes she is in trouble. She is well-matched in Rand, and together they take on the evil Siberian, a thoroughly ruthless and powerful foe. A little romance happens along the way, making this a thoroughly satisfying read.

Highly recommended!

In the latest of her 60-plus novels, Elizabeth Lowell tells a tale inspired by facts [relatively] `ripped from the headlines' - brutal wars far from home shores, money laundering, the smuggling of blood diamonds, the inter- and trans-national illegal arms trade, among other things. Kayla Shaw, a private banker in Arizona, is unwittingly forced to become involved in money laundering on a huge scale when her client's husband blackmails her into complicity. The philosophy from which the title derives comes from a statement by Kayla: "Even sin was innocent once. The rest is timing and opportunity."

Rand McCree is a painter who becomes a reluctant participant in events that ended in the murder of his identical twin brother. That loss has motivated him, five years later, to find and track down the killer, an evil man who is Kayla's nemesis as well, and their shared hatred for the man and all he represents propels the plot. Circumstances have them both in the employ of St. Kilda Consulting, a "necessary organization in today's world of transnational crime, failed and failing states, feral cities, and the just plan savage places in between. All the places where duly appointed and lawful governments are just short of useless and corrupt governments thrive." Another player is John Neto, described as "a black man speaking Scots Gaelic--who was also a former British intelligence officer--was presently chief of intelligence of a small African country that was besieged by transnational criminals from Russia, Brazil, Europe, and the UAE. And this man was being interviewed for American TV in a room in British Columbia, Canada, about a murderous Siberian gunrunner presently living the high life of a socialite in Phoenix, Arizona."

I had some problems with this book, not the least of which was that I found the protagonists rather two-dimensional. I also felt the adjective "feral" was much over-used. As well, the reader is aware of Rand's anguish at his brother's death almost from page one, and I didn't feel it was necessary to be reminded of it on what seemed like every page, e.g., "his twin's loss was still an open wound on his soul." But almost in spite of myself I was pulled into the intricate tale, the timeliness of which makes it one most readers should find enjoyable.

I am so happy to have discovered Elizabeth Lowell's books and have been devouring them all summer. I loved this story when I read it and then discovered THE WRONG HOSTAGE. After reading THE WRONG HOSTAGE, I am re-reading INNOCENT AS SIN and bought BLUE SMOKE AND MURDER to read soon after. I enjoy that Elizabeth Lowell does have a romance with the usual good-looking, strong characters, but her books have a little more substance about a apecific subject (this one is arms dealing and the politics that go with it). She has quickly become one of my favorites along with Carla Neggers, Catherine Coulter, and Karen Robards. Enough facts and setting to learn just a little, easy and relaxing to read, sometimes witty without being silly.

Lowell delivers another exhilarating romantic thriller. Kayla is a banker who has been tricked into laundering money for an international arms dealer. Rand's twin brother was killed by this same man five years before. They team up with help from St. Kilda to stop him before he kills them.
With fascinating dynamic characters, well reasoned motivations and plot lines, and decent writing, this book is highly recommended.

I should have known better than to read another book by this author, after my negative review of 'The Wrong Hostage'. Lowell seems to have a knack for pairing irritating, uninteresting characters in contrived 'romantic thrillers'.
This is a snoozefest, not even worth finishing.