Title: Love Me to Death
Author: Allison Brennan
Publisher: Ballantine Books; Original edition
Publication Date: December 28, 2010
Paperback: 496 pages
ISBN: 978-0345520395
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Suspense
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.
My Review:
The first book in the Lucy Kincaid series, Love Me to Death, by Allison Brennan is a fast moving suspense novel filled with a dizzying array of characters. Throughout the book I kept feeling as though I should already know the key players. Brennan gives some background information yet I still felt I was missing out on who these characters truly were. It was not until I went to the author’s website and downloaded her cast of characters that it became clear, the majority of the main characters in this book, even though it is indeed the start of a new series, have been in her previous novels. Here I am at a disadvantage as I have not read her previous novels, so while the plot was quite riveting and kept me fully interested in the story, which is outstanding, I never truly felt I fully knew the characters. For some readers this may not be an issue, for me, I like to feel as though I know the characters or can at least relate to them, sadly this was never the case. Throughout the novel I felt like an outsider looking into events that had been put into motion years before and I could never quite catch up. Fans of Brennan’s should really enjoy Love Me to Death as it is a very well written suspense with a bit of romance thrown in and a lot of plot twists and turns. I truly enjoyed the premise of the book as well as Brennan’s writing style, unfortunately the lack of character development was quite disappointing considering this book is supposed to be the first in the Lucy Kincaid series, hence my rating. As I mentioned, I do enjoy Brennan’s writing and considering the cast of characters is listed on Brennan’s website I may go back and read her previous novels before the next book in the Lucy Kincaid series is released. I would recommend this book to fans of Brennan’s and those who enjoy romantic suspense novels and do not mind reading about characters that one is presumed to know.
Allison Brennan is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve romantic thrillers, including The Prey, Speak No Evil, Killing Fear and Sudden Death. Original Sin launches her new supernatural thriller series based on the Seven Deadly Sins. Prior to her writing career, she worked for thirteen years as a consultant in the California State Legislature. She lives in Northern California with her husband, Dan, and their five children. A member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and the Horror Writers Association, when she’s not writing or reading, Allison enjoys playing video games and attending her kids sporting events.
To learn more about Allison Brennan or her books please visit her website.
For more reviews of the book, please follow the book tour.
I received a complimentary copy of Love Me to Death by Allison Brennan from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
When I am calm and relaxed I think I will have the nerve to pick up this book; it’s just that I’m such a crime wimp
Of the suspense/thriller books I have read recently, this is the tamest of them all. That said, the plot does indeed twist and turn and there is a small amount of violence described, but very briefly and the author mainly leaves it up to the imagination of the reader. The “Teacher” is a creepy character though. All in all it kept me quite alert and interested.
It sounds like an interesting premise. I’ve been enjoying all these female crime fighters lately! I’ve just started the upcoming Carol O’Connell book featuring her recurring character Mallory, another female in the police world. This book sounds interesting but like you, I’ve never read Brennan before so may be lost.
Oddly I tend to relate more with the male detectives, however Brennan creates an intriguing cast of players and I do plan to add her books to my TBR list as I do like her style.
I have been looking for a good crime/suspense read! I will definitely check this one out!
The mystery was a truly good one and kept me fully engaged.
That is why I like stand alone books. I find it weird that the characters were used before but this is the 1st in a series. I am turned off by that and I love suspense/thriller books.
I have to still consider this one.
I was confused by that myself. On the author’s page with is linked a couple of times, there is a section titled characters and she points out which were in which books. The mystery itself is well done, I just wish I had known much more about the background on the characters.