Bare It All

Love Undercover, Book 2

By: Lori Foster

Narrated by: Jim Frangione

Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's Summary

As the person responsible for taking down a brutal human trafficker, Alice Appleton fears retaliation at every turn. No one knows about her past, which is exactly how she prefers it…until the sexy cop next door comes knocking. Detective Reese Bareden thinks he knows what makes women tick, but his ever-elusive neighbor keeps him guessing like no other. Is his goal to unmask Alice's secrets? Or protect her from a dangerous new threat? One thing is certain: Their chemistry is a time bomb waiting to explode. And with no one to trust but each other, Reese and Alice are soon drawn into a deadly maze of corruption, intrigue and desire - and into the line of fire….

©2013 Lori Foster (P)2013 Recorded Books

Steamy Suspenseful Sequel!

Bare It All is the second book in the Love Undercover series, and follows Detective Reese Baredon and Alice Appleton and their developing relationship. Reese is very curious about Alice's past and wants to protect her. Alice has secrets she doesn't want to share, but Reese isn't about to let his quirky neighbour get away with that.

Alice is a secondary character from another book written by Lori Foster, 'Trace of Fever'. It isn't necessary to have read that book to understand the trauma that Alice has gone through that has left her wary of her surroundings and isolated from her family (but, seriously, that too is an excellent book and well worth a credit!).

While I very much enjoyed the first book in this series (Run the Risk), Alice is my favourite character due to her quirks and her strength of character so I loved listening to her story. Worth a credit? Oh yes, absolutely!

Excellence from the great Lori Foster !

Any additional comments?

We met Detective Reese Bareden and his neighbor Alice Appleton in book one, Run The Risk. Reese rescues a stray dog, brings it home and then realizes that it’s still young and really shouldn’t be left home alone during the day. He’d seen Alice in his building, thought she worked from home, so he approaches her to see if she’d be willing to dog sit during Reese’s long days at the office. Alice agrees. She doesn’t say much to Reese, keeps the conversation “dog” related. Reese, however, is really intrigued by Alice. He thinks she is beautiful but knows she doesn’t think so. He can tell by how she dresses and carries herself. Alice, however, shows no interest in Reese, only Cash, Reese’s dog............ This story grabbed me and didn’t let me go. It’s everything I look for in a romance and while not labeled “suspense” there is some of that in here as it pertains to the case Reese and Logan are working on. But the character who stole the show for me in here was Alice. It’s impossible to describe her totally without giving too much away, but suffice it to say that she’s scarred from her past and has trouble trusting people. If that weren’t enough, she carries a lot of guilt for what happened, even though it really and truly was not her fault. She did what she had to do to survive; but she lives with that every day of her life. It’s caused her to be a bit of an introvert and she’s even cut ties with her family. Alice is super intelligent and though she’s extremely careful with people she immediately senses that Reese is someone she can trust. And he’s gorgeous and sexy and she loves to just look at him............. The introduction of the case that Alice inadvertently lends herself to brings just a little bit of mystery and suspense to this story. It allows the author to continue the human trafficking storyline while adding the twist of drug trafficking to it. At the same time, she provides a nice set up for the next story by highlighting Rowdy Yates, our next hero............

Ultimately, what I really loved about this story was the focus on Reese and Alice and their budding relationship. They get a lot of page time, talking and getting to know each other and we see a lot of character growth in Alice. We see her break out of her self-imposed solitary lifestyle and develop friendships, gaining additional confidence in herself as a woman. Reese is patient and single minded in the fact that Alice is the one for him and that comes through strongly as well. I loved how these two are always honest and upfront, voicing their thoughts and bringing everything out into the open............

From start to finish I love this book and in true Lori Foster style we get very passionate sex and full on Alpha male romance.

Yikes...TSTL Lead Character

What disappointed you about Bare It All?

Alice is really, really stupid. At first, I thought perhaps the whole wide-eyed innocent disingenuous thing might work. Not. I have read all of these books and found that as time goes on, each book Foster puts out, the lead female becomes more and more annoying to me. This one tops the list of TSTL (too stupid to live). In this book Alice takes a risk that is beyond stupid - when all she had to do was make a phone call to her POLICE DETECTIVE boyfriend and get help in a very dangerous situation. But because of some atonement crap issues she seems to have, she figures she is smarter and better able to handle a dangerous situation. When in truth, she not only endangered herself but also the other person she was "rescuing." What if the bozo bad guy had killed them both, which he could have easily done, then what? Yikes, I cannot stand dumb characters. And her absolute oblivion to logical thinking and understanding why her now lover is upset over her actions is beyond ludicrous. I also found the secondary character Rowdy to be a very confusing character. He is supposedly a stand-up guy - but in one scene between him and a woman he is interested in - he acts like a complete a** - basically letting her know that if she won't put out - another woman will. Too bad, so sad honey, it could have been you, but well - I'm gonna get me some action tonight either way. And that is supposed to make him sexy????? Ugh is too mild a word.

Would you ever listen to anything by Lori Foster again?

Probably done with her. I don't even know if I can finish this one...

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He drones when he reads...dragging out certain words in a way that takes you out of the story.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Bare It All?

Definitely the one with Rowdy in the bar with Avery described above.

Any additional comments?

I used to really like Lori Foster - but I don't get why she seems to want to portray women as dumb and needy and her male characters arrogant to the point of total jerks. I like a strong alpha male as good as the next woman, but some of the actions and words that come out of these guys mouth - well if someone talked to me that way, I'd knock their block off. And I sure wouldn't find it sexy. I don't think that is Foster's intention, but I don't see how any intelligent woman could read these characters and view them in any other light.

Keep this series coming

Where does Bare It All rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's worthy of a listen. Not at the top but it is a series I'm interested in.

What about Jim Frangione’s performance did you like?

He's as good as ever.

Any additional comments?

I think it's credit worthy if your interested in this series. If you can catch it on sale that's even better.

Steamy

I absolutely loved this book. Characters are great. It was definitely a page Turner. I will recommend to my friends.

Great sexy romance thriller with good plot line

I enjoyed this 2nd book in the series. The characters from book one evolve into new mystery with Reese and his neighbor Alice and the main couple and new pairing on the horizon for Roughty with the waitress at the bar he buys.

Well-balanced story themes

I'm a sucker for romance and erotica and human trafficking is my professional interest, so this book hit home for me. I thought it was a good blend of all three, as strange as the combination is at its face. There were cheesy parts and slow parts, but it was a good commute book (where I may not catch parts because the metro got loud, but I didn't necessarily need to rewind to know what had happened). I will say that Jim (the narrator) had a great voice for the men, but I had a hard time distinguishing between characters' voices at times. I was spoiled with John C. Reilly in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest and I can only imagine how difficult it is to formulate and execute so many different voices, but sometimes I couldn't even tell the males from the females. That being said, his voice was certainly pleasant to listen to and his narration was smooth. overall, I recommend to those who are suckers like me!

It ok too read.

The book was ok. The story was long and took forever to get to plot.

Another five star story by Author Lori Forster

If you could sum up Bare It All in three words, what would they be?

A must read.

Which character – as performed by Jim Frangione – was your favorite?

I love all performance done by Jim Frangione.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes I couldn't stop till the end.

Any additional comments?

This series is one of the best I have read. Buy it. You will love it

Great read, but could have been better

This could have been so much better. The plot and characters are fantastic. It just tays waaaay too long to hey where he eans to