Afterglow by Cherry Adair

Afterglow by Cherry Adair

A high profile celebrity wedding in Monaco in the kind of A-list event security specialist Rand Maguire excels at.  Everything goes like clockwork, until guests start inexplicably losing all their inhibitions.

Rand is no stranger to the effects of Rapture.  His chemist father's attempt at a cure for depression caused Rand's mother's death years ago, and put his father away for her murder.  Now someone is circulating Rapture in a campaign of terror, intending to manufacture and sell it on a global scale.  But with no leads, Rand feels the heat.

Sexy Lodestone agent Dakota North is sent to help Rand kick-start his search, armed only with her uncanny sixth sense.  But what they discover in their race across Europe is more far-fetching and lethal than an erotic street drug.  From a Barcelona bank heist to a million-dollar arms deal in Paris, Dakota and Rand give in to an insatiable craving for each other in nights of pure carnal delight, no senses left untouched.  No Rapture necessary.

Yikes.  This book.  At the end of of it, I wished I had abandoned it after the first couple of chapters like I originally wanted to.  I didn't for two reasons: it was one of the titles on my Official TBR Pile challenge list and it was clear that the hero had seriously wronged the heroine and I wanted to see him grovel.  I love a good grovel.  Unfortunately, I was let down.

From the beginning: Rand is the head of a security firm who is having to seriously cover his keister after members of a high profile wedding were slipped a drug causing ALL of them (priest, grandmother of the bride, EVERYBODY) to immediately start having sex with whoever was closest to them.  Dakota shows up as the help requested by Rand who is NOT happy to see her as they used to be engaged until he broke it off because he believes she was 1) cheating on him with many different men, 2)involved in the death of his mother and 3) a money hungry whore.  So, no warm fuzzy feeling for him although he does spend a lot of time rhapsidising about her red hair. 

Rand and Dakota form an uneasy alliance and Dakota uses her psychic ability to track the bad guys.  Mayhem across Europe ensues, Rand and Dakota come together and fight apart again and again until things come to a head when they visit Rand's father in an Italian prison to see if he can give them any insight into the drug they are sure is being used.  This scene is used as a catalyst to give Rand a chance to see for himself the weakness of the evidence used to frame Dakota.  More mayhem ensues until the final showdown which is completely whacked out.  The explanation as to how everything came to pass was ludicrous in its dependency upon coincidences and seemed in no way plausible.  And after sticking with all of that I never got my grovel scene.  Instead, Dakota, who had been treated abominably by the hero and his family makes excuses for Rand and assures him she understands.  Ugh!  

I have read some books by Cherry Adair that I really enjoyed but I am sad to say that this is definitely not one of them.  Ludicrous and unsatisfying--this book disappointed on many levels.

Reading Challenges
Around the World
Monthly Mix Up Mania
Official TBR Pile Extreme
Romantic Suspense