If You Don't Read This Book? It's Unforgivable

Pages read 387 pages
Riding Time 4 hours 2 minutes
Calories Burned 1537
Distance Peddled 69.32

Making the Grade: A-

For My Thoughts

Laura Griffin is one of my favorite new-to-me author finds of 2010. Unforgivable is the lastest addition to her Tracer series.

Unforgivable is a great suspense driven story with a ton of heart pounding action. The story has a CSI-esque feel to it as the tension builds and keeps you turning the pages to the very end.

A trip to the grocery store late at night for some soul-soothing ice cream was supposed to be a piece of cake...or a dish of ice cream. Mia Voss didn’t plan on running into anyone she knew so no need to change out of those comfy PJ’s. Who knew her innocent outing would result in her being carjacked, kidnapped, witness the shooting of a retired police officer and get shot at herself. And the cherry on top of her ice cream sundae? Detective Ric Santos. Getting interrogated by the sexy Detective was a crappy way to end a day that started out with getting demoted at work. Dang...Mia really needed some ice cream.

Ric does a lot of dancing around his feelings for Mia early on in Unforgivable. They had a “thing” the previous year but Ric cut his ties before things got to serious. Dude has serious commitment issues and he knows that Mia’s looking to settle down and is ready for the white picket fence and 2.4 children and he is so not that guy. He’s all business at first, but when Mia’s assistance as a DNA expert is required on several of Ric’s seemingly related cases, it gets damn near impossible for him to keep treating Mia as just a colleague and keep his blood pressure from spiking whenever she’s within spitting distance. It’s always nice to see a hard-headed guy struggle to fight his feelings and end up failing miserably. The bigger they are…the harder they fall.

As more trouble mounts for Mia, Ric begins to suspect that Mia may not be an innocent by-stander after all but rather the intended victim. And when things turn very personal for Mia and members of her family are caught in the crossfire, she makes a decision that could ruin her career in order to keep her family out of harm’s way. One thing I really enjoy about Ms. Griffin’s stories are the female leads. She writes about women who are smart, strong-willed, independent, professional career women.

If there was one thing I wish I could change since discovering Ms. Griffin's books - it would be to have read her books in order. Although each book does read as a stand alone, there is cross-over and several characters do make guest appearances in each book. One of the characteristics I enjoy in her writing is the way she weaves the secondary characters into the story so that they are an integral component of the story and not just there as page-filler. She does an excellent job of setting them up for their own story in an upcoming book. Next up is Snapped which is Sophie and Jonah’s story. Is it weird that I already have it pre-ordered and it’s not due out til August 2011? No I don’t think so…that’s just an indication of how much I enjoy Ms. Griffin’s style of writing.


 Read an Excerpt

Back Cover Blurb

At first, Mia Voss thinks it’s just bad luck when her already lousy day ends with a carjacking. But what seems like a random incident is followed by another sinister episode. A DNA expert, Mia has made it her mission to put away vicious criminals. Suddenly, she’s become the target of one. And the only way to protect the people she loves most is to deliberately destroy her reputation and risk letting a killer walk free.

Once, Mia trusted Detective Ric Santos. That was before Ric let his turbulent past ruin his chances with Mia, the sexiest, most intriguing woman he’s ever met. But he can tell when she’s lying—and when she’s scared. The key to catching a sadistic madman lies within a long-buried cold case that has haunted Mia for years. Only she can uncover the truth, but first, Ric will have to get her to entrust him with her secrets . . . and her life.