Guest Review: I Spy a Dark Obsession by Jo Davis

I Spy a Dark Obsession by Jo Davis (Shado Agency #3)
Erotic Contemporary Romance
March 1, 2011
Trade Paperback
NAL Trade

I’m happy to have Lynette from Lynette’s Two Cents back to Smexy for another guest review! Take it away Lynette:

LYNETTE’S TWO CENTS:

When Smexy asked me if I’d be willing to do a guest post, the premise for I SPY A DARK OBSESSION caught my eye. I was eager to dive in and read I SPY A DARK OBSESSION despite having not read the previous two books in the series. I was happy to find that I didn’t feel lost. Any pertinent details I needed were skillfully layered inside, which I appreciated. In other words, I did not feel like a big two-by-four was slammed into the back of my head with endless backstory and information dumps.

Despite being able to jump right in, I did have several issues with I SPY A DARK OBSESSION that I am going to try to articulate without sounding like a complete moron. Michael, Katrina, and especially Bastian (my favorite) were interesting characters and I loved their backstory and their story arc. However, I couldn’t buy into the romance aspect of I SPY A DARK OBSESSION. I didn’t feel as if the three of them could be in a functional relationship, because while I liked the characters individual character arcs, the overall romance with the three of them fell short to me. I’m no stranger to ménage books, but this particular ménage relationship just didn’t seem believable to me.

Quick character snapshot. Bastian, a bi-sexual, has always been in love with his best friend Michael, only Michael is one of the straightest men that he knows. Michael is the leader of the Shado agency. He is determined to find out who’s behind his wife’s murder and he’s confused by his feelings for his best friend and overcompensates by being a horn dog. Katrina works for Michael and Bastian; she’s attracted to both men and has a hard time trying to decide between them.

Once again, I loved the characters individually, but I couldn’t buy into them as a couple. Without giving away too many details, Katrina and Michael weren’t really respectful of Bastian in the beginning and when the ménage relationship finally happened, I always felt as if he were the third wheel instead of a fully functional member of the ménage. I also felt it wasn’t a true ménage but one or another of the characters having a relationship with the other one, but not all three of them working at developing a relationship.

The plot of I SPY A DARK OBESSION revolves around an agent gone bad who threatened the lives of many of its members. Once Michael recovers from being shot by the rogue agent, he is determined to put an end to the rogue agent’s lust for power by any means necessary, especially when he learns that the rogue agent was behind his wife’s death. The plot was believable and authentic, but I didn’t feel any sense of urgency that should should feel when reading a romantic suspense, nor did I feel as if the suspense plot was woven in enough with the romance plot.

Bottom line: If I took I SPY A DARK OBSESSION apart piece by piece, I enjoyed it very much. The characters and the plot were well done, but as a whole all these great little pieces (in my opinion) didn’t fit together in a cohesive manner.

Rating: C – Nice Story. I probably won’t re-read it.

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