Feel the Heat

Written by Alison Kent

Narrated by Marco Guerrero

He holds the safety of a whole lot of women in his hands.

Eli McKenzie’s tough exterior has been cracked. His latest mission had him in Mexico, deep inside a Spectra IT sex slavery ring gathering intel. Holding back when he wanted to blow the joint sky-high was bad enough but turns out someone in the camp was poisoning him, too. The torture of being unable to act, along with the physical toll of his illness, sent him to Hank Smithson’s headquarters to put himself back together.

Eli’s sudden departure caused trouble for a Texas PI, Stella Banks, whose movements put her on Spectra’s radar. Now Eli’s back in camp, just as Spectra’s henchmen are debating how best to do away with her. The only way to save her life is to get her to trust that he’s there to help. That means revealing his true identity. And Stella needs to trust him because, without him, she has no way of freeing the girls Spectra is holding hostage.

Watching Stella sacrifice to take care of the girls gets to Eli in a big way, and soon they find that spending time in each other’s arms is the only way to survive the brutal assignment. But survive they must if they expect to save the innocent young lives in their care. Besides, Eli is not about to let Spectra get away with what they’ve done to him, to the girls, or to the woman who’s salvaged his very broken heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: Jul 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094420011

Alison Kent

Alison Kent was a born reader, but it wasn't until she reached 30 that she knew she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Five years later, she made her first sale. Two years after that, she accepted an offer issued by the senior editor of Harlequin Temptation live on the 'Isn't It Romantic?' episode of CBS's 48 Hours. The resulting book, Call Me, was a Romantic Times finalist for Best First Series Book.

Reviews for Feel the Heat

[Bill Hair · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5 Stars for me!

My rating range of this story... 1.5 3 Stars
If significant, why?

Main Character Ratings...
H = 3/10
h = 4/10

Narrator Rating(s)
M = n/a
F = 7/10
If below 5/10,why?

Was cheating involved? No
Any major triggers to be aware of? Yes - Discussions of rape and violence towards women plus sex slavery

Angst Level? Heavy
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop


Scenes with heat... Yes
What point does it start? 50%
How much of the story? 20%
Anything beyond M/F? No
If yes, explained

Heat Rating... 7/10
Clean or Fade to Black - 1 or 2
Normal to Descriptive 3-5
Detailed Descriptive Sex - 6-7
Um, Wow, Beyond Descriptive Sex - 8 or above

Was there so much sex or unrealistic sex that you rolled your eyes and/or skipped forward? Yes. Completely unrealistic sex unless the H has two c@¢ks!

The back story... The H has been deeply under cover in the baddest organization on the planet (insert eye roll here) and has been recovering from being poisoned. The h was captured by said organization when she decided that she could single handedly free the twelve captured women.

The Romance... None that I could see. Anger to straight lust.

The drama explosion... The bad guys turn the tables.
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? Completely unrealistic
Was it OTT? Very
Separation involved? Not really
Was it resolved properly or rushed? It was resolved.

Final Notes... I typically like AK stories but this one was completely unrealistic. If the baddies were going to rape her and held off for the H, they would definitely have done so once they captured her a second time. During one extended sex scene, he used two appendages at the same time... Huh? The torture scene went on way too long. I kept finding myself skipping forward from 1 - 3 minutes at a time.

HEA or HFN? Unknown

[judy griffin · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I strongly disagree with the editor’s opinion.