Review: In a Fix by Linda Grimes

 

What if you could avoid meeting your future mother-in-law, by simply hiring someone to stand in for you - not just stand in; be you.  Well if you have enough money, you can hire a facilitator like Ciel Halligan, whose natural ability allows her to take on another person's aura in orde to become them. 

It's a good business, until Ciel finds out her latest client is involved with an FBI investigaton, being run by her sexy best friend Billy and her long time crush Mark.  Now that Ciel must stay alive long enough to help the boys finish the investigation while trying not to fall in love with either one of them.

This book was a very quick read.  The plot is engaging, but I struggled to really relate to the lead character.  She was your typical headstrong female, but I found Ciel frustrating in a couple aspects:

• She was always disobeying Mark's orders and then falling into enemy hands.  If it had happened once or twice, it would have been alright, but it seemed every time Ciel was told not to do something, she chose to ignore it.  This plot device got very old, very fast.
• My other issue with this book was Mark and Billy.  While I liked the characters, Ciel bounced back and forth between them as if she was in a pinball machine.  One minute, she was getting hot and bothered about Mark and then she kissing Billy.  I would have enjoyed the book more, if the author had picked one relationship to flesh out rather than convoluting the plot with two.

Was it fun?  Yes, aspects of it were and frankly, it could have been too disappointing - I read it in less than 24 hours.