Sharon Michalove

Suspenseful continuation of the Global Security Unlimited series!

At the Ready is the third book in author Sharon Michalove’s highly addictive Global Security Unlimited books and will be a definite winner with fans of the romantic suspense series. This tale is about partner Jean-Louis “JL” Martin and lawyer Michelle “Micki” Press and their uphill journey to a relationship.

Micki is a senior associate in her prestigious Chicago law firm, up for partner, and facing off against a rival attorney whose uncle is already an established partner. The competition to determine who becomes a partner is stacked against her from the start, and the firm is a genuine good ole boys club with the decision already made. I appreciated that this main character is a seasoned veteran of her craft, a middle-aged woman, but is realistically portrayed as still having professional and personal hopes and dreams.

JL is a protector with strong feelings for his family. He is pulled in several directions throughout the story, trying to take care of his mother, who’s facing a couple of personal challenges while keeping the new passion in his life, Micki, safe. Although I enjoyed the occasional sprinkling of French in the story, sometimes I couldn’t easily determine their meaning, and it got to be a little much for me. I could get the intent from the context. Those with a better command of the French language than I should have no problems.

The plot is intriguing, with two ex-love interests refusing to bow out of the picture voluntarily. While Micki’s former boyfriend, Sam, is eluding law enforcement to continue his harassment, JL’s former girlfriend, Angelique, worms her way into his mother’s good graces to get to him. Both of these storylines are excellent, and Sam’s ways and means of getting to Micki are creepy and baffling for the longest time. The resolution of this storyline was extremely satisfying.

With its engaging characters, great plot, and storylines that continue from the previous books, I recommend AT THE READY for all fans of the series.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours.… (mehr)

More of a romance than a mystery or suspense story.

The book started out well, but lost it’s way about 1/4 of the way through. It didn’t gain it’s footing until the last few chapters. I did like the way the author went back and forth between Bay’s and Greg’s point of view. There were several issues going on at once, and I felt like the author rushed through a lot of it just to have it resolved. More time spent on each issue would have gone a long way in making this a much better book.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions expressed are
my own.… (mehr)

An OK book that's not very suspenseful or mysterious. I had most of it figured out before I was half-way through. So for me, it gets half-way to 5 stars.

The writing is adequate, but the novel is rife with continuity & transition problems. Call me fussy, but these are the things that stop me dead in my tracks.

For instance: FMC is wearing cargo pants in the attic, by the time she gets downstairs, it's chef's pants; the dog was laying at MMC's feet, but MMC "went over" to pet him; and where FMC's sauteeing ham & onions in his kitchen, after which MMC looks for "the only frying pan I owned." Another time MMC & friend are having coffee & leftover donuts in their new shop, and MMC has thoughts about a call he took "while we were eating". Now the "we" in the scene are the two men, and there's no mention that the call came in the previous night. Very confusing and easily corrected by simply substituting "Bay and I" for "we" or adding "last night" to the phrase.
There's also a lot of repetition, as in chairs crashing over whenever anyone stands, or him constantly pressing his hand against her back.

In the acknowledgments, author states she wrote the book "in record time". Unfortunately, it shows.
… (mehr)