LIE WITH ME

Author: Stephanie Tyler ISBN: 9780440245964 11/2010 SUSPENSE Publisher: DELL

Forced together by fate, bound together by desire   Framed for a double murder, Delta Force operative Cameron Moore is given a new lease on life by the CIA—provided he pays them back by doing their black ops dirty work. But now Cam is ready to renegotiate the deal, and he thinks he’s found the perfect bargaining chip: Skylar Slavin, bestselling author of espionage thrillers and the daughter of the CIA man who saved Cam from a prison sentence. Skylar has been living in anonymity, never suspecting that someone so dangerous—and so desirable—would plunge her into a world as treacherous as one of her spy novels. But how can Cam go through with his plan to kidnap Skylar when just the sight of her sets off an explosive attraction he’s never experienced before? And when Skylar falls prey to an even more perilous threat, this special ops soldier must call upon all his combat skills to protect the one person who can help him win his freedom—and the only woman he’s ever loved.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Stephanie Tyler’s second trilogy introduces a new set of military men and their adventures.  Cam Moore has spent more than ten years doing Gabriel Creighton’s dirty deeds and has decided he won’t do them any longer.  To ensure his freedom, he plans to kidnap Creighton’s daughter Skylar Slavin and use her for leverage.  Unbeknownst to him, Cam isn’t the only person who wants to use Skylar against her father, and his role goes from that of kidnapper to savior. 

In LIE WITH ME, Tyler does an amazing job of balancing the suspense and the romance in the story.  The reader never forgets the reason Cam and Skylar are together; why they’re on the run; and who they are running from, but it doesn’t overpower the rest of the story.  Scenes from the villain’s point of view are kept to a minimum, which is always a preference of mine.  Both Cam and Skylar are unaccustomed to trusting other people, but take the chance on each other nonetheless.  Unlike some stories, where the conflict is quickly written out, Cam and Sky actually talk about the secrets that unearth between them.  Though the blurb only references Cam and Skylar, the secondary story of Dylan and Riley is ever present and given almost the same amount of attention.  I enjoyed reading about all of these characters and found them to be very realistic.

The first Shadow Forces novel does not disappoint at all.  Fans of Tyler’s HARD TO HOLD trilogy will definitely be pleased with this one.

Christina Baker