Review: Something about You by Julie James

Publisher: Berkley Sensation
Pub Date: March 2010
307 pages
ISBN: 9780425233382

The Blurb:

Of all the hotel rooms rented by all the adulterous politicians in Chicago, female Assistant U.S. Attorney Cameron Lynde had to choose the one next to 1308, where some hot-and-heavy lovemaking ends in bloodshed. And of all the FBI agents in Illinois, it had to be Special Agent Jack Pallas who gets assigned to this high-profile homicide. The same Jack Pallas who still blames Cameron for a botched crackdown three years ago—and nearly ruining his career…

I admit it. I'm not a big fan of lawyer romances. Just not my thing. But after hearing from multiple sources about how great Julie James was, I decided to give Something About You a try. To my surprise, the legal aspects of this book turned out to be some of my favorite parts.

I've read plenty of "lawyer" books. Lots and lots of them. But I can't remember ever reading one that dealt with the political and legal aspects of being part of the US Attorney's office. That lent this book a fresh feel for me. I liked the fact that this was actually more of a political thriller than a legal one.


This is more of a romantic suspense than a straight forward contemporary title. There's a lot of action and danger here.  Maybe it's because I read mysteries, too, and watch a lot of crime dramas, but the mystery aspect here never felt very mystery-ish. You know who the primary bad guy is the entire time. And it's obvious who else is involved from the get-go also. I like my suspenses to have some actual suspense, so that part didn't work so well for me. I did enjoy the fact that our heroine never strays into the TSTL category. Not once. She's brave, resourceful, smart, sexy but not impulsive, erratic, and doesn't needlessly endanger anyone.

What saved this book for me were the characters.  The dialogue is witty. The characters are very well done. Utterly believable. And even the secondary characters make an impression.

I especially loved the banter between our hero, Jack Pallas, and his partner, Wilkins.

He reached past Cameron and tossed her purse over the seat. "See if you can find her keys," he told Wilkins.

"Are you kidding? What if she wakes up and sees me rummaging around in there. You don't touch the purse. The purse is sacrosanct."

"Either find the keys or get back here and carry her yourself."

Wilkins eyed the purse for a moment, then reached in. "It's worth it.  I gotta see you try this. Ten bucks says she wakes up and clocks you before you hit the front steps."

Both Jack and Cameron are incredibly appealing characters. The "Big Misunderstanding" has created some  harsh feelings between the two, but neither of them uses that as an excuse to be excessively unpleasant. They are both highly skilled professionals trying to do their jobs. And it was fun following along as they work through their past issues and deal with the sizzling attraction between them.

I didn't totally love this book as much as other reviewers, I still recommend it for fans of romantic suspense.

My Grade: B-