Thrill Me To Death by Roxanne St. Claire

HE KNOWS ALL HER SECRETS...

Max Roper never lets emotion get in the way of his job -- not since the tragic shooting that killed his fiancée's father. Now the former DEA agent is a Bullet Catcher, and he's managed to block out Cori's bitter goodbye -- and their sizzling passion. Those dangerous desires come back with a vengeance when Max is assigned to protect a recently widowed heiress: who turns out to be Cori. But Max must also discover his ex's dark

secret...and they both know she can't hide anything from him.

...AND HOW TO USE THEM AGAINST HER

Her luxury lifestyle suggests that Cori has gone from being a trophy wife to a merry widow, but nothing could be further from the truth. Suspicious of her billionaire husband's sudden death, she hires a bodyguard. But her protector is the one man who can melt her every defense -- the one man she blames for her deepest sorrow, the one man whose six-feet four-inches of solid muscle ignites reckless passion in her. And as they close in on a killer who hides in plain view, their high-stakes affair could cost her everything...including her life.

Former DEA agent Max Roper finds love again in this well-balanced romantic suspense novel, the second installment of St. Claire's Bullet Catcher series. Max is a member of the Bullet Catchers, an elite team of bodyguards made up of former government agents. His latest assignment is to protect Cori Peyton, widow of recently murdered billionaire William Peyton. Five years ago, Max and Cori were a couple on the verge of engagement; when Cori's father, Max's old partner at the DEA, died in a drug bust gone bad, Cori blamed Max, and ended their affair. Dogged by both the rekindling passion between them and suspicions about the secretive Cori's motives-did she kill her husband?-the stoic bodyguard delves into Cori and William's life by whatever means necessary: "[H]e knew a million ways to get information. With Cori, a million and one." As Max and Cori discover that she's a target for the mystery killers, the two uncover an intricate web of greed and deceit that traces back to Peyton Enterprises. St. Claire's ability to evenly match sultry romance with enticing suspense make this novel a superior entry into the romantic suspense game. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

I was too lazy to outline the story for y'all, so instead I posted the Publishers Weakly review.

Basically, Max goes to protect Cori and finds himself just as attracted to her as before..which is really, really bad. Because his purpose for protecting her is two-fold: Keep her alive, and find out if she's the one the killed her husband.

Cori knows her husband's death wasn't an accident, so she wants a bodyguard there to keep her safe while she figures out the truth, but she didn't count on her new bodyguard being Max Roper, the man she holds responsible for her father's death.

I guess this book was alright. It didn't measure up to her first book, Kill Me Twice, but it was ok. I liked Max, but they made such a stink about him being so in control of his emotions and never letting anything get to him, but we never saw that.

Cori just plain bugged. When her father was killed, she just knew it was Max's fault, so she went to whomever and made sure he lost his job with the DEA, then she left him. Now, personally, if I thought someone pulled the trigger and killed my father, I'd just plain out hate him. Or refuse to see him. Or whatever. But we never get that from Cori. We're TOLD she hates him and blames him, but we never see that in her. Plus, she was close to being TSTL, thinking she could solve these murders herself and blah, blah, blah.

The plot wasn't too hard to figure out and the villian of the piece...well, that whole part was kind of..done.

I think if I hadn't read Kill Me Twice, I might like this one a lot better. But IMO, it didn't live up to my expectations.

3.00 out of 5

Kill Me Twice
Thrill Me To Death

Even though I wasn't as impressed with this book as I was the first, I still have to give her credit for her taste in men. This is the pic from her site for Max. Yum! Kudos, Ms. St. Clair. Kudos.