The tougher they are, the harder they fall…

Professional mercenary Dare Macintosh lives by one hard and fast rule: business should never be personal. If a cause appeals to him and the price is right, he'll take the mission he's offered. But then the lovely Molly Alexander asks him to help her track down the men who'd had her kidnapped—and for the first time, Dare's tempted to combine work with pleasure.

Fiercely independent, Molly vows to trust no one until she's uncovered the truth. Could the enemy be her powerful, estranged father? The ex-fiancé who still holds a grudge? Or the not-so-shy fan of her bestselling novels? As the danger heats up around them, the only anchor Molly has is Dare himself. But what she feels for him just might be the most frightening thing of all…

Title: WHEN YOU DARE
Author: Lori Foster
Series: Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor, book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense
Publisher: HQN Books
Year of release: 2011, April 26
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Requested e-ARC from publisher via NetGalley

First line:
Midnight came and went with only the quiet buzz of meager traffic along the beach.

Memorable Scenes:
- Dare confronting Molly's dad about her disappearance and rescue > tough, protective and commanding Dare stole my heart right there
- scene at the lake when Molly decides she'll make her feelings for him known to Dare > memorable for 2 reasons:
1. glimpse of how I wanted Molly to be throughout the book
2. Hot make-out scene
- bath tub scene > carnal, intense and hot! Dare's sexual commands made me weak in the knees. Thank you for this scene Ms Foster!


When Dare Macintosh rescues Molly Alexander after being kidnapped and held prisoner in Mexico, she decides to hire him as a bodyguard while she tries to find out who had her kidnapped and why.

Dare is a mercenary. He’s honorable, down-to-earth and caring and sweet despite his gruffness. Molly is an author of suspense novels. She’s full of bravado, impatient and proud. Molly was a bit harder for me to get a grip on than Dare. I cannot say I liked or disliked her, I just can’t make up my mind because of some inconsistencies in her characterization.

I thought it was a bit strange that with the sisterly bond described in the anthology story READY, SET, JETT Molly doesn't even think about contacting her sister first thing to let her know she's okay. And even when Dare directly asks about that, she comes up with some crap explanation. This is one of the things about Molly that just didn't mesh with the set-up created in the anthology story. And there was more... Also, the picture you get from Molly through Dare's eyes just doesn't match with the actions and characterization of Molly herself.

I liked both the romance and the suspense parts of the book. The romance was well-written and was one of the elements that prevented me from putting the book down once I got reading. The wait for the sexy scenes took a while as the first full-out sex scene appears about halfway through, but once it came they were well worth waiting for.

There aren’t many secondary characters as the secondary cast consists only of a few people close Dare and Molly. This gave the book a clear and crisp feel and it wasn’t cluttered with a lot of secondary characters I had to keep track of. I loved Chris, Dare's PA and good friend. He was so full of dry wit and sarcasm I couldn't help but love him. The chapters in his POV were as surprising as they were welcome.

With the suspense I was wondering at first what angle was going to be taken with the plot as it started at a point in the story I was expecting much later in the book. Once the suspense plot got going I kept guessing who could've been responsible for Molly's abduction. And when I found out who was behind it, though I wasn’t quite sure on the motives at first, it quickly became obvious.
Despite the predictability of the suspense I really liked the concluding scenes and the conclusion of the plot. They were Action-packed and thrilling!

Lori Foster has an agreeable writing style that reads very easily and even if I had some issues with Molly's character I enjoyed the rest of the story and just flew through it. The bit about the disgruntled readers did come across as preachy and I found it didn't fit into that scene. That being said as I'm not familiar with the situation or book referred to in the book I can let it pass by me just remarking that I didn't understand the need for this particular scene/dialogue in the book as far as the plot was concerned.

Enjoyed this first installment of the Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series, despite the few issues I had with it. The romance was awesome, the suspense was good though a little predictable, especially towards the end but I'm very happy I've got the next two books of this series on my reading pile!

Favorite Quotes:
He opened his mouth and treated her to a tantalizing love bite that sent liquid sensation throughout her whole body. Near her ear, he whispered, " Now, when you think of biting, you think of me, okay."

His jaw hardened. "Push me, and we'll be talking about it on the bed, with me inside you and to hell with what your sister hears."