Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Frozen Memories - Cassie Miles (HI #1736 - Sept 2017)

Amnesia made her forget him. His love will bring her back.

Their mission is compromised. Their cover is blown. And FBI Special Agent Spence Malone has found his partner -- and love of his life -- disoriented and suffering from drug-induced amnesia. NSA cybercrimes expert Angelica Thorne has forgotten her name, her mission and, worst of all, Spence and their nights of passion. And now they're in a race against an unseen enemy bent on nuclear destruction. Spence vows to protect her and help her remember…everything. All Angelica knows for sure is that when Spence holds her in his arms, she feels so right. Why, then, does everything else seem so wrong?

Though the premise might be a little farfetched, there was enough realism to the scenario that this was a very exciting read. Spence and Angelica were investigating rumors of a planned nuclear strike against a US city by hackers who were attempting to get control of US missiles. The story opened as Angelica found herself kidnapped by unknown assailants. Left unattended in the back of the kidnap vehicle, she made a break for it, finding shelter with a preacher and his wife. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't remember who she was or anything else. In the meantime, Spence wasn't far behind, tracking her by the chip he'd placed on her body (without her consent - oops). The tension was high as he and the SWAT team discovered that she was missing. I loved Spence's determination to find her, beating himself up because he blamed himself for her capture. Their reunion was intense, especially because she doesn't remember him at first, and isn't sure she can trust him. Things were complicated by the escape of one of the kidnappers, creating unexpected surprises.

Fortunately, Angelica's amnesia was drug-induced, so her memories began to return as the drugs wore off. Some of the first memories to return were those of the steamy relationship between herself and Spence. They had dated for six months, not expecting to be assigned to work together. The dynamics between them were pretty intense; their attraction so strong that they had trouble keeping their hands off each other. Spence was understandably a little overprotective, because of his feelings for her. On the other hand, he had a great deal of respect for her abilities and had no trouble deferring to her when necessary. I loved Angelica's kickass attitude and her strength of will. There were some great scenes of her getting the better of those who underestimated her. She did have a few instances of insecurity/jealousy when it came to the female agent as well as some trust issues, but she handled them pretty well. I liked the ending as Spence had his big moment before anything else could go wrong.

The suspense of the story was very good and kept me hooked all the to the end. The idea that someone could find a way to tap into deactivated nuclear missiles and launch them is pretty scary stuff. Once Angelica began to get her memories back, it was fascinating to watch her work her computer magic. It was interesting to follow along with her mental processes and the connections that she made. I especially enjoyed the bits that involved the Santa Tracker. There was only a short time to solve the problem, and figuring out who could be trusted was not easy. There were several twists and turns that caused me to question who was involved. The final confrontation was intense as Angelica raced against time to disable the launch computers, while Spence faced off with the unexpected mastermind. 

No comments:

Post a Comment