Against the Law (Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, Book 3)

KAT MARTIN

Synopsis from Goodreads: At thirty-two Dev is "mostly retired" from Raines Investigations, content to run operations from his sprawling Arizona home. But Dev has never been able to say no to a beautiful woman, so when Lark Delaney comes to him for help, the former U.S. Army Ranger from Wind Canyon gets back in the game.

Lark is sexy, successful and dedicated to tracking down the baby girl her sister gave up for adoption. It should be a straightforward case, but it's not long before Dev uncovers a shady adoption ring and worse—the child's parents have been murdered and the little girl has been taken.

As the case grows dangerous and Lark needs him more than ever, Dev can't ignore his growing attraction for her. He also can't trust his judgment with women or the emotions he's long-since buried. But there's a chance, if he gets this right and saves Lark's niece, that he'll end up saving himself, too.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Mira Books, 2011.

How acquired: Through Book Mooch.

First line: He had everything he ever wanted.

My thoughts: I went into this book with a little trepidation, knowing that the heroine was going to hire Dev to help her track down the child her sister had placed for adoption four years earlier. Knowing, from the synopsis, that the adoption probably was not conducted legally. This is one of my hangups. I work in the adoption field, and I hate seeing stories, on film or in print, that give adoption a bad name. And lines like this, nineteen pages in, did not help:

Once they located the adoption agency, the address of the adoptive parents should be easy enough to find. Assuming the agency people could be persuaded to give up the information.

The only thing that would persuade the staff at our agency to divulge a family's address would be a warrant. Well, maybe a gun to the head would do it for some of our staff. But we would never just hand that information over to anyone who wanted it.

Several pages later, after talking to another girl who also placed a child, and was currently pregnant and placing that child as well, albeit with a different agency, Lark wonders how much the girl earned, and Dev speculates:

“She's blonde and blue-eyed. Caucasian babies are in high demand. Twenty thousand, maybe more. It isn't against the law – not if the agency is licensed and following all the state mandates.”

Maybe that's not illegal in Arizona, but it sure is in my state. We can pay a birth mother's living expenses – within reason and with a judge's signature on a court order – but we can't give her money, and she does not get paid to place the child.

And now I'm probably just being a little nitpicky, but a few pages later they walk into a daycare center, and while Dev approaches the receptionist desk, Lark wanders around the play area, and then talks to a little boy. I cannot imagine any daycare in the country where a person can just walk in off the street and roam around among the children.

Anyway, after it was stressed a couple of times that Lark only wanted to be sure her sister's child was in a safe and loving home, and had no intention of disrupting that, I began to relax a little and enjoy the story. And then when they finally went to that home, just in time to see masked men fleeing after having gunned down the adoptive parents and the household staff, while terrified little Chrissy was hiding in a closet, I was completely hooked. And after that, it wasn't about adoption (other than Lark of course eventually adopting Chrissy). It was about drug cartels, and Mexican criminals, and lives being in danger, and me turning pages faster and faster.

I loved Dev and Lark together. Lark is a successful businesswoman, running her own company and making and selling designer handbags. Now that she has Chrissy to raise, the last thing she needs is a relationship. Dev is the youngest of the Raines brothers, and after his fiancee broke up with him days before their wedding several years ago, he doesn't trust women and is determined to never fall in love again. They may say they love you, but how can you know if they really mean it? The answer is to have fun with pretty women but never get serious with them. The attraction between Dev and Lark is palpable, but Lark is Dev's client, and he doesn't mix business with pleasure, so she's off limits as one of his flings. When they do finally give in to the chemistry between them, it was pretty sizzling.

We meet several men who work for Dev, or who served with him in the military and are called upon now to help out. The action never lets up as Dev, Lark, Chrissy, and other men are thrown into one intense situation after another. Of the three books about the Raines brothers, this one is definitely my favorite. The next three books in the Against Series feature three of the other men involved in this one, and I am eager to read all of them. So eager in fact, that I've already placed an order through Barnes & Noble for the next book, along with two other books in the Against series, and the first book in the Brodies of Alaska series.

So despite my initial misgivings, this was a very good suspenseful story with a complex plot. There were lots of scenes that made me either laugh out loud or grin like an idiot, and when the danger was over and Lark and Dev were coming to grips with their feelings for each other, there were some scenes that literally made me cry. I can't get the next book quick enough. 

Against the Fire (Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, Book 2)

KAT MARTIN 

Synopsis from Goodreads: You can't fight what you can't see. And Gabriel Raines can't be sure just who's setting the fires in his new real-estate development. When two fires hit back-to-back, he knows it's personal, but any number of competitors or ex-employees could be the arsonist.

The police suspect Angel Ramirez, a local teen who's been in trouble before. But Mattie Baker, a volunteer at the Family Abuse center, just can't believe the kid she's been working with would go back to his delinquent ways. 

Determined to convince Gabe that she's right, Mattie must get close to him and find out who's putting their neighborhood in jeopardy. And just as the arsonist's flames continue to burn, they find a heat developing between them. It might just turn into a full-fledged fire if they can survive long enough.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Mira Books, 2011.

How acquired: Through BookCrossing.

First line: The screech of the siren didn't reach him at first.

My thoughts: Gabriel Raines, the middle Raines brother, has a successful construction/remodeling business in Dallas. He buys old properties and restores them, and current projects underway when the book opens include an historic theater and an apartment building that had been condemned. Mattie Baker is a successful, award winning architect, who puts in lots of hours at the office, but also finds time to volunteer at a local family resource center, working with families who are putting their lives back together after domestic abuse/violence. Like Jackson in the first RAINES OF WIND CANYON book, Gabe is not necessarily looking for a wife or a relationship and seems pretty content with his life. Mattie was raised by a single mother after her father died when she was young, and after seeing how her mother struggled, and after a bad experience with an ex, she is determined to never put her trust and reliance in another man. Like Sarah in the first book, she is fiercely independent.

I liked Gabe, though not quite as much as Jackson. Maybe because, even though Gabe has a ranch, he doesn't actually spend much time at it, and so he isn't really a rancher like Jackson. He is, however, former military. I also liked Mattie, and felt like I could relate to her a little more than I had to Sarah.

Gabe and Mattie meet at a police station, when a teenager is arrested for setting a fire in one of Gabe's buildings. Mattie, who knows Angel from her volunteer work, is convinced that Angel is innocent, and she intends to prove it. So even though Gabe is the kind of man she'd prefer to avoid being around, she inserts herself into the investigation, insisting that he help her find the real arsonist. Gabe is willing to give Angel the benefit of doubt, plus Mattie intrigues him and he isn't averse to spending some time in her company.

The suspense in this second book was amped up a little more, and the plot felt more tightly drawn and not quite as far fetched as the first book. As the fires continue, Gabe and younger brother Dev compile a suspect list, investigate or question suspects, cross them off, come up with more suspects...I was never sure what direction the story would take next, and had no clue who the real arsonist was until the author actually introduced him to us, the reader, while still leaving Gabe and everyone else in the dark.

And of course amidst all the fires and investigating, Gabe and Mattie get to know each other and get closer. Mattie, being afraid of falling for someone, anyone, runs a little hot and cold, but when she realizes she may have pushed Gabe away one too many times, she bucks up and sets out to rectify that, rather than being all wishy washy. Gabe accepts his growing feelings quicker than Mattie does, but is plagued by doubts of whether she wants him or just wants him in bed. They are very well suited to each other, and the culmination of their relationship was quite satisfying.

Meanwhile, there's a side plot with Gabe's best friend, Sam, courting Mattie's best friend, Tracy, that was very sweet, but which left me asking why they couldn't have had their own book instead of being secondary characters here.

Very enjoyable story, with some great characters and a suspenseful plot. 

Against the Wind (Against Series/Raines of Wind Canyon, Book 1)

KAT MARTIN 

Synopsis from Goodreads: They were known as the "no-account Raines boys," but they've grown into successful, honorable men and everything they have, they've fought for tooth and nail. Now each of the three brothers has one last obstacle to overcome to claim what's eluding them: love.

Secrets don't stay buried long in cattle country. Sarah Allen, the beautiful girl who humiliated Jackson Raines in high school, is back in town. Not so long ago, she couldn't wait to leave Wind Canyon, Wyoming, in her dust. But, recently widowed, she has nowhere else to go and finds herself on Jackson's ranch. And despite everything, Jackson's finding himself reluctant to get rid of her.

Sarah brings her own kind of trouble, and he can't resist trouble. Enemies of her dead husband show up making threats, thinking she has something they're owed. They're not taking no for an answer, but what they will take is the one thing she has left—her daughter. Jackson's the only one who might be able to save little Holly and bring her home.

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, published by Mira Books, 2010.

How acquired: Through http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/9789624/.

My thoughts: I see/read/hear about Kat Martin's books all the time and everywhere. I've even bought some of her books, both new and used (I have eight other titles in my TBR pile), because the covers are so appealing. But this is the first one I've actually gotten around to reading.

Sarah Allen is a widow, who's husband was abusive and racked up so much debt, and failed to keep up payments on his life insurance policy, he managed to leave her pretty much penniless. He was found shot to death one morning. Now that probate is just about wrapped up Sarah has packed up her six year old daughter and moved from California back to her home town of Wind Canyon, Wyoming. She got a job at the local paper, and found a small cottage for rent. She doesn't realize until she's moved int the cottage that it, and the ranch it sits on, belong to Jackson Raines, who she humiliated in front of half the school one day when they were teenagers.

Jackson returns home from a trip to discover that his housekeeper has rented out the empty cottage that sits on his ranch to the girl he had a crush on in high school. When he had asked her to prom, she laughed in his face. He'd heard that she'd ended up marrying rich, which was apparently what mattered to her.

Jackson was a great character. He's pulled himself up from an impoverished childhood, made a lot of money working as a geologist, and now is living out his dream of running his own ranch. I like ranchers. He's also ex-military, and I like ex-military. He's not brooding or angtsy or arrogant (though he does tell Sarah he's a demanding lover, but that was not ever really backed up on the page). Which is ok,as he's got enough other stuff going for him.

He's hugely attracted to Sarah, though a little gun shy at first, still smarting from her rejection of him way back when. Like so many heroes in these romances, he thinks he has a good life and isn't necessarily looking for a wife, or a relationship even, or worrying about having a family just yet.

Enter Sarah. I liked her, though she didn't stand out too much over any other romance heroine. In high school she did care about money and her social status, and even though she had a bit of a crush on Jackson she rejected him out of fear of what her friends would think. In California Andrew sweep her off her feet, but the only good that ended up coming out of their her marriage was her daughter, Holly. Who I also liked – she's a cute kid, without being a precocious and too precious plot moppet. Now Sarah is just desperate to create a stable home for herself and her daughter, but an associate of her late husband has been hassling and threatening her about some disc he thinks she has. But she keeps all that a secret from Jackson at first, until the cottage is broken into and trashed. Andrew was involved in a lot of shady illegal business, which Sarah was well aware of, even if she didn't know the actual details. So I thought she was a little naive to think that she could just move away and the harassing business associate wouldn't find her or continue to harass her.

At the same time, I understood her need to establish independence for herself and not just rely on Jackson to take care of everything for her. And after the abuse she went through at Andrew's hands, the last thing she wants is another man in her life. Even so, it was a little frustrating the way she kept getting close to Jackson, and then pushing him away. Luckily he's a patient man.

Some of the plot,with the criminals after Sarah and the search for the disc, and Sarah refusing to involve any type of law enforcement even though it becomes apparent she and Holly are both in danger, seemed a little far fetched. But overall the story and the writing were enjoyable and I probably would whizzed through the whole book in just a couple of days if I hadn't been reading another book on my Kindle app during the day, and this one at night. Jackson's brothers both come in and out of the story, and they get their own stories in the next two books, and I'm already 66 pages into Gabe's book, AGAINST THE FIRE, and looking forward to Dev's book, AGAINST THE LAW.