Week 39 Reviews: Innocent Prey, Deadly Obsession

From Goodreads:
To save innocent lives, they'll have to risk their own. 

Self-help superstar Rachel de Luca and Detective Mason Brown have finally given in to their overwhelming attraction to each other, but neither of them is ready to let physical passion turn into full-blown romance, so they carefully maintain an emotional distance. Then a judge's daughter disappears, and Mason has a terrible sense that it's connected to the most recent case they solved together: the abduction of Rachel's assistant. 

The discovery of a string of missing women—all young, all troubled—seems like a promising lead. But there's no clear connection between the missing girls and the high-profile young woman Mason is trying to find. He realizes that once again he'll have to rely on his own well-honed instincts and Rachel's uncanny capacity to see through people's lies in order to catch a predator and rescue his captives. But can they do it before Rachel becomes his next victim?

From Goodreads:
A cold-blooded killer with a burning obsession… 

Rachel de Luca has a bad feeling about the new woman in Detective Mason Brown's life, the nurse taking care of him after he's injured in the line of duty. She'd like to think it's just jealousy, but intuition tells her it's something more, maybe something dangerous. 

Mason knows Rachel's wary of commitment, and asking her to stay when he's in this condition would be the worst thing for their relationship. Then they receive chilling news that drives everything else from their minds. 

Mason's psychotic sister-in-law has escaped from custody, putting her sons-—the nephews he's raising-—in the crosshairs. When his house is burned to the ground, he and Rachel are relieved that there are no bodies in the smoldering rubble, but now his nephews are missing and the clock is ticking. 

As Mason and Rachel try to find the boys, she senses a new and unexpected danger stalking them. Soon, everyone close to Mason is in deadly peril-—Rachel more than anyone….

My Review:
Wow, I really enjoyed reading these books! It's been such a great series-and it ended at a point where Obsession could be the last book, because it closed up the threads that have been going in the previous 3 books, and itself, so it can end the series (hope not!) or it can have the next book start up with some entirely new threads!

In these, they reminded me half of Sophie from P.D. Martin's series, and of Kendra from Iris Johansen's series, that mix of psychic powers, and keen observational skills from being blind for a chunk of your life, and then having a surgery and then being able to see again. And that was a really fun mix to read!

So Innocent Prey is the first full length book that isn't about the various bad things the Brown family is doing, but connected to why the guy called Amy by a different name in Dream of Danger, and yeah, that was a nice change, and shook things up! And yeah, that was nice to have the POV of one of the kidnapped girls! Oh, and Rachel actually has the NFP, which is awesome, love how that's evolved!

And we got a new character, and she fit in quite well, and took a place that needed to be filled, and now not by Mason, so yeah, and while she wasn't really in Obsession, she was in a few scenes, so yeah, that was nice to see!

Obsession, we know who the bad guy is. And they figure it out pretty soon after they figure out there really was a bad guy, because the first 100 or so pages were build up to that point, and yeah, there's a lot going on, so much so that I kinda lost track of the days as they were passing in the book, which happened to in Prey.

I just really enjoyed how it was ended, things were wrapped up quite nicely, and the idea of family, and how together and strong they are, and the fresh start that they have because of the fires, and the new dog, yeah, that was just a great note to (temporary, please be temporary, I want a 5th book!) end on!

Favourite lines from Innocent Prey: "Right. Fun. Like, you now, jury duty. Or a smallpox outbreak. Or seeing murders in your sleep. Fun." I can just hear the sarcasm! "What's to be confused about? She's a pacifist pirate." A weird combo, but OK! "Can't see. Oh well, I smell a squirrel!" That is a very good philosophy! "...I go up and jogged to the  corner, rounding it just in time to see him bean himself on a telephone pole, take a step back trip over Myrtle and land on his ass." That is just hilarious! "You know by the time each of you and everyone else in that dog's life give her 'just one bite' it adds up to a couple of extra meals of food a day." I guess, but Myrtle is just so cute! "What's his name again? James Tiberius?" And the joke just goes over his head, which is too bad that he's not a Star Trek fan! "You, when your game last week ended because your team got so many runs ahead that they had to invoke the mercy rule?" Yeah, that doesn't make sense! "So, Mason, what my niece is asking you is. 'Do you care if a bunch of teenagers throw a party in your house when you're not home?'" You'd think that'd be a no! "What are you talking about? You mean tot ell me that you take too much time saying goodbye to Myrtle every time you have to leave her for more than ten minutes? No! It can't be true! Surely I'd have noticed." Love this! "Mason rolled his eyes and said now that she could climb on the furniture, she'd be too busy trying out a nap on every single piece to get lonely." Yes, must explore the new things! "Stop looking into my eyes, Brown, my boobs are down there." Nice switch on what the looked upon wants the look-ee to look at! "And just like that I knew what to call my extra-sharp intuition. NFP. Not F**king Psychic...ism." That's an awesome name! "She's been keeping up with Josh. It's the best bulldog workout ever." My doggies would love him, then! They sleep almost all day, but they have a lot of energy that the regular short walks, and semi-regular long walks don't use up! "Something like this could push me over into Fluff Bunny Zone." And of course, that would be bad! "Mason said it looked like a Valentine card on crack." But there's nothing really romantic about it! I'd say more rainbow on crack then what Valentine brings to mind! "Oh, hell, how as I supped to hate her now?" You're not! Get used to liking her! "Sorry. I've been neglecting my writing and it's apparently decided to leak out my piehole without permission. Sermon over." I love this a lot! "It occurred to me that kids could easily take over the world. They could hack in and use our own technology against us. Or just decided to stop helping us figure it out to begin with. Either way, we adults would be regulated to a life of servitude and there would be weekly keggers in the White House garden. The only reason this hasn't already happened is that the kids haven't figured it out yet. When they buy a clue, it's gonna suck to be a grown-up." Who says that they/at 20 do I still count, haven't figured it out, and are quietly doing so, or have reasons why not, like that sooner or later, that they'd/we'd be adults and then would enslaved, that some adults know how to work it? "My skills, however, had apparently been bitten by a radioactive spider." Yes. Awesome sauce! "You yelled down at the top of your f**king lungs, Mace. When someone yells down at me like that, I get down." This is very smart, and kinda silly of him to overreact!

Favourite lines from Deadly Obsession: "I know, Inner B***c. I know." Yeah talking to yourself! "Cold water to the face might have been as effective. But  I doubted it." Me, too! "She Whose Quitting Would Result in My Complete and Utter Annihilation." That's a pretty long job title! "Anything, Doc. Anything you say, I promise. Tell me, and I'll do it. To the letter." Wow, he's desperate! "There are pills to make you happy when you're sad, pills to make you chill when you're stressed. Why the hell hadn't anyone invented a pill to make you less likely to assault a person who sorely deserved it?" Yeah, why not? "Yes, dogs smile. Don't question it. It's fact." And it's so cute and nice to see! "Even hearing the word froggy sent her into paroxysms of pleasure." It's nice to have fun! "I wondered if we ate way too much pizza, then decided that was ridiculous, because there was no such thing as too much pizza." No such thing, but there is such a thing as being tired of it after having it too often, which is different! "Don't you f**king move until I tell you to f***king movie. Runt." Ah, what Rachel sees in Myrtle's stares is so much fun! "The bandages looked as if they'd been applied by Joshua. Or maybe Myrtle." When the dog puts on the bandages, things get serious! "I'd been going through some kind of Mason Brown withdrawal." Which sounds bad! "Wow. Who'd have thought that getting my eyesight back would turn out to have been the smallest change in my life over the past year?" Certainly not you! "So, Super Stud, I thought were were supposed to be taking it easy. Why are you...uh, cooking?" That sounds so suggestive, Jere! "Hugo peed. Then Myrtle went and peed right on the same spot." Oh, doggies! "...I had a quick vision of parking behind some bushes until that beyotch left the house, and then stomping on the gas and leaving some tire tracks on her tits. They'd probably pop." Which would be kinda gross! "That's because you were blined by her books. Honestly Mason,, if you can't tell when a woman's gunning for you, you shouldn't call yourself a detective." Yeah, you should be able to tell! "F**k you, Mason Brown. With a cactus." That sounds painful! "...I rolled Myrt's window down for her. so she could gobble up the wind like it was made of pizza." Wouldn't it be nice if it was? "He's even dreamy invisible." That sounds kinda weird! "One of these days my blind bulldog might just at one." And I'd almost feel bad for the froggie, but Myrt's enjoyment would stop me! "It's like there's some kind of protective bubble around us that lets s**t get  bad, but not too bad." Yes, not too bad! "They had me, didn't they, this f**ked-up little bunch of males. They had me as hooked as the ring in Amy's nose. They had me." Aw, so good! "'Mason, did you walk into another burning house?' 'Of course not.' It was an apartment." Yeah, that's such a big difference! "You're staring at the computer like you're trying to melt it with your mental heat ray." Oh, wouldn't it be great to have one of those? "You need to go to school on Senior Skip Day?" Yeah, though I never experienced it myself, but Rachel explains it! "We couldn't be any safer if we had the party at the police station." Though it would certainly be weird!"We can make her wear a bulletproof vest." Somehow, I don't see her liking that!

Yeah, I really enjoyed these books, and they could be the end of the series-or there could be a whole new plot line launching off after them, now that the two Brown parents are dealt with, and Rachel, Mason, Jeremy, and Joshua are a family with the dogs!

Author: Maggie Shayne
Series: Brown and de Luca #3, 4
Read: September 21st, 21st, 2014
Source: NetGalley
Reason Why: Love this series! And they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2014 Books!
Publisher: Mira
Expected Publication: October 1st 2014, November 25th 2014

Innocent Prey:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars

Deadly Obsession:

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars