A Kiss to Kill, by Nina Bruhns

TITLE: A Kiss to Kill
AUTHOR: Nina Bruhns

COPYRIGHT: 2010
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: Berkley

SETTING: Contemporary US
TYPE: Romantic Suspense
SERIES: 3rd in the Passion for Danger trilogy

REASON FOR READING: I liked the first 2 books, and wanted to see the resolution of the storylines which started there.

Revenge…
Eight months ago, Dr. Gina Cappozi and CIA black ops commando Captain Gregg van Halen were lovers until Gregg committed the ultimate betrayal. Left in the hands of terrorists and to do the unspeakable or die, Gina vowed to kill the man she once loved.

Danger…
She knows that Gregg lives in the shadow world of violence and darkness. She knows that he’s watching her every move. What she doesn’t know is that Gregg isn’t the only one following her–or that he still cherishes her.

Sex…
When Gina’s burning need for revenge leads her back to the one place she can easily lure Gregg–his bed–she rediscovers another, more irresistible need. Now, with the threat of enemies at every turn, Gina and Gregg realize that the power of betrayal and revenge is nothing compared to the power of love.

I don't think a trilogy has ever gone so quickly downhill for me as this one did. I thought book 1, Shoot to Thrill, was compulsively readable and really liked it. Book 2, If Looks Could Chill, was good, too, but the different storylines were a bit of a mixed bag. And this, book 3, was just plain annoying. The remaining unresolved storylines were ones that I had really liked in book 1, but by the time I got to A Kiss to Kill, I was equal parts bored and annoyed by them. So much so, that I couldn't even finish the book, even though I'd already read about two thirds of it.

The supposedly main storyline here is about Gina and Gregg Van Halen, the man she's sure betrayed her to the terrorists who kept her captive and tortured her for months in earlier books. Of course, we readers know that Gregg did not such thing and was betrayed himself, but the evidence is pretty compelling. Gregg has been following Gina covertly, as he knows her life is still in danger. And when an attack is made on her life, he swoops in and kidnaps her again, for her own protection.

This actually could have been really, really good. It definitely had the potential for major angsty goodness... Gregg's pain at knowing that the only woman he's ever loved now hates him and will never, ever trust him again is excellently done, and had me very excited to see them actually interact. But when they do, it's a massive anticlimax. Basically, Gina quickly decides that, all evidence to the contrary, she trusts Gregg. It's a "A man who makes me feel this way cannot possibly be bad" kind of thing. Twit. In fact, she behaves like a twit all the way through. The point where I stopped reading was where she was holed up in a hotel, under the express orders of not opening the door to her room whatever happened, and she decides it's a good idea to do a quick run to the ice machine. Whatever could go wrong? Twit.

The other big storyline is about Alex Zane and his friend and FBI agent Rebel. They've been in love with each other forever, but Alex had got himself engaged with Rebel's friend Helena. That engagement is over, but they still can't get together because... who knows? I certainly didn't, and Bruhns attempts at explaining I found actually offensive and ridiculous for a book set in the 21st century. These two are even bigger twits than Gina. They had already thoroughly annoyed me in book 2, and by the time I stopped reading, I intensely disliked them.

There was yet another small storyline there, and I was actually enjoying it (it involved a female detective in her late 40s whom I found a really nice character), but not enough to keep me reading about all the other idiots.

MY GRADE: A DNF.