Joanna Wayne

A fast-paced book spanning a mere five days that kept me intrigued from start to finish. Josette hasn't returned to New Orleans since her mother disappeared during Mardi Gras the previous year. Now she's headed for her best friend's wedding, with a side of looking for answers.

Keenan is an FBI agent on medical leave after being injured. He is the best man at the wedding where Josette is the maid of honor. He first noticed her on the flight to New Orleans, though his attempt at flirting show more didn't get him very far. It was when they arrived that they learned of their connection.

I loved the scenes with Josette, Addison (the bride), and the other bridesmaids. Friends during college, they are still close, and I enjoyed their light-hearted reminisces. The wedding preparation scenes in popular New Orleans locations were terrific, especially with the added excitement of Mardi Gras. I liked that the reason Josette was there was nicely balanced with the mystery.

Almost as soon as Josette arrives in New Orleans, rumors circulate that the missing Isadora will stage a triumphal return. The local detective, Max, knows nothing about it and cautions Josette not to get her hopes up. When someone has been missing that long, the outcome is rarely good.

Meanwhile, Josette tries to contact her father, Antoine, a shrimper on a nearby bayou. She's disturbed by his refusal to see her and more so by the news he shares with her. Max offers to go with her as moral support when she plans to visit him. Their trip to Alligator Cove raises more questions than answers. Mixed in among wedding activities, Josette and Keenan put their minds to finding out what Antoine is hiding, and when they do, why it doesn't make sense.

The stakes go up when a woman's body is found floating in the bayou, and Keenan and Josette run into danger while searching a deserted cabin. The final confrontation is a nail-biter but leaves one central question unanswered. Because of the length of time elapsed, the why of the explanation was no surprise when the resolution came. After all was said and done, it was a bit anti-climactic, but I still enjoyed it.

I loved seeing the relationship between Keenan and Josette develop. The sparks of attraction were there from the moment they met, but doing anything about them didn't seem like a good idea. After the wedding, Keenan would return to DC, and his job with the FBI, and Josette would return to Nashville and her successful career as a fashion designer. But Keenan's protective instincts were aroused and second only to his desire to spend as much time as possible with Josette.

After a year of dealing with various law enforcement types, Josette isn't inclined to trust Keenan initially, but it isn't long before he wins her over. I loved how Keenan was there to support her however she needed it. Over the time they spent together, their attraction continued to grow, leading to some very intense kisses and an unexpected deepening of the feelings growing between them. While the danger they experienced made them realize they didn't want to be apart, they still needed to figure out how to make it happen. show less

Good conclusion to the series. Carolina is the mother of the men from the first three books of the Big D Dads series. She is also the neighbor of R.J. Dalton and a good friend of his. She was instrumental in reuniting him with his estranged children, Jake being the only holdout. She has tried several times to get Jake to visit R.J. without success, and considers him to be a cold-hearted man to ignore his dying father. She's surprised when Jake offers his ranch as a training site for her show more at-risk teen program.

Jake is the widower father of a teenage girl. He has a successful ranch and a good life. However, he is tired of Carolina's nagging attempts to get him to reconcile with his father. He has his reasons for his attitude, and she isn't going to change his mind. He figures that a rich socialite like she is has her own motivations and he isn't interested in helping her with them. He's surprised to discover that she's in charge of the at-risk program and isn't too sure about having her on his ranch. But he figures he can stay out of her way for the short time she'll be there.

Things change when he witnesses Carolina and her friend Mildred being threatened by Mildred's ex-husband. He steps in to protect them. When he later learns of further threats against Carolina, he discovers an unexpected determination to keep her safe. There is also an attraction that he hasn't felt for another woman since the death of his wife.

I really enjoyed the development of the relationship between Jake and Carolina. Both of them had had definite opinions about each other, based on the few meetings they'd had. It didn't take long for them to discover that the truth was vastly different. I liked seeing Jake get surprised by each new thing he learned about her and start to see her in a new light. Carolina has not been involved with anyone since her husband's death, certain that he had been the only one she would ever love. Jake was never on her radar that way until she spent time with him. I liked seeing him demolish her opinions of him with the way that he cared for his daughter and his relationships with others. Both of them were strong individuals with their own way of doing things. I loved seeing them cooperate and compromise during their efforts to track down Thad. That also extended to the feelings that were growing between them, as they both dealt with the strength of them. Both were a bit tentative about trusting what was happening, but willing to see where it would go. In the end, both realize that life can be too uncertain and embrace what they have found.

The suspense of the story was good, with the looming danger of the man who had a grudge against Carolina. The danger is obvious from the beginning as his actions and thoughts are revealed. Jake and Carolina are determined to find him and put an end to his threats. I liked that they didn't go it completely alone, that they involved the sheriff and others all along the way. Everything that they found out just added to the sense of impending danger. Even when it looked like he was far away, there was still enough uncertainty to keep me turning the pages. The final confrontation was intense and fast paced with a very satisfying resolution.

One of the things I enjoyed most of all was that Carolina and Jake were older than the usual romance couples. It was great to see that, at fifty-five, she is still considered to be a vibrant and sexy woman. Though I don't recall Jake's age being mentioned, it seems to be close to that of Carolina's. He is also still quite attractive to the ladies.

I also enjoyed the secondary characters of Lizzie, Edna and Mary. I felt bad for Jake as he was trying so hard to be a good dad for Lizzie, but was out of his depth dealing with her actions and attitude. I thought she was portrayed quite well, and the cause of her behavior was believable. I loved Edna's running of the ranch house and how everyone hopped to her bidding. Her awe of Carolina was pretty sweet. Jake's mom Mary was fun with her stories of her travels. I also liked seeing her with R.J. at the end of the book.

The only problem I had with the book was that there were several places where the wrong man's name was used. This was jarring enough to pull me out of the story for a moment as I'd have to reread to see if I had missed something. show less

Reread to see if it was as bad as I remembered and this time couldn't finish it.
The book is full of plot holes and illogical thoughts and actions.
TSTL heroine, who e.g. accepts a tel. nr provided by a guy claiming to be an FBI agent to check up on him instead of an ID. When told by an FBI agent to drive away if she hears shots, she instead gets out of her car to watch the firefight between the agent and the person trying to kill her from a balcony. She also keeps on saying she wants to go to show more a hotel, claiming it is safer than her house because the killer will not be there.
The FBI agent isn't much smarter either, e.g. insisting the killer is a serial killer even when every bit of evidence points another way. show less

Good book with excellent suspense. Hadley is going through the nightmare of kidnapped daughters when Adam reappears in her life. He has come to offer whatever assistance she needs, just because he has never forgotten her and the love he had for her. He's shocked to discover that he's their father, but it only makes him more determined to find them.

I liked Adam a lot. He's in Dallas for the reading of his father's will, only to discover that he's not dead but has used the ruse to get all his show more children together. While there, Adam hears about the kidnapping and rushes to Hadley's side to offer her what support he can. He is stunned when Hadley reveals that he's their father. As they work together to find the girls, Adam realizes he still loves her. I loved the way he so fully supports her while the whole thing is going on. He also finally opens up to her about what has happened to him and why he took the actions he did.

Hadley is terrified over the loss of her daughters. When Adam appeared at her door she was shocked, but she found herself leaning on him right away. His strength was about all that was keeping her together. She felt guilty about not telling him that the girls were his, so she finally let him know. Having him there helping her made her realize that she had never stopped loving him. I really liked the way that she got him to open up to her and that she didn't let his injuries bother her.

The romance took second place to the suspense itself. I was hooked from the very beginning. It was easy to relate to Hadley's fear and her frustration with the lack of progress that the police were making. There were glimpses of the kidnapper, but not enough early on to get a good sense of who it was. There were several possibilities and I was kept guessing until nearly the end. I could see how furious Adam and Hadley were over the detective's apparent focus on her as a suspect. I really didn't like his focus on Hadley as it made him look like he wasn't really looking at other possibilities. Things got really intense as it got closer to ransom time. There were a couple interesting twists at the end.

I enjoyed the character of Adam's dad RJ. He's made a lot of mistakes in his life and is now trying to make up for them. As this is the first book in the series, there is a little bit of his backstory at the beginning. I liked his attitude while Adam and Hadley are at his ranch, and how he was helping them. It goes a long way toward helping heal his relationship with Adam. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Only issue with the book is Harlequin's continued unwillingness to properly capitalize Marine in its books. show less