Customer Reviews

Tasting Fear

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

 

 

Ok the story pertains to 3 women adopted by an italian woman with secrets. The sisters each have their own story in this "trilogy" all in one. While I am a huge fan of McKenna, I didnt exactly love this particular novel. I found the storyline and mystery true to McKenna's style but the romance lacked the particular "oomph" that I've come to expect. The heroes seemed identical in personality and not just in the "alpha" way and the heroines each had an issue with men and sex. In fact their is a line that is repeated in each woman's story about hoping not to choke during the sex act. I guess their were too many similarities to me and it was as if this story was written as one book and the names of the characters were changed to make it seem like 3 seperate stories involving 3 seperate couples.

I am going to eagerly await the missing McCloud brother and probably pass Taste of Fear to my sister .

Okay, brace yourself. For those of us who embraced the fast-paced, exciting plot, great characters and a hot read of the McCloud series don't bother with this new book. It missed the mark on every count. There are 3 sisters so she wrote 3 separate stories in one book. After you read through the 1st sister-Nancy- the other 2 stories are a cut & paste that are even less interesting. What a shame. There is no desire to pick this book up again once you put it down, which is a true disappointment from this author. The ending, with sister #3, gives you the impression that the author was tired writing it and just needed to finish. Well, we can can only hope that she gets her head back into the game for her next one - rent this from the library if you need to read it. It's not worth the purchase.

Stayed awake WAY too late just to finish "Tasting Fear". Shannon McKenna has delivered three stories in one (really thick) volume. The stories are interconnected with an overarching storyline, yet each story could have been published as a standalone and tortured fans into waiting for the next one. For that alone, this is a wonderful book!

Three women, adopted as girls by an Italian woman, become sisters. Each 'daughter' has her own personality and her own path to follow. The book opens with the death of the mother, and the early realization by the daughters that it was murder. Their determination to catch the killer is only heightened by the fact that THEY are now being hunted too. A wacko bad guy (or two), a hunky carpenter, a sexy, rather OCD agent, and a former Special Ops turned gardener comprise the main masculine characters. And let me just say...YUM! McKenna sizzles the pages with her special blend of Alpha male dominance and caring. This time out, each of the daughters learns to be strong in her own way and how to depend and care for that most rare of beast...a caring Alpha.

Mystery, hot sex, danger, smoking sex, and action (and did I mention the hot sex?) come together to create a page-turning story that demands all a reader's attention. I meant to just read 'one' of the stories and then finish up...HAH! I couldn't put it down and HAD to finish. I enjoyed how each of the sisters had a different personality and that was reflected in their story and their seduction. There weren't too many TSTL (too stupid to live) moments, I could see how and why each one happened and it wasn't outside the realm of possibility. The bad guy is really bad and a real sicko...and so's his boss (think Nazi offspring with all the bad traits). The mystery involves a mysterious hidden 'something' whose story and history gradually unfold throughout all three stories.

McKenna's characters all have foibles and strengths in equal measures. Nobody's perfect or a prince, etc. Both heroes and heroines work hard for what they have and have to make life-changing decisions under pressure. These things provide her stories with the aura of reality while still providing a great escape and maybe even make me think about what I would do in the same situation. (Scream and faint most likely...or just jump the hottie!) In any event, while I didn't love ALL three of the stories, I did enjoy the heck out of them. And rather than tell you which one was my favorite, I'll just let you read and guess it on your own.

I have enjoyed the McCloud books so of course picked up this one. My suggestion: borrow it from the local library, it's not worth the money.

Why? The three stories share the exact same plot. Woman meets man, woman and man fall in lust, couple shares spicy scenes, woman and man have a disagreement and split up, woman is kidnapped then rescued by man, couple admits and/or realizes true feelings, couple become engaged. There, now you don't have to buy the book! I wish Shannon had mixed it up a little. Perhaps one couple marries. Maybe one couple skips the argument & break up part. Or the man is in peril and the woman rescues him.

But by far the worst part of this book were the many, many errors. They wanted this one published in a hurry. Everthing from missed commas resulting in run-on sentences, to awkward phrasing, to repetitions - for example when Jack climbed out of the hot spring, and then climbed out AGAIN 2 sentences later. Did I miss the part where he fell back in?! I could not stay "in" the stories because the errors were so prevalent I kept getting jarred back to reality.

Please, Shannon, go back to the full-length novels with well-developed characters and plot lines. I am eagerly awaiting Kevin's story.

As my title suggests, if this was my first Shannan book my rating would be 1 star AND I would have never read another McKenna tome!

It's difficult to fathom that this same author wrote Tam's book, Ultimate Weapon. While the UW's dialogue was so sharp and real that the reader could 'hear' the Italian & Eastern European accents, Tasting Fear's dialogue is grossly unbelievable and stilted. My fellow 2 star reviewer perfectly sums up the plot's flaws & weaknesses therefore I'll close by saying......

I'm guessing that Shannan owed her publisher a book hence the disappointment of Tasting Fear.

Wow. This book does not come with rose tinted glasses. The only thing I can say about this book is that these people were messed up.

Nancy and Liam will never make it. If they were real people and were my friends and they sent me a wedding invite, I wouldn't even bother to show up. I wouldn't even send them a card, much less a wedding present. They will be divorced in five years, tops. They are the couple you pray never have children.

Nell and Duncan were the most normal but not by much. Nell is hypersensitive about being perceived as a prostitute while Duncan is a hyper focused, OCD control freak. They have a really cute "we are so in love" phase before the eeeeeeevil supervillains make their move and start smacking Nell around.

Vivi and Jack, wow. Where to start? Abandonment issues, mommy issues, sexual hangups, head games. Take your pick. A therapist could have a field day with this book. On a personal note, I didn't like Vivi. Too much of a hippie for me. But even though I didn't really care for Vivi or Jack, I was still too engrossed by their personal relationship to flip to the end and find out what was happening. Kind of like a car accident. I couldn't turn away from this mess of a couple.

I liked this book as a whole but if I was grading on the individual stories then I only liked Nell and Duncan's story. The plot of this book was very good and suspenseful and I liked the mystery. Depending on my mood, I would rate this 3-4 stars

These three stories were just so uneven and so bad. I've read most of Ms. McKenna's books and I can honestly say I didn't like not one of the three female lead characters in this book. All three were very bitchy, very shrill, and ultimately very stupid. As for the guys -- they were basically all the same guy.

Just my opinion, but I'd have rather had the author dump this project to concentrate more on Kevin McCloud's book.

Note to the author-- please consider removing these three words from your future books: crisply, primly, bucko. They are, at this point over used.

I usually love the way Shannon Mckenna writes. She is an auto buy for me. However this book I just couldn't get into. It didn't even seem like the same person wrote the book. I love her heroes. They are usually so alpha and tortured. But these men just didn't do it for me. The heroines weren't my favorite either. They all seemed the same. Just kind of blah. That being said, Shannon Mckenna will continue to be an auto buy for me. I'm hopeful that the next book will be back to her usual formula.

STORY BRIEF:
Something valuable was hidden from the Nazis during WWII by an Italian Count. Lucia is a descendant of the Count living in the U.S. in the present day. John the Fiend pays her a visit to force her to give him whatever this is. She dies during his visit, before he can get it. He sees a letter she recently wrote to her three adopted daughters, now grown. The letter gives clues to the daughters about the item. The rest of the book is divided into three short stories (about 160 pages each) with John going after each of the three daughters. He has them under surveillance, plans to kidnap and torture them for the information and then rape and kill them for fun. Each story has one of the daughters meeting a guy, falling in love, having some conflict and in harms way with John.

The three daughters have different personalities and psychological damage from their pre-adoptive years. Nancy is a business manager/agent for up and coming musicians. Nell supports herself as a waitress while working on her PhD in poetry. Vivi is a tattooed and pierced sculptor and jewelry maker. The three men are gorgeous, sexy, dominant, and caring alpha males. Liam is a carpenter. Duncan is a former intelligence agent and currently owns a software development company. Jack was a former special ops military man and currently raises and sells flowers to florists.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This wasn't her best work, but it was definitely an enjoyable escape and worth the money to buy. She is a talented author, one of my favorites. The three short stories allow her to include a lot of what romance lovers want - the meeting and development of three passionate relationships with a lot of hot sex. There is more romance than anything else, but there is a fair amount of mystery, suspense and danger which kept me glued to the book, making it hard to put down.

DATA (for all three stories combined):
Story length: 478 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 18, most a few pages long, some longer. Setting: current day New York area and Oregon. Copyright: 2009: Genre: romantic mystery suspense thriller.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Shannon McKenna books, see my 5 star review of "Ultimate Weapon" posted 11/15/08.

"Outside the Limit". The coroner ruled that Lucia died from natural causes; having suffered a heart attack. Her three adult adopted daughters know otherwise. The intruder who broke into Lucia's home watched her die; that thug could have saved her life with a 911 call. Nancy, Nell and Vivi vow to bring the killer to justice and to recover stolen priceless Renaissance art that the D'Onofrio siblings believe is the motive. Nancy arrives at her adopted mom's house only to meet a stranger inside. Contractor Liam finds himself needing to keep Nancy safe; while she finds herself feeling safe with him and willing to tell him what she knows though she also believes it could prove costly to her and her sisters.

"Ask for More". Nell knows who best can assist the sisters; her boss Duncan, who she is attracted to, is an expert on the deadly cyberspace underworld from his former government operative days. She asks for his help in finding clues to the missing masterpiece and he agrees to assist her as he is as attracted to her as she is to him.

"Ready or Not". Vivi has ferocious government operative Jack who seeks justice at the limits of the law to look after her. Even he is shocked how much the wild Vivi turns him on and keeps him somewhat calm.

Although a bit over the top, these three interwoven romantic suspense thrillers are fast-paced and filled with action as murders occur driving each couple closer to one another. Fans will enjoy this exciting tale of three sisters in the anger stage of grief seeking vengeance and recovery (of the lost masterpiece) but finding love with hunks who want to keep them safe from nasty killers.

Harriet Klausner