When Shanna’s boss takes a shot at her on a supposedly ‘fun’ weekend hunting trip, she knows she has to get help. But who? And why is he trying to kill her? The police won’t protect her, her boss has paid them off. She’s got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, until she stumbles into Jace’s cabin in the Wyoming wilderness. Former cop and all around rugged guy Jace isn’t sure if he believes Shanna. All he knows is that he sees the desperation in her eyes and hears the fear in her voice and knows he’s got to help her. I haven’t read anything from Ms. Peterson before, but this short novel definitely grabbed me from the word go. The action didn’t slow until the very end and my heart was pounding in time with the heroine’s. The novel opens with the heroine being shot at…
And yep… pretty much that.
I absolutely loved Shanna and Jace. I felt they were fully fleshed out characters with motivations, wants, and personality. Shanna wasn’t weak and she wasn’t “The load." While she might not be an expert survivalist, she wasn’t stupid and she was able to think on her feet. Something I know from dealing with high stress positions not everyone is able to do.
Jace might be an alpha male, but he knew when to listen to Shanna and he knew when he’d gone too far. He admitted that he wasn’t perfect and didn’t know everything. Even offering apologies with no expectation of being forgiven. That was definitely a turn on.
I also liked the side characters. Emily, Shanna’s daughter, felt like a real kid, and her co-workers also had their own personalities and motivations. I really loved Dirk; I wanted to give the guy a hug.
There was definitely the right amount of suspense and surprises. I called one "twist” early on (the foreshadowing was there). But I was surprised by a few other things that happened in the book, but looking back I see the breadcrumbs were there all along. Which is a good thing. WTF plot twists are generally a sign of poor plotting and shoddy writing. In all, I really enjoyed this book. I’d definitely recommend it to people into a short, but intense read. This is a republishing of an earlier book, but the themes and conflict still felt relevant. Five stars
***I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley
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