well done start to a series, although I'm not sure I'd compare it to Blue Bloods (not a criticism, just not how I would sell this.) Em and Alec are a dynamic pair who I look forward to reading more about. Weeks has captured the fear that permeated the DC area during a time when there were snipers roaming free. Good writing, well plotted, definitely worth a read. THanks to edelweiss/netgalley for the aRC.

This is my first book by Ms. Weeks and the book description sounded really interesting. Romantic suspense is my favorite genre and I also like police procedures. However, I didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped. At only 259 pages (176 e-book version) it's somewhat shorter of a read and yet it took me quite a while to read. I kept getting pulled out of the story and found myself setting it aside for a while. There is a comparison to Blue Bloods in the book description but aside from everyone in the book being a friend or family member, I wasn't feeling the similarity.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the initial scene of Alec and Em making out on the dance floor, but it provided a good introduction to their relationship. What did capture my attention was the scene of Em's dad getting shot. This was really good and I wish the book had done more of these scenes and less of the emotional drama scenes. I didn't feel the suspense of the mystery throughout the book. I wanted more suspense and more police work than I got. There seemed to be minimum police work and it felt more like everyone was waiting for the bad guys to show up and drop more clues.

Em was definitely not my favorite heroine as she was emotionally volatile and felt very immature. Definitely not the logical and scientific persona I would expect in her career choice of forensic scientist for a police department. In many situations, both Alec and Em come off as over reacting teenagers. Their volatile and OTT reactions would often pull me out of the story. (Thus the setting the books aside for awhile.) When Alec is pissed he calls her by her full name and she goes ballistic and says not to call her that. Again the immature behavior pulls you out of the story. Only Em's mom seemed to have normal reactions.

The story line also felt like it just jumped from scene to scene with Em having some kind of emotional reaction. Em is wanting to get closer to Alec and then she doesn't trust Alec. And then she realized she was wrong and wants to get close again. Alec doesn't think with his background he would be good for her. But when he finally is ready, she's like ready to leave. And (spoiler alert) when he's ready to pop the question, she questioning again. I can't get past why she is always arguing against what she wants.

There are a number of secondary characters but most of them didn't feel very well developed. This could be due to the short length of the novel. One example is that there is a professional security detail placed on Em to protect her, but they aren't really developed, don't really do much and basically aren't needed for the final scene. Em's siblings make rare appearances, but again they aren't really developed. The secondary characters felt flat instead of adding that additional dimension to a book.

The final action scene in the book was really good except, it didn't answer the main question going through the book. Who is the shadow man? Going into this I thought this was a stand alone novel but it looks to be book #1 in a new series that has an open mystery thread that will go through at least one more book. This is a growing trend and not one that I'm enthusiastic about. When you read over 100 books a year, you don't want/need books that leave threads hanging. I want the story to be complete. I like series, but I really want each book to have a complete ending. This one left me with that incomplete feeling and I don't like finishing a book like that. When I hit a point where it said "Three months later...", I was like "What? We really haven't gotten any answers."

The epilogue does look to be setting up the next two characters in the series.

I want to thank Net Galley and Crimson Romance for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.