He might be innocent. Or he might be very, very guilty… Olympic skier Lock Roane was on top of the world: smashing world records, collecting medals, and basking in the love of a nation and his beautiful heiress girlfriend. It all comes crashing down after Lock discovers his girlfriend had an affair – then wakes from a drunken bender to find himself covered in her blood. Disgraced and dethroned, … blood. Disgraced and dethroned, Lock awaits his murder trial with dread, not knowing if his girlfriend died at his own hands.
Journalist Jordan Sinclair is out of options. To satisfy her blackmailer, she must get the inside scoop (and its cash reward) on Lock Roane. An attraction to the arrogant athlete was not part of the plan. Neither is trying to find out what really happened that night. Now Jordan risks everything – including her life – to help the man she’s falling for. A man who just might be a cold-blooded killer…
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Cheese and monkeys this book is intense! A piece of advice: when you read this make sure you have no other plans for the day because you won’t want to put it down. Both Jordan and Lock have an immediate attraction to one another, but they also carry a heavy load of baggage from their respective pasts. Lock is only a week away from being tried for the murder of his girlfriend, which he can’t say with absolute certainty he didn’t commit. Jordan, on the other hand, is on the run from her abusive father, and is on a deadline to collect a reward for interviewing Lock so she can pay off her dad to leave her and her mother alone.
Needless to say, they both have baggage, and their budding attraction for one another couldn’t have come at a more inconvenient time. However! Something I absolutely loved about this book was that they both admitted how ridiculous it was that they were thinking about getting each other naked when they had much more pressing issues going on. Their admission to the poor timing almost made it seem more realistic, not to mention romantic because they simply couldn’t deny their inner feelings.
For the majority of the novel, Jordan and Lock are trapped together in a small cabin with a roaring fire, and a snow storm just outside. I can’t really think of a better setting for complete and total seduction! Of course, you can’t help but feel sorry for Lock’s poor brother Leo, who is also stuck in the cabin with them, and is the official third wheel of the novel. The sexual tension between Jordan and Lock continues to intensify as the story goes on, as they are constantly interrupted whenever they try to do the dirty. I usually don’t like when a romance novel prolongs the arrival of the sex scene, but in this case it just worked by adding to the overall intensity of the book. Rest assured though, once we do finally get around to the good stuff, it is described in slow and delicious detail. Not at all disappointing, and well worth the wait!
Don’t worry, I won’t spoil anything! I will tell you I thought I had the whole mystery figured out right away in the first chapter. But as the story moved on I think I questioned who dunnit about 50 times, and probably suspected just about every main character at some point for committing the murder. I will say though I thought the big reveal was a tad disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it was extremely interesting, and an emotional scenario, but it was also kind of unrealistic. It was one of those, “Oh, let me tell you everything about the murder in exact detail so the cops can stop for a doughnut and still get here on time”, kind of situations.
Amazing book. The debut novel for Ms. Andre.
I couldn’t put it down.
It’s a must read.
Lock is a bit of a badass. He kills it everywhere: on the slopes, with his friends and admirers, with the ladies … But then he killed it a bit too much and now he’s on the hook for knocking off his wealthy girlfriend. Lock thought that his life was over. At least until Jordan crashes into his life and turns his world upside down. Lock doesn’t know whether he is guilty or innocent and now, he isn’t the only one wondering.
If I’m not mistaken, this is the first novel by Sarah Andre. And holy cannoli, it’s a doozy. With new authors, you never really know what to expect and man, I have been burned by some new authors. But fortunately for me, this one was absolutely amazing. Right off the bat, you’re sucked into Lock’s world and you are left questioning his innocence, right along with him. But that really took a backseat for me at first. I wasn’t worried about whether he had done it or not because I was completely entranced with how Sarah Andre wove her story.
The characters are so well written that I felt like I knew them pretty well before I was even a handful of pages into the book. I found myself getting wrapped up in the story and it read like a movie. You know what I’m talking about. It was like the book was playing out in my head. That makes me sound like a crazy person, I know. But that is what I yearn for when I read a book. I want it to seem so realistic that I can picture it happening and that is exactly what L3 did for me. I’m just going to call it L3 because Locked, Loaded & Lying is a lot of commas and L’s. Anyhow … the characters were realistic and I had feelings about all of the characters. I didn’t think that any of them were inconsequential or wastes of space … everyone played a very important role.
Usually I go into the plot and how I either liked or hated it but I’m not going to do that because this would turn into a monologue of me waxing poetic about this book for eons. The bottom line is that I loved it. Sarah Andre is on my list of favorite authors and I suspect that she’ll be there for a very long time. If you haven’t had the chance to pick this one up, you need to. Especially right now in this summer heat … the chilly world that Lock and Jordan occupy will cool you off while you sweat it out next to the pool. Now I want to go read it again.
* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *
I really enjoyed this book! I’m a fan of romantic suspense books, and this one really pulled me in quickly!
Lock Roane used to live the high life! He was a super star skiier, dated a gorgeous heiress and pretty much did whatever he wanted. But these days, “Lock and Loaded” was hiding out in the mountains awaiting his trial for the murder of his girlfriend. He’s pretty sure he didn’t do it, but…
Jordan Sinclair is a journalist on the hunt for Roane. She has a whole lot of secrets of her own. She offers to help clear Roane’s name, but is she really helping him or just looking for a story?
And, if Roane didn’t murder his girlfriend, then who did?
You’ll enjoy this fast-paced, clever story! Andre is great at building suspense and creating great chemistry and tension between Lock and Jordan.
I bought this book at an author event, and Andre’s goal is to keep you up reading all night. She succeeded!!