Jake Steele AKA Tank and Shelby Stewart's book
According to Plan
By Madison J Edwards
Book Blurb:
What do you do when things don't go According to Plan? For starters, you trick, deceive, and lie to the very person who ruined your best laid plans.
Welcome to the world of Shelby Stewart, P.I., who's been hired to find Harrison Grant. To complicate matters further, her ex-partner, ex-lover, ex-everything Tank shows up looking for Harrison as well, albeit for a very different reason. Harry is the prime suspect in the grisly murder of a call girl, Lulu, in L.A.
That wouldn't be so bad, but Tank plans on staying at Shelby's house, and makes it obvious he's quite willing to help her heat the sheets, again. Shelby knows that sex with Tank is dangerous, fast, and sometimes a little dirty. Now is not the time to become side-tracked. Besides, this job could launch her company into a whole new stratosphere, so it's imperative she remain focused.
Frustration becomes Shelby's newest partner as she makes plans to out maneuver Tank in their parallel quest. Tank, on the other hand, is always one step ahead of the game; and is not what, or who, Shelby thought.
As an erotic suspense, According to Plan carried out a pretty good story. I do enjoy an interesting back story between the characters. I love where the reader gets the opportunity to pick up on a relationship well established.
There is no doubt as you start in with According to Plan that Shelby and Tank have a precarious history. It was quite obvious from the start that Shelby was still hanging on to some bitter and hurtful feelings. I think that those emotions mixed with her nymphomaniac behaviour towards Tank made me quite confused if not frustrated. I liked Shelby but even though she had apparent smarts, she was so incredibly weak where Tank was concerned. He'd interfere with her plans or investigation and where she'd start off spitting mad, (deservingly so) the minute he'd smile or stroke her cheek, she'd practically pull down her thong for him. I didn't like that. I prefer a heroine who is adept and who insists a man work for his forgiveness and allows a bit of deserved grovelling.
I like a story with first person narrative. My favourite narrative is third person as I prefer being told the a story more from a narrator's point of view. But I do not care for a mixture of both flipping back and forth between chapters. That is my personal preference. This back and forth style was really driving a wedge in me for really liking According to Plan as much as I think I could have. I want to be completely transparent about that because there are numerous readers who wouldn't give that casting back and forth another thought.
There was some action, suspense and a few emotional scenes that completely redeemed According to Plan for me. I started to become suspicious of the secondary characters, wondered where the author was taking us and I was really curious on how the plot was going to unfold. There were some new characters that were introduced in the second half of the book that really caught my interest. One of these new players was a delicious rancher named, Caleb. This well mannered cowboy was sure to add a bit more conflict to the story and succeeded charmingly.
The intimate scenes between Shelby and Tank were erotic and very well done. Lots of emotion and even though early on in the book neither one of the couple openly professed their love, it came out easily translated in their love making.
Teasers: strip billiards, awesome best friend Polly, bomb, bed footboard
