Project Eve - Lauren Bach

I hate it when this happens. This one just didn’t work for me on many levels. The idea was great. Rachel is a kick ass private detective. She is hired by a US Senator to try and find out if his stepdaughter gave birth before her tragic death in a car accident. In order to find out what really happened she goes undercover at an exclusive college funded and run by a highly successful evangelist.
She is teamed up with Elijah, a CIA agent she shares a past with who also partnered with her beloved brother before his tragic death.
It’s hard to pinpoint why I didn’t care for this one, it just didn’t work on so many levels. The storyline sounds great. First off though, the author loaded Rachel down with too much tragedy. Her parents were both killed when she was young and it was left to her brother to raise her. This is where I began questioning things. Her brother raises her and is her sole support after their parent’s die, so why does he join the CIA and participate in dangerous missions?
And if loosing her entire family isn’t enough, she walks into a very compromising situation when she tries to surprise Elijah her lover. That takes care of that.
This poor girl is left with nothing.
When she meets Elijah many years later and is forced to work with him again, supposedly sparks fly. I didn’t feel any sparks. Not a flicker. Not an ember. Nada. Nothing. Lauren Bach has done excellent sexual tension in the past but I didn’t feel it in this one.
We know who the bad guys are right off the bat. Or at least we should. I’m lousy at guessing who the baddies are, but not this time. If I can get it, believe me, anyone can.
The ditzyiness and naiveté of the college students annoyed me to no end. And the college itself was just too far fetched to believe. I know it was supposed to be a religious institute and somewhat separated from the world but the author carried it to extremes. I can’t imagine any campus not serving coffee.
Then, right near the end of the book, out of the blue, her mentor , it is learned has a drinking problem. What on earth does this have to do with anything at this point and why even mention it. This is a character never seen or never heard from before or after.
I wanted to like this book, I really did. But when I closed the cover I was left with rather a nasty taste. A somewhat cold heroine, no real sparks between the hero and heroine, over the top villains and characters coming in and out of the story that add nothing.

Grade 2 out of 5