Renee's Book Addiction

Crash Into Me by Jill Sorenson

I don’t read a lot of romantic suspense, but I had my eye on this one for a while. For one thing, I love the setting, and am a little bit familiar with the La Jolla area. (I live about 2 hours away.) Secondly, author Jill Sorenson is a active participant in many blogs, which made me want to check her book out. Also, Carolyn Crane did an excellent Moments In Last Nights Reading post about Crash Into Me at Thrillionth Page. The last thing is that I kept picturing a Tony Hawk-type for Ben Fortune, and I have a wee secret crush on Tony Hawk.

Here is a book description

Ben Fortune may have gone into virtual seclusion after his wife’s murder, but he was still the world’s most famous surfer, known as much for his good looks as for his skill on the board. He’s also a suspect in a series of brutal murders. FBI Special Agent Sonora “Sonny” Vasquez has been sent undercover to the elite beach community of La Jolla to make friends with Fortune. With her fierce beauty and take-no-prisoners attitude, she’s more than equipped for the job. But all too soon she and Ben have collided in an affair that is both intense and irresistible. Could this sensual, wounded man really be a killer? And could falling in love blind Sonny to the greatest danger of all?

Surfer Ben Fortune is a big part of her inability to remain objective. I loved how he was very straightforward in his pursuit of “Summer” (Sonny’s cover identity,) oozing sexual heat. But, he was much more than a skirt-chasing surf bum. He’s still recovering from his wife’s murder, which occurred 3 years previously. He’s made many changes to the drugging, boozing, and partying life-style. He’s raising his teen-age daughter, as well, and boy does he have his hands full with her!

Something interesting about Crash Into Me is that it’s 3rd person perspective follows not only Sonny and Ben, but also Ben’s daughter, Carly and her boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks, James. Usually, with a romance, I tend to get impatient when the perspective follows characters other than the hero and heroine. However, in this case it really worked, with Carly’s and James’ stories (individual and joint) very absorbing.

The only weak parts in the story for me was a bit of confusion when one of the minor (but important) characters sort of dropped out of the story, and no one seemed to notice for a few days. At the time, I thought I’d missed something, but when I went back and checked, she really did sort of disappear. It was explained later why no one noticed that she was missing, but it had really distracted me at that earlier point in the book. Also, the perspective of the killer was sort of a weak point for me, with his motivations and fixation on a main character somewhat murky to me.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed Crash Into Me. Sonny was a strong heroine that was believable. Not a superwoman. Her history, and discovery about her family made her really interesting to me. I would have loved to continue to read what happened with her relationship with them. The romance between Sonny and Ben was also enjoyable (and hot!) and the climax with the serial killer was very exciting and suspenseful.

I can always tell that I really I enjoyed a story when, upon finishing the book,  I immediately start to look up the next book (or backlist) by the author. When I finished Crash Into Me, I hied myself to Jill Sorenson’s site, and saw that her next book, Set the Dark on Fire will be released August 25, 2009. I’ll be looking forward to it!

• Jill Sorenson’s site.
• Excerpt for Crash Into Me.