This story was similar to Beg for Mercy and Hide from Evil. The story of Talia and Jack is about loss, obsession, and murder. The serial killer is the copycat of the killer from Beg for Mercy, but is out to prove he is better by finally killing Talia Vega. His intense desire for perfection in his attempt at finishing the work of the original is his undoing. There was a balance between romance, sensuality, and suspense. A good story for a Sunday afternoon. ( )

Dead Wrong Book 3

Run from Fear
2 Stars

After escaping the clutches of a madman, Talia Vega is finally rebuilding her life, and the last thing she wants is a reminder of her past in the form of Jack Brooks, the man who rescued her. Jack has never been able to forget Talia and feels compelled to protect her, especially when someone from the past resurfaces to threaten everything that Talia holds dear.

The first two books in this series are very entertaining. Unfortunately, this one is a dud as neither the hero nor the heroine manage to evoke any sympathy and the suspense plot has too many disconnected threads.

Talia is a problematic heroine. On the one hand, her troubling past is, to a large extent, the result of her own naïveté and bad choices (some of which had detrimental effects on others), but on the other, she is also a victim of the machinations of a manipulative and charismatic man. Regardless, she comes across as weak-willed and her hot/cold reactions to Jack are off-putting.

Jack’s propensity toward overstepping his bounds and controlling situations does not make for an appealing hero either. In fact, his behavior is borderline obsessive and stalkerish.

Aside from weak romance, the suspense plot is far too convoluted. The story would have been better served with one more simple yet better developed plot rather than the more complex twists that really don’t go anywhere. Moreover, the villain has potential as a real threat, but his psychological makeup is inconsistent with his criminal acts.

The secondary characters do little to improve the situation as Talia’s sister, Rosie, comes across as a spoiled brat and her alleged friend Susie is exceedingly manipulative. One additional problem is the numerous references to characters from an earlier series that do not appear in any of the earlier books in this series. The only possible conclusion is that the author is shamelessly plugging her other series.

All in all, a huge disappointment. ( )

Talia Vega went through hell in the first two books of this series. We also saw the many faces Talia had to put on to survive throughout those books. Here we get to see her in a new light but very damaged from the entire past trauma she has been through.

Her sister Rosario now goes to school at Stanford and has adjusted well.

Jack has never been far from Talia even though he hasn’t let her know he has been keeping an eye on her and helping her behind the scenes for the past 2 years. He has been in love with Talia since he first met her 2 1/2 years ago but knows Talia probably can’t love him back.

The biggest shock of this book for me was the Security Company Jack works for Gemini Securities and the men that work there. They had their own series before this one. They were all predominantly throughout this book and their wives and children. So now I am going to have to go back and read their stories.

This was the weakest of the three books but I am glad and Talia and Jack got here HEA they both deserved it.
( )

his is the first novel I’ve read by this author. While it won’t be the last, I was slightly underwhelmed. I did not realize this was part of a series but soon got that impression due to the way the author wrote about the secondary characters.

The premise of the story seemed a good one but the romantic part of the suspense seemed forced and rushed. The suspenseful section of the novel was very well written, however, it was somewhat predictable. I did enjoy Ms Alden’s sense of humor in some of her passages. The heroine is spunky at times and then reverts to a damsel in distress persona.

See the rest of my review here: http://www.justtalkingbooks.com/1/post/2013/10/review-run-from-feardead-wrong-3-... ( )