I picked up this one because I loved the previous book, Extreme Exposure. It was another investigative reporting story this time involving the friend of the heroine from EE and was not quite as good but still enjoyable. Tessa witnesses a murder of a young girl. She is so traumatized by her experience that she writes a detailed eye witness account in the newspaper where she works as a reporter which puts her life in danger. She decides to find the girl's killer and in the course of her investigation meets Julian, an undercover FBI agent who has been working on the case which involves human trafficking. Tessa does some very unwise things (maybe even TSTL) and her life is in danger (of course) and Julian must protect her. Some of it was rather unrealistic but again Clare's writing makes up for it. Good suspense, hot sex, and fast action. (Grade: B-) ( )

Julian Darcangelo is ( After Brockmanns "Jimmy Nash") probably my favorite character when it comes to "anti-heroes".
PC managed to make him soooo much more interesting and sexier by letting his dark side be present at all time.
Aside from this book being more than well written there are also a LOT of moments worthy to remember.(Both funny* and emotional ones!)
A little SPOILER ahead!!!!

*: "But the fact that chocolate and a plant with pink flowers on it had made into his truck only proved that he was more in need of that medical leave than he'd like to admit. One of those bullets must have lodged in his brain."
Go and get your copy.
You won't be disappointed, I promise!!!
Also make sure to read the other two parts in this series.
5 STARS for sure!!! ( )

After the murder of a teenage girl, a mysterious man in a black leather jacket was seen lurking near the crime scene. Investigative reporter Tessa Novak has him in her sights as the culprit…

That man was Julian Darcangelo—an undercover FBI agent working with the Denver police. He’s closing in on the trail of a human trafficker and killer. Tessa’s accusations could blow his cover—and he wants her off the investigation.

But just as Tessa has made Julian a target of interest, she is now a target—of the killer. And as they are forced to trust each other, their physical attraction escalates as intensely as the threat from a ruthless murderer who wants to see both of them dead…

My Review

Okay, before I launch into the problems I had with Ms. Tessa Novak let me just say I did enjoy this book. It was fast paced and kept me turning the pages. Julian was a great tortured anti-hero and I will be picking up the other books in this series however...

I hope to God none of the other heroines are going to be as dumb as Tessa Novak. How this girl is not dead or horribly maimed still remains a mystery to me. Why Julian would even waste his time trying to protect her is also beyond me.

Just to clarify Tessa witnessed the murder in gas station and promptly went to work and wrote up a front page article detailing every single detail of the crime. I don't work with the police on a daily basis like say... an investigative reporter would and even I understand why police withhold certain details from the public to help them catch the killer. Tessa however, can't really grasp the concept of police catching the bad guys and reporters reporting. I'm supposed to believe that Tessa is only out to help get these guys off the streets, protect all the other girls like the one who was murdered and it's not all about getting her big headlines but honestly, her headlines are driving the bad guys further underground and potentially exposing the identity of an undercover agent who is thisclose to catching them. How is that helping Tessa??? Please explain it to me.

On top of all that this girl is dumb. Let me just list the bajillion stupid things she's done.

1. Writing a first person account of an unsolved murder for a major newspaper in Denver announcing to the bad guys that she Tessa Novak witnessed everything.

2. Assuming the murder was gang related and after writing in the paper that she Tessa Novak witnessed the murder and is going to track down the killers herself to see that they are arrested goes waltzing into gang territory and starts asking around to talk to the head of the local Crips chapter.

3. After starting a media frenzy to get the cops to start cracking down on gang activity Tessa slips her protective cover and goes back into gang territory to finish her interview with the Crips.

4. Even after she finds out that the killers are worse than gang member, has a man break into her apartment and molest her while she is in the bathtub, a cop gets shot by said man after trying to break into her apartment for a second time she still insists on doing things on her own and evading the protective custody the police have on her. Oh and perhaps I should mention her best friend ( a fellow reporter) was almost killed for trying to take a story too far in a previous book.

There are just too many issues with Tessa for me to write about them all. It's enough to say that she was a complete airhead for the majority of the book and by the time reality actually hit her in the face and she started exercising common sense it was too little too late. ( )

Well. Yet another author for my 'must buy' list thanks to all my buds on Goodreads.com. Pamela Clare blew me away with this tightly plotted romantic suspense novel that will get your pulse rate moving in more ways than one.

Investigative reporter Tessa has always fought for the underdog. And when she sees a young teen blown away literally before her eyes, she decides to do what she does best...investigate. Before long she's hip deep in danger and lust with undercover agent Julian. But when Julian needs her to keep a lid on what she's discovered, will she understand or be willing to compromise her journalistic integrity?

Loved, loved, loved this book. As soon as I finished it, I quickly dug out the first one from the 'to be read' mountains and devoured that one as well. Now it looks like I'll have to order the third one since neither my local B&N or Booksamillion has it in stock. If you like romantic suspense that's believable and smoking hot...you really must read Pamela Clare. ( )

On the surface, Hard Evidence sounds like a pretty typical romantic suspense with a journalist heroine and an FBI agent hero. Tessa Novak witnesses a murder--a teenage girl is gunned down right in front of her after begging for help--and decides to write the story, even though she's worried that the killer will target her as a result.

She's not stupid, though, and she cooperates with the police, describing for them the man in the black leather jacket she saw watching her after the shooting. Who happens to be not the killer but Julian Darcangelo, who's been tracking a human trafficker, and this murder is just the latest of the villain's crimes.

A few years ago, I burned out on romantic suspense, and the expectations I had while reading this book explain why: I expected Tessa to refuse to share any information with the police. She didn't refuse. I expected Julian to conceal his identity and then for Tessa to go ballistic when she found out. That didn't happen either. Mostly, I expected Tessa to be TSTL, and to spout "the public's right to know" platitudes with every other breath and to expect the 1st amendment to work like a bullet-proof shield. None of that happened. Instead, Tessa was brave, and determined, and logical.

I liked watching the case unfold from two different angles. Julian had the advantage, in that he knew who the criminal was, but he was also hampered because there was a leak, either in the FBI or the police department, and he had to solve that as well. Tessa initially started the case thinking it was gang-related, and she followed leads until she came to the same conclusions.

The ending was both satisfying and had a nice twist.

Hard Evidence is part of a series that begam with Extreme Exposure and continued with the novella "Heaven Can't Wait" in Catch of the Day. I'll be watching for more books in this series, starting with getting Unlawful Contact out of my TBR pile. ( )