carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I enjoyed this romance quite a bit. This is the third book in Piper J. Drake's True Heroes series but it can easily be read as a stand-alone. I haven't read any of the other books from this series and I had absolutely no problems jumping in with this one. I picked this book up on a day that I was home waiting to get some repairs done because I thought it fit my mood that day. I was right. I consumed this entire book in a single day and had a great time with it.

When Raul gets a call for help from Mali, a friend and co-worker's sister, he doesn't hesitate to come to her aid. Raul works at Search and Protect along with his partner Taz, a German Shepherd. He is brand new on the job and hasn't even officially started when he gets the call from Mali but he knows he needs to help. Mali is afraid. She has been in Hawaii doing research and her group had to scatter. She believes that people may be after her and she fears for the safety of her group.

This book had plenty of action to keep things really interesting. There were some pretty intense scenes that really kept the pace of the book moving forward. I thought that the action was nicely balanced out by the scenes that were more character-driven. I really enjoyed getting to know Raul, Mali, Taz, and the rest of the crew. It was very interesting to see what motivated them to act. I loved the fact that Taz was such a well-developed character that played a huge part in the story. I am a sucker for books that involve dogs and I thought that Taz added a whole lot to the story.

I liked the chemistry between Raul and Mali. I enjoyed the romance in this story but I did feel like the action of the story felt like a larger focus. I liked that things moved a little slower and I thought that their chemistry was very well done. I was completely invested in seeing this pair figure out how to make things work long term.

I would recommend this book to fans of romantic suspense. The story does deal with human trafficking which may be hard for some readers. I found this story to be very entertaining and action-packed and therefore hard to put down. I would not hesitate to read more of well-done series.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Forever (Grand Central Publishing).

Initial Thoughts
I enjoyed this romance. This was the first book by Piper Drake that I have had the chance to read so I was very glad that this book worked well as a stand-alone. I thought that the characters were well done and there was a lot of excitement to keep things moving forward. I was really happy that the dogs were present throughout the story and that Taz played such a huge role. Raul and Mali were great together.