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In this third installment of the constantly sexy and full-of-surprises Minnesota Romance Series, Ms. McGier takes us into the world of international intrigue with retired spy Stella Taylor. Stella is on the run from mysterious assailants when she gets a call from her estranged daughter, famous actress Kelly Ann Sheridan. Kelly invites her to spend a few weeks at a resort outside Grand Marais - a place that might just be remote enough for Stella to relax for a minute while giving her a chance to reconnect with Kelly. Little does Stella know, the resort also happens to be owned by a sexy Russian bear of a man named Ivan who will change her life forever...
As with Ms. McGier's other Minnesota books, I was drawn in immediately by the story, which begins with a bang from page one, but I fell in love with this book for the characters. It's hard to describe how much I love Stella and Ivan, both individually and as a couple. Their romance is deliberate, deep, and sexy, with a twist from their past that brought tears to my eyes the first time I read it. As usual, Ms. McGier takes the time she needs to develop the characters and their feelings for one another, which makes for a deep, rewarding story - and sex scenes as meaningful as they are explosive!
In addition to the romance, Ms. McGier delivers an equally heartfelt story of Stella mending her relationship with Kelly. It's rewarding to see them reconnect, especially as more backstory comes through, but it's also just sheer joy to hang out with the two of them since their banter is so funny and they are both so damn charming and likeable.
This book is an erotic romance and a spy thriller, with characters you want to laugh and cry and hang out with. It's suspenseful, funny, charming, heartfelt, thoughtful, and sexy as hell. Read it! This series is awesome.
Alec Owen reviewed on July 7, 2020
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HER LAST RESORT is the third book in the MINNESOTA ROMANCE series and I'm glad there will be more books. The story held my interest from the first page to the last. I like that there are a few characters we've met before and the wonderful backdrop of the resort and Lake Superior all set in Minnesota. Stella's actress daughter, Kelly, invites her mom to Ivan's resort to spend two weeks vacationing together. They haven't had a relationship due to Stella's career choice, her travels and her divorce from Kelly's dad and his remarriage. Kelly's brother, David, wants nothing to do with his mom which was heartbreaking.
Ivan and Stella have a connection from their pasts without realizing it. They are both in their 50's and he's ex-KGB and she's ex-CIA. They both have a depth to them and I liked getting to know them a little at a time. There were so many layers to each of them. The resort and the cabins were front and center and I loved how Stella and Ivan's attraction was portrayed. When they acted on it it was tastefully done with a lot of loving as if they had to make up for lost time. Stella's past is haunting her and while Ivan wants to protect her and shield her she feels she has to settle things on her own especially since somebody's targeting her and wants her dead.
Kelly isn't always on board with her mother's choices but realizes she can't interfere. I liked how their relationship was being built and how they showed their love for each other. There are twists and turns to the story and a happily ever after in the offing. There was nice closure with some loose ends to hopefully bring us to the next book in the series, NO MORE SECRETS. I liked the addition of Ivan's family and dogs in the story as well as people that Kelly knows from Los Angeles. Ms. McGier is a fairly new to me author whose books I am enjoying. I look forward to reading more of her books.
JoAnne on Smashwords and Goodreads
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It's not often that a romance novel starts off with the female lead killing somebody. It's just another day at the office for CIA spy Stella Taylor ... except it shouldn't be, because Stella is retired after thirty years, and there's no reason for her to be targeted by a series of frankly amateur assassins. She flees yet again, this time ending up at a Lake Superior-area Minnesota resort with her movie star daughter and the resort's owner, a hunky Russian who's moved permanently from one cold place to another.
Could the Russian guy also be a spy ...? Nah--what are the chances?
In Her Last Resort, by Fiona McGier, Stella has more than one reason to escape to the lake region: not only to avoid assassins, but to try to make up for the time she spent separated from her daughter--because of being an assassin. It's only after she arrives that sparks fly with the resort owner, Ivan. But boy, are those sparks sparky: Her Last Resort is definitely an adults only read.
Kudos to McGier for putting her lovers well into their fifties, although they're way more fit than I am! She obviously loves this area of Minnesota and knows her setting, and we get to know Stella and the surrounding characters well as Stella sets about wooing the willing Ivan, making things right with her daughter, and--oh, yeah--finding out who's sending killers after her. Although I knew this was the third in a series, I'd forgotten by the time I actually started reading, and didn't notice any holes--so this can be read as a standalone, or as part of the series.
If you like your romances with a heaping spoonful of action, both in and out of the sack, this one's for you. (Come to think of it, a lot of the sex is out of the sack, too.)
Author Mark Hunter on Smashwords
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Old Spies Never Die…Of Natural Causes!
The work of a senior spy working for the CIA can wear at both the body and the soul. And then, just when you’d done your service to God and Country and think you can retire, you find somebody from your old spy days Is out to kill you. When Stella, a senior CIA spy who has fulfilled her long contract to her country’s top spy agency, realizes that somebody is hiring a bunch of killers to come after her with knives, guns and poison, she has to rely on her training and ingenuity to respond with deadly force. And, being very good at her profession, her enemies find her to be, as they say ‘a most difficult snuff’.
Author Fiona McGier’s new spy-and-sex novel HER LAST RESORT is filled with unexpected deadly threats and unexpected hot sex from – of all things – a retired KGB agent! There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns as McGier’s tough-as-nails-but-with-a-heart-of-gold heroine has to fight her way to the CIA Headquarters in DC, only to come face-to-face with an unexpected enemy. And readers will experience plenty of exciting moments under the sheets with agent Stella and her Russian ally and lover.
Five stars for this combination James Bond and hot romance spy thriller!
Author John Klawitter on Smashwords