ARC Review: Lie To Me by Tori St. Claire

Title: Lie to Me
Series: Black Opals, #2
Author: Tori St. Claire
Published: July 3, 2012
Pages: 348
Genre: Erotic Romantic Suspense
Published: Berkley Heat
Source: Copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review
Rating: B-
Reviewed by: Marq

Favorite quote: "You're breaking me."
"I'm already broken."


summary from Goodreads
After helping to break up a Russian human trafficking ring as part of the CIA’s elite Black Opal team, Alexei Nikanova’s newest assignment is to rescue one of the stolen women and return her to her father. When he arrives in Dubai, he discovers his target is Sasha Zablosky—a woman he knows all too well, and who has haunted him ever since their one unforgettable night together. But he finds Sasha reluctant to leave her Sheik, the only true friend she’s ever known. Only Alexei can’t give her a choice.

With their yearning roused by intrigue, Alexei and Sasha can no longer resist and spend night after night in forbidden pleasure. Soon Alexei finds himself falling for her even as he battles a shadowy menace to protect her. But Sasha is no innocent. She has a past darker than she could ever admit or that Alexei could ever forgive. And it is about to explode into her life once more. Now, as the lies they tell themselves—and each other—pull them deeper into a perilous desire, what began as simple passion becomes a love certain to destroy them and end the lives of countless innocents.

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Marq's thoughts:
The Black Opals series is a super sexy, super suspenseful series. I really enjoyed the first book, Stripped, and worried that Lie to Me wouldn't be as good as Stripped. Thank goodness my worries were unfounded.

Alexei and Sasha's road back to each other is one wrought with lies, deception and mistrust. But underneath all of that, they are drawn to each other. The connection is beyond physical even though Alexei does not want his attachment to Sasha to go any further than that. Alexei is a very dark and tortured hero and I found it extremely sexy. He has a lot to work through and it's not pretty.

Lie to Me was a nice blend of romance and suspense. I like my romantic suspense heavy on the romance and this book definitely was. Where Stripped had a lot of sexual tension between the main characters, in Lie To Me, Alexei and Sasha already have a history so the tension and build up was not needed. There was lots of sexy times between Alexei and Sasha. The sex scenes are extremely well written and that's what I love about this series. The author successfully portrays the feelings and connection between the characters while keeping the sex scenes hot and steamy.

Lie to Me has it all. Intrigue, romance, sex, betrayal. I had a couple of ideas about who was trust worthy and who wasn't but Ms. St. Claire managed to pull a twist at the end that I did not see coming. I loved the epilogue (I'm a huge fan of them). It nicely wraps up the story and you see that these two people who come from such a bad place are able to find solace and happiness with each other.

I really like this series and can't wait to read more.