This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Gloriamarie. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.
The summary:
Francesca Rossi might be the youngest in a long line of badass siblings, but this computer whiz would rather hack a database than pack a pistol for the family business in Barefoot Bay. When an assignment forces her out of her comfort zone and into the field, Chessie decides to amp up the excitement quotient and has her first one night stand with a smokin’ hot stranger she’ll never see again.
Former CIA agent Malcolm Harris is fresh out of prison for a crime he didn’t commit, and knows the government is watching his every move, waiting for him to slip up. But the only mistake he makes is to assume the sexy, sassy woman he seduces on the way to Barefoot Bay is a spy. He learns too late that the beauty he’s bedded is really his best friend’s sister…and his undercover partner on a risky mission.
Chessie and Mal have to stay one step ahead of the CIA, navigate their way through a perilous country, and fight the insane chemistry that sizzles between them. It doesn’t take long for this hacker and spy to discover the power of their unplanned partnership…and learn that falling in love might be the riskiest business of all.
Here is Gloriamarie's review:
Given how much I disliked Barefoot with a Bodyguard, one might be surprised to see that I am reviewing the next installment in the Barefoot Bay Undercover series. Why, do you ask? Because I liked all the other Barefoot Bay books except Barefoot with a Bodyguard and I thought I’d like this one more than I did.
What attracted me to this book? I liked Francesca Rossi in the previous books. Malcolm Harris is a wounded hero, which is a trope I love, although no one writes a wounded hero better than Laura Kinsale and I really wish she publish a new book soon. It’s been too long. Then there is always the lure of forbidden love. In this case, Chessie is the little sister of Malcolm’s best friend. The “one night stand with someone she’ll never see again” idea doesn’t work for me at all because we all already know that that guy will soon be the love of her life. I also admire a woman computer nerd because she has skills I don’t, since I find that computers are an arcane gnosis, whose mysteries have yet to be vouchsafed unto me.
Have to admit, I stumbled a bit over the first chapter. Our heroine is stranded in the Atlanta airport due to weather conditions. The thing that bothered me about this is that I happen to know there are non-stop flights from Boston to Miami, Orlando, and Tampa and between the three of them, Barefoot Bay must be accessible.
So why is she in Atlanta? For the meet cute with our hero and one-night stand with Malcolm. It really didn’t work for me given those non-stop flights to Tampa, Orlando, and Miami. There is no reason for her to take a flight from Boston to Atlanta and then to Miami. The appearance of verisimilitude is lacking and to me that makes the story feel wrong.
Sexy times ensue. Chess has “perky tits.” Whenever I see that description, I wonder every time how can breasts possibly be perky? Perky is an adjective describing personality and how can breasts have personality?
On the other hand, Mal has “little grenades going off in his balls” and that phrase had me laughing so hard I choked. I just don’t think grenades could possibly be a good thing in a man’s testicles. I really wish there were someone I could ask and verify if a man ever has the sensation of grenades in his balls. But I just don’t know anyone that well. Gentle readers, if you have a SO of the male persuasion, would you please ask him if this is an apt description?
The real issue, though, is that both phrases, “perky tits” and “little grenades going off in his balls” jerked me right out of the story. Those descriptive bits didn’t work within the story, and were intrusions which distracted me as the reader.
Mal is a man who makes assumptions. OK, he is ex-CIA and just released from prison for a crime he did not commit and he is positive the CIA is watching him. Would that happen? Would an ex-CIA agent be trailed? I really don’t know. Why waste resources on someone who has paid his debt to society when there are more important things for the CIA to do?
He assumes Chessie is a tail, but it doesn’t stop his UST. Then when she tells him her last name, Rossi, he instantly assumes that she is Gabe Rossi’s little sister. As it happens, he is correct, but I have Issues with people making assumptions instead of asking questions. A lot of problems in life would be avoided if we asked questions before we decided something negative about another person. After all, Rossi is a common Italian last name in the USA, unlike my own. Why does he feel he has to pretend that he knows this about her?
Can someone answer this question for me? My only exposure to ex-cons leaving prison is TV and the person often dresses in the clothes with which they arrived in at the facility. I was therefore a little astonished when Mal gives Chessie a tee shirt with the name of his prison on it. Do prisons hand out tee shirts with their name on it to ex-cons leaving that facility?
Of course, I was even more astonished to read that computer nerd Chessie, who likes to work from an office (that point has been made several times already) and who has no field experience whatsoever, is being sent to Cuba, of all places, as an undercover operative. I don’t know how things may have changed in Cuba since the USA and Cuba reinstated diplomatic relations, but I would have thought it was no place for an untrained operative. Once again, the appearance of verisimilitude is lacking.
Despite the fact that she doesn’t want to go, she can’t say no because family is everything to the Rossi family and the mission objective is that she and Mal obtain a DNA sample from a four-year old boy named Gabriel who may or may not be her brother’s son. Isadora Winters, the boy’s mother, is deceased. Isadora was also Gabe’s one true love.
Gotta be honest, this story is not holding my attention. I keep drifting off to play mah jongg solitaire on the computer. There is endless exposition and not enough action or dialogue.
About this crime Mal didn’t commit and went to prison for… turns out he was protecting a secretary at Gitmo, a Cuban citizen, who would have been deported and separated from her three children under the age of eight. All very noble of him, but how could he possibly have been convicted when the evidence pointed at the woman? I got caught up wondering about that and lost my place in the book.
There’s a bunch of fuss about a listening device Chessie found in the bedroom in which she and Mal had their liaison and that, too, has me wondering. Mal is going over who could have planted it and I think the question he should be asking is when was there an opportunity to plant it. Many stranded travelers sought a hotel room in Atlanta when all the flights were cancelled. How could anyone know to which hotel Mal would go or which room he would get after waiting in that long line? Doesn’t make any sense to me. Once again, the appearance of verisimilitude is lacking.
If I may once again impose upon your good nature, please indulge me with another question. If you, dear reader, were to buy a used car, wouldn’t you check to see if all the bits worked? Our alpha male hero bought a used car in Havana and didn’t bother to check if the headlights and the windshield wipers worked. That makes no sense to me. How could an otherwise intelligent guy fail to do that? I’ll tell you how. Solely to provide sexy times. Our heroine and our hero have to travel from Havana to an obscure little village to find the child. Since they were being followed in their rental car, they exchanged it for one Mal purchased. Because he is convinced they are being tailed, he drives on really horrible back roads and when night falls, discovered there are no headlights so he proceeds by the light of the half moon. Then it starts to rain and since there are no wipers and visibility is zero, they have to pull over.The lack of headlights and wipers are an excuse for some sexy times in the backseat. While Mal and Chessie are getting busy in the tiny backseat, they are so engrossed with each other that they fail to notice the water rising until the car starts to float off. I did enjoy my visual image of bare-breasted Chessie steering while half-naked Mal pushes the car to safety. But at the same time wondering why would Mal have chosen to park there?
After this point, the story actually becomes a well-told story with some interesting characters met and left along the way. We discover how Mal was framed and who the real culprit is. Our heroine and hero fall deeply in love in the course of a week or so.
This book would have worked so much better if there had been research about how the CIA works. Yes, it is nifty that the recently restored diplomatic relations between Cuba and the USA are used as a plot device, but don’t think the portrayal in this book accurately describes what it is like in Cuba today. For instance, the characters keep referring to “Castro” as the man in charge. Technically speaking, I suppose a Castro is the President of Cuba. However, since 1959, “Castro” refers to Fidel Castro. The current President of Cuba is Raul Castro and whenever I read the newspaper, that is how he is referred to, never solely as “Castro.”
Frankly, between you, me, and the lamppost, I think Barefoot Bay has run its course.
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Thanks!
Sorry the series is such a disappointment to you. I’ve loved the stories.
@Janetta, I fear you have misread me. I said quite clearly that I enjoyed all the Barefoot Bay stories until Barefoot with a Bodyguard and Barefoot with a Stranger. I found both of them to have entirely too many holes in the plot, unlike the previous Barefoot Bay stories.
To answer your question regarding the attire worn by inmates leaving prisons. It depends on the institution but yes, prisons do provide inmates with clothing when they’re released.
“While Mal and Chessie are getting busy in the tiny backseat, they are so engrossed with each other that they fail to notice the water rising until the car starts to float off.”
Right there. RIGHT THERE, I would have thrown the book. Flooding doesn’t “float” cars off. It takes very little moving water to wash vehicles away. Period. Recently, flood waters washed away a military vehicle that killed NINE in Texas… and this Alpha dumbshit “pushed it to safety”? *ragestroke* The author needs to read up on what flooding does in real life. So, this would earn a DNF from me, and a thrown book (or deleted, if it was an e-book). The suspension of disbelief will only go so far, and this would count as TSTL hero and heroine for me.
My husband reports no on the grenades thing, and that “grenade shrapnel would be awful.”
They were driving at night in Cuba?
And they lived???
There are potholes big enough to break axles, vehicles with no lights, no roadside signage, roads and bridges that simply end.
Buying a car in Cuba is difficult, very expensive and would require a sh*tload of CUP, not the easily obtainable CUC (the tourist currency – tourists and locals use two different currencies).
I’d be interested in reading this book simply to find out how the hero managed that.
So, the recently framed spy who thinks a strange woman at an airport has an ulterior motive has sex with her anyway? He has not heard of Julian Assange, obviously.
Then a spy who’s skills are computer hacking is sent to an island famous for having sketchy electricity, no WiFi, and strictly controlled internet access. (Way to have the author signal that the heroine is competent without having to demonstrate it or do any research about her skill set.)
Finally, in a novel set largely among Spanish speakers the hero’s name is “Mal”? And he works for the CIA? 😀 I can just picture him introducing himself to Cubans: “Hi, my name is Evil, and I work for the CIA.” Whereupon the locals either reply “no shit” or (more likely) “must…resist…Austin Powers…joke.”
The book sounds like a miss, but thanks for a review that provided lots of laughs. 😀
Our heroine is stranded in the Atlanta airport due to weather conditions. The thing that bothered me about this is that I happen to know there are non-stop flights from Boston to Miami, Orlando, and Tampa and between the three of them, Barefoot Bay must be accessible.
As someone who has lived in or around Orlando (#OrlandoUnited) for most of her life, I can tell that it is entirely possible to layover in Atlanta when going from here to just about anywhere, especially if you fly Delta. There’s a joke that goes … if you die in the South, you have to change planes in Atlanta on your way to heaven.
I’m thinking that perhaps you should pass on the next Barefoot book as they’re no longer working for you. But again, thanks for a great review.
@Gloriamarie Amalfitano No, you misunderstood me. I was referring to the Barefoot Bay Undercover series, which you’ve disliked so far.