Skin Deep by Pamela Clare

Narrated by Kaleo Griffith

Megan Hunter will be familiar to readers of Unlawful Contact  as the sister of the hero of that book, Marc Hunter. I do think it is possible to enjoy Skin Deep  without having read/listened to Unlawful Contact but, the experience is enhanced by Unlawful Contact (and besides it’s excellent).

Skin Deep picks up about four years after the events of the earlier book. Megan has regained custody of her daughter, Emily, and is close with her brother and Sophie and the other I-Team “family”. She received a settlement from the state for what happened to her while in juvenile detention (which she has mostly kept in trust for Emily) but lives fairly modestly, working as a graphic designer for the city and helping out in the local community kitchen.

Nate West is a former marine who was horribly burned by an IED in Afghanistan. He now works with his father on the family ranch and they regularly donate ground beef to the community kitchen. Nate has noticed the pretty girl who works at the kitchen sometimes and, when a man from her past threatens both Megan and Emily in an attempt to extort money from her, Nate comes to the rescue.

Megan has suffered much sexual trauma and doesn’t like to be touched by men, the only exceptions being hugs from her brother, Marc, and Julian Darcangelo (Hard Evidence ), so it is a surprise to Megan to find that not only does Nate not cause revulsion or nausea, she actively enjoys his touch and attention.

Megan and Emily visit Nate’s ranch to see the horses and are stuck there due to a blizzard. While there, Nate and Megan become close and the romance develops apace.

Fans of the I-Team series will no doubt be happy to see Megan finally get her HEA, especially with such a worthy hero as Nate. He is honorable and kind, strong and protective, but not dominating and he is accepting of Megan’s past and completely non judge-y. For her part, Megan has no difficulty looking past Nate’s scars to the amazing man he is and this is particularly important to Nate (as his former fiancé dumped him when he was still in the hospital because she “couldn’t handle it”. The bitch).

The romance is both sweet and sexy, with Nate taking things slow and making sure Megan is in charge of their activities and their pace. Nate is exactly the kind of guy to fit in with Marc, Darcangelo (whom Emily calls “Uncle Julie”, much to Marc’s amusement) et al,  and Kaleo Griffith gives him smooth, gentle, and sexy tones with just a hint of twang that I had all but expected when I read the print version.

There was a little glitch early in the listen where the beginning of a sentence was repeated, but other than that, the production quality was clear and crisp.

Nate’s dad, Jack, features strongly in the book, and Mr. Griffith gives him an older grandpa type voice which is quite different to the other old man of the series, Police Chief Irving. Emily’s little girl tones are sweet and cute and well done.

Having narrated the earlier books in the series, Mr. Griffith brought with him all the previous depth of characterizations to Skin Deep, so each of the previously appearing characters were imbued with all that prior knowledge, giving the listening experience added richness.

As an extra treat, at the end of Skin Deep is the short story, Beer Run, which is a Marc and Darcangelo snippet and a lot of fun. I actually enjoyed this one on audio a lot more than in print.

Kaetrin

Narration:  B+

Book Content:  B+

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence:  Domestic Violence

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Tantor Audio

Skin Deep was provided to AudioGals for review by Tantor Audio.