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New Release/Review: The Thing About Love by Julie JamesThe Thing About Love by Julie James
Published by Berkley on April 18th 2017
Pages: 368
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Two undercover FBI agents can hide who they are from everyone but each other in the latest novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Suddenly One Summer.
FBI agents Jessica Harlow and John Shepherd have a past. The former lawyer and cocky Army ranger clashed during their training at Quantico, gladly going their separate ways after graduating from the Academy. Six years later, the last thing either of them expects is to run into each other again–assigned to work as partners in a high-profile undercover sting.
For both of them, being paired with a former rival couldn’t come at a worse time. Recently divorced from a Hollywood producer and looking for a fresh start, Jessica is eager to prove herself at her new field office. And John is just one case away from his dream assignment to the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team. In order to nail a corrupt Florida politician, they’ll have to find a way to work as a team–a task that becomes even trickier when they’re forced to hole up at a romantic, beachfront resort as part of the investigation. Suddenly, the heat behind their nonstop sparring threatens to make the job a whole lot more complicated. . .

The Thing About Love is the first Julie James book that I have read and I am somewhat conflicted about it. I like books that have depth, complexity & especially strong female characters as well as male characters who are not just Alpha God-like GQ models!  Certainly, FBI agent Jessica Harlow is a well-established operative as is John Shepherd and the key ingredient to their relationship is that around six years ago, they were at the Academy together.   Back then, they only had three things in common; they both came from Chicago, were the brightest candidates in their class, and they appeared to dislike each other, intensely!
Harlow and Shepherd are assigned to a case that requires them to work undercover as business partners who travel to Florida, with plans to open a new restaurant, in order to prove that the local Mayor is corrupt.  The case takes up around 60% of the book, around 400 pages and provides ample opportunity for the two characters to quibble endlessly with each other and this banter, coupled with continual sarcasm gradually becomes the essence of their mutual attraction.
“The Thing Called Love” is, for me, a charming romantic comedy, rather than a whirlwind, intensely passionate romance that is so often found today.  The love affair creeps up on the couple, with plenty of reminiscing from both points of view, to their early days as recruits where they saw things quite differently. Julie James uses a deft hand to highlight these differences before turning them into positives to be cherished.  This was a slow burn and while I love the current Romance genre, Jones has written a pleasant love-story, full of sass and sarcasm but lacking the spice I have come to expect in a 21st century romance.   – Reviewed by Morilyn