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A review by tita_noir
Broken With You by J. Kenner
2.0
2.5 stars
I got this book by this completely unknown to me author because I have recently developed a fascination with amnesia in romance novels. Always interested in how it gets deployed etc. and how well I think the author handles the concept.
This was ok.
Mason is an agent with some government agency where he goes under deep cover. His most recent recent mission has taken him deep for two years.
His wife Denise was also a member of the same agency and worked as his partner. But now she is with a private security company and is despondent because she misses him so.
As the book begins, Mason was been tortured and thrown out of a truck with no memory of who he is or his past. But he is still a spy with a spy's instincts. He doesn't know his own name so he takes the name of Jack. And he somehow intuits how to make contact with is handlers.
Fearing he has been compromised or made into some kind of sleeper agent a la The Manchurian Candidate, he is swooped up by the agency, head shrunk and placed on constant surveillance. And Denise is called in to meet with him. She is thrilled to know her husband is back but terrified and sad that he doesn't recognize her at all.
Jack/Mason knows what is happening as doesn't care. He wants to interact with people and try to gt his memory back. But it is obvious there was something critical his mind hiding that even the torture couldn't break out. And then he meets Denise. His ex-partner and, as he is told, a married woman. He doesn't recognize her, but he is immediately attracted to her. Even though their closeness could be chalked up to their being partners in a dangerous business, he wonders if they were ever more? But he shies away from that thought, since it is obvious she is a happily married woman whose husband is currently on a mission (snerk).
So yeah, the set up is interesting and the conundrum the author sets for Denise and Mason is also very interesting. She knows he is her husband and understands the attraction they feel but can't act upon it or tell him anything. Jack/Mason feels something for her but refuses to mess around with a married woman.
There is a medical hoo-hoo hand-wavy conceit behind why they just don't tell him who he is. Apparently if they try to prod his memory he'll have a completely psychotic break and lose his mind and they'll lose whatever important intel his mind has shut down to protect.
Yeah. That's what I said.
Anyway, the rest of the book is Denise being sad that he didn't magically remember her while they spend more time together and she can barely keep herself from jumping him. Jack/Mason is tortured because he thinks he is lusting after a married woman. Also there is a lot of background spy stuf going on.
I like that Jack/Mason finally does figure out who is he so he and Denise can get to boning. And not because he suddenly remembers but because for a group of spies, Denise and all the rest can't lie for shit. And Jack/Mason puts two and two together plus he get tiny little deja vu type memories.
In the end the big villainous scheme was kinda ludicrous honestly and I couldn't help but laugh a bit. All of this for that Wile E. Coyote scheme?
And finally, this is a second book in a series but read like a 5th or 6th given all the names, back info and established relationships of all the supporting characters that are thrown at us immediately. I felt like I was already supposed to know all these people and their situations.
Anyway, a pleasant way to spend some time but not the best rom suspense and felt a little try hard with all the dangerous rich men littering the landscape.
I got this book by this completely unknown to me author because I have recently developed a fascination with amnesia in romance novels. Always interested in how it gets deployed etc. and how well I think the author handles the concept.
This was ok.
Mason is an agent with some government agency where he goes under deep cover. His most recent recent mission has taken him deep for two years.
His wife Denise was also a member of the same agency and worked as his partner. But now she is with a private security company and is despondent because she misses him so.
As the book begins, Mason was been tortured and thrown out of a truck with no memory of who he is or his past. But he is still a spy with a spy's instincts. He doesn't know his own name so he takes the name of Jack. And he somehow intuits how to make contact with is handlers.
Fearing he has been compromised or made into some kind of sleeper agent a la The Manchurian Candidate, he is swooped up by the agency, head shrunk and placed on constant surveillance. And Denise is called in to meet with him. She is thrilled to know her husband is back but terrified and sad that he doesn't recognize her at all.
Jack/Mason knows what is happening as doesn't care. He wants to interact with people and try to gt his memory back. But it is obvious there was something critical his mind hiding that even the torture couldn't break out. And then he meets Denise. His ex-partner and, as he is told, a married woman. He doesn't recognize her, but he is immediately attracted to her. Even though their closeness could be chalked up to their being partners in a dangerous business, he wonders if they were ever more? But he shies away from that thought, since it is obvious she is a happily married woman whose husband is currently on a mission (snerk).
So yeah, the set up is interesting and the conundrum the author sets for Denise and Mason is also very interesting. She knows he is her husband and understands the attraction they feel but can't act upon it or tell him anything. Jack/Mason feels something for her but refuses to mess around with a married woman.
There is a medical hoo-hoo hand-wavy conceit behind why they just don't tell him who he is. Apparently if they try to prod his memory he'll have a completely psychotic break and lose his mind and they'll lose whatever important intel his mind has shut down to protect.
Yeah. That's what I said.
Anyway, the rest of the book is Denise being sad that he didn't magically remember her while they spend more time together and she can barely keep herself from jumping him. Jack/Mason is tortured because he thinks he is lusting after a married woman. Also there is a lot of background spy stuf going on.
I like that Jack/Mason finally does figure out who is he so he and Denise can get to boning. And not because he suddenly remembers but because for a group of spies, Denise and all the rest can't lie for shit. And Jack/Mason puts two and two together plus he get tiny little deja vu type memories.
In the end the big villainous scheme was kinda ludicrous honestly and I couldn't help but laugh a bit. All of this for that Wile E. Coyote scheme?
And finally, this is a second book in a series but read like a 5th or 6th given all the names, back info and established relationships of all the supporting characters that are thrown at us immediately. I felt like I was already supposed to know all these people and their situations.
Anyway, a pleasant way to spend some time but not the best rom suspense and felt a little try hard with all the dangerous rich men littering the landscape.