Hide and Seek (Vigilance #1)

Hide and Seek by Desiree Holt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book for an honest review. Great beginning to a new series about the Vigilance Agency of Arrowhead Bay, Florida. Graham Cole has disappeared and his daughter Devon is distraught. They haven’t been as close lately because he’s pulled away from her. She is baffled by the strange happenings and then she is attacked on the road. The good guy who comes to her rescue – Logan Malik – happens to work for Vigilance and takes her to his leader – Avery, one of Devon’s good friends.

As the plot gets deeper, it’s interesting that Holt allows you to learn more about her dad than about Devon. The reader can begin to see what type of setup got all of them into this mess. You’re rooting for the dad, even though he has left Devon and Logan to face all the fallout alone.

The bad guys are very bad, including one the reader won’t see coming. While Devon and Logan are falling for each other, he is conscious of the danger she faces and worries whether he can keep her safe.

I look forward to the next book in the series. Arrowhead Bay is so small that these things shouldn’t be happening there, but….

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Saving Sofia (Kindle Worlds)

Saving Sofia by Becca Jameson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice story with one of the Underground crew finding a second-chance love. The trainer Anton has been working undercover for Interpol for the last ten years and wants to take time off. He asks Tex for a recommendation in his area and Tex allows him to stay in his home.

When he goes to a diner for a quick meal, he finds an abusive owner screaming and terrifying his female employees, including one possessing a voice he never thought he’d hear again. He runs into the kitchen to find the young girl he had met 15 years earlier, now grown into an exhausted, down woman.

Sofia has had a hard time with life and the young, pretty twenty-year-old college student is no more. When he finds the depth of trouble she is in, he takes her and her troubles on. She needs a hero, and this tired, fifty-year-old spook is it for her.

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Love Thy Enemy (Red Stone Security)

Love Thy Enemy by Katie Reus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good girl meets bad guy and of course, nothing is as it seems. Both Viktor and Dominique are surprised by what happens between them. There is also an unseen danger that threatens anyone close to Viktor and he tries but fails to protect Dominique from it.

He is the knight in shining armor to save her, though. With the help of Harrison Caldwell, she is saved. There’s also a nice subplot about Viktor’s half-brother, Anton, who has been making lovey-dovey eyes at his assistant Lucy since she started working for him. Lucy is getting frustrated that her boss won’t make a move (which she would welcome). She finally takes matters into her own hands. Turns out that Anton doesn’t like it when she isn’t around.

Lots of alpha male behavior here, but Reus makes it easy to take.

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Protecting Dakota (Sleeper SEALs)

First of the “Sleeper” SEALs, retired SEALs who are being asked to take on solo, unrecognized, unsanctioned (officially) dark ops. Slade is working as a contractor, organizing and administering everything the SEAL teams need to do their jobs efficiently.

He is tasked by the head of the covert team to take on finding and neutralizing an ISIS threat who has put himself at the head of a new terror group and has already caused casualties by setting off explosives at LAX.

Unfortunately, one witness/hostage survived and escaped. She has disappeared from her job and her life. The head of this group has fixated on her as his wife and the mother of a new generation of terrorists. Slade is inexplicably drawn to the picture of the woman and sets off to trace her steps. He finds her very quickly, with help from Tex, but they are immediately compromised and are on the run. The simple reasons for this are horrifying and the leader is even more horrifying.

Slade and Dakota meet and immediately feel the missing parts of themselves click into place. She trusts him to protect and love her, and neither of them will give that up. When the worst happens, Stoker ratchets up the suspense in a well-plotted set of simultaneous scenes.

The Riverton SEALs, with Wolf, Cookie, and Abe helping, rush to rescue the women. (Did I mention that Caroline is in danger, too?)

Very well done, down to the HEA.

The Last Goodbye (The Women of Independence)

The Last Goodbye by Mona Ingram
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Independence, British Columbia is the setting for these stories. Danielle Flynn is a young woman who has armored herself against love. Having lost everyone she had ever loved, she hates good byes, and even hates more when people don’t say goodbye and leave anyway.

A movie is being made on her uncle’s ranch and the crew brings lots of chaos and some romances. The thought of leaving is what makes the conflict, and the characters do as well as Ingram’s characters usually do, and that’s pretty well.

Danielle has to face herself, her fears and her past. Her uncle Jake has to face some things, too. There is an HEA and it takes a lot of faith to find it – faith in each other.

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Untying His Not (Lowells of Honeywell, TX)

Untying His Not by J.M. Madden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nice continuation of the Lowell family saga. Brock is the oldest son, now in charge of running the ranch. He’s been the heir apparent for so many years, it seems as though he’d never get the chance to lead. A nasty accident happens to his dad, and Garrett surprisingly finds that he welcomes the chance to sit back.

Brock has always thought of Payton as a little sister, just like the rest of the family does. However, little sister has grown up and has always been in love with Brock. When he figures out that he is the only one who has an issue with them being together, he gets over himself pretty quickly. Rather than the love-em-and-leave-em guy he has been before, he is now a one-woman man. That suits Payton just fine.

A subplot about some mischief happening on the ranch turns out to be more serious and Brock and Sheridan get to the bottom of that, too, with some help from Payton.

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Protecting Vixen (Kindle Worlds)

Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Vixen (Kindle Worlds Novella) by LeTeisha Newton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The SEAL team of SEALed Fate continues, this time with the adorable Cry Baby up front. Talk about your Insta-love! Cry Baby and Tiffany (Vixen) take one look at each other and are finished! The team is in trouble, however, and they have inadvertently unleashed a big problem.

Cry Baby and Vixen take an unusual route to save the team, by annexing themselves to Wolf’s team with Benny, Cookie, Abe, Mozart, and Dude. Even Tex is in the mix. They end up at Guantanamo interrogating a prisoner, and they get the key to the mole who has undermined them.

A hot and sexy story, with a pretty good suspense tale thrown in.

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Where Love Abides

Where Love Abides by Irene Hannon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sheriff Dale Lewis is a single widowed dad, with a four-year-old girl and a melancholy past. Christine is a newcomer to Oak Hill, a purveyor of organic flowers, fruits, and vegetables on her farm. She is completely closed off to strangers and especially to men in uniform. She hasn’t met Marge from the B and B, though. No one is immune, and Christine begins to meet everyone in town.

When Marge fixes Christine up with a part-time job at the library, Christine begins a Story Hour and its most fervent attendant is….. Dale’s daughter Jenna. So many things happen here and Dale and Christine find that they don’t want to resist the attraction between them.

It takes a restoration of trust and a resumption of faith for these two, and there is an HEA!

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A Dream to Share (Heartland Homecoming)

A Dream to Share by Irene Hannon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Back in the small community of Oak Hill, Abby Warner is about to lose the local newspaper her family has operated for four generations. The paper can’t make money anymore and it is being reviewed by a large publisher of local papers, the Campbell Group.

Abby is unhappy about the prospect of losing her legacy, and even unhappier when she meets Mark Campbell who’ll complete the financial and operational audits the prospective buyer needs prior to making the sale offer. They are mutually attracted but each has a lot of baggage.

They find the faith to reach out and a solution is found that can satisfy everyone.

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From This Day Forward

From This Day Forward by Irene Hannon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Nice inspirational romance with a second chance story. Sam and Cara are a married couple, separated by anger and betrayal. When Cara becomes a crime victim, she suffers from PTSD and can’t leave her home.

Sam has left his big-time surgeon post in a Philadelphia hospital due to a horrible event. He is now a small-town doctor and living a different life. When Cara comes to him for refuge, Sam is grateful for a chance to mend fences.

It takes a lot of trust to get over the betrayal and loss on both sides, but there is a love there that can’t be beaten.

First of the Heartland Homecoming stories.

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