It Has It All!
Lynette Eason’s Extreme Measures series has it all: fast-paced plot, suspense, romance, heartbreak, haunted pasts, and new beginnings.
Series Overview
Each book in the four-book series follows a different heroine but all adhere to a similar formula: All the main characters (heroine + love interest) work in some level of civil service – whether that be a public responder, law enforcement, or FBI.
Each woman has past baggage that influences what is happening in the story as well as (usually) the bad guy’s behavior. By the end of the book, the mystery is solved, and love is found.
While that may make Extreme Measures sound predictable and not worth reading more than one, I found that to definitely not be the case. The areas of the stories that were predictable (love interest, etc.) were (for the most part) enjoyably so.
I wanted to know the characters would catch the bad guy and find love at the end. I found the different facets highlighted from each woman’s job to be quite interesting (especially the negotiator and the psychoanalyst). The steady line of predictability threading the four stories helped anchor the ups, downs, and suspense of the plots.
Books In Order
- Life Flight (#1, Jan. 2022)
- Crossfire (#2, Aug. 2022)
- Critical Threat (#3, Jan. 2023)
- Countdown (#4, Aug. 2023)
What I Liked about Extreme Measures
Suspense Factor
Eason did a good job of writing creepy books without being over the top gruesome or scary. I’ll admit, I am a bit of a wuss. So if you read thrillers on a regular basis, this one probably wouldn’t be super scary for you. It was plenty scary for me and did a good job sucking me into the action.
No-Spice, No Language
Her books are also clean in terms of language and sexual content, and I appreciated that too.
Relationship Subplots
The characters felt a little similar from book to book, but I didn’t really mind. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the relational subplots is the women’s friendship and how they showed up for each other as well as the honesty in the romantic relationships.
There were no miscommunication tropes (which I hate), and the romance was romantic the whole book instead of the slow burn to yay-finally-then-book-ends moment. They literally communicated their affections for each other earlyish in each story, and I kind of loved it. It was so nice to know I could enjoy their working together and growing closer while chasing the bad guys.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I’d say this series teetered between a three or four stars out of five rating for me. There were parts of the mystery plots I found somewhat predictable and parts I thought were well done. There were character things that bugged me and things I felt were refreshingly unique. As a whole, the books were easy to read, fast-paced, and enjoyable. You did root for the characters and wanted to see how things ended. I’d recommend Extreme Measures!
Copyright Lynette Eason and Revell. Image from Amazon.
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