Naked Edge (I-Team #4) by Pamela Clare

Summary:

What do you do when desire drives you to the very brink?
The day Navajo journalist Katherine James met Gabriel Rossiter, the earth literally moved beneath her feet. Nearly killed in a rockslide while hiking, she found her life in the tall park ranger's hands. Although she can't forget him she thinks she'll never see him again. She is crushed when she recognizes her rescuer among the law enforcement officers raiding a sweat lodge ceremony one night, throwing her and her friends off Mesa Butte, land they consider sacred.

Gabe long ago swore he would never again lose himself to a woman not even one with long dark hair and big eyes that seem to see right through him. But from the moment he first sees Kat, the attraction he feels is undeniable. Appalled by what he has been ordered to do, he's determined to get to the bottom of recent events at Mesa Butte and to keep Kat safe.

But asking questions can be dangerous almost as dangerous as risking one's heart. And soon Kat and Gabe's passion for the truth and each other makes them targets for those who would do anything, even kill, to keep Native Americans off their sacred land.
Summary & Cover taken from Goodreads.com
Length: 361 pages (Mass Market Paperback)
Source: Toronto Public Library
Available Formats: Print/E-book/Audio
Publication Date: March 2nd 2010 by Berkley Sensation

Back in November the marvelous Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup featured a quote on her weekly meme Quote-Tastic Monday from Naked Edge that had me curious about the series so after putting the book on hold and waiting to read it, I was able to get to it in December and I absolutely loved it so really I have Anna to thank for my discovery of this gem of a book.

I used to really enjoy romantic suspense back in high school, but since I've graduated, lived a bit and discovered the wonderful community of book lovers that is known as Goodreads not to mention the book blogging world I've neglected the genre a lot and sometimes manage only a handful of RS reads a year.

Naked Edge though, reminded me exactly what I was missing. Pamela Clare wrote a fantastic romantic suspense novel that I would have to say is my most favourite read in this genre to day. Kat and Gabe were fantastic characters on their own and were a fantastic couple to read about.

I'm always up for reading a book where the hero is in law enforcement, be it a city police officer or in this case, a park ranger who just happens to rescue our heroine on more than one occasion. I really liked how the beginning of the book started with Gabe rescuing Kat and then later on finding her and rescuing her again. There's nothing like a hero that really does rescue a heroine in a non cheesy way.

I liked Kat a lot. She's a strong Navajo woman trying to find her place in the world while trying to bring the issues that face the environment as well as Native American peoples to light while working as a hard hitting journalist. She was smart, funny, witty and honest in her affections for the people she cared about. She was just such a warm character I couldn't help but like her. Her passion for trying to do the right thing gave her a lot more substance and so did her spunk when it came to putting up with Gabe and his macho crap sometimes.

Gabe, lordy this man was all that AND a bag of chips. He had an awesome sense of humour and I laughed quite a bit when the we got to see things through his point of view. He also had that whole alpha male thing goin' on but I found that he was a lot less abrasive then a lot of alpha male characters. He was more subtle about it and less in your face. He liked that Kat had a mind of her own and he liked that she offered him a challenge.

Together though is when both of these characters really shined. The way that they were written was very well done and they played off each other easily. There was give and take and both characters had a lot of baggage that they brought to the table and the biggest thing was Kat's virginity and Gabe's reluctance to be the one to finally...you know and boy can Pamela Clare write her love scenes. Talk about steamy and sensual. I loved it.

The whole suspense element was also very well flushed out. It wasn't a side thing that was added in, it was written in a way that the suspense and the romance were equally as important and neither one nor the other took precedence. I enjoyed learning more about the Native American cultures that were talked about in the book due to the grave robbing that was taking pace and was pleasantly surprised that Naked Edge packed a wallop when it came to action. When action was needed, we got it and we got it in a way that wasn't outrageous and that showcased the characters well.

Overall, I really loved this book. I couldn't get enough of Gabe and Kat and since this was my time reading Pamela Clare I can honestly say that I can't wait for my hold of the first book in this series to come in at the library. I would recommend this one to all fans of romantic suspense who want a novel that is equally as heavy on the romance front as it is on the suspense front. While this was the fourth book in Clare's I-Team series I had no problems reading it as a standalone. If you're in the mood for great characters with excellent chemistry try this one out immediately.

Loved it!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 

 

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