A promising start fizzles out into a lackluster family drama.

When Ellie Sullivan, a brilliant surgeon, is jogging around the park across from her hospital, she inadvertently gets caught up in an FBI investigation into two weapons dealers. She sees the criminals shoot an FBI agent, and, even though they were disguised and she wouldn’t be able to identify them, her life is immediately endangered.

All other previous witnesses have disappeared or turned up dead.

FBI agent Max Daniels is immediately attracted to her. When Ellie returns to her hometown and local FBI agents can’t promise her protection, Max takes it upon himself to fly to South Carolina and guard her.

For the most part, the attraction between Max and Ellie is compelling. I loved the opening hundred pages or so, as they fight the instant heat between them, deciding to give in to it, only to have a potential murderer ruin their opportunity.

But then two things kill my compulsion to keep reading. The first is that the suspense falls by the wayside. The second is that a necessary plot twist is revealed to be nothing more than author manipulation, and Ellie is revealed to be annoyingly passive-aggressive.

It all falls apart when Ellie goes back to her hometown, which prompts Max to run to her side as protection.

She hasn't been home in almost two years, and because she was stalked and brutally attacked as a pre-teen, she rarely goes home at all. Her stalker is now on the loose, and she's justifiably terrified of him.

But she goes home for her sister's wedding. Makes sense, right? She'd surely risk her life to be there for her sister's big day (thus giving Max a reason to stay in her life).

But wait. Her sister's marrying Ellie's former fiancé. And once Ellie gets home, she refuses to be in the wedding, and even says it will be hard enough to make herself go at all.

So why go home? That was the point where I started feeling manipulated. Generally I understand I'm being manipulated by novels, but as long as the author doesn't make it obvious, I'm happy. Once I see the puppet strings glinting under the stage lights, the magic disappears, and it's damn difficult to get the magic back.

The focus of the story shifts from being about Ellie as a witness and stalking victim to Ellie as a sister and daughter. Unfortunately, her relationship with her family is so frustrating that at points I struggled to keep reading.

Two years ago, when she brought her fiancé home to meet her parents and sister, Ellie’s sister Ava slept with him. There are several paragraphs describing such a bizarre family situation that I couldn't help but find Ellie lacking for being spineless – and I instantly hated her parents.

Their mother didn't know what to do about the situation. After pacing about the house for several hours, she made the decision to never ever discuss the unpleasant event. Their father didn't want to be put in the position of having to take sides, so he decided to let his daughters work it out between them. He had a long talk with Ava and then let it go.

Ellie felt devastated and hurt, but by the time she was back and settled in her apartment again, she had forgiven her parents for not throwing Ava out of the house. Once she'd calmed down, Ellie realized it was wrong of her to expect them to choose one daughter over another.

What? One of your daughters sleeps with the other one's fiancé within hours of meeting him, and censuring her would be choosing a daughter over the other? Seriously?

The novel goes on for several pages after that, telling us all of Ellie's backstory, then talks about how she feels about going home again to watch her sister marry Ellie's former fiancé:

After the debacle of her last visit, she didn't know what she would be facing. Would they expect her to be cheerful and excited to be celebrating the happiest day of her sister's life?

Finding your fiancé in bed with your sister is a debacle? Goodness, Ellie. I'm finding it quite tricky to understand where you're coming from.

But then she goes home for the wedding and becomes really sarky, all while refusing to discuss what happened with her family. I'm not enamored of passive-aggressive heroines. She seems sadly weak when it comes to her family.

If she didn’t come home to take part in her sister’s wedding, why did she? She says it’s because her mother pressured her to, but I couldn’t help but feel it had more to do with being a convenient plot twist and a way to keep Max in Ellie’s life.

Throughout the novel, Max becomes sexier and more adorable. The way his character transforms from a slightly seedy man ("I like women, Ellie, and the women I take to bed know there isn't going to be a long-term anything.") to a committed, passionate partner is fantastic. I just wish the bulk of the story had lived up to his character.

~ Katrina