Sleuthing with the Enemy (Unnatural Alliances #2) by Danielle Hardgrave

Published: June 9th 2017 by Caldwell Publishing

Read Date: November 7th 2017

Pages: 186

Stars: 3.5/5

Somebody just stole a valuable artifact from the Helsen archives, and Annemette Helsen—a very pissed off werewolf—is going to make sure they pay for it.

There’s just one problem: Anna’s only suspect is the arrogant vampire prince, Jonas Weiss. He’s cocky, frustrating, and a little bit sexy. Okay, a lot sexy.

He also claims to be innocent, so the fact that she just broke into his home and attacked him is problematic.

And his price for keeping silent about the whole debacle? Downright devious.

This is paranormal mystery romance, narrated by Annemette Helsen aka Anna (protagonist), and solely revolves around her and investigation she carried out with the person whom she considered enemy in the beginning. It gave pretty good idea about her nature, behavior, reasons behind her actions and relationship with Jonas that will change her view towards life. It was about growing up and coming out of the event that changed life in the past, understanding loved ones and their feelings.

This was second book in the series. I haven’t read the first book and I didn’t have any major difficulties getting into book, so I can say this book can be read stand alone. But I would suggest to read it in order as few things like family bonding was not that much focused in this one which, I’m hoping, might be there in first book. Because without understanding Helsen family and their relationship with each other, I couldn’t know them very deeply or attach myself with them except Anna.

Anna– youngest of family, is reckless, impulsive, fierce, trained to be guardian and has temper issue. She was childish and had trouble in understanding the needs of people around her, like her best friend Roxie and her brothers that created little drama. But she was strong one who can handle things, good at heart, and straight forward which I like most about her. I didn’t like her much in the beginning but her character development in later part was real nice, this book was the first step of her character growth.

Jonas– was real nice than I expected him. From the blurb, I thought he might be egoistic arrogant prince who like Anna might be impulsive and needed anger management, but he turned out totally opposite. He was as good from inside as he appeared outside. I loved him for being straight and caring soft-hearted person. It was obvious why Anna started liking him. The way he expressed his feeling was clear and sweet.

I liked other secondary characters. One person I look forward to know more about was, mysterious Benji.

This book was pretty fast, interesting plot, nice easy to follow writing style, and short chapters made it quick read. First thing that I liked about this book was MC was a werewolf, and main plot was solving mystery that makes major point in being different from usual paranormal romance.

I loved to read about Anna and Jonas’s history, how Jonas turned to vampire, who were Anna’s parents and what happened to them, why she had problem with her brothers and the main reason behind why she didn’t like to follow what her brothers say- this whole history thing was after 50% of the book which was the best part. Until this point I was not attached to any character and was just going along the story and only interested in finding who the thief was. I got to know more about these characters and understood them more clearly.

 “When did you get so insightful?”

“When I fell for someone I shouldn’t have and had to face my own demons.”                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The romance and sex scenes in the book reminded me Mills&Boon novels. I read one or two long time ago. So if you’re familiar with those books, you might like to read this one as well. As those sexy scenes were narrated exactly like M&B novels. Descriptive, erotic, and exciting. Usually I avoid reading these kind of erotic romance but surprisingly I didn’t dislike them. May be because of the rest of the book that I was more interested in.

Few things about Anna I didn’t like, but the pace and flow of the story was real good. Author was taking from one thing to the other real fast that I didn’t stay longer on unlikable behavior of Anna and her action didn’t irritate me. Author created good suspense, till the end I couldn’t guess who was the thief until climax.

End was abrupt and open ended. Culprit is found but mystery is not solved yet which was little disappointing. I would like to see what happens next and how they will solve this mystery.

First of all, the relationship of Anna and Jonas was more focused on sexual than love. I understood why they fell in love or what attracted them but I didn’t feel it properly narrated or justified. Sex scenes had more words than expression of love and newly discovered feelings and relationship.

In the beginning, the way she was dragging Roxie out of her house (even though poor girl had final exams) just to discuss her dating issues, I thought when she finally found her love she would express it better. Instead she thought it’s wrong to be with vampire but looking at their family, I didn’t think her brothers or anyone would have problem about her dating vampire. So what was the fuss!! Thankfully it was not dragged much and wrapped up real fast.

The main story Mystery of finding thief, had fewer suspect, was not that thrilling and at the end it was kind of unsolved!

Cover… It doesn’t even relate to story. Ugh! There could be a good cover for this book.

Overall, it was good, interesting, enjoyable, sexy supernatural mystery. If this fits to your interest and if you’re looking for a quick read, I think you’ll like this book.

Author: Danielle Hardgrave

About Author:

Danielle Hardgrave can find romance anywhere. While obtaining her History degree, she spent more time than she’d care to admit speculating on the love lives of famous historical tyrants.

She was born and raised in Victoria, BC, a small coastal city on a small island in the giant country of Canada. She spends most of her time writing, reading, or getting into trouble with her roommate.

Caldwell Publishing is the result of two sets of talent and one dream. It combines the writing of Danielle Hardgrave with the design expertise of Olivia Conway. The result? Sizzling tales of romance to help you slip away from reality—if only for a little while.

Buy Here: Amazon.com / Amazon.in

*** Note: I received review copy of this book from the author, in exchange for an honest review. I am glad I got a chance to read this book. ***

What do you think about the book and review? Have you read this book or any books by Danielle Hardgrave? Share your thoughts in the comment-box below.

Happy Reading! 🙂