"Bye, Seth".

She opened the door and climbed out, but his voice stopped her before she walked away.

"Just one thing".

She looked at him expectantly he r hand on the door ready to pull it closed.

"Tell your roommate if she touches you again she's dead".

Striking Distance by Debra Webb

Reread. Old review!

Just have to say a few new things: first, this book is exciting, fast paced and suspensful. Second, after first reading, it was my GR friend Dita, who went on and on about this writer! Miss you Dita!

Great action-packed story, dark, gritty and extremely torrid! Lots of fun. Old review below.

My review:

I really have to recommend this book to romantic suspense readers as it was one of those rare books that I could not tear myself away from.

This book was both dark and poignant. It was also entertaining, as there were the occasional bits of humor thrown in. But by and large this is a nail biter and unputdownable .

It’s the first book I’ve ever read by Debra Webb but I really enjoyed it. I think now I will have to read more from her.

So what is this book about? Well, the book tells the story of Seth and Tasha.

Seth is a dark soul and a criminal and Tasha who works in law-enforcement has been given an assignment. She must penetrate Seth's world and get him to trust her. She must get close to him. As in intimately close to him, to get information.

I must mention this book has some really steamy scenes as in getting to the level of a Fifty Shades of Grey and isn’t going to be for everybody. If that bothers you, you most likely will not want to read this book as there is more then one scene like that. I loathed 50 shades of Gray but had no issues with the quantity of steamy scenes in this book. The plot was mesmerizing.

However if you can get past what I mentioned, there is a story in here and it’s excellent. This book combines the best of several genres : mystery, romance, crime redemption.. and out of that emerges a book that’s both entertaining and poignant.

I would give Striking Distance a strong 4.5. I was able to immerse myself in this book completely and look forward to reading more of this author’s works. ( )

Though not part of the Harlequin Intrigue category, this book continues a story that is on-going within that line. However, this part of the Colby Agency saga was just too good to try to whittle down to 75,000 words. So it emerges as a single-title novel which will hopefully be found by Webb’s Colby devotees who may be left wondering, Hey, when did that happen? After all, this is the all-important and much anticipated story of Victoria and Lucas, and also solves the mystery of what really happened to Victoria’s son, James Colby, Jr.. But since this book is so stand-alone excellent, let me try to talk about it on its own.

There are really two sets of protagonists in this story, Victoria Colby and Lucas Camp, and the mysterious assassin named Seth and green CIA agent Tasha North. Usually this kind of multi-plot in a romance takes away from the overall appeal and suggests that neither couple is strong enough to have carried the book. However, that is certainly not the case here, and the way the Colby series developed makes this approach all the more satisfying.

Victoria Colby is a hunted woman. Readers have never really known until this book why she has been stalked all these years by Errol Leberman. All we have known is that Leberman was responsible for the kidnap, torture, and murder of Victoria’s husband, James Colby, and that Victoria believes him to also be responsible for the kidnapping of their child, James Colby Jr., a child she believes has been dead for eighteen years.

Leberman’s grudge extends to Lucas Camp, James Colby’s close friend, and a friend and confidant to Victoria all these years that she has dedicated herself to making her late husband’s private investigations firm, the Colby Agency, the best in the business. Lucas’s background is varied, heroic, and more secret than the mere CIA. He’s currently involved in Mission Recovery, Webb’s spin-off series from Colby, in which he recruits only the best of the best for his covert operations. All these years that he has stood by her, Lucas has been waiting for Victoria to be ready to put away her grief and move on. And it seems, at the beginning of Striking Distance that she is finally ready to put the past behind her and act on her long-suppressed feelings for Lucas.

This, of course, makes it the perfect time for Leberman to launch his ultimate plot against Victoria. He has an assassin waiting in the wings, ready to finally take her life now that she is finally ready to live it again. An assassin who calls himself Seth, and who is cold, ruthless, and just as dedicated to Victoria’s destruction as Leberman himself. An assassin Leberman has been training these past eighteen years…

Lucas knows that Leberman has an assassin following Victoria. He knows that in Leberman’s twisted mind, this would be the perfect time to strike. And yet he doesn’t know why the assassin hasn’t yet made a move against her. He needs someone to get close to the killer. Someone who would qualify as the best of the best, and yet, someone who is not so versed in field operations that Seth won’t spot her as an agent right away.

Enter Tasha North. Not your typical Harlequin heroine. She’s not shy and retiring, she hasn’t been so focused on other things that she doesn’t have any experience with men. This is a woman who knows that she’ll need every weapon at her disposal to eliminate the threat against Victoria Colby and earn herself a spot on the Mission Recovery Team. She knows her assets and she’s not afraid to use them.

The relationship between Tasha and Seth seems impossible given Seth’s nearly inhuman qualities. But the sort of challenge that presents to the heroine and the author makes it all the more appealing. Webb handles their relationship in a way that is believable under the circumstances, rather than falling into the trap of creating some sudden, implausible about-face in one of her characters as so many authors are wont to do.

I found Striking Distance to be an excellent read, as well-paced as a Robert Ludlum adventure, but with better characters and believable romantic entanglements. Definitely worth any extra trouble to obtain, especially for Colby Agency fans.

If you haven’t read the Colby Agency series, start with Webb’s Safe By His Side (ISBN: 0-373-22583-0), Harlequin Intrigue #583. ( )