Seduction Game by Pamela Clare (I-Team #7)
Romantic Suspense
October 20, 2015
InterMix

Reviewed by Helyce

CIA officer Nick Andris wants revenge. His last mission failed after a Georgian arms smuggler killed his lover. He’s been tailing a woman for three weeks hoping she will lead him to his target. But there’s a problem with the intel. Holly Elise Bradshaw is nothing more than an entertainment writer with a love for sex and designer clothes. Clearly someone at Langley made a mistake . . .

When Holly finds herself in trouble, the only weapons at her disposal are her brains and her body. But they won’t be enough to handle the man who’s following her. He’s going to turn her world upside-down.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be in the minority where reviews for this book are concerned.  Firstly, I do want to state that I am a fan of this series.  I came across it by accident when I read Naked Edge, book 4 in this series.  I enjoyed it enough to go backwards and read previous books and then keep reading as books were released.  Like many fans, I fell in love with the couples showcased in each book.  So much action and adventure and oftentimes crazy obstacles that they had to overcome in order to be together.  But in each installment, I always looked forward to any page time devoted to Holly Bradshaw.  We could count on Holly’s character to always bring a sense of levity to the story.  While she was often portrayed as a materialistic woman, only interested in clothes and shoes, she was honest and loyal to a fault where her friends were concerned. It was clear that there was so much more to “horny Holly” and I looked forward to her story.

Nick and Holly are thrown together when Nick is tasked with watching Holly who the CIA believe is in cahoots with a Georgian arms smuggler, Sasha Dudayev, who is posing as an art dealer.  Nick will do anything and everything to bring down Dudayev because he killed Nick’s girlfriend in another operation.  Nick doesn’t think Holly is the person his superiors think, but he goes along with it.  When the opportunity presents itself, he retrieves the stolen hard drive and files and kills Dudayev, but he does not kill Holly. When Nick turns in the drive and learns that the files are corrupted, he realizes that Holly must have stolen the files after all.  Thinking that Holly is a traitor to her country, Nick continues to track her.  Posing as an author, he gets close to Holly and they begin a physical relationship.  

What follows was typical and a bit predictable as Ms. Clare has used similar memes in the past. Something happens that forces Nick to kidnap Holly and go into hiding.  They both realize things about each other and have to decide if they should trust each other.  The tables turn when Nick realizes he’s being framed and on top of everything else, he now needs to convince Holly so he can clear himself.

Against all odds, Nick and Holly fall in love.

I was completely unprepared for what Ms. Clare had in store for us where Holly was concerned. I was blindsided by what is revealed about Holly’s character and in some ways it colored my enjoyment of the story. I couldn’t really connect this Holly to the Holly in my head.  It took a while to get to know her again.  Then I became frustrated with the course the story was taking. While certain aspects of the “suspense” part of the story continued to draw me in, there were other parts that didn’t seem to be as fleshed out as they could be and felt irrelevant.

Once Holly and Nick call a truce and begin to work together to build their case, the romance part of the story started to fall into place and I began to enjoy it. We see Holly and Nick rebuild the trust  they lost because they now have a common goal.  They need to clear Nick of all charges so they can be together. Their journey remained bumpy until the end!

This was in no way the story that I’d envisioned for Holly and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed.  But ultimately, the Holly in my memory who’d always been so happy to see each and every one of her friends find love, finally found genuine love for herself.  

Grade: C

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