UNMASKED

Author: C.J. Barry ISBN: 0505525747 6/2005 FUTURISTIC Publisher: DORCHESTER/Love Spell

To the merchants he plunders, he’s the Ghost Rider of the Dead Zone. To sector law enforcement, he’s a wanted pirate. To the slaves he rescues, he’s the savior, laghato. To one determined female, Qaade Deter is serious trouble. Torrie Masters had heard of the legendary raider, but she’d never expected to encounter him. Nor would she have expected that beneath his black mask lurked an enticing man destined to challenge her in ways she couldn’t shoot her way out of. But a great threat has emerged—one that’s left no choice but for them to join forces. Entrusted with the fate of thousands, Torrie has discovered Qaade’s impossible dream. Only she has the power to help him. Only she has the power to see him…UNMASKED

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

You've just got to love C.J. Barry. This book was one that was painless and a pleasure to read. As usual, Ms. Barry is able to combine the right amount of humor, sex, and conflict to create an enjoyable romance. UNMASKED is one of those books that I love to pick up and just go with. There isn't complex plots or backgrounds. It's not bogged down with endless technical jargon that gives you a headache or makes you want to just skip through half the paragraph. It's just a good story meant to entertain, and does.

The heroine of the story is Torrie Masters. If you've read other books by this author, you already know that she is the only daughter of the Masters family's 7 children. Torrie's mother despairs of her daughter ever giving up her dream to captain her own ship into space for the family's company. Now that Torrie's brother has taken her deceased father's place as head of the family, she is finally getting the chance to realize her dream—on one condition—and isn't there always a condition? Torrie is given her ship, she is captain of the ship and charged with delivering the shipment. If she fails, she must come back to her home planet and marry the man her family deems appropriate.

Qaade Deter is the Ghost Rider of the Dead Zone, a masked pirate infamous for the number of ships he has captured. The pirate who's face has never been seen and whose legend has made him a man to fear. When he boards Torrie's ship for a routine takeover, he finds that it will be anything but routine. Most captains would have had the sense to abandon ship with the crew, avoiding any bloodshed and making his job easier.

Torrie complicates his plans from the beginning and, if she continues to do so, will make it impossible to save the people he has committed his life to and committed his crimes for.

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