Running Hot, by Jayne Ann Krentz

TITLE: Running Hot
AUTHOR: Jayne Ann Krentz

COPYRIGHT: 2009
PAGES: 337
PUBLISHER: Piatkus in the UK

SETTING: Contemporary US
TYPE: Romantic suspense
SERIES: Part of Arcane Society series

REASON FOR READING: Autoread author

Ex-cop Luther Malone, lifelong member of the secretive paranormal organization known as the Arcane Society, is waiting to meet Grace Renquist. Hired as an aura-reading consultant in the quest for a murder suspect, she's got zero field experience. She's from tiny Eclipse Bay, Oregon. She's a librarian, for heaven's sake. As for Grace, she's not expecting much either from Malone, who walks with a cane and isn't so good with a gun. Nice résumé for a bodyguard . . .

But even before they reach their hotel in Maui--where they'll be posing as honeymooners--Grace and Luther feel the electric charge between them. Problem is, they need to remain vigilant day and night, because it soon becomes clear there's more going on here. Rogue sensitives--operatives for the underground group Nightshade--are pouring into the luxury resort like there's a convention. Grace recognizes those dark spikes in their auras. She saw the same pattern in someone else in another life--a life she hasn't revealed to Luther or anyone else. And she understands how dangerous these people can be . . . especially with those para-hunters at their sides.

While the pair's employers at Jones & Jones scramble to get them backup, Luther and Grace have to think on their feet. The criminals in their midst aren't just high-level sensitives: They've enhanced their talents with a potent--and unpredictable-- drug. And as Grace knows all too well, if you don't control your powers, your powers will control you...

Grace Renquist is a psychic, an aura profiler. She works as a librarian for the Arcane Society, but one day she's asked by J&J (the Society's associated PI agency, which you'll recognise if you've read the previous books) to do an easy, low-risk assignment for them. She's just supposed to go to Hawaii, take a look at someone and tell J&J what she saw in his aura.

To make things even more fool-proof and trouble-free, J&J hires a bodyguard for Grace, just in case anything unexpected happens. Luther Malone is not an obvious candidate for a kick-ass bodyguard, as he walks with a cane and refuses to carry a gun. Grace is a bit bemused by this, but soon trouble does crop up, when they stumble on a group of evil psychics (really ugly auras, those people), and Luther has the chance to prove his worth.

I could copy and paste a lot of my comments from my reviews of JAK's latest books. The romance I really, really liked. That's because Grace and Luther are fantastic characters. They are both more mature than your typical romance protagonists, and they are two people who've always been misfits. If Luther's not an obviously good candidate for a bodyguard, he's also not a good candidate for romance, as he's been divorced twice already. Grace's romantic past isn't quite as bad, but she has never met someone who really got her, either. Getting to know each other is a revelation for these two, as they quickly realise they completely understand one another.

Unfortunately, the suspense was as bad as the romance was good. All this Arcane Society stuff is getting more and more boring and complicated at the same time. There's this evil rival society and I think we are supposed to be on tenterhooks trying to find out who and what are behind it. Well, I wasn't. I just wanted to get back to Grace and Luther.

MY GRADE: A B.