REVIEW: Risky Games by Olga Bicos

There are so few well writ­ten, no — smartly writ­ten roman­tic sus­pense nov­els today. I’d be hard pressed to list you ten. I don’t mean to be dis­mis­sive but roman­tic sus­pense is my least favorite genre because they are almost always uno­rig­i­nal with char­ac­ters who do not speak or act to their stated potentials.

Read­ing Olga Bicos was by chance. I hadn’t heard much about her on reader mes­sage boards. How­ever, I struck gold with Risky Games (1997) and here is the brief back blurb for you:

With her career destroyed, McCall became an ace black­jack player. Casino man­ager Jake Dono­van is attracted and finds him­self involved in love and dan­ger as some­one tries to stop McCall from dis­cov­er­ing why her career was ruined.

HOW MUCH WOULD A WOMAN RISK TO BE IRRESISTIBLE TO MEN?

Beau­ti­ful, bril­liant McCall Sayer has unlocked the secret of sex­ual attrac­tion. To the right buyer, the for­mula is worth bil­lions. But is it worth dying for? Sud­denly, McCall is caught in a dan­ger­ous game, only one step ahead of a deter­mined killer.

WAS IT WORTH HER HEART?

With her rep­u­ta­tion in ruins and her life threat­ened, McCall rein­vents her­self as an ace black­jack player. New Orleans casino man­ager Jake Dono­van is instantly, irre­sistibly attracted to the stun­ning red­head. But the twice-burned Jake has always been able to walk away from any woman. Not this time.

OR WOULD IT COST HER HER LIFE?

McCall needs him, and — heaven help him — Jake needs her. Soon Jake and McCall find them­selves in a place where pas­sion, guilt and revenge col­lide — and where love can be as fleet­ing as a woman’s beauty. Or as perfect.…

Jake Dono­van is a casino man­ager in New Orleans. He has the unfor­tu­nate rep­u­ta­tion for sav­ing “damsel’s in dis­tress” or as he labels it: he has the Dono­van curse. Jake is a decent guy who is twice divorced and who now shares cus­tody of his son with ex-wife #2. Must remark on the fact that the ex-wife wasn’t vil­lian­ized in any mean­ing­ful way which was nice for a change. She expected her life to have greener pas­tures but life doesn’t always work out the way we would hope. The ex-wife is more in the periph­ery and what scenes she did have did noth­ing but put a finer point on Jake’s char­ac­ter. Mov­ing on.

McCall first grabs Jake’s atten­tion one night, when she is play­ing black­jack in his casino and is win­ning every hand. Jake watches her on the secu­rity cam­era and is intrigued and attracted to her despite the fact that he knows he has to throw her out of his casino. He does offer her a ride home to ease the blow. Thus, this starts them down the path of a roman­tic rela­tion­ship that is ini­tially fraught with issues revolv­ing around trust.

McCall Sayer is a bril­liant sci­en­tist: she has cracked the for­mula for sex­ual attrac­tion that has the poten­tial to earn her big money. How­ever, she has a ongo­ing feud going on with her father and sis­ter. She hasn’t spo­ken with either of them for quite some­time because of a third party that has under­mined McCall’s work which was later discredited.

Her father has cho­sen to believe her work to be fraud­u­lent despite McCall’s pleas of inno­cence and he want’s noth­ing to do with her. Thus, her career is ruined with no one to help her. Mean­while, McCall and Jake get to know each other. The chem­istry between them strikes up hot at first but then cools only to bulid up again nice and slow. The con­flicts that evolved came nat­u­rally within the story’s con­struct and are resolved in a rea­son­able man­ner. Jake takes a more involved inter­est in McCall’s past and this unearths all types of prob­lems for them both.

This is one of the bet­ter roman­tic sus­pense nov­els out there and it was writ­ten back in 1997. This book is what I would term “smart and sexy” and is set in New Orleans. Risky Games is one of those smartly writ­ten sus­pense nov­els that will have the pages flip­ping by them­selves. There is a nice bal­ance between the romance and sus­pense that is worth mentioning.

The nar­ra­tive was very engag­ing and the char­ac­ters are mem­o­rable. It’s now 2008 and I still reread this book upon occa­sion so it stands the test of time well. So, next time you’re in the used book­store, make sure to grab a copy of Risky Games and be pre­pared for a sus­pense­ful and roman­tic read. A.

For Fur­ther Reading

• Per­fect Tim­ing by Olga Bicos
• Risky Games by Olga Bicos
• Wednesday’s Child, Gayle Wil­son [Guest Review]
• “Hard to Hold,” Stephanie Tyler
• Revis­it­ing Vic­to­ria Holt, Queen of Gothic Romance
• REVIEW: Shadow Lover by Anne Stuart
• REVIEW: No Sur­ren­der (Devlin Group Series No.3) by Shan­non Stacey
• Reader’s Cor­ner: There’s a Fine Line Between Roman­tic Sus­pense and Mystery
• DNF REVIEW: A Soldier’s Home­com­ing by Rachel Lee
• REVIEW: ‘Wages of Sin’ by Pene­lope Williamson

Tagged as: conspiracy, New Orleans setting, Olga Bicos, Romantic suspense