I was new to HelenKay Dimon with this book. This is another romantic suspense recommended at RT, this time for its strong heroine. So again I delved into the romantic suspense genre.

Emery Finn is definitely strong. She’s not afraid of confronting a man who clearly thinks of himself as in control. She’s not totally stupid about it—arming herself with a bat when she goes to see what he thinks he’s doing by sitting in a car watching her apartment.

Now, the fact that Wren is watching is a little creepy, it’s true. But that’s the field he’s in—surveillance, tracking down, “fixing” stuff, and the like. Normal in romantic suspense, not so much in straight-up contemporary. So I went with it. He’s dark and more than a little socially awkward, but not in the nerdy way. Emery teases him for not being human, or even being a little robot-like, which he resents. But he’s so used to being in control of himself that he has sort of lost touch with the normal-person part of himself.

The plot is pretty interesting, dealing with the disappearance of Emery’s cousin/best friend back when they were tweens. Emery’s been desperate to find out what happened to Tiffany since then—thirteen years. Even her career choice was influenced by the disappearance. I admit I was never entirely sure exactly what her job was, but she works for an agency that helps other people track down missing people, using databases and whatnot. However, the reason she comes into contact with Wren is that Tiffany’s father had Wren’s name among the various files and such he’d compiled in searching for his daughter. Her serious digging on him brings him out of the woodwork. Tiffany’s disappearance therefore forms the backbone of the story. The mystery of what happened isn’t too hard to unravel, but it’s still entertaining to watch it unfold.

After Emery and Wren first encounter each other, the interest is there, though Emery does a better job of denying it in her head for a while than Wren does. Still, it’s a relief when they do finally hook up for the first time. Dimon has a deft hand with the love scenes. They’re long and luscious and you always know what’s happening, but she leaves out a lot of the almost clinical detail that a lot of authors include. They’re a joy to read.

The characters are, as I’ve implied above, interesting and well-developed, although Emery’s deep emotional needs are more transparent than Wren’s. Still, Wren is compelling and his behavior is justified by his wounds. Overall, Dimon’s a very good writer and if you’re a fan of romantic suspense or very mysterious men, you’ll like this one.

Now, I don’t read a lot of romantic suspense, but I got an ARC of this book when I was at RT this year. We actually discussed one of the author’s earlier books in one of the sessions in my writing boot camp at RT, too, and it sounded good. This is a spinoff series. The book comes highly recommended, with recommendations from Charlaine Harris among others.

Theo is a small-town Colorado K9 officer whose partner has just died suddenly. He’s also inherited his partner’s dog and they’re not bonding very well. Theo is in general not coping very well—he’s just sort of going through the motions. Even his new K9 partner is suffering because of Theo’s partner’s death; he’s struggling to fulfill his K9 duties even as Theo tries to get him working again. Despite all this, the moment Theo sees the new server at the local diner, he’s intrigued. He knows she’s hiding something and that he should therefore stay away, but he doesn’t.

The secret that Jules is keeping is that she kidnapped her four siblings (taking them out of an abusive home situation), got five new identities, and brought them to Colorado to hide. So she’s a very young woman trying to take care of kids in junior high and high school, all while knowing that if they get caught, not only will she go to prison, but they’ll all go back to their crap home situation. Understandably, Theo makes her very, very nervous.

But of course they can’t resist each other. The attraction between them is clear and well-portrayed, even though I personally don’t find Theo that appealing. He is kind of jerk to everyone but Jules, because he is emotionally damaged by the death of his partner (and, not long before that, his own K9 partner). Jules, on the other hand, is definitely likable. She’s trying so hard to support herself and her siblings that you can’t help but feel for her.

One thing about the book that disappointed me was a distinct lack of strong resolution regarding the cop vs. kidnapper conflict, which I felt seriously detracted from a true HEA. But I don’t know, maybe this is acceptable in romantic suspense. After all, some things can’t realistically be reconciled. So if you enjoy romantic suspense, especially if you also like cops and/or dogs, you’d probably enjoy this book and the series. If I liked the subgenre more, I’d pick up the second book or even the original series that this one spun off of.