RetroCog by Marie Harte
Series: A Power Up! Story
Publisher: Loose-Id
Genre: Erotic, Paranormal Romance, BDSM
Length: 115 pages

Summary:

A casualty of funding wars and an overzealous Defense Department trying to clean up its reputation after several failed experimental programs, the Psychic Warfare Program (PWP) is scrapped in the throes of its infancy. Its participants are transferred to other defense agencies, but a few decide to leave the government behind, knowing full well their freedom hinges on keeping a low profile and living under the radar.

Ex-PWP agent Noah First is grudgingly settling into life as a civilian when his boss assigns him one of those cases, like the ones he used to do for the government. Given the job of tracking down a stolen painting, Noah finds more than he bargained for when murder is involved. It’s his power to see the past in places where emotions run high, and when he tracks the painting down to a touristy mining town, he lands in serious trouble.

Not only does the town’s history shout at him with his every step, but he learns firsthand the room he’s renting used to be in a bordello, and the inn’s manager is the spitting image of the sexy woman in the painting. Noah is increasingly drawn to her, and to the dark needs he normally keeps buried. But are his intense feelings for Lara real, or just an echo of the past? And when he finds the painting, can he take it back to its rightful owner when someone in town will do whatever it takes to keep it, including murder?

Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: some light bondage and D/s, and violence.

Tamara’s Review:

What can I say about the second book in Ms. Harte’s PowerUp! Series? That it is a sizzling piece of writing that nearly melted my e-reader! I loved every minute of reading RetroCog. It was everything I’ve come to expect from this author and more.

One of the key things I have noticed about Ms. Harte’s series is she creates characters that you almost feel are like family. And like all good series you get to see characters from the previous books, so it’s like a homecoming. When I read the first book, The Lost Locket, I was intrigued by Noah’s character, even as a secondary character. He was a behemoth of a man, yet unassuming. The expression, “still waters run deep” definitely applies to him. So I was ecstatic to see he got his own story. And even happier when I realized what the still waters were hiding. Not that I’m going to giveaway Ms. Harte’s plot here, but I will mention that he’s uber dominant in the bedroom as his lucky lady quickly finds out.

As I mentioned earlier, Ms. Harte is really good at creating characters we just fall in love with and I can safely say RetroCog’s cast is nothing to sniff at. Whether it’s the spunky ghost of Celicia Fine (the madame of the bordello, which has now been turned into a B&B), Frank – Lara’s right hand man (who isn’t all that he seems) or Chloe – Noah’s boss from the gym (who happens to have physic talents of her own), all these characters are vibrant and make you want to know their stories. While we find the answers to one, I still anxiously look forward to finding out if the other two find their own happily ever afters.

And even though I can’t rave enough about her complex characters, Ms. Harte doesn’t fall down on the job with the plots – after all it takes a great deal of creativity to even think up a Gym full of physic men and women who are leftover from a debunked military project, who now take cases from the private sector and somehow manage to find love at the same time. This series, along withRetroCog in particular are phenomenal. I consumed Noah and Lara’s story so fast I don’t think I even took time to eat. It was honestly that good. I had to know who the villain was and if Noah and Lara would end up together. And that folks is the mark of an excellent author and now if you’ll pardon me, I’m off to read the next book in the series, Whispered Words where Ms. Chloe gets her own tale.

Rated 5 Ravens by Tamara!

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