After reading enough “erotic” novels to need a mental cleansing, I decided I wanted to read something light and funny. Don’t think I only read erotic novels, I have a wide range of reading left in my TBR, although most it seems that there are a lot of paranormal novels on the list (could that be because the genre is “hot” now. I love to read about vampires, werewolves, dragons, etc.). It just seems that I’ve reviewed stories that have a lot of erotic notes to them. I did the reviews because I was excited about the books and I felt the need to give my thoughts. Also, so many people were going on and on about the fan fiction written by E.L. James like it was the very first novel of its kind and now everyone is running around buying books in the genre and comparing them to E.L. James like she was the first erotic author ever. I think I just started ranting…did I start ranting? No ranting…I apologize guys. I’ve digressed.

So, I read a couple of novels by Dakota Cassidy (part of The Accidental Friends series), these gave me a laugh when I really needed it and I have now gone on to detective stories. Now, I am not a huge fan of mysteries anymore. I read them a lot in my late teens and early twenties (I actually read Silence of the Lambs and Jurassic Park as well as most of the Mary Higgins Clarke and most of the John Grisham novels up till The Client), but I don’t read them much anymore. There is one exception to that…the JD Robb ..in Death series. JD Robb is the pseudonym for Nora Roberts and it is only used for the ..in Death books.

The main character of the series is Lieutenant Eve Dallas who is a homicide detective for NYPSD (New York Police and Security Department) in the mid-21^st century. There are very human-like droids, flying cars, lots of interplanetary travel and living, and all kinds of technological advanced gadgets. Eve Dallas was found in an alley in Dallas bleeding, beaten with broken bones and without memory of her circumstances when she was eight. Social Services named her Eve after the first woman on earth and Dallas for the location where she was found. When the series begins Eve is very much a loner with the exception of her very close friend, Mavis. As the series progresses Eve acquires more friends, a husband in the form of multi-billionaire, Roarke (who was a suspect in the first book), a fat cat, Gallahan, the butler – Sumerset, whom she inherited when she married Roarke and is also her verbal sparring partner, and a gaggle of acquired friends that she never meant to have, but now doesn’t know what she would do without them (although she would reluctantly tell them so). The best thing about this series is the mystery and the characters. There are a total of 45 novels in the series eight of which are actually novellas. They always pick up within a week, sometimes days of the last book. I just finished New York to Dallas. This is one of the first full books that did not end with in Death. This book had been out for quite a while – the in Death books come out twice a year in February and September and this book came out in September 2011. Why did it take me so long to read a book that is part of a series that I love so much you ask?

I took some time away from the series because I knew this book would have a lot of information about Eve’s past that had the potential to take me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. It did not disappoint. I had started this book once before last summer but had to put it down after the first 20 pages because it began so intense and I found I didn’t want that intensity at the time. This time I set out to soldier through it all. I have said numerous times that I don’t give spoilers, but I think I can give this tidbit without giving the story away. Eve had to go to Dallas to apprehend a suspect who had escaped from prison. This “person” was a pedophile, murderer, and rapist and he had fled to Dallas hoping to trip up Eve because he knew that she was originally from Dallas and she had a very rocky start there. The emotional ride came when Eve had to deal with the memories of her mother. From previous books, we know that Eve’s father was a sick person who abused her until she killed him (in self-defense) when she was eight. We had never known anything about her mother. In this book we learn more about who she was.

The thing about these books are that you really fall in love with Eve and her kick-ass approach to her job and life, but also the vulnerability that comes out when you least expect it. In this book I knew I was going to see major vulnerability, I just didn’t know how it would affect me. Along with Eve’s vulnerability came Roarke’s awesome compassion, understanding and his need to protect. Even when he wanted to help, he knew he had to allow her to deal with some of it her own way. Only when he saw the cracks in the façade she held for everyone else did he step forward and bring in the reinforcements that she needed even when she didn’t know she needed it. Can you love a hero more?

I probably shouldn’t have reviewed this book being that it is the 33^rd book in the series, but I ask you not to think of it as a review (because I really didn’t review the book), but as a recommendation. I’m recommended the in Death series to everyone. The series is so good my good friend and I have said on many occasions that we should petition HBO, FX, or some other cable network to make it into a television series. But then we (fans that I know) inevitably begin to argue about who would be best suited to play the characters.   

So go out and get them folks…start reading it today and let me know what you think. 

P.S. I will also be posting this on my book clubs website.  If you are seeing this post there, come over and check me out at Red Oven Creations, I’d love for you to join me.