Review: Run From Fear by Jami Alden

Run From Fear by Jami Alden
Grand Central Publishing (March 1, 2012)
Mass Market: $7.99; ebook: $7.99
ISBN: 9780446572811

Favorite Lines: “She scrambled off him and backed clear to the other end of the studio.

“Sorry,” he muttered as he got slowly to his feet. He felt the heat rise in his face and hoped maybe that would mean some of the blood would leave his dick. No dice. He was still tenting out the front of his shorts, and Talia was staring with what he wished was awe but was probably closer to disgust. “I can’t exactly control it.” He picked u pa bottle of water. Maybe it would cool him off.

Yea, maybe if you pour it on your dick.

She blinked, her cheeks going red as she pulled her gaze up to his face. “I know, I mean, not exactly a virgin here. I know how those things work. Friction and all,” she said with a nervous laugh.” (p. 71, egalley)

More than anything, Talia Vega wanted to leave behind her harrowing past. Moving 800 miles away, she succeeded . . . until the one man who knows her darkest secrets wanders into the restaurant where she works. Now the agonizing memories come crashing back—along with an undeniable desire for Jack Brooks, the ex-Green Beret who rescued her from a sadistic monster two years ago.

Jack Brooks knows that showing up unannounced is a purely selfish move. Talia doesn’t need his protection anymore, but he can’t get the raven-haired beauty out of his mind. And when a twisted madman is hell-bent on resurrecting her tortuous past, Jack vows to do anything to keep her safe–even risk his own life to save the only woman he’s ever loved.

I loved the first book in Jami Alden’s romantic suspense trilogy. That book, Beg for Mercy, followed a woman determined to prove her brother innocent of a brutal crime before he is executed by the state. In it we meet Run for Fear‘s heroine, Talia Vega. I didn’t feel much sympathy for her at the time, but enough time has elapsed since I read that book and began reading Run for Fear for me to overcome my initial feelings. I did not read book two (Hide from Evil); I wasn’t interested in the plot idea.

That said, I had no problem whatsoever reading Run from Fear.

Once I started reading the book I could not put it down. It went on bathroom breaks with me and I ate while I read it. Run from Fear was creepy even though the reader is told who the villain is early on. The back story is given so even those who have never picked up a book in the series can understand what’s going on. The tension between the hero and heroine slowly builds in a manner that matches the building situational tension. I kept wondering, “is it gonna happen now?”

One thing I did not like was how Talia’s little sister Rosario, aka Rosie, acted. I know Talia protected her from as much of the evil that stalked the sisters as possible, but Rosie’s behavior was that of a girl who never had a care in the world. She was living trauma free despite knowing the abuse that had been heaped upon her sister. That unrealistic attitude about drove me batty.

The brutality in the book is a much tamer version of that introduced in Beg for Mercy, but it added validity to the “crazy killer” idea.

Run from Fear takes a bitchy scared woman introduced early in the trilogy and portrays her as a different woman. It was necessary to show how being terrorized, abused and tortured can transform the strongest person. No longer a woman who uses her wiles, Talia tried to become a woman who could save herself if ever threatened again. She is challenged to do so in Run from Fear, but she isn’t the only one threatened this time.

If you’re looking for a straight up romantic suspense you may enjoy reading Run from Fear. Things are pretty much exposed early on which means the stress I felt came from waiting for bad things to happen. I knew they were coming and how bad they would be, however I never knew when it would hit.

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