(AUDIO) BOOKS

The Cop And The Reporter Risk Their Sugar-Sweet Love

Book review: Perilous Obsession by Carsen Taite

When I commented on an article on Medium (sorry, I can’t remember which one, otherwise I would’ve linked it), the author of said article recommended the book Perilous Obsession by Geoffrey M. Cooper.

I bet you glanced back at the subtitle and thought I made a mistake with the name of the author, right?

Nope!

I love medical thrillers and really wanted to read that book, but where I could find the title, it was by a different author, so a different story. I liked the blurb, so settled for the book by Carsen Taite.

Who is Carsen Taite, the author?

There is very little information to be found about Carsen Taite. In fact, the only thing I could find on several sites, including on the author’s own website:

Carsen Taite’s goal as an author is to spin plot lines as interesting as the cases she encountered in her career as a criminal defense lawyer. She is the award-winning author of a dozen novels and numerous short stories.

This author has written lots of books, the first published in 2009.

Crime & Defense books: It Should Be a Crime (2009) and The Best Defense (2011).

Courting Danger books: Trial by Fire (2021) and Trial and Error (2022).

Legal Affairs books: Practice Makes Perfect (2019) and Out of Practice (2020).

Lone Star Law books: Lay Down the Law (2015), Above the Law (2016), Letter of the Law (2017) and Outside the Law (2018).

Luca Bennett Bounty Hunter books: Slingshot (2012), Battle Axe (2013), Switchblade (2014) and Bow and Arrow (2018).

Standalone novels: Truelesbianlove.com (2008), Do Not Disturb (2010), Nothing but the Truth (2011), Innocence (2012), Rush (2013), Courtship (2014), Reasonable Doubt (2015), Without Justice (2016), Sidebar (2017), A More Perfect Union (2017), Love’s Verdict (2018), Pursuit of Happiness (2018), Leading the Witness (2019), Drawn (2020), Best Practice (2020), Spirit of the Law (2021), Her Consigliere (2021) and Perilous Obsession (2022).

Sweetness in the plot

The book started off with a murder, and it mentioned murders of ten years earlier. Somehow — even though on Audible it clearly said this book is romance — my mind wanted it to be a detective.

But this book really IS a romance.

Beck Ramsey is a police officer who gets her detective badge, but because of her testifying against her partner, they temporarily station her with the cold case team, a place where detectives go when the force punishes them.

Macy Moran is a reporter whose best friend got murdered ten years earlier, and now with the new murder, she believes the same killer is active again, even though some details at the crime scene differ.

But the murders are not the main plot of the book.

No, the budding love affair between Beck and Macy is. It’s sweet — sometimes almost too sweet — and there’s a sex scene which goes on and on and had me wanting for them to get back to investigating the murders.

Obviously, the two of them combine forces to investigate the murders, and you just know something will go wrong. And it does. And then you know what will happen next to get back together again. Yes, some of the book is too predictable.

Where I enjoyed the book, I would have wanted the crime investigation to have been stronger, and the love affair less sweet. I actually regret spending a credit on this book.

Just my two cents…

🦋 About Me | 📨 Subscribe | 📚 Stories | 🔄️ Membership | 🦜 Twitter