City Under Siege – 3.5 Stars

There is nothing quite like the first book by a new author in my opinion. There’s a little angst in wondering if you’ll find a new favorite. Alternatively, you might find something that puts you off the book or author completely. For me, I go into new author’s with slightly lower standards then I hold for those that I have read previously. (Usually anyway) Although, I might have started reading City Under Siege in much the same way one would find themselves in a blind date situation, slightly anxious about what might be. My anxiety quickly waned, and I found myself enjoying R.J. Prescott’s storytelling abilities. City Under Siege is a romantic suspense that’s heavy on the action side of things. Not in a bad way though. I found that just as in any other romance subgenre, romantic suspense usually is either a little darker or more action packed then the alternatives. Though City Under Siege contained a small amount of darker content, I would say this is very well categorized under suspense. Prescott’s writing is extremely entertaining.

The hero and heroine are very well matched in City Under Siege. Her heroine, Sarah, was written to be extremely strong. Of Sarah, Prescott wrote “…as long as I could stand up, I could fight.” This really resonated with me and spoke strongly to the type of heroine Prescott deemed capable of conquering the proverbial dragon’s in City Under Siege. Sarah was knocked down repeatedly in her life, but she kept coming back swinging. I loved that about her. Also, Sarah is sassy, smart and has a backbone! She’s that woman we look for in a romance that is normal therefore relatable. As for Tom, he is a rarity right now in romance books. He’s got a bit of alpha in him…but it’s just a bit. Or I guess you could say he is an alpha male without all the drama that categorize most alphas males are right now in romance. You know, the ones that offer more drama then an episode of Beverly Hills 90210? Instead, readers will enjoy reading about his gentlemanly ways. I loved that Prescott wrote a stoic soldier as the hero of this story. To me, the appearance of his jealousy streak was highly entertaining – although I wouldn’t think so IRL – I did appreciate it in tempered with his gentleman side. I also loved how he loved Sarah. I think the most telling comments from Tom to Sarah are:

     “…I don’t deserve you… I have more blood on my hands than you’ll ever know. I’m not good at the romance stuff or talking about how I feel. Shit, there’s going to be times you’ll scream at me in frustration because I don’t know how to do shit like normal people. But I’m never letting you go, buttercup. And until the day comes when they put me in a box in the ground, I’m yours.”

Before I move away from the characters in City Under Siege, I would be doing review readers a serious disservice if I forgot to mention Nan! I truly loved what she brought to the story. Her character offered levity to the story while her personality suggested everyone’s favorite elder female. Other aspects of the story were important as well. Although I struggled with the pace of the story initially, it did pick up and keep me entertained. There was a sense of danger that combined with the action gave me an adrenaline rush after I pushed past my earlier concern for the story’s pace. Another aspect of this story that I thoroughly enjoyed was the slow burn that let to an intense inferno between Sarah and Tom. I thought my kindle might combust at one point. Prescott writes “…I wanted raw and animalistic. I wanted him as out of control as I was, and that was exactly what I got.”

So, with all that said, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t offer this review as a five-star read. Well, there were a few areas that I thought could have been done differently to make it more my speed. The first being the romance side of things. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely still a romantic suspense as I mentioned previously, but the relationship between Sarah and Tom took second place to the action in this story. Now, playing devils advocate on this front, I will say that if this had been IRL we would have seen remarkedly less romance…less sexy times. But as a work of fiction, most of us prefer that we find ‘more’ for our heroes and heroines. For example, I would have liked to see a final scene with Sarah and Tom making love since it was finally ‘one day’. Also, there were plot holes. I won’t spoil the story by naming them, but I will say that I found a few. I waited until the end of the story to see if they would right themselves, but with the extremely brief epilogue, those things remained at the end of the story. The epilogue was also an area that I felt fell short. Prescott had offered a deeper look at Sarah and Tom’s one day or something. This is an area that I will have to remain vague on or ruin the story for you.

I planned to give R.J. Prescott’s City Under Siege 4 stars but with the residual plot holes, I feel like for me, the story was more of a 3.5. That’s splitting hairs, but it is what it is, you know? Regardless, as I mentioned at the start of my review, I try to hold books by new to me authors by lower standards than I would hold an author that I had read previously. This also should read something to the affect that I am a harsh critic because I read far, FAR more than the average person…

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