Customer Reviews

Sweet Revenge (Silhouette Intimate Moments)

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

 

 

Hard, SEXY, complicated Detective "Creole" Auri Levalois thought no woman would ever earn his trust until he met Psychologist Grace Summerville. A woman whom he must aid in her search for her missing sister, and whom must help him get his "sweet revenge." Throughout their search, the two become entanlged in a passionate, sensual love like never before. This love "cured" Creole of his "problem" and lowered his defences (just a bit) around Grace.

Grace is compassionate, loving, and understanding. Creole is strong, (oh sooo sexy) caring, and loyal. Together these two make a spectacular, emotionally and sensually charged couple, in a devastatingly romantic story that should NOT be missed.

Grace Summerville is a counselor for troubled teens and her sister Muse seems to be a great free for-all. Life style and men.
And now she is missing [pay attention to this aspect].
Auri "Creole" Levalois is on the private prowl trying to find Muse's last boy friend, he is sure Muse will lead him to the guy. He feels an unwanted, instant attraction as he watches her from across their respective balconies on a hot, dark night.
He was salivating as he watched her run that darn ice cube where he would love to run his tongue.

Revenge, that was what Creole was after for the torture and murder of his foster brother, Luke.

My question is, he couldn't have been too good a detective is she knows he is following her or did he do it deliberately?

Why the devil did she dress to intice if she wouldn't put out. I guess the hot kiss told it all. Ah well, it was only a matter of time.

Their trip around Bourbon Street was a bit hilarious and then the FBI has to stop their fun. But danger was lurking near by.

The characters were great and their problems made the story even better - there was the thrill of the chase - the build up to the eventual seduction [as usual] and a great twist to Muse being in the protection of FBI Special agent Remi Beaulieux [cousin of Simon Beaulieux from "Catch Me If You Can"].

It's not fair Ms. Bruhns -- who did Muse marry? Was it Remi? Or did she meet someone else? For all of his secretiveness, Remi deserves a book of his own. He should go back and see Simon and his family.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED --M Loved that tatoo!

All her life Grace has been the quiet, responsible twin, while Muse was the daring one. That fact only served to make the bond between them closer than most. When Muse goes missing, Grace takes a leave of absence from her counseling job and comes to New Orleans. She decides to assume her sister's identity in a desperate bid to uncover the truth. At first nothing seems to work until one hot night when she realizes someone is watching her from the balcony across from her own...

New Orleans Police Detective Auri "Creole" Levalois is a renegade with one goal on his mind: find the people responsible for his foster brother Luke's murder. When his investigation leads him to a small time hood named Gary Fox, Creole decides to set up surveillance on Fox's girlfriend. According to his files, the sultry Muse Summerville dresses like a femme fatale and has a penchant for dangerous men. However, the woman Creole is spying on doesn't even like to wear sexy lingerie and jumps whenever he's near. Something isn't right and Creole is determined to get to the bottom of it, even if he has to jump the four feet between their respective balconies.

Like the city the story takes place in, SWEET REVENGE is a steamy, passionate tale of vengeance, redemption and love -- with a nice big serving of good, old-fashioned lust. While Grace is a beautiful and strong heroine, it is Creole who will take the reader's breath away. Tortured by his childhood memories and haunted by the death of his brother, Creole is determined to be alone. He can't even bear the touch of another person, which makes for some interesting scenes in this story. Grace's acceptance of his dark side slowly erodes the demons plaguing Creole, but will it be enough?

Nina Bruhns has filled Grace and Creole's story with enough sexual tension to melt every last ice cube in your freezer, but it's the poignant moments that will have you placing this book on your keeper shelf. Mais oui, SWEET REVENGE is one very fine tale.

TheSchemer

What a fabulous, emotional, steamy story of revenge, healing and love. I love the old Silhouette Intimate Moments line when the books were a meaty 250 pages. And Nina Bruhns was so well-suited to them, if she would quit the vampire!sheikh stuff and go back to writing like this, I'd snap it up in a second. Can I add how much I love New Orleans settings? And is there anything hotter than a Cajun hero?

The plot is good, without overshadowing the romance. The hero is a cop on leave who's trying to track down his brother's killer. The heroine is a school counselor on vacation trying to track down her missing sister. Naturally they become entwined, as the hero considers the sister his best lead, and worse thinks that she IS her sister. Her irresponsible, wild-with-men sister. There's not much mystery as to who the bad guy is, but the suspense as to when he and his goons will show up hovers in the background until the gripping, scary climax.

The romance is both touching and extremely hot. Auri and Grace both have issues. I really felt for him - his childhood left him unable to bear being touched (he usually handcuffs his sex partners). I wanted to hug this strong, sexy, yet vulnerable man (I wouldn't have minded the cuffs either). His Creole phrases were hot, his tattoo was hot, his bursts of jealousy were hot. Grace's issues seemed less important by comparison - she was the straitlaced twin and was afraid of bad boys and her attraction to them. I could understand that her father's desertion made her believe that bad boys never stick around, and the bad boy teens she counseled weren't any better. But I still think she went too far, pushing the hero away when he clearly needed her. The scene where he asks her at the end to have sex with him one last time and touch him, so he would know what it's like to make love like a normal man, damn near made me cry. So it riled me that she still planned to leave, cuz of her he's-a-bad-boy-so-won't-stick-around mantra. Oh and some loser teens needed her back home, who cares? But this was a small blemish on an otherwise awesome romance. Highly recommend!

The pairing of two psychologically scarred but resilient characters makes for a moving read. Some artificially (but initially fun) mistaken assumptions set up the story. Then the wounded male is soothed and loved back into hope and feeling by the nurturing female. Add in the moderately hot sex (which actually could have been taken to the next level and would have pushed this 4 star read into 5), and the love is a sure thing. Enjoyed it. An HEA with strong emotional resonance.

Nina Bruhns is an author who caught my eye when I first stumbled across her Passion for Danger series which I just devoured upon discovery. I found Nina Bruhns to write a well balanced romantic suspense whilst juggling a lot of characters, delivering edge of the seat suspense together with enough heat to make her books the kind you can count on to keep you entertained throughout.

Sweet Revenge is the 2nd book in the New Orleans trilogy featuring the very hot Cajun hero, New Orleans Police Detective Auri "Creole" Levalois. Creole is a man who has survived the harshest and cruelest existence in life suffering at the hands of those who are bound to protect him. A victim of the mostly brutal foster care system, Creole's only close friend is his foster brother Luke for whom Creole would lay down his very life for. Luke's death at the hands of the notorious crime leader James Davies comes as a shock to Creole who vows revenge on the man who is responsible for his foster brother's death. Creole's only lead is to follow the trail of Gary Fox in the hopes that he would lead Creole right onto Davies's doorstep.

Psychologist Grace Summerville travels to New Orleans to find out why her twin sister Muse Summerville has disappeared all of a sudden. Grace and Muse are as different from one another as night and day with Grace being the sensible and responsible one with Muse living up to her well earned reputation of being the wild one. Grace is pretending to be her sister Muse when her path crosses that of the sexy French Cajun detective who stirs up all her senses and makes her clamor for his attention each and every time they come across one another.

Creole is a man who is well versed in the art of female deception. That along with all the women in his life who has betrayed him till now makes Creole a man who is wary of feeling too much for anyone of the fairer sex. But even his well guarded heart is not immune from how all his senses go on red alert when he comes across the alluring Grace Summerville who he is keeping under surveillance thinking Grace to be Muse.

Grace who has sworn that she would never let herself fall for a wild and undependable man like her father finds herself nevertheless a helpless victim of desire when it comes to the wildly dangerous Creole who sets off all kinds of reactions of the right variety deep within her as they team up to find out what happened to Muse and to draw in Luke's killer.

The mystery potion of the story is quite small with the main focus of the novel being on how the relationship devlops between Creole and Grace. Creole is a hero of the yummiest kind who whispers all the right erotic stuff in sexy Cajun which makes my knees go wobbly each and every time. He is a tortured hero who doesn't come across as a brute, but rather is a man who has so many endearing qualities to him that I couldn't help but fall hard and fast for him. Though his history is not overly much detailed, the reader is able to piece together a painful past which makes Creole a man who is doubly protective of his heart and trust.

Grace had grown up with a father who had upped and left when the going had gone tough. Past relationships had shown Grace that she doesn't have the best taste in men, always ending up with someone who wants to live for the moment. So when Grace comes across Creole to whom her reaction is volatile at best, Grace does the next best thing and denies anything she feels for the man who kisses her senseless and makes her forget each and every sensible thought ever to cross her mind.

However, even when Grace witnesses firsthand the type of honorable man Creole is, even when he shows her over and over again how hard it is for him to trust people and nevertheless wins over his trust, even then Grace never fully understood Creole enough not to walk away from him towards the end. This fact rankled a bit for me with this story, made me feel at times that Grace didn't deserve someone like Creole who has a broken soul which heals under the Grace's tender ministrations. However, thankfully things did work out in the end, and I ended up with a huge grin on my face after reading the epilogue which shows my Creole all happy with the kind of love and family he has never had before.

If you are looking for a contemporary romance featuring a hot Cajun hero, a romance that features a bit of suspense to make things interesting, grab yourself a copy and read this one. Though I expected Creole to be a bit different from the hero he turned out to be, nevertheless he makes for a hero who induces all the right kinds of feelings making this a well rounded story in the end.

Rating=3.75/5

Reviewed by: Maldivian Book Reviewer