Taking Chase by Lauren Dane (Chase Brothers #2) © 2006 Samhain Publishing. ISBN 9781599983011. eBook. Romantic Suspense. 245 pages. $5.50 US [ Purchase ] Source: My Bookstore and More Purchase

Synopsis: Cassie Gambol is on the run. In what seems like another lifetime, her ex-husband nearly ended her life and effectively ended her successful career as a vascular surgeon. But even though the justice system found him guilty of attempted murder, he fled while awaiting sentencing and Carly Sunderland became Cassie Gambol.

Shane Chase, a man who’s held himself away from commitment since his fiancée dumped him several years before, knows the beautiful newcomer is hiding something. He’s wildly attracted to her strength and her underlying vulnerability as well.

And now, Cassie’s ex is back and he wants her dead.

Review: This review was a bit hard to write.  The book has so much to recommend it and yet…and yet….

Let me start with the good stuff.  If an author wants to tackle domestic abuse then this is the way to do it.  The author obviously did her homework well.  She gave us a heroine who most people would not think of as a possible victim of domestic abuse. She is a well to do surgeon with money that her father had left her, and her ex-husband was a doctor too.  This makes the good point that domestic abuse is not about class, religion or race, it’s about sick people doing sick things. 

The author also shows us the emotions of the victim in their entirety, she is ashamed that she stayed so long in such an abusive relationship, embarrassed that it could have happened to her, and the author makes a point of telling us about the heroine’s self-esteem issues.  She also tells us about how the victim was able to go into victim advocacy and change her name and social security number, and how she needs to go to therapy; are all good points to make.  Also, the author talks a little about how the justice system can sometimes let down domestic abuse victims, either through not convicting the attacker or through loosing him somehow.

Here is what bothered me. All the characters in the novel were three-dimensional—all that is, except the hero. He just did not do anything for me. He is supposed to be this guy who got hurt by his fiancée and afterward decided to just date women and leave them if he thought that his feelings might become involved, and yet he went from suspicious guy to guy in love in three seconds flat.

Even when there was a chance to show his distrust of women, it was a two minute scene, which if it was not in the novel, nothing would have changed with the story.  Another thing that bothered me was if the heroine had gone to all the trouble of changing her name and social security number and moved to small town America, why call her brother everyday, and why keep a phone that he got her in his name?  That to me just says “come and get me, I’m right here.”

I guess I shouldn’t be too picky in a romance?  Sorry I kinda am….

I’m giving this one 3 stars out of 5.