Suspense

Coming Home again is always a hard thing to do. Just ask Dante Renaldi. Coming back to a town he ran from many years ago escaping trouble. Only to have that trouble come right back to him and the "family" he left behind. Is he Black Ops, FBI or just a trouble maker? He is now trying to protect his brothers and lost love from a sadistic killer who may have witnessed the incident from their youth.

I enjoyed the storyline. Dante and Anna worked well together. I would love to see a story or book for Gabe's character. The story itself was quick paced and kept me up well past my bedtime to finish. Jaci Burton is definitely on my "go to" list of authors for great romantic suspense.

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Dante, Gabe, Roman, and Jeff were all foster brothers who in there teens lived with George and Ellen Clemons. They were all friends with Anna Pallino. Anna and Dante were dating and in love. One night Anna is assaulted and the 4 guys beat on the attacker and kill him. Anna's father is a police officer and she tells the boys to run and that she would handle it with her father. Twelve years later we find Dante coming back to town for the first time since that fateful night for George and Ellen 25th wedding anniversary. Right off the bat another murder occurs in the same alley that Anna was attacked in. There are many more murders before the book is over. This was a very good suspense story and Jaci kept you wondering until the end who did it.

This is the first book in her Killer Series - which she clearly states is a non-erotic romantic suspense series. These are my favorite type series. I hope Gabe's story is up next so we can find out what he is really doing being a part of the Bertucci Mob family. ( )

Published at http://rubys-books.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-review-heart-of-killer-by-jaci.html

I've been reading Ms Burton's books for years now and I've never encountered a book that I didn't like. This book is no exception.

The first book in the series The Killer, The Heart of a Killer is a wonderful story of teenage lovers reunited, second chances and a serial killer. If there's one author that can make this story work, I think that's Jaci Burton.

First of all, I loved the fact that I couldn't figure out who the killer was. I was absolutely shocked when the killer was revealed and even more when his motives surfaced. I did not expect that. And I think that's what makes a good suspense, or at least for me. The not knowing something. It's not suspense for me if I can anticipate, you know?

Second, the characters were amazing and complex. Dante was a bad boy as a teenager and twelve years haven't changed him that much. He's still a bad boy, only his lethal now. The army polished him, making him more dangerous, sexier and more mature. He is still in love with Anna, even after not seeing her for over a decade, and he's willing to do anything to protect her. He's also very fond of his foster brothers, even if he didn't keep in contact with them. I'm guessing he didn't do it because of the temptation of coming back.

Anna is very different than when she was a teenager. If she was shy and innocent and sweet before her attack, now she is tougher, more serious and more careful about who to trust. Even so, I think she too couldn't forget Dante, although I'm sure she tried.

I think this series will be a very good one. I can't wait for the next book, see if we're going to find out more about Gabe. ( )

3 ½ Stars

The Heart of a Killer is book one in the new series The Killers by Jaci Burton.

This book started really well with a nice story that pulled me in, but after some pages I started to lose interest. One of my main issues was Anna, she was not believable as a police officer. She has suffered from severe PTSD for the last twelve years and nobody knows it, I don’t know how many times she suffered panic attacks in the book but were many, so I can’t believe that before Dante comes back to her life nobody have noticed she needed help, not her partner, nor her father, nobody. Another problem I had with Anna was her anger with Dante for leaving her twelve years ago and her back and forth trusting Dante. She trusted him for thirty pages, she distrusted him for twenty and it was like that for a grand part of the book.

Another issue I had was the lack emotion after the deaths of love ones. Parents, brothers, friends died and I didn’t feel the pain and emotion in the characters. Anna was upset when somebody very close to her died but her grieving time was skipped over. The murder happened, later the funeral and the next scene is a week or so later with the only reference that she had been a (grieving) bitch with Dante during the last couple of days.

I really liked Dante, he put up with too much with Anna, but I understand he did it because he love her. I loved how caring and protective he was and how he didn’t let her manipulate him.
The attraction between this two was palpable since page one and after Anna left her doubts in the past and gave Dante a chance she became a bit less annoying.

From the secondary characters I loved Gabe, there is more to him than what Mrs. Burton gave us. He’s lying to his friends but I think he has good reasons for doing it.

My final thought: The Heart of a Killer was an entertaining read with some flaws. Even though I was suspecting who the killer was since the very beginning Mrs. Burton did something that threw me off course and had me doubting my guess, I really liked that. This book could have been great if I could have felt the emotional turmoil of the characters and if Anna would have been more credible as a police officer or at least if she would have looked for help with her PTSD.
The Heart of a Killer was my first book but Mrs. Burton but I’m sure it won’t be my last. I’m planing to read next book of this series that hopefully it’ll be Gabe’s story. ( )