Review: Love Me To Death

Love Me to Death
Author: Allison Brennan
Characters: 4 out of 5
Plot: 4 out of 5
Overall: 4 out of 5
Format: Paperback
Source: Provided by TLC Book Tours

Description: (GoodReads)  Six years ago, Lucy Kincaid was attacked and nearly killed by an online predator. She survived. Her attacker did not. Now Lucy’s goal is to join the FBI and fight cyber-crime, but in the meantime, she’s volunteering with a victim’s rights group, surfing the Web undercover to lure sex offenders into the hands of the law. But when the predators she hunts start turning up as murder victims, the FBI takes a whole new interest in Lucy.

With her future and possibly even her freedom suddenly in jeopardy, Lucy discovers she’s a pawn in someone’s twisted plot to mete out vigilante justice. She joins forces with security expert and daredevil Sean Rogan, and together they track their elusive quarry from anonymous online chat rooms onto the mean streets of Washington, D.C. But someone else is shadowing them: A merciless stalker has his savage eye on Lucy. The only way for her to escape his brutality may be another fight to the death.

From My Point of View: Let's start this review off on a high note: Romantic Suspense might just be my new favorite genre.  And Allison Brennan might just be one of my new favorite authors.  This was a fantastic read.

Even before beginning this novel, I was skeptical. One of the main themes of the novel was rape, the repercussions of which the main character Lucy is still dealing with six years after the fact.  Obviously, no one enjoys this topic, but I wasn't really sure how the author was going to successfully incorporate a romance into a novel with such a raw theme.  Brennan pulled it off perfectly.  Her timing and execution was incredibly well done.

And the characters? Fantastic!  I loved, loved, loved Sean.  He was everything (and more) that I thought Lucy both needed and deserved.  At first, I had pegged Noah as Lucy's love interest, and while I would have liked them together, Sean was the perfect fit.

One downside I encountered was the inability to discern who Lucy's and Sean's siblings were.  I think I nailed down that Sean has four.  But I'm still lost on Lucy.  I'm clear on Patrick and Dillion, but could not figure out how many more there were.  There was mention of sisters and possibly another brother.  While it wasn't a huge deal breaker, I was kind of annoyed by it.

Other things I liked: the storyline.  I thought it was kind of odd it wrapped up nearly 100 pages before the end, but it turns out it didn't!  I should have known better!  It was a great twist.  Brennan kept me guessing for most of the novel and I figured it out just before the book told me so, so I consider that a well written success.

Overall, this was a great mystery!  Be on the lookout for my giveaway of the novel, posting shortly after this review!