Jessie Adams is a musician/DJ who doesn’t have a great deal of luck with relationships.  So when she literally runs into cop Chuck Jackson, she’s a bit thrown by how quickly and permanently he moves into her life.  But it’s just as well, because someone wants to hurt her now that she’s decided to be a politician and having a cop around 24/7 might just be a pretty good idea. 

Chuck isn’t in the habit of sleeping with women ten minutes after meeting them, which is how he knows that Jessie is different.  But if he doesn’t find out who is trying to ruin her political ambitions, there won’t be a Jessie to have a relationship with.  With the choice of half a dozen unique fellow candidates in the election, Jessie and Chuck have their hands full figuring out which one could want to win that badly. 

FIVE O’CLOCK SHADOW was a blend of romance and suspense, with neither really standing up to take the lead.  The characters were well-built and fun if not particularly deep and the story line was just complicated enough to keep the reader guessing.  The author has a good voice for first person writing, and I enjoyed her style very much.   

The problem was that the story was a bit slow for a suspense, a bit serious for a ‘wacky group’ read and the relationship was a bit too straight forward for a romance.  It would have been a more grabbing read if one or the other had been dominant. 

Reviewed for The Road to Romance by Sue Waldeck

September 25, 2007