Rating:  Summary: GREAT STORY Review: I have read all the contemporary books that Ms. Johansen has written and this book is great. She continues to entertain her readers with exiting plots and likeable characters. If you like action, romance, and heros, this book is for you. I highly recommend it.
Rating:  Summary: Suspenseful Pageturner of a Thriller Review: I love this book and all of Iris Johansen's Suspense Thrillers. Her pace is fast and her characters are vivd and real to you. The endings are always exciting and fufilling. She isn't timid and doesn't try to be politically correct. Her men are real men and are manly. Her women are intelligent, tough, yet vulnerable and feminine. Her language is crisp and clever. After Daddy by Loup Durand, her books are my favorites and I reread them often just for the thrilling ride!
Rating:  Summary: Fast Read Review: i'm so glad ms. johansen decided to write more about sean galen! yippee! i liked elena, but there was something missing, she was won over too quickly. the plot was great and the book enjoyable.
Rating:  Summary: more more! Review: i'm so glad ms. johansen decided to write more about sean galen! yippee! i liked elena, but there was something missing, she was won over too quickly. the plot was great and the book enjoyable.
Rating:  Summary: Disappointed Review: I've been a Johansen fan for almost forever, and was really looking forward to this book. Galen has appeared in two of her previous books, and was a very sexy and intriguing secondary character-I was really excited to find out he was going to have his own story told in full. No One to Trust read more like a long outline for a book, than an actual novel. Galen's background, what made him the man he is, is not discussed at all. One tidbit about his childhood, and that's it. If I hadn't read the previous books, I wouldn't have been interested in his character at all. Elena is marginally more fleshed out, but never seemed to be the fiery heroine she was described as. Maybe that's the problem-there was description, but no emotion in this book. All tell, no show. There wasn't enough interaction between the leads to call it a romance, there wasn't any mystery so it couldn't be called a mystery; and it definately wasn't a thriller. There is one interesting plot twist towards the end, but it fizzles. Johansen pointlessly namedrops characters from previous books, even though they have no relevance or role in this one. All I can say is that I hope IJ feels passion for the next group of characters she writes about, because I don't think she felt any for these.
Rating:  Summary: Somewhere in Columbia: Review: Iris Johansen does a good gob with this title, as the reader really does not know who to trust throughout the story. Elena Kyler is a cold hearted assassin, and a loving mother of a five year old boy, and it is the mother inside of her that must, at all costs, protect young Barry from his guerrilla/terrorist/assassin father. Elena Kyler will stop at nothing to keep the boy safe. Barry's father, Chavez, will also stop at nothing to get his boy. To Chavez, sons are a sign of manhood, of dignity, pride, strength and power. To Elena, sons, especially hers, are beautiful people to be loved and taken care of. People must die, and many do, and the reader is tricked time and agian with the friend/foe decisions. Both Elena and Chavez are stubborn and believe they are undefeatable. Plenty of action in this book, and not a bad plot. As long as Elena and Chavez remember that one wrong move, one wrong trusted person, and the boy's life will be arranged - forever.
Rating:  Summary: Not one of her best. Review: Iris Johansen is one of my favorite authors, so much so that I customarily buy her books in hard back. In previous books Sean's character was intriguing, so I found myself looking forward to his story with great anticipation. When I finished the novel I didn't have any better insight into his character than before I began to read it. The entire novel fell flat from beginning to end. There was no tension between the characters, no excitement, no intrigue. In short, the mediocre character and plot development resulted in a shallow, disappointing book. I don't like to end a review on a negative note, so I will state Ms. Johansen is a wonderful writer, and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of her previous mysteries.
Rating:  Summary: Just didn't ring true. Review: Iris Johansen used to write kick-... stories and then something happened and she started churning out second-rate missives. This book is no exception.The heroine Elena was interesting enough but I found her reactions too inconsistent. For my tastes, she came to trust Logan and then Galen way too easily especially in light of her years of guerilla training. I fully expected her to go off on her own once she made it to the states because the author wanted her readers to believe the heroine could take care of any problem, big or small. Instead the heroine becomes dependent on 2 men she never met before. The hero, Galen was presented well at the beginning of the novel but veered to the ridiculous toward the middle of the story when he started using phrases like "awesome security system" which left me with a sudden vision of a surfer assassin or a caricature instead of the seasoned special ops guy he was supposed to be. In addition, I thought the character of Elena's kid was not properly developed. He seemed too young and trusting for a child used to living in the jungles of South America with a guerilla mother in the middle of drug wars. To be fair, the book did make a point of stressing that Elena tried to keep her son as free from her life as possible but I found it hard to believe that the life the child was forced to live did not make a greater impact on his overall trust and naivety. Finally, I found that Elena's attraction to Galen and her capitulation to that attraction happened too swiftly and very unbelievably. One minute she was reliving her repeated rapes and the next she wanted to jump Galen's bones in an effort to remove the bad memories from her psyche. Huh? I just did not believe a woman would feel this way, especially a woman hardened by the type of life Elena was forced to live. Overall this is a book I can easily dismiss as dreck and not worth your time or hard-earned money. If you want to read this latest outing of Iris Johansen, check it out from your local library.
Rating:  Summary: It¿s about Time Sean Galen Got his Own Book Review: John Logan hires Sean Galen to break Elena Kyler out of a Columbian jail, where the corrupt jailers were holding her till her till the man who raped her can torture her to force her to tell him where his son is. Elena would rather die first. In the States, Galen goes to great lengths to keep Elena and her son Barry safe, but the evil drug load is hot on their trail, leaving a pile of bodies in his wake. This five star thriller is what reading action books are supposed to be about. I couldn't put it down. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating:  Summary: Johansen is grossly insensitive to the subject of rape. Review: More on that, in a minute. From the first sentence to the last, this book is poorly written. I'm not just talking in terms of plot - there are a host of problems there - but in pure sentence structure and dialogue. The dialogue is particularly bad in this book, and while it has never been Johansen's strong suit... The plot is largely predictable and the characters are one note wonders, much as was the case in her last book. There is one good twist near the end that gives the story some spark, but it fizzles all too soon. However, the real problem with this book is the way Johansen handles the subject of rape. ... What is clear here is that Johansen has never talked to a rape survivor, nor has she ever done any research on what the aftermath of rape is. You might expect this casual approach to such a ugly subject in a dimestore Harlequin, and I'm starting to wonder if Johansen isn't sliding in that direction all together. In sum, if you have issues with the topic of rape - stay away from ths book. If you are a Johansen fan - be prepared to be disapointed. If you are just looking for a good thriller - keep looking. The dust jacket says Ms. Johansen is writing her next novel already. I hope it is better than this one.
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