Loose and Easy | Tara Janzen | Drama, drama, drama.

Loose and Easy | Tara Janzen | ...This Is The Masochist's Risk, That The Game Gets Out Of Hand.-Esme Alden

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Loose and Easy

	Loose and Easy Tara Janzen Dell, 2008 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

He's the bad boy she always wanted.

She's the good girl that got away.

He?d know her anywhere. Johnny Ramos had just come off a tour of duty in Afghanistan to find Esmee Alden trolling the mean streets of Denver in red lace and leather. The smartest girl he ever knew turning tricks? Not even close. Esmee?s in danger so deep, only Johnny can get her out?which is why the elite government operative is shadowing her every move. Esmee had everything planned down to the last detail: dressed in disguise, she?d recover a stolen painting and pay off her dad?s ruthless bookie. Until Johnny Ramos, her high school crush, blows into town and nearly blows her cover. Now Esmee, a P.I. and an art- recovery expert, has a mother lode of bad guys on her trail?including the one bad boy she always wanted: Johnny. But passion will have to wait. Because when bullets start flying, suddenly they?re on the run, playing it fast and loose?and heading straight into the line of fire.?

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Drama, drama, drama.

Esmee Alden ran her own investigations company out of Seattle with her partner, Daniel "Dax" Killian. She is an expert at art-recovery. When her father, Burt, owes his bookie, Franklin Bleak, eighty-two thousand dollars, it is Esmee he calls. Multi-millionaire Isaac Nachman's reward will cover the debt. All Esmee has to do is recover a Meinland painting (done on copper), retrieve the reward money, and pay off Bleak. So Esmee is in disguise as a street girl reporting to a client (who has the painting). It should have been easy, just like her nickname, Easy Esmee.

Johnny Ramos has just come off his fourth tour of duty in Afghanistan and is stunned to see Esmee trolling the streets of Denver. He went to school with her and cannot figure out how the smartest girl in school could end up selling herself. Since Johnny has not come down from his last deployment, all his instincts are still razor sharp and on high alert. Good thing too, because Esmee has no idea how many bad guys are after her.

***** Drama, drama, drama! That is what readers get in this suspense filled story. There is some unneeded and repeated information, but the constant action and drama is in no way broken due to it. I enjoyed every second my nose was buried within the pages of this exciting tale. Splendid entertainment! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

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...This Is The Masochist's Risk, That The Game Gets Out Of Hand.-Esme Alden

This is the ninth book in the Steele Street series.

Johnny Ramos is a Ranger and he just got back from Afghanistan and his third combat tour. Johnny is now home and hoping to become part of an underground governmental Special Forces team known as SDF. He's trying to enjoy a beer when he recognizes the hooker hobbling down the street as his high school crush and class Valedictorian. He can't believe his eyes so he follows Esme to see what she is up to. Turns out, she's up to a lot.

I have always liked Johnny from the glimpses we have gotten of him in the previous books. His friendship with the colorful Skeeter Bang always enhanced his appeal to me. This book had the usual fantastic characters, hot cars and non stop action. But what made this book a little different is that almost the entire book covers the events of one single day; it really helped put me in the book.

Johnny and Esme make a great team and when the trouble she is in snowballs, they only get better. As always Ms. Janzen does a good job of introducing new characters, like Dax Killian, and giving you enough info to get you curious about the next story. She has me counting down the days until the next book and to kill the time I might revisit some of my favorite Steele Street books. This is a great edition to one of my favorite series.

Crazy Hot
Crazy Cool
Crazy Wild
Crazy Kisses
Crazy Love
Crazy Sweet
On the Loose (Steele Street, Book 7)
Cutting Loose

Cherise Everhard, September 2008

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Loose and Easy

I love this whole series by Tara Janzen. I picked up Cutting Losse and loved it so much that I found all the earlier titles and read them too. I love the Steele Street chop-shop boys and even owned a muscle car myself in my much younger years!

Lots of "Loose" Ends

I absolutely love Tara Janzen's books -- like my favorite TV show, "24", there's lots of action happening in a short period of time and many simultaneous story threads. I have read and re-read her Steele Street series multiple times and have enjoyed the earlier books in the new "Loose" series. This one, not so much.

Here's what I liked: the main characters are well-developed, flawed and believable. Their dialogue was crisp and the story line was intriguing. I also liked the secondary characters, even the bad guys, and the opportunity to see some old friends like General Grant, Loretta and Suzi Toussi.

So here's the problem I had -- this is the first Tara Janzen book that seemed to leave more loose ends than it wrapped up. I've read it twice, to make sure I just didn't miss things the first time. One example is a key incident in the story line -- the carved tatoos on two of the characters -- it jumps into the boat and flops around without resolution. And then there's the sudden and inexplicable STSD event in the cave. It literally came out of nowhere and seemed to serve no purpose to further the story along. And that darn envelope that seemed to cause Johnny such emotional turmoil that it was noted TWICE, in detail -- was given about 20 words of explanation. Ugh.

Net-net, I'm still a Tara Janzen fan and I'll absolutely purchase the next book. But I have to rate this "three stars" since, even after two readings, I have a hard time remembering the plot.

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Less quantity more quality.

A cast of thousands don't make a good book. I cannot tell you how many threads there are in this story. And most of them go absolutely nowhere. Also. No input from contemporary world politics. Most of the plot is firmly rooted in irrelevent and trivial Denver crimeland.

The reappearance of Suzi Toussi is a big let-down. Didn't she dump Hawkins and move on to another SDF guy in a previous story? And didn't Hawkins breathe a sigh of relief when she left? And suddenly she's being built up as the drop-dead gorgeous heroine for a new book.

There is only one reason to read this novel...The J. T. thread. Wow! If you can keep awake during the Esmee and Johnny borefest, you will get a huge payoff. Is it a tease for the next book or an ongoing thread for all the following stories?

I definitely want to know. More Dylan and Hawkins please. Forget the new blood. Let's see the more mature guys in the action. (No deaths though)

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reviews: page 1, 2

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