Barefoot With a Bad Boy
By Roxanne St. Claire
Barefoot Bay Undercover - Book 3
Publisher: South Street Publishing
Release Date: February 16, 2016
For years, former spy Gabriel Rossi has been secretly searching for CIA linguist Isadora Winter, a woman he loved and lost long ago. But recently, he learned of her untimely death in an accident...and death of her son named Gabe. Angry, hurt, and uncertain of his next move, Gabe is stunned when a woman he's never met approaches him on the beach and claims to be Isadora. She doesn't look, act, or talk like his beloved Isa, but she knows things about their past that only a lover could know, and she assures him that his son is alive as well. As much as he wants to believe her and knows that in the spy world, anything is possible, doubts and distrust plague him. Still, he sees glimmers of the woman he once knew shine through and she begins to melt his hardened heart.
A woman who is tortured by emotions must endure the pain of love...
Lila Wickham has been working deep undercover for so long that sometimes she's forgotten who she really is. Now that her assignment is over and the surgeries she endured left her utterly changed, she is determined to fix the broken life she left behind and assure that her little boy is safe. With lingering threats from an unknown source and blinding headaches that torment her whenever she feels deep emotion, she seeks Gabe Rossi for help and protection. But instead of setting her up with a new undercover identity, he insists on luring her nemesis to Barefoot Bay so he can end the threat to Lila and her son once and for all.
Readers first met Gabriel Rossi when he appeared as a secondary character in Roxanne St. Claire's Guardian Angelinos series. The mysterious CIA agent set hearts a'flutter and left us begging for more of the sexy, smart-mouthed, bad boy of the Rossi clan. It took a few years - and a move from Boston to an island off the coast of Florida - but he's finally back with a story that is all I could have hoped for...and more.
There is nothing easy about this book. It's deep, complex, heartwarming in places, and heart-stopping in others. Gabe Rossi is struggling to come to terms with the fact that the woman he loved and has searched for for years is dead along with the child he believes was his son. Like a wounded animal, he just wants to be left alone. Then an unknown woman approaches him with a story too unbelievable to be true. Or, considering his CIA background, a story just unbelievable enough to actually be true.
Experience has taught Gabe to be wary of trusting women. He's given his heart to two women. One betrayed him and almost got him killed. The second, his beloved Isa, left him to disappear deep undercover. Dare he risk giving his trust to this woman who claims to be Isa but looks, sounds, and acts nothing like his beloved?
Lila Wickham is a tormented women. The former CIA agent is on a mission, a personal one this time, to reunite Gabriel Rossi with his son. Then she plans to disappear. It's the only way she can keep the pain that ravages her body at bay; the only way she can keep the people she loves safe. Her mind knows this. Her heart has other plans. Will fate give her another chance with the man she loves? Will the danger that has followed her to Barefoot Bay foil her plans? And just who is Lila Wickham? Is she really Isadora Winter...or someone else entirely?
I've read almost everything Roxanne St. Claire has published. Other books by her have received five stars from me but this one, in my opinion, is one of - if not the - best book she's ever written. Barefoot With A Bad Boy is one of those stories that reaches into your soul and doesn't let go. The suspense is riveting (I gasped more than a few times) with St. Claire throwing in enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until the very end. While deeply emotional, there is also plenty of humor sprinkled throughout. Her descriptions are so vivid I could almost smell the tropical breezes and hear the waves gently caressing the sandy shore of Barefoot Bay. But it's the characters that take center stage and love's journey that makes this book so special for me. The deep, familial love between Gabe and his beloved grandfather. The all-consuming, life-changing love of a father for the son he believed buried in a grave in Cuba. The hopeful love of a Jamaican housekeeper for the nephews she works tirelessly to bring to the U.S. The slowly evolving, ever challenging, soul-filling love between a man and a woman that must overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles for a chance to grow, solidify, and give these two the happy ending they so richly deserve. And, of course, there's my love for this exceptional story that I've already read twice and will undoubtedly re-read many times in the future.
Gabe Rossi's story plays out over the three books of the Barefoot Bay Undercover trilogy. For the full Gabriel Rossi experience (and I strongly encourage the full experience), I recommend reading these books in order:
Barefoot Bound (100 page prequel introducing Gabe Rossi to readers who did not meet him in St. Claire's Guardian Angelinos books)
Barefoot With A Bodyguard
Barefoot With A Stranger
Barefoot With a Bad Boy
~PJ
Have you read any Roxanne St. Claire books?
Do you have a favorite?
Do you enjoy second chance love stories?
Because I want everyone to love Gabe Rossi as much as I do, I'm giving away a Kindle copy of the first two Barefoot Bay Undercover books to one randomly chosen person leaving a comment on today's review.
There is nothing easy about this book. It's deep, complex, heartwarming in places, and heart-stopping in others. Gabe Rossi is struggling to come to terms with the fact that the woman he loved and has searched for for years is dead along with the child he believes was his son. Like a wounded animal, he just wants to be left alone. Then an unknown woman approaches him with a story too unbelievable to be true. Or, considering his CIA background, a story just unbelievable enough to actually be true.
Experience has taught Gabe to be wary of trusting women. He's given his heart to two women. One betrayed him and almost got him killed. The second, his beloved Isa, left him to disappear deep undercover. Dare he risk giving his trust to this woman who claims to be Isa but looks, sounds, and acts nothing like his beloved?
Lila Wickham is a tormented women. The former CIA agent is on a mission, a personal one this time, to reunite Gabriel Rossi with his son. Then she plans to disappear. It's the only way she can keep the pain that ravages her body at bay; the only way she can keep the people she loves safe. Her mind knows this. Her heart has other plans. Will fate give her another chance with the man she loves? Will the danger that has followed her to Barefoot Bay foil her plans? And just who is Lila Wickham? Is she really Isadora Winter...or someone else entirely?
I've read almost everything Roxanne St. Claire has published. Other books by her have received five stars from me but this one, in my opinion, is one of - if not the - best book she's ever written. Barefoot With A Bad Boy is one of those stories that reaches into your soul and doesn't let go. The suspense is riveting (I gasped more than a few times) with St. Claire throwing in enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until the very end. While deeply emotional, there is also plenty of humor sprinkled throughout. Her descriptions are so vivid I could almost smell the tropical breezes and hear the waves gently caressing the sandy shore of Barefoot Bay. But it's the characters that take center stage and love's journey that makes this book so special for me. The deep, familial love between Gabe and his beloved grandfather. The all-consuming, life-changing love of a father for the son he believed buried in a grave in Cuba. The hopeful love of a Jamaican housekeeper for the nephews she works tirelessly to bring to the U.S. The slowly evolving, ever challenging, soul-filling love between a man and a woman that must overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles for a chance to grow, solidify, and give these two the happy ending they so richly deserve. And, of course, there's my love for this exceptional story that I've already read twice and will undoubtedly re-read many times in the future.
Gabe Rossi's story plays out over the three books of the Barefoot Bay Undercover trilogy. For the full Gabriel Rossi experience (and I strongly encourage the full experience), I recommend reading these books in order:
Barefoot Bound (100 page prequel introducing Gabe Rossi to readers who did not meet him in St. Claire's Guardian Angelinos books)
Barefoot With A Bodyguard
Barefoot With A Stranger
Barefoot With a Bad Boy
~PJ
Have you read any Roxanne St. Claire books?
Do you have a favorite?
Do you enjoy second chance love stories?
Because I want everyone to love Gabe Rossi as much as I do, I'm giving away a Kindle copy of the first two Barefoot Bay Undercover books to one randomly chosen person leaving a comment on today's review.
