Betrayed

York's second Rockfort Security romantic thriller (after Bad Nights) is loaded with repetitious writing, malapropisms, and factual errors. Elayna Reyes is an IT professional for S&D Systems; she wants to be a good girl but instead is a trouble magnet. Trouble includes Shane Gallagher, an ostensibly top-level security specialist who comes off as an overwhelmed amateur. York dwells endlessly on mundane details, preventing any tension from building. She focuses time and again on the wrong thing at the wrong moment, providing two pages of details on a banana split but a mere 33 words to the consummation of Elayna and Shane's relationship. Shifts of perspective undermine the suspense by rehashing events or presenting revelations to the reader long before the protagonists figure out what's going on. There's a high body count but everyone who dies is nameless, faceless, or unsympathetic. The alleged romance is rushed, unconvincing, and boring. What ought to be a gripping adventure that combines family loyalty and passion fails to deliver. (July)