The Talented Mr. Rivers, HelenKay Dimon

The first book in this series was totally insane but a lot of fun to read. Unfortunately, this one wasn't. It feels like the characters make the same realizations about each other over and over again, have the same arguments, and never get to any satisfying conclusions about each other. In the first scene Hunter is insists that no one will EVER shoot Will when he's around; he has this discussion maybe twenty times over the course of the book. Sometimes it's in the context of saying he's not in love with Will, sometimes it's wondering if the mission is more important than Will, sometimes it's being mad the CIA wants to shoot Will. But someone always threatens Will, and Hunter always freaks out and slams them into a wall and announces NO ONE SHOOTS WILL, and then he's always surprised to hear himself say it. It's really frustrating. Also, the sexual tension between Hunter and Will has no arc. Hunter is an undercover agent, pretending to be a bodyguard, hoping Will isn't evil like the rest of his family. At the beginning they want desperately to bang but have never discussed it. They they do sleep together, announce loudly that they can't trust each other, sleep together again, realize they can't trust each other, sleep together, feel betrayed by each other, sleep together, wonder if maybe they have feelings for each other... It's weird. This is the kind of romance where the characters insist the sexual tension is so overwhelming that they physically can't stop themselves from fucking over and over, but since it doesn't really ever grow or change it just gets boring. Oh, ALSO also: the first sex scene goes on and on for a while. By which I mean about halfway through a paragraph actually begins: "The sex continued." NEVER IN MY LIFE. NOT EVEN IN FIC. WHAT. Will was pretty sympathetic and enjoyable but he had no real arc; instead of wondering if he might be evil like his family we're told pretty early that he's not, and there's a vague idea that he needs to take responsibility and grow up, but he spends almost the entire book in a safe house just sitting around thinking about how much he hates being cooped up. He agrees to be bait at the end, and it's supposed to be a huge thing, but... he also agreed to that at the beginning, more or less. He doesn't learn anything, he just tells us the same stories about how much his family sucks over and over. This book is so FRUSTRATING. Hunter, on the other hand, was the kind of alpha-male who is boring and angry about everything all the time. I know a lot of people enjoy that, but it's not my thing. Too many scenes of threatening to murder everyone, or slamming people against walls, or simmering with rage. Yeah, he had some backstory, but he was also a jerk. A book about undercover agents banging the guy they're supposed to be keeping safe from his homicidal family shouldn't be boring. Grade: D #7 in 2017