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Rating: 
Summary: Not on His Watch
Review: Intrigue spins off another Confidential series in "Not on His Watch" by Cassie Miles, the first Chicago Confidential book. Texas oilman Quint Crawford comes to Chicago to help the new branch on a case. An oil company has come under attack by tourists, and his job is to protect independent PR woman Natalie Van Buren, daughter of the company's president. Can he keep her safe from a devious assassin while fighting his own powerful attraction for the feisty lady?"Not on His Watch" was a book I really wanted to like. I usually like Cassie Miles's books. I loved her "Wedding Captives" earlier this year. This book wasn't a mindless 250-page chase the way the first Texas Confidential and Montana Confidential books were, even if it was another bodyguard book, just like those were. It had a real plot. "Not on His Watch" has the same premise as another Intrigue from a few months ago, "Personal Protector," where the hero goes undercover to protect a heroine who doesn't want a bodyguard, but it fixes the one thing that drove me crazy about that book. Unlike the heroine of "Personal Protector," Natalie not only says she can take care of herself, she gets to show that she's not all talk. There are so many reasons why I should have liked this book. There was one problem. It was so boring. I usually read an Intrigue in a few hours, a day at most. I started "Not on His Watch" on a Sunday and made myself finish it the next Saturday. I kept putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up for a whole week. The story was very hard to get into. Like many opening books in a series, such as the first Moriah's Landing book in February, this book has to setup everything for the whole series. The plot the editors have come up with for "Chicago Confidential" is way too convoluted. Miles's first chapter, where she has the agents sit down and explain all this stuff about Middle Eastern bad guys and twin princes and oil interests was so far-fetched and over-complicated I knew I wasn't catching most of it and I really didn't care enough to go back and reread it. I also never really cared about Quint and Natalie, two perfect people without any flaws. While the villain is chilling, the story moves slowly. Very slowly. It does pick up steam after a while, though, and the last section of the book is incredibly tense and exciting, if a little uncomfortable to read about after September 11th. The other Confidential series started off with weak books and improved, so hopefully this series will get better. It has to.
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