FOR LOVE OF PETE - Julia Harper
Grand Central's Forever
ISBN: 0-446-61918-3
January 2009
Contemporary Romantic Suspense

Chicago and Southern Illinois - Present Day

As Zoey Addler is yelling at the sexy new neighbor she’s nicknamed Lips of Sin for stealing her parking spot, she notices a man running out of their building with a gun in one hand and a baby in the other. Not just any baby, though -- it’s Pete, Zoey’s niece. She quickly jumps into Lips’s BMW and tells him to follow the escaping Hummer.

FBI Special Agent Dante Torelli watches his case implode right in front of him. On the surface, he’s been assigned to watch a protected witness about to testify against a mob boss, but, truthfully, he’s in Chicago to find out which agent is working with the mob. Then the agents protecting the family are killed, Pete is kidnapped, and her kooky aunt hijacks him to chase down the kidnapper. Things get even stranger when, while stuck in traffic, Dante and Zoey watch the kidnapper enter a gas station and two little old Indian women steal the kidnapper’s Hummer. When the police finally arrive, they start shooting at Dante, and he knows that his cover has been blown. He still hasn’t discovered who the crooked agent is, and now he’s not even sure whom he’s chasing, but the first priority has to be finding Pete.

Two complete opposites take the road trip from hell and find they have more in common than they thought, in FOR THE LOVE OF PETE. Dante is an orderly, by-the-book FBI agent; Zoey is a free-spirited poet who has some trust issues when it comes to men -- especially those in law enforcement. Their adventure starts immediately, and it doesn’t take long for them to work well together, despite their differences. While the focus of the romance is Dante and Zoey, there are several other characters who play a large part in the story. The two women who steal the Hummer are sisters-in-law and life-long friends who emigrated from India and plan to open a restaurant. When they refuse to pay protection money to the mob, a precious shipment of a contraband spice is stolen from them, and they decide to steal it back. Not until after they drive off do they realize that more than the spice is in the Hummer -- two babies are in the back seat. The kidnapper had just picked up his son from daycare, and now he’s doing his best to get both babies back before his wife finds out exactly what he’s done.

Interesting characters and amusing adventure combine for a thoroughly entertaining tale. I highly recommend FOR THE LOVE OF PETE.

Jennifer Bishop