The Bookaholic Cat: Review: Run the Risk by Lori Foster

Title: Run the Risk

Author: Lori Foster

Series: Love Undercover, book 1

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Source: Review copy from publisher

Format: E-book

“When Detective Logan Riske goes undercover to find Pepper Yates, a potential link to his best friend's unsolved murder, he vows to gain her cooperation by any means necessary. But the elusive beauty is more suspicious—and in far more danger—than he expected. And the last thing Logan needs is to start caring for her….

Pepper has spent years dodging the corrupt club owner who will stop at nothing to keep her silenced. She can trust no one, not even the handsome new "construction worker" who's moved in next door. The heat between them is undeniable. But will surrendering to passion bring her the safety she so desires—or will her feelings for Logan draw them both into a killer's crosshairs?”

Run the Risk is the first book in the new series Love Undercover by Lori Foster.

Logan Riske is ready to do anything to find, Rowdy Yates, the man who witnessed his best friend’s (Jack Carmin) murder, even getting involved with his sister, Pepper Yates. Pepper is living under a secret identity (Sue Meeks), she and her brother are living in hiding, the biggest mob boss of the city, Morton Andrews, is looking for them.

Pepper/Sue hides under oversize clothes, no makeup, bad choices of hairstyles and a mousy personality. With her current looks she doesn’t understand why her new neighbor, a hunk of a guy (Logan) is paying attention to her. But after being alone for such a long time is hard to say no to him when he invites her over for dinner.

Logan is curious about Pepper/Sue, she is not a looker and has a really bad sense of fashion but there is something in her that attracts him; but Logan doesn’t let this interfere with his goal, he wants Pepper/Sue’s brother and that’s it, he’s even willing to seduce the skittish girl to get what he wants. What Logan wasn’t expecting was to fall for her, that only makes things more difficult for him, especially when Pepper/Sue learns that Logan used her to get to her brother.

I almost DNF this book, the first part of Run the Risk was slow and boring. I blamed this on the characters; I hated Sue/Pepper and couldn’t understand Logan’s actions. The second half of the book picked up the pace and was somehow better.

When Pepper is posing as Sue her character is so bland and uninteresting that is was difficult for me to understand Logan’s attraction.

We know she is hiding but no why and from whom she is hiding. Also the way she is hiding using a bad sense of style and a dull personality is a bit stupid.

One thing that made me rolled my eyes was that when Logan and Sue/Pepper have sex (more than once) she requires complete darkness and not only she doesn’t take any of her clothes but also doesn’t allow Logan to touch her. Logan is completely naked, she is completely dress, he can’t touch her but it’s mind-blowing sex, for real? Should I believe that “that” was the best sex of his life, if that was the case I feel really bad for him.

After Logan uses Pepper/Sue to get to her brother, Rowdy, things get better in the story. Now we have Logan’s partner Reese whom is an interesting character, we know there are many corrupted policemen in the department and we really don’t know if Reese’s intentions are good or bad until the very end.

We also learned more about Rowdy; on the beginning of the book he feels almost like a bully brother, but when we get to know him a bit better we understand that everything he has done was to protect his sister, Pepper.

After that halfway point we also meet Logan’s brother, Dash; I liked him, found him interesting and as with Reese and Rowdy I would love to know more about him; I’m glad he’s getting his own book.

After the second half of the book, when Logan gets his hands on Rowdy, Pepper doesn’t have to hide anymore, so she transforms herself from the mousy Sue Meeks to a supermodel/Lara Croft-ish - Pepper Yates. For me that transformation was not only unbelievable but also laughable. She doesn’t have any training in self-defense and barely knows how to use a firearm, but that doesn’t deter her, she goes in a crusade against the biggest criminal of the city. For real? *rolls eyes*

The only good thing about Logan and Pepper relationship after she discovers the truth is that she doesn’t have to hide under clothes. Apart from that I couldn’t care less for them.

For me what it saved this book was the secondary characters. I really liked them all and I’m glad next book in the series, Bare it All, will be Reese’s book. I can’t wait to learn more about him and about his neighbor’s Alice and her secrets.

My Verdict: 3 Paws