3.5 starsWhen I saw DEADLY INTENT at Fiction Vixen's for review I immediately snatched it as I have Kylie Brant's first 3 Mindhunters books on my TBR-pile ever since they were released and have been looking forward to get a taste of her romantic suspense writing. When the book arrived, however, I went into a state of utter panic! Contrary to what I thought it wasn't the first book in a new trilogy/series (I'm still puzzled as to why I thought that) but it was book 4 in the Mindhunters series...book 4 and I, an obsessive read-series-in-order-reader, hadn't read the first 3 books. So with no small amount of trepidation I started reading and hoped jumping into the series at book 4 wouldn't leave me too lost. If there was one time I hoped the publishers and authors’ promises of books in series being perfectly readable as standalone could be met, it was with DEADLY INTENT.When Ellie Mulder, daughter of the wealthy Stephen Mulder, is kidnapped a second time –2 years after being kidnapped and held captive 22 months when she was 7– Raiker Forensics brings in their two most experienced investigators to find her. In a race against time to find the elusive mind behind the kidnapping and find Ellie, Macy Reid and Kell Burke are put in such close proximity that battling the growing attraction between them proves to be difficult and a little distracting. Macy Reid is a forensic investigator, specialized in linguistic forensics. She’s quiet, observant and meticulous. She needs order and due to a traumatic experience in her past she has a light form of anxiety-driven OCD (do things in threes). Despite that she’s very capable in her job and crucial to the operation to find Ellie. Kellan 'Kell' Burke is also a forensic investigator. He’s like a pit-bull when he’s on to something and his tenacity is also crucial in finding Ellie. He’s sarcastic, quick-witted and cocky. He’s very direct and any form of subtlety is lost on him. Still, he’s very intuitive and has a hidden sensitive side that comes out when he’s alone with Macy. The secondary characters, both on-page and mentions are endless in this book. I’ve discovered this is inherent to romantic suspense and though the sheer numbers in this one could have made it a negative point, for me it didn’t. They were all needed to form a full-bodied suspense plot so in this case it really worked for me. A few secondary characters were very memorable to me. Adam Raiker, for example, who is the head of Raiker Forensics and Macy and Kell’s boss. There’s an intriguing back-story there that I hope to see unraveled in the future and I am certainly going back to the first 3 books of the series to find out more about him. Also, strange enough the main couple, though I liked them and their chemistry, wasn’t who caught my attention the most in this book. It was Ellie, the kidnapped girl. She was so strong yet vulnerable and broken. She never let her kidnapper get her down and fought, mentally, as hard and much as she could. She was resilient and inventive and despite her predicament she kept her head cool, especially for a kid. Reading what she went through is not for the faint of heart and I wouldn't recommend this book to readers who don't want to read about child abductions or bad stuff happening to children.DEADLY INTENT is a romantic suspense of which the focus is more on the suspense than on the romance and though I prefer a little more romance than suspense when reading this genre, I still very much enjoyed reading it. The romance is subtle yet intense. There aren't many love scenes, there's actually only one and it's not overly explicit or graphic but it's exquisitely written and complements the characters and the romance perfectly. The scene in the shower was just mesmerizing! In fact this is the only love scene in the entire book and, though personally I would have liked more of them, Kylie Brant definitely made it count. I loved the bickering and banter between Macy and Kell. It added to the tension and chemistry between them and I was just waiting to see it turn into an explosion of passion. Also, the humor in their banter, which made me grin regularly and sometimes actually made me laugh out loud, was a great counterpart for some of the dark and gritty parts of the suspense.The suspense had me all over the place with my own theories and suspicions and in the end I was partially right and I'm sure some of this suspense story line will be wrapped up in a later stage in this series. I do know I definitely am going to read the earlier installments in the Mindhunters series. Going by just this book it's a top-notch romantic suspense series. I really liked the added tension created by the territorial tugging war/turf game between the CBI (official investigators) and Raiker's team. It took the suspense from being just an enumeration of the actions taken in order to find Ellie, to a more dynamic and intriguing level. Though DEADLY INTENT is not as fast-paced as other romantic suspense novels I've read it’s just as suspenseful and well set up. The beginning was very descriptive with a lot of investigating, speculations and retelling of procedural stuff but once that was out of the way I was mesmerized by the suspense and the chemistry between Macy and Kell. Referring back to the hope I expressed in the opening paragraph of this interview I can report that I wasn’t lost at all jumping in the series at book 4 and DEADLY INTENT can definitely be read as a standalone. However, that being said, the tidbits about Adam Raiker and the mentions of main characters of the previous books have definitely made me push the first 3 Mindhunters books more to the top of Mt. TBR!DEADLY INTENT, in my opinion wasn’t meant to be read in a rush. To get all the characters, their stories, the stuff the main characters went through, the suspense, the technical terms and procedures and all the other undertones of this book, you need to savor it and read slow and intently. To me it was a very nice introduction into the series, even if I started at book 4 and I am absolutely looking forward to read more by Kylie Brant.Favorite quotes:“You think I came in for a repeat of our one time together?” he said incredulously. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like the thought hasn’t occurred, but we’re working here.” (…)“I think you came in to badger me some more, and I’m not in the mood. I have work to do.”His pale green eyes were alight with amusement behind his glasses. “You did. You thought I came in to play a little naked duchess and serf. I have to admit, the thought holds some appeal. You silhouetted against a thin sheet suspended before a fireplace. Me lugging hot water for m’lady’s bath. And then the sheet falls. You clutch the towel to your naked breasts…”“And then I kneecap you for staring.”His lips on hers then were hot and deep and devastating. Her bones melted, and she leaned limply against him. “You could tell me you love me, “ he suggested against her lips. “Just because a guy’s easy doesn’t mean he doesn’t need the words. (…) I love you. Inside me there’s still a ten-year-old boy looking for a warm place to call home. And I sensed it in you the minute we met.”
