Extreme Measures

Aegis

By: Elisabeth Naughton

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Being prepared for any scenario is the trademark of any good CIA operative, and Eve Wolfe is one of the best. But when her latest mission literally explodes in her face, she wakes up labeled a traitor and - even more surprising - in the custody of elite Aegis Security operative and ex-lover Zane Archer. Although she still secretly has feelings for Zane, he’s now demanding the one thing that she can’t give him: The truth.

When he caught her breaking the rules years ago, Zane let Eve walk away without an explanation. Now someone has not only sabotaged Aegis but also turned an American city into a war zone, and all signs point to Eve. Zane needs answers that can come only from Eve’s still-tempting lips, and he finally has the elusive operative right where he wants her - at his mercy.

The first book in best-selling author Elisabeth Naughton's new steamy romantic suspense series brings a spy in from the cold - and sets her heart ablaze.

©2014 Elisabeth Naughton (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Extreme Measures , I

Intriguing, very fast pass and full of action s all the way through!!

Extreme Measures

This was an enjoyable story, but indulged in one of my all time pet peeves when it comes to suspense stories. In order to ratchet up the tension, the author makes the heroine go into danger alone, even when she knows better, just so the hero can swoop in & save the day. Grrrrr. I also thought the resolution came in from left field. Thinking back over the story, I don't see any clues on who the bad guys turned out to be. I'd like to think I could've figured the mystery out if I'd just paid more attention, but there really were no warning signs. But I liked the world building & the characterizations, even the secondary, supporting actors. So, I liked it enough to keep going with the series.

As for the narrator, i guess she does a good job, but I personally don't like her voice. I've listened to a lot of Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed series & this narrator does all of her books. I think I just OD'ed on her voice. I'll have to overlook it if I want to continue with this series, & I do. Just wanted to throw my 2 cents in!

Pretty good start to the series :)

3.5-4 stars

This was a pretty good story. I liked Eve and Zane and liked their story. This is the first story I've read by this author and I liked it well enough that I'm likely to read more of her work in the future.

Eve is a CIA operative. She lost a fiancee when she was in college and this prompted her joining the CIA. Her parents are dead and she has a sister but there are some difficulties between them, a lot caused by Eve being gone all the time and her sister not understanding why because she doesn't know about Eve's job.

Zane used to be part of the CIA but was a bit too much of a black and white (with no grey in between) type of person to be able to handle that job well. He left that job and joined up with Aegis security but when a job went wrong it messed up his head and he left to find the person he thought was responsible.

Eve and Zane were involved during an assignment years before. They fell for each other but Eve was freaked out by how Zane affected her (making her feel safe and forget herself) so she ended it and left at the end of the mission, never looking back. When Zane left the CIA and joined Aegis he had a hard time forgetting Eve. When a job went wrong and it looked like Eve might have something to do with it, Zane decided that she'd gone rogue and decided to go on his own to track her down and bring her in. When the story begins, Eve is in Seattle meeting a contact when the contact changes things by showing her a picture of her sister being held captive. Eve doesn't get the information she was trying to get and is left in a bad situation just hoping to get her sister out of the situation safely. Unfortunately, an explosion causes some problems and as luck would have it, Zane was tracking Eve right about that time and finds Eve unconscious after being caught in the explosion. Zane takes Eve away from the scene of the explosion to a place where he can tie her up and then dopes her up with truth serum in an effort to get the truth about everything out of her. The problem becomes that even when Eve tells Zane the truth, he's not really ready to be able to accept it.

The distrust between Zane and Eve causes some problems but they soon have more serious issues as they find themselves running from others that seem intent on killing them both. Eve plans to leave Zane when she can, figuring that she needs to find out what went wrong with her mission and she doesn't have time for Zane's crusade to "bring her in". When they get to safety, Eve plans to ditch Zane and move on but these plans change when she finds out that Zane has been blamed for the explosion and the authorities are looking for him. She stays to help Zane and work with him but she still has her reservations about being close to him because Zane tends to affect her brain in ways that aren't good for her concentration. Zane and Eve still want each other (even though they both believe they have good reasons for why it wouldn't work) and their close conditions and stressful situation just spikes the heat between them higher. Things aren't easy for them but Zane and Eve try to do their best to work together to figure out what's going on. Even once Zane believes Eve, there are still issues she has to get past in order for them to move on and the fact that she blames herself for everything that's happening doesn't help. With some help from Zane's co-worker, Zane and Eve do manage to find some clues and figure out who the bad guy is and clear Zane and Eve's names, leaving them free (once Eve comes to her senses) to come together for a well deserved HEA.

This was a pretty enjoyable story. I liked Eve and Zane despite their faults and was glad to see them work things out and end up together. The story was a good balance of romance and action and overall I liked it very much. The book set up things for Eve's sister in the next book and I'll probably be reading that one when it comes out. I'd recommend this book. :)