R2R – In Safe Hands (Search and Rescue, #4) by Katie Ruggle

Copy received in exchange for an honest review

★Book Basics★

Genre: – Cont Romance
Series: – 4th in the series
Love triangle? – No
Cheating? – No
HEA? – Yes
Would I read more by this author/or in this series? – Yes
Rating – 5 stars

★Review★

Be warned this review may contain spoilers, as unless you have read book 3, which reveals the bad guy, then it is quite hard to review this book, without possibly giving away major spoilers, although I shall try my best. Although I am hoping if you are reading this review for book 4, then you have probably read book 3.

Anyway, once again, this author proves she can write a great romantic suspense book. I really like both main characters, and again, there is something a little different about the characters she writes.

The heroine here, is severely agoraphobic, and has not left her house in 8 years, since her mom was murdered in front of her when she was 16.

The hero, is her best friend (and oh how I love a friends to lovers story) and deputy sheriff Chris.
And I loved watching them together, how obvious it was that Chris felt more for Daisy. And how proud he was of her, when she makes even the tiniest step forward.

And Daisy was such a great heroine. She is surprisingly tough, and battled so hard in this book to overcome her demons and issues. They were a great couple.

With a supporting cast made up of previous couples (and once again, I adore Lou as a secondary character) it is great to revisit this little town.

Romance wise, it was a slow burn, but I really enjoyed savouring it. I was wishing for the book to not end in all honesty, as I have really enjoyed the series. Although in saying that the romance was a slow burn, it is more that it took them awhile to move from friends to lovers, but once they got to that point, the relationship felt a bit rushed. Chris has been around in previous books, but not as a huge supporting role character in all honesty, and Daisy was a completely new character, never even before mentioned. Given Daisy was 16 when her Mom was murdered, and Chris was the sheriffs deputy first on scene, there has to be an age gap of several years, and I would have maybe liked a bit more of their history. How they became friends, how Chris started visiting her etc.

And, if you have read book 3, you know who the bad guy is, and if like me, you were a little upset….it is not better here. We know, while the book characters do not, just who the bad guy is, which makes every appearance and interaction he has with the characters, tense and rather creepy. And, while I was shocked, in a way it makes sense, in one of those “oh but he was such a nice guy” kind of ways. There were times I was really conflicted and almost wanted him to escape and get away with it somehow, in a “oh yes he is a murderer but he had reasons” sort of morally ambiguous way.

But this is just why it was such a good series overall. We are feeling what the characters were feeling, a sense of disbelief, betrayal, shock, and overall a sense of sadness and grief for the person we thought they were. The overall suspense arc throughout the series has been wonderfully crafted, managing to avoid the pitfall of making the villain cartoonish and ott or make zero sense whatsoever, but to make us as the reader conflicted, shocked, and just damn sad at the tragedy of it all.

I was half hoping/expecting the dude would get a book before the reveal in book 3. Any other series he bloody well would have done. Unlike a lot of book villains, especially in the romance genre, he was not OTT Evil. He had seemed like a pretty stand up guy, and probably was in most of his life, there was just this one area of his life that he was blind to, and would do anything for.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the series, and if this is indeed the end, I am gutted to be leaving this group pf people. I really hope the author somehow plans on revisiting them all.

Amazon UK Link – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DMJHEMW
Amazon US Link – https://amzn.com/B01DMJHEMW