Alpha One (Shadow Agents, #1)

by Cynthia Eden

This was an alright romantic suspense novel, there's nothing particularly new or unique being added to the genre here, but it was a solid plot with action, villains and a ton of romance. Cynthia Eden very rarely writes an unreadable book. And this ticks all the check boxes for what most readers are after.

The plot itself is a well used one, daughter of a politician kidnapped for leverage, childhood sweetheart/first lover/past boyfriend is blackmailed into abandoning them, walks back into life as part of the rescue operation/protection duty/ etc. Honestly, it's not my favourite plot line. I'm pretty anti second chance romances. I didn't really have any strong feelings about the main characters - Julianna was alright and was willing to put up a fight - Logan was kind of an ass - he's just too busy lying and justifying his orders and his decisions and their past and it kind of got old pretty fast. The romance between them wasn't particularly steamy - there were only two sex scenes - so it's pretty tame for the genre.

There were a couple of surprise twists Susan! Not that she was bad - that I guessed early on - but her attack on Gunner - she tricks him into comforting her and letting her close and then bam, knife to the gut. And with the whole is her name Susan or Becky Sue from the other person's life she stole - honestly I wanted to know more about her and how she came to be. but for the most part it was straightforward. I didn't really get enough insight into the EOD (Elite Operations Division - black books operation) to get overly invested. The team mates are mentioned but not enough for me to have feelings just yet.

Overall, basic romantic suspense, perfect for some mindless fluff. 2.5 stars, rounded to 3.