Guardian Angelinos- Book 1
By Roxanne St. Claire
Published by: Forever / Grand Central
Release Date: October 26, 2010
The killer she can’t escape…
The heartbreak she can’t forget…
The one man who can stop them both.
When I’m in the mood for top-notch romantic suspense with simmering sensuality and non-stop action, the books I most often reach for are those written by Roxanne St. Claire. I adored her Bullet Catchers series and have been anticipating Edge of Sight, the first book in her new Guardian Angelinos series. I’m happy to say it did not disappoint!
Several life-changing events have occurred in Samantha (Sam) Fairchild’s life over the past three years. She fell in love with Army Ranger, Zach Angelino, the twin brother of her friend, Vivi, spent three glorious weeks with him before he returned to active duty in the Middle East and looked forward to the day he would return home to her arms. But Sam never heard from Zach again and the heartbreak of realizing she was nothing more to him than a fling eventually fractured her friendship with Vivi, who was caught in the middle. Then Sam discovered that the man she had, as a teenager, identified, testified against and sent to jail for murder was, in fact, innocent. Her work to free him led to the firings of officers from the Boston P.D., which gained her no friends in that department, but led to her decision to leave her advertising job and apply to law school. Now a waitress at a trendy restaurant and about to start Harvard Law School, Sam is once again in the wrong place at the wrong time. She witnesses the assassination of a well-known Boston columnist in the restaurant’s wine cellar and Sam’s face is caught on the video camera mounted on the wine cellar wall. The same camera the gunman tears off the wall and takes with him! Once again, Sam is the only witness to a crime, the people who ordered the hit refuse to pay the shooter until that witness is eliminated and the police have no interest in keeping her safe. So Sam, terrified and desperate, turns to former friend, Vivi, an investigative reporter with her finger on the pulse of the city, but when she arrives at Vivi’s apartment, it’s not Vivi who meets her but the man who broke her heart and disappeared from her life three years earlier.
Zach knew from the moment he first saw Samantha that she would rock his world. He just never anticipated that she would steal his heart. But knowing the chances of returning from his dangerous mission were slim, he never told her how he felt and, thinking a clean break would be easier on her, never contacted her after he left. Now he’s back, recovering from devastating injuries that have left him scarred both inside and out. He’s not the same man he was and believes he has nothing to offer Sam but, once he sees her again, he can’t make himself stay away, especially when he realizes the danger she’s in. He joins forces with Vivi and their cousins to protect Sam and stop the murderers before it’s too late. But this case is much more complicated than it first appears and, before it’s over, not only the growing love and trust between Sam and Zach will be at risk; so too will their lives and those of the people they love.
I enjoyed getting to know Zach and Sam. I liked Sam from the beginning. She's terrified but she's no wuss. She's willing to fight for herself and those for whom she cares. Zach is a warrior; bold, strong and protective, but, emotionally, he's much more complex. Orphaned as a child, he and Vivi are brought from their native Italy to live with distant family in Boston; people they've never met. Angry, grieving, not even speaking the language, the young Zach never felt as if he belonged and carries those feelings to this day. He formed his own family within the Army Rangers but now, because of his injury, he's been retired from service. He's a tortured soul and, in the beginning of the book, not very likeable. He's a real jerk to Sam, determined to hold her at arm's length, but glimpses of vulnerability and remorse kept me rooting for him. He has a lot to learn about love, trust, acceptance and family but St. Claire develops him skillfully and, by the end of the book, he not only earns a place in my heart, he's ready to be Sam's lifelong hero.
In Edge of Sight, we're also introduced to the other members of Zach and Vivi's family who we'll be seeing more of in the rest of the Guardian Angelinos books. I already feel as if I'm a part of their boisterous, loving, sometimes squabbling, Italian-American family and I can't wait to get to know all of them better.
Roxanne St. Claire has written a superb story with nail-biting suspense, sizzling sexual tension, non-stop action, a cold-blooded villain, and enough twists and turns to keep me flipping pages long past the time I should have been in bed asleep. This is a wild ride that, once on, you won't want to escape until you reach the finish line. I highly recommend the first book in the Guardian Angelinos series, Edge of Sight.
St. Claire has posted a free prequel to Edge of Sight on her website. It tells what happened when Zach and Sam first met three years earlier. I think I would have understood, and liked, Zach better at the beginning of Edge of Sight if I had read the prequel first. You can access the prequel, titled "Taken to the Edge" by going to St. Claire's website, clicking on "free reads" then clicking on "Taken to the Edge."
~PJ
