Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Just One Touch: Slow Burn #5 by Maya Banks



A suspenseful and sizzling story of a young woman who 
escapes a terrifying past… into a more uncertain future.



JUST ONE TOUCH
Slow Burn #5
Maya Banks
Released May 9, 2017
Avon Books


Multiple #1 New York Times bestselling author Maya Banks continues her Slow Burn series with a suspenseful and sizzling story of a young woman who escapes a terrifying past… into a more uncertain future.

Raised in a strict religious cult since she was a young girl, Jenna has no connection to the outside world beyond vague flashes of memory that seem to be from another life. Memories she clings to when the cult leaders discover her extraordinary ability to heal-and punish her. Years held captive and forced to do the cult's bidding have turned Jenna into a meek, timid woman…or so they think. In truth, she is merely biding her time, waiting for the perfect moment to escape.

When a terrified young woman tries to steal the SUV of Devereaux Security's toughest recruit, Isaac's anger quickly turns into a strange sort of protectiveness for the beautiful, bruised stranger. But when they are caught in a firestorm of bullets and Isaac is hit, he's sure the end is near, until Jenna touches him and closes his wounds. As he tries to bring Jenna to safety, she refuses to tell him what danger haunts her or how she healed him, but Isaac vows to do whatever it takes to gain her trust…and her heart. Because with just one touch, Isaac knows he wants Jenna to be his--forever.


Review:

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Just one touch is the newest addition to the Slow burn series by Maya Banks. For those who are not familiar with the series, it's a mix of suspense and paranormal. This is the second book in the series, I had the chance to read and I still cannot grasp my mind around the paranormal element of the books. This is Issac's story and I am hoping the female Deveraux will be the heroine of the next story. Issac's lady is Jane and I liked her character. It saddens me to say this, but I don't feel like Jane was given a lot of attention which is weird considering that she is the heroine and main character of the book. The chapters told from her point of view are a few and they don't alternate with Isaac's as it happens in almost every book with a dual point of view. I wanted to view the world from Jane's eyes because for 20 years she was living in a cult and she wasn't familiar with the world as we know it. I wanted to see her blossom and overcome her fears as well as abandoning the things those vile people made her believe were normal.

The lack of Jane's point of view was one of the two things that bothered me when I was reading the book. The second is that no matter how much Isaac thought that he should protect Jane and how precious she was he kept missing vital moments and was running afterwards to fix everything. I won't go into details because I will give too much away, but he made that mistake 3-4 times in this book and I couldn't helo but wonder if he was ever going to learn from his mistakes.He was trying though and I couldn't be mad at him. 

I wasn't bothered with the insta lust or the I love yous that were said a little too fast. I wouldn't have liked to see Jane and Isaac spend more quite time together and building that relationship though. Jane is practically like a little kid with no knowledge of many things we take for granted and I would have liked to see her explore the world. The secondary characters were excellent and I promised to myself I will read one day the story that are already published and keep an eye for those who have yet to be released. The story had a good pace and I cannot say that I got bored while reading the book which is something that tends to happen when I read books with more than 300 pages these days. I got used to shorter books, but this one was a good read and I had a very pleasant time reading it. Would I recommend the book? Yes, I would.

Excerpt:

Isaac lay quietly in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, his thoughts consumed by the blue-eyed angel in the next room.

Would she be able to sleep? And if she was, did nightmares plague her dreams?

What was it about her that called to a part of his heart and soul that had never been breached before? He could come up with plenty of reasonable explanations, like the fact that she’d saved his life. Or that he’d made it his life’s work to protect the innocent. Or the fact that she was lost in a world of which she had little understanding or knowledge. Or the fact that she needed him.

But the simple truth was that he needed her every bit as much as she needed him, and he couldn’t come up with a reason that made any sense to him.

He’d come across plenty of victimized women who’d desperately needed help, his protection, DSS’s protection, but never had he been even remotely possessive of them. He’d done his job, and it never failed to enrage him and rile his protective instincts.

It was who and what he was; he’d never be a man to stand idly by while a woman was in danger or being abused.

But his angel wasn’t just any victim. She wasn’t just any woman in trouble and in need of protecting. And he had no idea what to do with that realization. He couldn’t even call it a realization, as if he’d just been struck by an epiphany as he lay there with no hope of sleeping. He’d known it from the moment she’d touched him, laid her hands on him, and he’d felt her in the very depths of his soul.

It wasn’t sexual—wholly—because he’d be a damn liar if he didn’t want her with every breath in his body. It was spiritual, and he felt like some hokey fool mooning over things like destiny and fate, but how could he call it anything else when from the moment she’d touched him he’d felt a connection that transcended any physical want or need?

And he was consumed with guilt for having sexual thoughts, lustful, needful thoughts, about a woman child whom he didn’t even know whether she was of an age for him to be having such thoughts about her. She had the innocence of a girl with the body of a desirable woman. Hell, it was obvious that no matter how many years she’d lived in this world, she’d spent the majority of them sheltered, sequestered from the real world. She was either enraptured with or terrified of things that he and others took for granted.

She’d been conditioned.

He frowned. It appeared that at a very early age she’d been indoctrinated. Brainwashed. Taught an alternate reality that was twisted to fit the agenda of the people who’d kept her under lock and key, and they’d proven they would go to extreme measures to retrieve her. She was a valuable asset to them. Irreplaceable.

He wondered when her powers had manifested themselves and as he pondered that question, he wondered if it was what had saved her from a far worse fate. Even the dumbest fucks would realize the enormity of what they possessed in Jenna.

He rolled over to retrieve his cell and punched in Eliza’s number, knowing it was late and that Sterling likely wouldn’t be pleased, but Eliza of all people would understand his suspicions. He needed to bounce some ideas off her.

“This better be damn good,” Eliza growled into the phone.

“Because I was about to be the recipient of the mother of all orgasms, and Wade is just pissed enough to throw my phone in the pool and withhold sex for a week.”

Isaac burst out laughing when he heard Sterling in the background.

“Jesus fuck, woman, can we keep our sex life and your goddamn job separate?”



Maya Banks is a multiple #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author whose chart toppers have included erotic romance, romantic suspense, contemporary romance, Scottish historical romances. She is the author of the Breathless Trilogy, the Surrender Trilogy, the KGI novels, the Sweet series, and the Colters Legacy novels. She lives in Southeast Texas.

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