Edge of Danger

- Cherry Adair-

Picked up all three in this series from the library cause I have enjoyed books from this author in the past.

What I did not realize was that this series, although featuring the T-FLAC organization in Cherry Adair's other books, also has paranormal components. The agent in this book, Gabriel Edge, is a wizard. Yup, wizard. He (and his two brothers) work for the T-FLAC Psi Ops division which apparently is the agents with paranormal powers division.

I'm not usually a huge fan of the genre but decided to keep reading to see if the writing was good enough to overcome that fact.

The verdict? Yes and no.

The mystery part of the story is engaging: Eden Cahill has invented sophisticated AI technology that has subsequently been stolen, and her boss and mentor murdered in the process. Gabriel Edge is sent to retrieve the information T-FlAC needs to make another robot that will be able to destroy the first. Wow, it sounds way more far fetched typing it out like that, but as I was reading that part of the story, while improbable, didn't sound wildly unlikely and ludicrous.

Where my problems came in was with how Gabriel was going get the information. And that would be by reading Eden's mind. Of course, for some reason (read: twu wuv) he can't read Eden's thoughts, and apparently sex will open her mind up enough for him to get in there, so the first encounter between these two features an out of body seduction by him, and an experience which she believes to be either a) a very realistic sex dream or b) an invisible man making love to her. Yeah.

The vagueness of Gabriel's powers were a real problem for me through out the story. He can tele port, he can morph into other shapes, he can cast spells - basically, even though there are references to wizards having specific individual powers, it seems like Gabriel can do it all and it just seems way too convenient: no need for it to make sense - it's magic!

The flip side of that coin too is that I felt the relationship between Eden and Gabriel was entirely dependent on the mystical, "meant to be" factor that draws them together, and ended up being fairly light on the actually getting to know each other part of things. The magic/prophecy ended up being a substitute for actual development of the relationship and showing them getting to know each other.

The build up of sexual tension was good in that I really, really just wanted them to touch to see what happened, but then again it became all about this magical chemistry/meant to be/Lifemate thing, that seemed to have no basis in anything. Eden was supposed to be a scientist for craps sake - it would have been nice to see a little bit more demanding explanations or trying to understand rather than just being all "Sure, these things could happen".

I guess I shouldn't really expect reality per se from a paranormal romance, but I just felt like the paranormal stuff was used as a rationalization for everything, rather than having actual characterisations and relationship development.

Am halfway through the next book in the series though, so apparently I am a glutton for punishment.

ETA: Gave up on the second and the series. Did not like, too irritating to finish.