Loose and Easy by Tara Janzen
‘Steele Street’ series Book #9
Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages – Publisher: Dell (August 26, 2008 ) – Language: English – ISBN-10: 0440244692 – ISBN-13: 978-0440244691
Back of the Book reads:
HE’S THE BAD BOY SHE ALWAYS WANTED.
He’d know her anywhere. Johnny Ramos had just come off a tour of duty in Afghanistan to find Esmee Alden trolling the mean streets of Denver in red lace and leather. The smartest girl he ever knew turning tricks? Not even close. Esmee’s in danger so deep, only Johnny can get her out – which is why the elite government operative is shadowing her every move.
SHE’S THE GOOD GIRL WHO GOT AWAY.
Esmee had everything planned down to the last detail: dresed in disguise, she’d recover a stolen painting and pay off her dad’s ruthles bookie. Until Johnny Ramos, her high school crush, blows into town and nearly blows her cover. Now Esmee, a P.I. and an art-recovery expert, has a mother lode of bad guys on her tail … including the one bad boy she always wanted: Johnny. But passion will have to wait. Because when bullets start flying, suddenly they’re on the run, playing it fast and loose – and heading straight into the line of fire…
13 -Oct-08 to 14-Oct-08
Review: A Cyclone of a story – would have been appreciated.
Johnny Ramos is back after his third tour of duty and is looking for a little down time. He has news he has to deliver and isn’t looking forward to it. Leaving the bar, he spots someone he’d recognize anywhere; the object of his every fantasy: Esmee Alden. He can’t believe his eyes – no way the smartest girl in school is one the streets, turning tricks. Curiosity gets the better of him and he follows her.
Esmee, aka Easy, is all grown up. She’s a P.I. and an art-recovery expert, and she’s on her way to do just that – to recover a stolen painting, bring it to its owner and get paid. That money will pay off her father’s loan with a bookie.
Meanwhile, her mom was kidnapped from the parking lot at work, she can’t find her father, and there are men after her. Seems the bookie, Franklin Bleak, wants Esmee to use as collateral against her father.
In comes Johnny Ramos. He follows Esmee, trying to play it cool, only to help her escape Bleak’s goons. Now, she has a 5am deadline to bring Bleak the $82,000 her father owes him. Will she be able to meet that deadline?
I don’t know what to say. Not what I expected, not the usual that I read by Janzen. She introduces new characters well, but this time there were just too many ‘goons’ that it was hard to keep track of who was with who and where they were. While the twists were good, they were obvious. I like how Johnny sweeps back into Esmee’s life, the action scenes were perfect. I liked the ‘badass’ in Esmee, but I didn’t really feel the sparks that were there. Sure, you feel them from Johnny, but not so much with Esmee. He’s supposed to be the biggest crush she had in high school, but you don’t feel it.
I found the action scenes good, I liked Dax Killian, Esmee’s cousin (and if the seguay into the new book means what I think it means, he’ll be in the next one). I did find that the ending went a little too smoothly. They had leverage against Bleak, he had leverage against them, and it all ended too neat and tidy. I was expecting more. It almost feels like the book was hastily written. Not to say that it was, it just felt like it. And yet, for all the book was lacking, I was still glued to each page, anxious to see how Johnny and Esmee bail themselves out. I think, because the book was based on a 10 hour period instead of a couple of days took away from the book. A lot more could have happened in between. More explanation of her past few years would have been appreciated. It’s like there’s another story there, one that should have been told and the reader never gets enough of to fully and completely understand.
Rating: 
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