Guest Review: STRONGER THAN SIN

Forever; Oct 2010

Book Blurb: 

Dr. Liliana Carrera nearly lost her life to Wardwell scientists. She won't let them harm other innocent victims, like her new patient, Jesse Bradford. The former pro athlete had the best hands in the NFL . . . until an injury forced him to undergo Wardwell's experimental gene therapy. Now Jesse's gorgeous body is superhuman-but his strength comes at a price.

With Wardwell threatening his family, Jesse can't tell Liliana all he knows. Yet he can't resist her compassion . . . or her healing, erotic touch. As their passion flares, Jesse's body becomes dangerous and volatile. For evil men are plotting to change the face of humanity-and will destroy whoever stands in their way.

AsianCocoa's Review: 

Stronger than Sin is the second book in Caridad Pineiro’s Sins series. This novel begins a few months after Sins of the Flesh and is Dr. Liliana Carrera’s story. She is the sister to Mick Carrera who was the hero in the first novel. Liliana is an orthopedic surgery resident who is asked by the FBI to work with a former patient of Wardwell labs. Jesse Bradford is a former professional quarterback. He sustains a football injury that ends his career. He bribes his way into Wardwell’s experimental gene therapy program in hopes of a cure for his degenerative bone disease but instead finds that’s he’s being turned into super-human killing machine.

Liliana has developed an inhibitor complex that has slowed down the mutant gene replication in her sister-in-law, Caterina who was in the first novel. A rogue FBI agent, Hank Whittaker along with the remaining founder of Wardwell Labs want this inhibitor to help sustain the lives of the other captive patients at the lab who have begun to die due to the experimental gene therapy.

Jesse’s particular gene mutation causes excessive bone to be produced at the sight of any inflammation or injury to his body. Eventually an exoskeleton will take over his body including his internal organs and eventually kill him. The inhibitor that is being used to slow down the DNA replication in Caterina unfortunately is of no use in treating Jesse’s condition. Liliana and her partner Dr. Carmen Rojas race against time to come up with an alternative inhibitor in order to save Jesse’s life.

Liliana is very distrustful of Jesse as he is former brawler and playboy and his numerous escapades have been documented by tabloids and news agencies. Even though there is definitely a sexual attraction to the former quarterback she does her best to maintain a professional doctor/patient relationship with him. Jesse is immediately attracted to Liliana but tries hard to suppress his feelings. His main concern is to stay alive and do what he’s told to keep his family safe from the death threats of Whittaker and Edwards.

This novel can be read as a standalone but I would recommend that you eventually read the first novel to get the back story on Wardwell labs and their experimental gene therapies. The reader is given just enough of the back story to keep up with the present plot line. But I would have liked to see a few more details about Liliana’s past and the lab. I did like both Liliana and Jesse. Liliana was a smart and sassy heroine. And Jesse was the typical sexy male athlete who had a soft spot for his doctor. Jesse was prone to violent outbursts as a result of the gene therapy and that added some darker moments to the plot. There wasn’t as much action in this installment as with the last book but the romance elements in this were enjoyable and Jesse and Liliana’s happily ever after was really sweet. The ending in this novel leads me to believe that the next book will contain more science fiction elements that were lacking in this novel. And even though I am not a big sci-fi fan I will definitely pick up the next book. Stronger than Sin gets 3 stars.