Recommend by: Riley

Alana Matheson and Gabriel Cruz are a very hot pair in Trouble in Mind. In many ways.

FBI agent Alana gets hot under the collar when Gabriel, a civilian with special tracking skills, insists on being part of her investigation of the kidnapping of a woman and her young son. But together, they are hot on the trail of the bad guys. Alana ends up in hot water with her boss when a stakeout goes bad. And when Gabriel gets too close to Alana, she gets so angry, I could practically see the steam wafting out of her ears.

But most all, there is the hotness that comes from the sexual tension between the two. You had to know I was headed in that direction. The attraction is so powerful, Alana and Gabriel are helpless to stop it, as hard as they might try. So, reading Trouble in Mind, you know Alana and Gabriel are headed for combustion, you just don’t know when or how it is going to happen. Which makes the romance part of this story very intense and irresistible.

The SciFi/suspense part of the book is what really got me hooked. The kidnappees are Asia Roberts and her son Jack. If you have read Unchained Memory, you will know Asia’s story and you will have briefly been introduced to Jack. If you have not read it, I recommend it. While not critical to enjoying Trouble in Mind, it will help with some of the questions you may have. Mainly, why is Asia being kidnapped?

The Men in Black (also from Unchained Memory) are after Asia. But someone else is after Jack. And this someone is not from earth. Jack is a pawn in a major interstellar conspiracy that will affect Earth, even though the residents of Earth are blissfully unaware of that plot.

So, now things are getting complex. Significantly complex. Luckily, Ms. Frelick’s storytelling deftly relates the multiple plot lines that are important to the story and successfully weaves them together.

First you have the activity on Earth with Alana and Gabriel chasing down the kidnappers. Plus the intergalactic bounty hunters are hunting for Jack. And by the way, just to make things even more interesting, the bounty hunters are well known to Gabriel – and not because they are buddies.

Meanwhile, out there, the little gray men have their own issues to deal with. In Unchained Memory, the Grays (or the Minertsans) were first revealed as the enemy. In Trouble in Mind, you learn more about their society. They seem to be a people on the verge of a great change. There are a lot of conflicting political agendas among them and in Trouble in Mind, we get to see some of those agendas play out.

Humans are out there too, both as slave labor for the Grays and as free people. The slave labor has been explained. Free humans, out there, in space, on other worlds, has not yet been explained and I am very curious. I hope to learn more in the next book in this series.

I liked Unchained Memory.  I like Trouble in Mind even more!  It has an elaborate storyline that contains the perfect proportions of romance, suspense, and aliens. Lots going on in Trouble in Mind related in such a capable manner equates to an extremely satisfactory story that is highly recommended!

Links:

Donna S. Frelick’s Website

Donna’s Blog

Interstellar Rescue Series on Goodreads

Amazon Links: