Inside

In Inside, Brenda Novak spins the tale of a wrongfully imprisoned ex-con named Virgil Skinner who is exonerated and released, only to have to re-enter the prison life in order to protect his beloved sister, Laurel, from the gang he joined while in jail. Virgil or "Skin," as he was called by members of The Crew, entered prison when he was only 18 years old, having been wrongfully convicted of the murder of his step-father. In order to survive prison, being a young and good looking man, Virgil was forced to align with a dangerous gang and commit a few crimes along the way, if only to protect himself. Now that he has been released, The Crew expects him to continue his gang life, but Virgil wants to start anew. That won't work for The Crew and they've targeted Laurel and her two young kids to get back at him, and Virgil is protecting them the only way he knows how.

The reason Virgil can't stay in touch with The Crew is because he is working with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at Pelican Bay Prison to infiltrate a gang called Hells Fury who has a stranglehold on the prison and those in authority can't figure out how they are doing it. However, a monkey wrench gets thrown in the works when Virgil meets the Assistant Deputy Warden, Peyton Adams, a beautiful but unattainable blonde. Unfortunately for the master plan, deemed Operation Inside by Rick Wallace, an associate director at the CDCR, Peyton and Virgil have an immediate attraction to one another, one they have a difficult time denying. This is only further complicated by the fact that Virgil isn't the only man in Peyton's life with eyes for her.

Once Virgil is finally placed inside Pelican Bay, it becomes a race against time to see if he can work his way into the good graces of the Hells Fury before he gets himself killed, or before members of The Crew, including his best friend, Pretty Boy, can find and kill his only remaining family. With Peyton on his mind 24/7, Virgil is going to have quite a trying task ahead of him.

Inside is the first novel I've read by author Brenda Novak and it is categorized as a romantic thriller. That's a pretty good way to sum it up, although it had far more romance than thrills. There was a lot of story buildup before Virgil finally entered the prison, some 20 chapters, and some of it tended to be a little slow, but once he walked through the doors of Pelican Bay, I found it hard to put the book down. I tend to prefer a little more action and edge-of-your-seat tension than what was found in Inside and honestly, it was a little heavy-handed on the romance side for my personal tastes, but it's still a well-written novel and one that readers who like a very heavy dash of romance with their thrills will enjoy. If you are looking for something to read while on a plane or on vacation, and you like authors along the lines of Lisa Jackson, who mix danger with romance, you'll probably enjoy Inside.