Elise finds herself a suspect in a murder and the victim of a stalker in CeeCee James’s The Tempting Taste of Danger. She has gotten a job at a local bookstore that is renting its upstairs to some young men who have created an escape room in which people have an hour to solve a series of puzzles in an hour in order to get out. The first day that real customers come to use the escape room, Elise hears frantic pounding on the door by the group of men. Breaking into the room through a back door, Elise finds one man on the floor, and CPR doesn’t save him. Then, coming back downstairs, Elise and her boss find that Dave’s first edition of Alice in Wonderland, given to his family by Lewis Carroll has been stolen. To her horror, Elise soon finds herself the chief suspect in the investigation.
To make matters much worse, Elise finds herself the victim of a stalker, who sends her scary letters and makes creepy phone calls to Elise. And this stalker seems to like to use themes from Alice in Wonderland in his or her communications to her. All this just upsets her police officer boyfriend, Brad, all the more.
This book is full of excitement and adventure, and I really enjoyed the weaving in of details from Alice in Wonderland. The characters returned with similar features as the earlier books, but I was disappointed not to see more of Lavina, though I liked the addition of Lucy, the 15-year-old girl Elise took in at the end of The Honeyed Taste of Deception. Her presence serves as a strong foil for Elise, helping to highlight the danger of the stalker.
Jennifer Groberg continues in her performance of the Angel Lake series. I like the voices she uses for each character and the vocal depictions of the events in the book.
I liked The Tempting Taste of Danger and its fun details of Elise’s life. The conclusion was very satisfying but left some details up in the air. I recommend the book but think you will enjoy it best if you read the previous books first. I give it five stars.
To purchase this book for yourself, click here on Amazon.
