This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Gloriamarie. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.

Here is Gloriamarie's review:

This book is part of a series. Roxanne St. Claire has written a lot of “Barefoot” titles: Barefoot Brides, Barefoot Billionaires, and now Barefoot Bay Undercover. Is it just me or is it getting crowded in Barefoot Bay? They are all loosely connected and each can be read as a stand-alone, including Barefoot with a Bodyguard. Although it really does help if one reads the prequel to Barefoot with a Bodyguard so one knows why Gabe decides to relocate. This novel also connects the Guardian Angelino series to the Barefoot Bay series. Well, why the heck not? I’ll tell you, shall I? Pull up a chair. Pour a glass of wine. Is the cat curled up in your lap?

There are so many reasons to find the premise for this series implausible. Please allow me to count them:

(1) undercover at a well-known and popular resort known for snoopy staff;
(2) undercover at a well-known and popular resort with snoopy guests;
(3) undercover at a well-known and popular resort with high profile events;
(4) undercover at a well-known and popular resort with high-profile guests;
(5) undercover at a well-known and popular resort where high profile events get press coverage;
(6) undercover at well-known and popular resort where high profile guests are followed by paparazzi;
(7) undercover at a well-known and popular resort pretending to be on a honeymoon is convincing to snoopy people when the so-called honeymoon couple fail to act in a loving manner;
(8) undercover at a well-known and popular resort where the people undercover fail to call each other by their undercover names in public
(9)because they failed to make a habit of it in private;
(10) let’s not forget the ever indiscreet but cliched Poppy.

I have enjoyed some of the previous books in this series, but this one made me grit my teeth all the way through it. As you can tell, I did not find the premise of this book convincing in any way.

Kate Kingston is the kind of heroine I want to slap upside the head. Here is an obviously intelligent woman who demonstrates at every possible moment that she has not a lick of common sense, and steadfastly refuses to use the brains the good God gave her. At every opportunity when she can choose to do something smart, she chooses to demonstrate that she is just TSTL (too stupid to live.) She knows the scary threats are real. How real I won’t say for fear of spoilers. But as the blurb says above, she prefers “her hard won independence” and wants no man to “wield power over her” even if it means keeping her safe from the Bad Guy(s). Surely it is possible to have a heroine who is smart, sexy, independent, powerful and who has common sense and still have drama and sexy times.

Alex Petrov is a likeable guy, but I didn’t buy his story. He is on the run but he hides out under his own name not one hundred miles from his own Bad Guy – who is a different Bad Guy than Kate’s. Not only does he hide out less than one hundred miles away, but he hides out in a city that the New Jersey Turnpike directly leads to from the city he grew up in and where his Bad Guy still lives. Not only that but he is making a name (using his real name) as an excellent MMA trainer.

I ask you, gentle readers, if you wanted to hide out from your Bad Guy would you chose a city with easy access by air and land? Would you do so under your own name in a career more than likely to attract the Bad Guy’s attention? It’s not the choice I would make because to me it lacks the appearance of verisimilitude which is something very important to me.

The other thing I found unconvincing was the romance. Sad thing to say about a romance novel, isn’t it? If I were Alex, I would have been annoyed by Kate’s refusal to keep herself safe. I would have found that an unattractive, if not repellent, quality. Kate demonstrates her intellect in her studies, and yet she wants so much to be independent that she refuses to cooperate with basic safety procedures that are for her own good.

Kate is also a snob and an unattractive snob at that. On the one hand, we have Kate with her vocabulary. Oh yes. As Alex rightly says, she never uses a one syllable word when a fourteen one is available to her. I felt Kate’s use of it came across as condescending and patronizing. It certainly would have been had it not been obvious that Alex understood her big words which only raised the question in her mind “how could he?” since it was made more than clear, repetitively, that his education was not equal to hers.

She wants to learn martial arts. Common sense would tell anyone that it is impossible to become accomplished in this in a few days. Alex, as we all know without being told, is a black belt. Clearly Kate’s desire to learn martial arts is a thinly disguised plot device to get the bodies rubbing together to generate sexual desire. I have no respect for thinly disguised plot devices and as far as I can tell the only reason these two got it on was propinquity and is that really something upon which one can build a lasting HEA?

Some lovable, if occasionally annoying characters, from previous books make cameo appearances. Nino is there, and Poppy, despite her repeated demonstrations that she does not know the meaning of the word “inappropriate.” I have objected to Poppy’s characterization throughout the entire Barefoot Bay series. She is a caricature of Christian black women. She is a useful plot device as are a couple of other women from previous volumes in the series. Their roles are explained and one does not need to have read the previous books to know they are here merely to get the sexy times, such as they are, moving along. One new character is introduced and is hired. She happens to be pregnant and I predict she will be the heroine of the next installment.

Despite my review, I know fans love the Barefoot stories: sun, sea, surf, handsome men, beautiful women, gorgeous location. But it’s Florida, after all, and I keep wondering, how come it’s never hurricane season in Barefoot Bay?