When I Find You, by Dixie Lee Brown

"If I were you, I'd find someone I could trust and stick with him ..."


Darcy may not be married to the mob, but she's close enough to feel the pressure. Too close. So when her boss becomes the victim of a professional hit and she's forced to run, she heads for the relative safety of home.  But being on the lam is just a bit more complicated than she thought because now there's not a soul she can trust. Not Grant, the good looking law student who offers her a lift. Not Cooper, the U.S. Marshall assigned to her case, and certainly not Walker, the rogue combat vet who claims to be one of the good guys. But surviving means she has to trust someone and Darcy picks the one man who seems the most interested in keeping her alive. And while she may be physically safe - for the moment - her emotional safety is far from secure.

Ms. Brown has a way with suspense; I didn't know who to trust either, up to almost the very end of the book. Her writing is precise, with just the right amount of snappy dialogue laced with humor and heat. Ms. Brown is adept at changing the point of view between the characters, particularly Darcy and Walker - and especially later in the book, when things were really rocking and rolling. This made up for some confusion in the first few chapters, when Ms. Brown backs up over the plot from the two different POVs. The technique is distracting as Darcy's desperation calls for nothing but rapid forward progress. Not a value add in terms of the story and, IMHO, it would have worked better without it. Despite all that, I adored the characterizations. Darcy's hidden strengths surprised me, while the hero's humanity and honor won me over completely. I loved the story, loved the characters and loved the book. Edge of your seat stuff, folks.  Well done!