ARC Review: Enemy Mine by Karin Harlow

Enemy Mine (goodreads.com)

By: Karin Harlow (homepage)

Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages

Expected publication: August 30th 2011 by Pocket Star

ISBN 13: 9781439177877

Source: Author for the purpose of an honest review

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Series: L.O.S.T #2

Stars: 4

Flames: 4

                I have absolutely no clue what so ever how Harlow squeezed so much action into this book. The action is non-stop from the very beginning. There are numerous evil doers in Enemy Mine. The plot twists were shocking. On one page I would think a character had nefarious intentions for a certain reason then a couple of pages later I find out the character I thought could not possibly have an evil bone in their body is an enormous evil, for reasons I would’ve never guessed. I loved the suspense of this book. The book was fast paced, never a dull moment, the pages kept turning, I couldn’t put the book down. The readers learn much more about the Otherworld and its ruling body the Order. The paranormal element is much higher in Enemy Mine.

L.O.S.T.’s newest assignment is to obtain a cask of materials that when it falls into the wrong hands will be used to create a dirty bomb. The team members are ambushed and the cask escapes their grasp. While Nikko is lying on the side of the road dying the female he was sent to jail for killing injects him with something that not only saves his life, it also changes him into a superhuman with super abilities. Now not only does he have to find the missing cask, but he has to find the dead lover that he was sentenced to jail time for killing. The clock is ticking and it is only a matter of time before the cask falls into the wrong hands and a dirty bomb is made…and used.   

Selena has learned that an evil far deadlier than any terrorists wants the cask. She has also found out the majority of the plans that this evil has planned for the cask. Her plans, acquire the cask, turn it over to her employer for safe keeping, and continue ridding the world of the evil Hellkeepers. Her problem, Nikko, he wants answers, a lot of them. Nikko has just recently come into the knowledge that there are more than humans walking this Earth. Nikko is revved up (yes, pun intended) on the serum that Selena injected him with. He wants the cask, he wants her, he wants the information that she can provide him pertaining to the cask and who she works for. Nikko and Selena are electric together. Even though they are past lovers Enemy Mine did not have a rekindle feel to it. Nikko and Selena are very different people now than they were eight years ago. They both have new names, new lives, new careers and very different goals for their futures. I liked seeing the events that unfolded to get them where they needed to be for a functioning couple. They did not have an easy journey to their happily ever after and it makes for a great read.

                My one and only complaint about Enemy Mine, I hated the heroine. There’s a crazy catch there though. Had Selena been written any other way the book would not have been as good as it was. Selena is a woman who has done a very necessary evil to protect something very dear to her. She took this action as a last resort option. Her decisions made for a great story. I still wanted to choke her all the same. She also has a very large ego. Her ego is annoying at times. This only gives the story more action. By the end of the book she will be the character that you love to hate!

                Unlike most series that I read I think this book could be read as a stand-alone without having read Enemy Lover. Both books start with a problem that is tightly closed at the end of each book. The problems do not carry over from one book to the next. Marcus and Jax, the first book’s couple has a supporting role in Enemy Mine, but nothing that would leave one confused about if they did not read the first book. I do recommend reading both books, they are both highly entertaining.

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