Ratings Overall: 9 Sensuality: 8 Suspense Element: 9

This is an Official Review by a Suspense Romance Writer Official Reviewer

Review for Guess Again
Author: Nora Santella
Date of Review: 02/23/04
Reviewed by: Nathalie

Reviewer Comments: It’s hard to believe that Guess Again is Nora Santella’s first novel. Rarely have I read such an amazing debut.

Lynzee Beryl is a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Born in the United States from Russian parents but orphaned at 4, she’s always been fascinated with everything Russian. She’s very concerned when a hacker breaks into MIT’s mainframe computer, but she’s even more troubled when she starts to suspect the hacker is no other than Yuri, her Russian ex-lover and father of her daughter.

FBI Special Agent Hunter McCrary hates everything Russian with a passion. His father was killed during the Cold War by the Dark Swan, a legendary KGB assassin, and McCrary has sworn to avenge his father’s death. When a hacker believed to be a KGB agent breaks into a government communications line, McCrary needs Beryl’s help. Unable to hide his xenophobia, their relationship starts on very bad note, but they can’t help being attracted to each other. But as their attraction and respect for each other grow, McCrary discovers a dark secret in Beryl’s past that might very well destroy any chance they have at happiness. I loved Guess Again. This book is a very interesting mix of genres: It’s a romantic suspense with a serious and solid intrigue, but it’s also very funny, and I’ve rarely seen an author mix these two genres as well as Santella did. It’s intelligent, touching, and very gripping. I simply could not put this book down. And when I finished it, my major complaint was that the book was too short.

The intrigue is very well built and kept me guessing—again!—until the very end. Santella obviously researched her topic and created a very intelligent plot. Lynzee is a very interesting character: she’s strong and bright with a wonderful sense of humor. McCrary is slightly too alpha at times, but Santella manages to make him fun and endearing. Their relationship sizzles from the beginning, and the love scenes are quite hot. I did find that some of the love scenes did not always flow really well, but I think that’s to be expected from a first novel.

Nora Santella has a very interesting and refreshing voice, and I cannot wait for her next novel.

Note: This book can be ordered online from Hard Shell Word Factory.