BOOK REVIEW- CRISIS OF IDENTITY BY DENISE MONCRIEF

 
Tess Copeland is an operator. Her motto? Necessity is the mother of a good a con. When Hurricane Irving slams into the Texas Gulf coast, Tess seizes the opportunity to escape her past by hijacking a dead woman’s life, but Shelby Coleman’s was the wrong identity to steal. And the cop that trails her? He’s a U.S. Marshall with the Fugitive Task Force for the northern district of Illinois. Tess left Chicago because the criminal justice system gave her no choice. Now she’s on the run from ghosts of misdeeds past—both hers and Shelby’s.
Enter Trevor Smith, a pseudo-cowboy from Houston, Texas, with good looks, a quick tongue, and testosterone poisoning. Will Tess succumb to his questionable charms and become his damsel in distress? She doesn’t have to faint at his feet—she’s capable of handling just about anything. But will she choose to let Trevor be the man? When Tess kidnaps her niece, her life changes. She must make some hard decisions. Does she trust the lawman that promises her redemption, or does she trust the cowboy that promises her nothing but himself?   AMAZON  4.5 STARS


It starts out fast, and I never knew what was going to happen next. It was quite an unusual start to the book, I liked that.  To say that Tess Copeland was a con woman was a gross understatement.   She was a primo con artist; she could tell a lie as fast as she could draw breath in a hyperventilating state.  I laughed, and I groaned through some of the situations she was put in.  People tended to drop dead around her and USUALLY it's not her fault.  You could feel the tension of her always having to look over her shoulder for any new or old trouble.  She lived on a constant state of alertness.  She'll do what she has to to survive. This girl had grit. If you don't like sarcasm in women,  don't read this book.  I think Sarcasm might have been her middle name.   Still, I couldn't help but like her, she was funny, even with all the decks stacked against her.   The action between Tess, Trevor and Jake was so changeable. When it came to the two men, I was wondering just how trustworthy they were and what their true motives were.
I did like the style of the author, she did a pretty good and often fun way of putting things. For me, it added a picture being drawn with her words.  Let me give just one example.    "Jake's hands clenched the steering wheel as if I'd pulled that revelation from his heart with a pair of needle nosed pliers."  See what I mean?  I enjoyed those moments.  I was also amazed with what Tess got away with, she wasn't going down without a fight.  Her mouth was only one of her weapons, but a very effective one.  The end of this book had a few surprises to it, I can't say that it was totally predictable because the author kept me off balance through most of it.  In a good way.
 I think this book could be read as a stand-alone but it doesn't have to because there is a  quick look into the next book, "Crisis of Serenity" included at the end of this book.

I was given this book as a gift and this is my opinion of it.