Customer Reviews

I Spy a Wicked Sin (SHADO Agency)

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Artist Jude St. Laurent is in need of a personal assistant after a car accident left him legally blind and frequently plagued with debilitating migraines. What's worse, Jude now has gaping holes in his memory and his nightmares tell him he was once much more than a simple artist. Jude is thrilled when he hires Lily Vale, a woman whose free spirit and taste for hedonistic pleasure matches his own. Lily is everything he ever desired and the erotic games they play would make life perfect, if it weren't for the past he can't remember haunting him.

Lily Vale isn't everything she seems. An agent for SHADO, a covert homeland security agency, Lily has been sent to find information and take out a former SHADO assassin who has turned traitor. But immediately upon meeting Jude, Lily knows something's off. The Jude she comes to know is many things, but a monster isn't one of them. It's up to Lily to unravel the puzzle and find the true traitor before her sensual adventures with Jude come to a crashing, deadly end.

Hedonism is the name of the game in this first, aptly-titled SHADO Agency novel from Jo Davis. I Spy a Wicked Sin scintillates with one naughty erotic encounter after the next. The passion is underscored by the mystery of Jude's past intersecting with Lily's current assignment, adding an element of non-sexual thrill to the story. While the wicked games Lily, Jude, and others play ratchet up the heat level, what captured me about I Spy a Wicked Sin was the likeability of the characters. From Jude and Lily to Liam, Jude's best friend and frequent lover, and others, the majority of the characters in the book were endearing, which more than anything is why I was so invested in the tale.

I Spy a Wicked Sin starts off Ms. Davis's SHADO Agency series with a bang and I look forward to seeing what comes next. In particular, I find myself intrigued by Michael Ross, the grief-stricken widower and head of the SHADO Agency. This is the first book I've read by Ms. Davis and I will definitely be looking forward to reading more SHADO Agency tales. In the meantime, I'll be on the hunt to glom up Ms. Davis's backlist.


Shayna
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Allegedly homeland security Shado assassin Jude St. Lauren turned traitor when he supposedly stole a weapon of mass destruction and sold it to an enemy nation. However, Jude suffered a horrific accident that left him legally blind and unable to recall his sniper work. He becomes an artist living the good life.

Her boss Michael Ross who apparently enjoys psyche games assigns undercover secret agent Lily Vale to clean up the Jude fiasco. She becomes his personal assistant with her assignment to dispatch Jude the monster to obscurity in hell for betraying his country. As he begins to have nightmares about his previous occupation, they begin a tryst that has both surrendering to more passion between them. As she falls in love, she realizes that she must terminate him although she begins to believe he might not be guilty of seditious activity.

This is a terrific espionage erotica with plenty of action, sexual and otherwise, from the moment Lily meets Jude. The story line is fast-paced as Jude finishes his job knowing he might end up in five different oil canisters floating the ocean. The lead couple and Liam insure the sex varies and is heated, but it is "Crater Face" the villain who brings out the I Spy part of the title with his nefarious activities. Fans will enjoy this entertaining thriller.

Harriet Klausner

When I want a rocking good, sexy time, Jo Davis is an author I count on to take me there. With I SPY A WICKED SIN Davis has created a world of sexy spies that James Bond would be only too happy to spend time with solving the world's most serious problems and playing sex games to boot.

Jude St. Laurent is a tortured hero. A hit man who spent his free time enjoying both his own passion for art and beautiful, sexy partners until betrayal and an accident leaves him legally blind with amnesia about his hidden life. He depends on his cook/live in houseboy, Liam to see him through the headaches and nightmarish images that plague him.

Lily Vale is as deadly as her name implies. Gifted in the use of subtle poisons, she enters Jude's world as his new assistant with the mission to retrieve the information about a missing Weapon of Mass Destruction, St. Laurent supposedly has and terminate him. A simple plan, but the more she gets to know Jude, the more she suspects her information and assignment is as complicated as her target.

Davis combines graphic sexual fantasies with a suspense plot that keeps the reader guessing. The beginning book in the Shado series is a dynamite read and will have you begging for more from this exciting erotic suspense writer.

Lily Vale is on a mission to take down the psychotic and evil assassin, Jude St. Laurent. She is also an assassin who works for SHADO, the same covert homeland security agency St. Laurent was a part of. Lily despises Jude because she believes he is responsible for killing her gentle father and many other innocent Americans. Her superior, Robert Dietz has kept Jude alive for his own personal reasons that Lily is not all that aware of. It is believed that Jude has secret computer files on weapons of mass destruction that cannot fall into the wrong hands. Dietz has erased Jude's memory for the sole purpose of getting Lily working as Jude's personal assistant to find the missing files and poison Jude where he'll hopefully die a horrible and painful death. Lily welcomes the mission because she wants Jude to pay.

Jude has a great deal of short term memory loss. All he knows is that he was in a car accident, which made him legally blind. He has horrible headaches and suffers from depression where he spends his days working on his erotic paintings and seducing his models. But, this still doesn't stop the nightmares of murder and death he has almost every night. Along with his friend, and sometimes lover and live in chef Liam O'Neil, he has a life of privilege and decadence anyone would wish for. Until he can regain his memory, the darkness he tries to keep away begins to consume him. Things may change for the better when Lily comes into his life. Jude knows she is a keeper when she doesn't even bat an eyelash at his over the top sexual antics. And when Lily welcomes him in her bed and allows him to do whatever he likes to her to bring them pleasure; he begins to have hope again.

As Lily grows closer to Jude, she is very confused, because he doesn't seem to be the cold blooded killer she believes him to be. With Dietz breathing down her neck to get the job done, Lily must decide to either kill Jude, let him live or do her own investigating, because nothing is what it seems and one wrong move on her end could get her killed.

I Spy a Wicked Sin was very lacking in the erotic romance department. Not only are the situations and actions of the characters laugh out loud ridiculous, but the majority of the love scenes are very weakly written with no chemistry and incredibly bad dialogue. We are shown in great detail what Jude enjoys in bed and wants in a sex partner, but his finesse is really lacking. Jude comes across as very one-dimensional and his emotional outbursts are more like those of a spoiled rich boy. There is simply nothing to recommend about Jude and the lack of tension in regards to whether he can regain his memory failed in keeping my interest. Lily is just as ridiculous from the moment she spies Jude with one of his many women. Even though she is playing a role, her actions are very confusing. One minute she wants to make Jude suffer, the next she wants to love him because he gives her a few moments of pleasure at the dinner table.

This supposed espionage tale has no excitement. The characters are very dull in their personalities. The love scenes that should be hot and smoldering are not, even though there are many bed hopping scenes, sharing of partners, using sex toys and other scandalous intimacies. Instead of being shocked, I found myself yawning. I also couldn't help but laugh at certain points, especially in regards to Jude, who must be the best multi-tasker alive because not only was he a deadly assassin who was never caught, but still had enough free time to create priceless works of art. The only redeemable character in this whole story was Liam, who as a secondary character could have brought so much more to the plot as a whole, but wasn't fleshed out enough.

Jo Davis has really missed the mark with I Spy a Wicked Sin. Robert Dietz is a pathetic type of villain, Lily is very wishy washy, and Jude is a very lacking hero, spy and sensual lover who supposedly both men and women can't help but worship. If you are looking for a well-written action packed erotic romance, look elsewhere.

Katiebabs

Jo Davis has a series of stories about firefighters, great stuff. This series is very adventurous, very erotic. This series of erotic adventures is different forom ANY I have read. Enjoyed the book.

STORY BRIEF:
Jude is a former assassin for SHADO, a covert homeland security agency. After an attack, he's lost all memory of his former life and is blind. Prior to the attack he was also a rich and famous artist (of hedonistic paintings). After his attack, he continues painting. He hires Lily as a personal assistant. He starts to recall partial visions of his past. Lily is a current assassin for SHADO who uses sex to manipulate her targets. Her assignment is to locate two computer files in Jude's possession and then kill Jude. As Lily gets to know Jude, she starts having doubts about her assignment.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The story is mostly a lot of sex scenes. Everyone having sex, anytime, with anyone, on a moments notice. Think "see human, have sex." There is group sex, men with men, and sex with strangers. These people have sex the way most people eat meals, three times a day with variety. There are sex toys and rear door activity. It was a little disappointing because there was no developing of relationships. I couldn't see how people got to know each other or like each other. They meet, they think the other is hot, they have sex. I didn't get a chance to grow to like the characters. In fact, I did not enjoy Lily much because I didn't like her intentions or actions - but I guess that was because she was the bad guy. The last part of the book had a little more story. It was ok, but nothing special or different from most romantic suspense.

I was annoyed that the cover picture did not match the character. Jude has chin length auburn hair. The guy on the cover has very short light brown hair with blond highlights. I was also confused as to how a blind person could paint - sculpture yes, painting? It may be possible, I don't know.

DATA:
Story length: 277 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious words. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 14, most of them 2 to 5 pages long. Setting: current day New York, Mexico, and Tennessee. Copyright: 2010. Genre: erotic romantic suspense.

I was disappointed with the characters in this book. Although I did not like it, Jo Davis did an excellent job describing the characters and giving me a 3D picture of them. However, I could not get past the male on male scene. One of my problems with books like this is that there is man on man action and the man also has a female. This strikes too close to down low men. When I am in my fantasy of reading, I just don't want to imagine my man with another man. I really wanted to read the story, because I have heard of her writing acuity, but could not get over the pining the male lead had for another man. It strikes me as gratuitous. I wish the editors would tell us if there is this kind of relationship is in the book so I can skip it. I like to own my books, but this is one I wish I could have taken back. I am now unlikely to ready anything else by this writer.