Now You See Him - Anne Stuart

I finished another Anne Stuart oldie, this time it was Now You See Him. After I finished it, I sat back and the only thing that came to mind was how much this book was similar to Black Ice. Beware, this review has several spoilers...

The man who called himself Michael Dowd wasn't exactly what he seemed. Wherever Michael went, it seemed to Francey Neeley, danger followed. But she couldn't escape an attraction to him. He was trying to pry information from her about a terrorist group, a group that was trying to kill him - and her. Soon, Francey became swept into a world of death and deceit, but she couldn't stay away from Michael

In both of them we have an innocent heroine who ends up in trouble with the bad guys after her, and a hero who is a secret agent for a secret organisation who starts out pretty bad and unsure about her but ends up falling for our girl and saves her. Also the hero is believed to be dead at the end till he suddenly shows up at the heroine’s doorstep.

However in this book there isn’t that secretive and mysterious aura surrounding the hero. We are much more aware of his feelings and why he is acting the way he is, not on the psycological side but how he is a secret agent fighting against the IRA terrorists. Everything is much more in the open in this story, there's less suspense. There are some dark parts, like when Francey was locked up in a prison in Spain, but it’s not one of Stuart’s dark stories.

We just have a glimpse of Francey’s past and not even that when it comes to Michael, I think that could have been a bonus to the story. I always like to know where people come from so I can feel confident in the happy ending. Since we are informed of his feelings and how they change during the course of the story I think some background was needed.

I realize what I mentioned about this book are themes that appear in several other Stuart romantic suspense books. It just struck me that it was similar to Black Ice but I read somewhere a reader comparing it to Moonrise so maybe other people will come up with other titles…

The cover is the usual 90s thing, no matter how much they scream and fight each other in the book you always have 2 lovebirds in the cover…

Another B for Ms Stuart!