Customer Reviews

On the Loose (Steele Street, Book 7)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After loving every one of the Steele Street books, the last one, Crazy Sweet, was a disappointment. The main story lacked the intrigue and the wonderful characters I had come to expect from this series. That being said, the secondary story and characters of Special Defense Forces operative, C.Smith Rydell, and heiress, Honey York, saved that story from being a complete bust... And in this story C. Smith and Honey bring this series back on track, making it wonderful once again.

It was only 4 months ago when C. Smith disregarded the mission he was on to rescue an out of place Honey in the streets of San Luis. After helping her on her mission they shared one night of passion and then the next day he had her on a plane back to the States. They never saw each other again. Fast forward to the present day and SDF Operative C. Smith has been called off an important assignment to play bodyguard to Honey. She has to go back to El Salvador on yet another mission, this one more dangerous then the first.

Honey and C. Smith kept me flipping the pages into the wee hours of the night. The mission they are on is complex; it involves drug runners, weapons, money and a few nuns. When you throw their chemistry into the mix, the book gets harder and harder to put down with every page. An introduction to two very dynamic new characters promises an equally thrilling next book.

This is supposed to be a spin off of the Steele Street series, but it seems to be the same type of book with a lot of the same players. No complaints here. This book was as good as I hoped it would be, containing no shortage of action, adventure, danger or romance. It left me in eager anticipation of Cutting Loose due out next winter. Enjoy!

I really think this author's best might be behind her. Crazy Hot, Crazy Cool, Crazy Wild and Crazy Kisses were just great. Crazy Love was quite possibly the biggest let-down disappointment of my entire life as a reader (one that I'm still not over...bitter), and Crazy Sweet was just awful. I was really hoping that the "start" of the "continuation" of Steele Street would be a time of re-energizing for this author....not so much.

The plot is complicated and there are just to many darn characters to keep up with. I didn't particularily care for either Honey or Smith, and the whole drug cartel, ex-lovers, CIA gone bad, nuns in trouble scene is just old and tired.

I am officially done with this series and this author. I can't believe that I wasted my time on her last 3 books. How could something so good turn so horrible. I may reconsider if Janzen decides to re-write Crazy Love...otherwise....Goodbye.

If you loved Tara Janzen's Crazy... series, you've probably been waiting as eagerly as I have for the launch of her spin-off series with the release of On The Loose on October 30th. It was well worth the wait! Not only is On The Loose as fun and sexy a read as I've come to expect from Janzen, she's reunited two characters I fell in love with in Crazy Sweet who deserved their own story.

From the moment Special Defense Forces operative C. Rydell Smith first laid eyes on Honey York smuggling cash through the embattled streets of San Luis, he knew she was trouble. With her polka-dot dress, platform heels, and candy-apple-red toenail polish, she'd tested his ability then to stay cool under fire. But now, four months after putting her on a plane back to safety, his latest mission is to baby-sit the delectable socialite as she saunters back into El Salvador ostensibly on a tour of coffee plantations. Honey has twenty-four hours to find a guerilla leader's camp in the El Savadoran jungle, deliver a pile of monogrammed Louis Vuitton suitcases that don't belong to her, as well as a truckload of equipment, ordnance and a locked briefcase. It doesn't take long for the bullets...and passion to fly!

Janzen specializes in writing compelling, to-die-for heroes and sexy heroines worthy of them. Rydell and Honey are no exception. Their romance sizzles off this page-turning action story. You won't be able to put down your copy of On The Loose until you've read every last exhilarating page.


Reviewed by Karen Docter

STORY BRIEF:
Honey is a wealthy socialite living in Washington D.C. Her sister Julia is a nun working in an orphanage in El Salvador. The orphanage is in an area controlled by Diego, the leader of a revolutionary military group. Because Honey has visited Julia before, the US government wants Honey to deliver money and arms to Diego. Honey wants to go because she thinks her sister might need her help. Smith is a US special forces soldier who is assigned to go with Honey to protect her. A second plot involves an enemy of Smith who is plotting and planning to kill him.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
I didn't like Honey or her decisions and actions. If she wanted to help Julia, she could have hired someone to find Julia and pass messages along. Putting herself at risk of being kidnapped for ransom didn't work for me. In addition, Smith is putting his life on the line to protect her, yet she is not honest with him when he asks her questions about the trip. He tries to talk her into letting him go into the jungle without her, but she refuses and won't tell him why. Aside from that, the story is ok. It took awhile to get going as the reader was meeting and learning about all the different players in the first half of the book. The second half was better. The best part was the ending. The book was ok, but it didn't hold my interest as well as other books have. I prefer more witty conversation or things that surprise and delight me.

DATA:
Story length: 403 pages. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: one, 11 pages long. Setting: current day Peru, Panama, El Salvador and Denver, Colorado. Copyright: 2007. Genre: romantic suspense.

Janzen occasionally makes the back story and her secondary characters more interesting than the front story. In this book, the minute Alejandro Campos, an erstwhile local drug baron, appeared he took over the book and his chapters became my reason to read. They are the ones I re-read. His and Lily Robbins. From that moment I began to track his appearances, and the C. Smith Rydell and Honey York front story took second place. Don't get me wrong they were interesting enough, but Janzen made Campos so magnetic, you can't take your eyes off the page, nor can the characters around him can take their eyes off him.

She has done this in several books with several character pairs, but managed to maintain the equilibrium. In On the Loose however, we dance to Campos' tune. Thankfully Campos and Robbins appear in the next book, Cutting Loose, and they are just as strong. Other recommended books in the "Crazy" Series - Crazy Wild, Crazy Love.

I love this romantic suspense series by Tara Janzen - every single book. This is one of the best in the entire series. Janzen's secret superheroes and their lovely ladies who tough it out at their sides are always fun to read about, but this book's hero and heroine have that extra special something that makes you remember them.

The author's writing is always fun and always funny. Bribed into travelling to South America with expensive goods, our heroine is paired up with her memorable one night stand from the last book. There's no way she's getting away this time, as the two trek through the jungle and escape the bad guys in the most unique of ways.

Tara Janzen is onto a great thing with this series.

The problem with On The Loose is that I found it hard to believe in. There is plenty of plotting and confusion, events in South America, spies and more, but the central idea - that a socialite woman, Honey York, is blackmailed by the government to deliver drugs, money and guns to some rebels - just didn't work for me. Yes, there are reasons given in the text why she is chosen, but I just couldn't see it myself.

Honey has previously met - and slept with - the hero C Smith Rydell, a special forces soldier. He is sent to be her bodyguard and they reacquaint themselves - in the back of a jeep before too long. There are a few side plots including a 'goodie' drug runner Alejandro Campos, a group of nuns, a 'baddie' drug runner and a Russian female assassin, and these all interwove throughout the tale.

Although this book was a reasonable read I was never convinced by events. The big problem was someone like Paris Hilton going into the jungle to negotiate with drug dealers - it just didn't ring true that the government would enable it, and that Honey would manage so well. The other problem was that some of the secondary characters (particularly Alejandro Campos) were more interesting than the primary. I gather this is part of a series (although it's the first I've read, and it was easy enough to follow the backstory) but I'm not particularly inspired to read any others by this author after this offering.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2010

I have to say I am a bit let down with this book. I thought that Honey and Smith were hot in the orevious book, Crazy Sweet, and couldn't wait to read their own story. However, in On The Loose, they come off as bland and lacking any real sizzle. There is one measly love scene in the whole book, and the sexual tension is nil. Most of the story revolves around some drug dealing rebels getting missils, and missing pregnant nuns. Corny. Usually Ms. Janzen can make it work, with her fast pacing and bubbling sexual chemistry, but On The Loose is a sinker. Hope the next one is better...

This book was a great extension of her Crazy series. If you like romance mixed with action it's a must read!

A little swashbuckling, a little corn, a lot of action, but most of all a great time reading. I couldn't put it down. It's a fast-paced, easy-to-read adventure, complete with a lot of James Bond fun.