I want to give this 5 stars because it was everything I love: danger, non-stop action, excellent pacing, people in peril with their true love desperate to find them, interesting characters, sweet MCs, complexity, twists, and one of the MCs calls in the FBI as soon as he has any real evidence rather than trying to go it alone, despite risk to himself, etc. But there were a lot of things wrong that bugged me:The timeline was completely off. Someone knew about something for a couple of years but then someone else let that person know about it just before the even that was less than a year ago. Things like that. I think this kind of thing is critical for a mystery thriller.
Someone goes unconscious and is taken to an emergency room by ambulance. They've regained consciousness by then but are put in the waiting room? Um, no. They would be taken to a room right away. Anyone brought in by ambulance is, at least here in Seattle where the book takes place. Our emergency response is second to none according to Time Magazine (I think that was the latest report of such things). No way would a person with a potential head injury be left to his own devices. Can you say lawsuit?
There is no traffic light where second runs into fourth: the streets merge. Since this light is critical to the story, it's irritating. Plus, the character takes the fourth avenue exit to get to Safeco field. That is beyond ridiculous, way too far away. Fourth Avenue goes the entire length of downtown and that exit is near the north end whereas Safeco field is south of downtown in the Sodo.
This isn't a big deal to most people but it's a big pet peeve of mine: "If you think blah blah, you've got another think coming." It's "think," people, not "thing." "If you think this, then you need to think again because you're an idiot," is what it's basically saying.
One time one character has been beaten within an inch of his life and the other character doesn't even comment.
There are some changes of POV in the middle of scenes. It doesn't happen a lot, and I knew who was thinking, but it's still jarring and I hate it.
This one I don't know but it sounds suspicious: a private plane can often take off when commercial planes are grounded due to weather. I would think it would be the other way around.
Don't look at the cover, it's got a big spoiler. That's all I'm saying.
One major plot hole is that the reason the bad guy did this is so that (big spoiler)he would get custody of Brianna and then have the diamond. But how would the box get opened without Chris? And anything of Chris's would go to Brianna, not her foster/adoptive parent. And despite who anyone thinks the girl would go to, no matter what pieces of paper, the powers that be would still try to find the mother. There are no guarantees if things are done legally. If they aren't, then why this convoluted act?.
Another big spoiler that bugged me (that probably won't bug most people) is that the little girl recognizes her dad right away and feels safe with him. She's three and hasn't seen him in 10 months. Children's memories are swiss cheese at that age. she probably would recognize him sort of, but she would think of where she had been kept as her home. She would be terrified and traumatized and not want to go with him. If the author had made her a little older, 3.5-4, it would have worked, but she was just too young.
But the biggest problem with the whole thing is that the plot doesn't really make sense. Rather, it doesn't make sense why someone would do this convoluted thing rather than just (big spoiler) murder Chris and make it look like a suicide? Or make Chris open the box when he's really young and convince him it's just a sentimental rock and steal it from him? Even at the end the plan to finally dispose of him still would look terribly suspicious.
There's instalove, which might bother some people, but not me, but at the end, the forced break was completely unnecessary and way too long. No reason for the HEA not to happen immediately, certainly not a good enough reason given.
So all these annoyances make me think 2.5-3 stars, especially since the biggest issues are plot holes. But...I really enjoyed it. So, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 because it's one the only M/M romance thrillers that was actually thrilling with lots of action.