Trust No One

"Trust no one.Everyone has a hidden agenda."THE STORY: Grace Elland is getting emails from her dead boss. Grace believes in a positive outlook that is threatened when she discovers her motivational speaker boss murdered. The vodka bottle next to his body thrusts her into memories of when she had to kill to escape another murderer. Grace returns to her mother's home in order to figure out what she will do with her life. On a horrible blind date, she meets Julius Arkwright a successful venture capitalist who is so successful that he is bored with making money. Although their date went poorly, the attraction between them is immediate. When Grace is in danger from a stalker, Julius comes to her aid. As the past and the present dangers threaten them, Grace and Julius try to figure out what their relationship will be.OPINION: This novel is a book of definite opposites. The interactions between Grace and Julius are cute because while Grace is a positive person who thinks up witty aphorisms, Julius has the motto of "trust no one." Their witty banter is a highlight of the book. This is a fast paced story and the suspense story is the way that the relationship between Grace and Julius are explored. I enjoyed much about this book. The story is one that encourages page turning to find out the outcome and there are many twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. My complaint is that I think there is more suspense story here than romance. There is little conflict between Grace and Julius and thus their characters are not explored enough to make them interesting to me. It is difficult to see why the blind date didn't work out because these two quickly join forces. The characters emotional lives are as much a mystery at the end of the book as the beginning and thus as a reader, I didn't feel a deep connection with them. As a result, this is a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading once, but probably won't remember in a month.WORTH MENTIONING: I am a big fan of Jayne Ann Krentz and many of her books are on my all time favorites list. I do, however, prefer romance to suspense so when her books trend toward the suspense end, I tend to be less satisfied with them.FINAL DECISION: I liked TRUST NO ONE. The story was interesting and I enjoyed it, but because the characters and their relationship is not well defined, this is a one time read for me.CONNECTED BOOKS: TRUST NO ONE is a standalone book.STAR RATING: I give TRUST NO ONE 4 stars.

This is a combined review of the Kindle and Audible versions. Basically, I was able to overlook a bunch of things when I just read the book to myself, but I recently got the audible version on sale and figured I would "reread" it. This time around, I was much more aware of the characters, not being able to skim over anything.I can only conclude that I would not be able to handle Grace in real life. I really want to like her - her life story of trying to find a career fit is so familiar to me, and she comes across as a mild, friendly person, but wow. When you can't skip over the plethora of affirmations, she becomes a real irritant. Meanwhile, everyone else is so bland - Julius included - that her constant affirmation-spouting has no balance. The book is overwhelmed by Grace's aggravating quirk, and it's extensive enough that she comes off like some kind of awkward convert. (Didn't Julius think that on their uncomfortable blind date? He was right. Seriously.)

Thoroughly enjoyable! The murder mystery is good and the burgeoning relationship between Grace and Julius is fabulous. Ms. Krentz applies her usual quirkiness to her heroine and the ultimate straight man to the hero. Opposites attract.Grace finds her employer's dead body. It is not the first dead body she has found. This also means she is out of a job. She goes home and stumbles into a blind date with Julius. Julius goes on this date to get a take on if Grace is a killer. Instead he finds the most interesting, soon to be the most important, person to him. One incident after another makes him determined to stay close to her and keep her safe while they try to find the killer.Ms. Krentz is always entertaining and always writes a solid story. I look forward to all of her books under all pseudonyms.

Grace works for an motivational speaker. When he doesn’t come into the office, she goes to check on him and finds him dead. When Grace was a teenager she was forced to kill a man who had killed his wife and was going to kill her and a little boy. She has nightmares and panic attacks, she goes to the lake house her mother owns until she can find another job. Her friend sets her up on a blind date with Julius. He lives near Grace and owns an investment company. Their date doesn’t go well and she throws him out. She starts getting emails from her dead bosses account and it scares her. Julius and Grace end up getting closer as they realize she has a stalker, they’re not sure if it has to do with the murder of her boss or something else.It started out a little slow and I almost lost interest but kept reading anyway. Total shocker with suspense, secrets, mystery and a little sex. After awhile I couldn’t stop reading it so I could find out who the bad guy was.

The story begins with Grace Elland discovering the body of her employer. He was murdered and a bottle of vodka was left at his side. The vodka triggers memories of when Grace was sixteen and she killed a man who had murdered his wife and was about to murder a young boy and her. Grace still suffers from nightmares. After losing her job, she moves to her old family home in Cloud Lake. She meets Julius Arkwright when her best friend and her husband set them up on a blind date. Julius is a very successful venture capitalist.Julius and Grace become close when they begin to investigate the stalker that Grace has attracted. I loved the Grace was a positive thinking sort of person. I also loved that she was a master marketer who was largely responsible for her boss's success as a motivational speaker. Julius is a much more cynical person. While Grace is constantly coming up with motivational slogans, Julius has only two rules: Trust No One and Everyone has a Hidden Agenda.This story was filled with romance and danger. I enjoyed both the suspense and the growing relationship between Julius and Grace.

I like this author, for her easy style and the elements of romance and suspense in her books. This was a good read, with a slightly darker feel than some of her previous work. Grace discovers the body of her boss, and steps into a bit of a nightmare, bringing back echoes of a past that she doesn't want to think about. She goes back to her childhood home to regroup and plan her future career path and is introduced to Julius, by her best friend. Life then gets complicated, as it is discovered that money has gone missing, and she seems to have attracted a stalker. Grace and Julius face these challenges and others and in the process of unravelling what is going on and why their relationship develops.The writing is very easy to read, welled paced, descriptive but flowing and straightforward. The characters have enough flaws to be real but likeable and there is enough mystery to keep you guessing about where it is all going and who is going to turn out to be behind it all without there being any great shocking revelations.

This was a good read. Interesting and sympathetic characters but also a twisty plot that kept throwing up surprises. As ever with Ms. Kranz's stories, it has a happy ending but there are enough deaths and injuries along the way to keep things interesting.Definitely recommended.

A gripping thriller with a touch of romance Jayne Ann is a master of this type of book be it modern or historical.Her characters are believable and well drawn with many layers to them.Once I started I had to finish even tho that was at two in the morning !

Oh I liked this book. Reminds me of a couple of her early contemporary novels. Her tried and true formula is at play here again but then, that's why i love JAK...you know what to expect.

I enjoyed this book very much, it certainly made me smile sometimes. The mystery was good, the characters enjoyable, and explanations not too complicated to spoil the flow.