Snap by Katie Porter
Samhain Publishing
Released September 30, 2014
Erotic Romance
Reviewed by Sheena
Blurb: Trust is a four-letter word…
Captain Laurence Madigan is an anomaly—a levelheaded risk taker who learned the dark side of life in Manchester’s slums. He needed those skills to survive fourteen months as a prisoner of Firebird, a shadowy Russian cartel.
When rescued, he receives less than a hero’s welcome. He’s considered a wild card—or even a double agent. After enduring agony and degradation for Command Force Alpha, he’s determined to clear his name and bring Firebird down…even if it means escaping CFA’s London facility with a very personal hostage.
Oxford-educated psychologist Gemma Calloway should fight her abductor tooth and claw, but loyalty to her old friend wins out. Isolated in a rustic hideaway, she tends his wounds and can’t help staring at his scars and prison tattoos.
Their impromptu safe house becomes a haven of uneasy trust and potent, gathering desires. As they sort present dangers from past affection, Gemma realizes she’s in over her head…and up to her heart with longing for a good man whose last reason for living could be revenge.
Favorite Quote: “You’ve always been alive Laurie, no matter what happened, you survived. That was all you. But this…this is far more than survival.” She met his eyes again and captured his face when he tried to look away. ” This can be a celebration. No matter how brief , this is proof of just how good living can be.”
This book caught my eye…the alpha Laurie, is a scarred hero (I mean come on….a SCARRED hero. That is like an automatic green-light). Unfortunately, while reading this book I vacillated between being interested, to being bored to tears to being shocked with super sexy sex scenes and then a clumsy espionage plot and then back to supreme boredom and back once again to the toe curling sex.
Yeah….no. Just. no.
The good points: Porter is very adept at writing a tortured hero. I think Laurie was written particularly well. I understood his plight and for the first 30 pages or so, I felt like I was in the midst of a really good action romance, with spy fiction to rival The Bourne Identity. Laurie’s escape scene was pure art. Hands down the highlight of the book. Laurie was majorly bad ass and I loved it!!
And then things got weird and boring. I mean a near miss DNF level of boredom. Gemma had no dimensions. I did not like or dislike her. I think this character could have benefited from more umph. She was lovely and smart and had an interesting history with Laurie and her own demons while working in the field. But having to read pages and pages of her psychoanalyzing was a complete turn off. What began as an interesting and action packed story, started to unravel and I felt like events and plot angles were just being hurled at me left and right. Before I knew it they became lovers and this transition was awkward for me. But hey okay, whatever, bam, they are lovers now….and then my eyes near glazed over reading passages and passages of boring espionage and psycho-babble and then wait- they are having great sex again- annnnnnnnnnnd back to boring and now confusing plot twists and well…it was just sad to see what started out as pretty exciting turn super luke warm. I’m talking baby bath water luke warm…tepid even.
The problems begin for me when Gemma finds herself on the lam of sorts with Laurie. She is emotionally tethered to Laurie and he has long held a torch for her. They come together in the most combustible way. I believe his love for her, he held on to her memory during his darkest hour. Gemma, well, we are told she loves him so I guess so…. *shrug* There was some inequity here. You more so experienced Laurie, while Gemma was written too cerebral, I say she is emotionally tethered to Laurie because the author suggests it, but I didn’t ever really get any rolling emotions. Kind of like a prop character? I wouldn’t mind swapping her out for a more deftly written heroine.
There are two things Porter gets exactly right. All things “Laurie” were perfection. His voice was strong and you truly felt his plight and wanted to root for his vindication. The interrogation and torture was frightening and done extremely well. When Laurie recounts his experiences as a captured spy in a Russian interrogation/torture facility you can feel his despair. Annnd the sensuality. Honey, the sexy was off the charts! Blew. My. Mind. But balance is key. You can’t write me to sleep and then throw ice cold water on my face and shock me awake with hot peen action! It is disturbing and distracting and a crutch that I suspect this author is too talented to rely on. Quite honestly, I would have preferred a story centered around his capture, torture and escape and been far better satisfied, because when the story drifts to Gemma and their romance, major footing is lost. This is a story that would benefit from a far less convoluted middle and end. Events got way out of hand and it got to the point that the only scenes that made sense were when Laurie and Gemma were super carnal. The rest was boring filler.
Snap is full of dark emotions,budding love, psychological profiling, amazing sex, strange occurrences and an awkward, jerky plot that never really comes together. It started off great then went really bad and boring and ended just okay. Unfortunately, too much of Snap was coma inducing for the ends to justify the means.
Rating: D+
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