Craving Heat
by Adrienne Giordano
Synopsis:
Maggie Kingston is a woman working in a man’s world…and doing a damn good job. Being Steele Ridge’s first female sheriff isn’t easy. Especially when your cousins are magnets for trouble. The Steeles do everything the hard way, but Maggie’s tougher than she looks. Nothing shakes this sheriff until her cousin brings one of his superstar players—and the accompanying media circus—to town. The press can’t get enough of the sexy quarterback. And neither can Maggie…
Jayson Tucker devoted his whole career to the New York Knights. So when the team takes a rookie’s side over his after a locker room brawl, he takes refuge from the spotlight. Except reporters aren’t the only ones after him. Someone wants Jayson benched. Permanently. When the threat becomes deadly, hiding won’t be enough. And in Steele Ridge, security comes in the luscious form of its gorgeous, no-nonsense sheriff.
Jayson’s always fought his own battles. The closer he gets to Maggie, the less he’s willing to risk her being caught in the crossfire. Yet Maggie is no damsel in distress. She’s more than capable of keeping her town—and her man—safe. But can she say the same about her heart?
Review:
A Steele Ridge spin off series–woot!
I love that Maggie Kingston’s story is first–she’s a female sheriff! And her cousin Reed’s main competition for the family record on his training center’s absolutely insane obstacle course! (She spends the entire novel trying to beat his time, but I’m not going to tell you if she makes it. You’ve got to read it yourself to find out. :D) Jay is the perfect match for her–she’s the only woman on the planet who will call him on his crazy, and he’s the only guy that can make her see that yes, sometimes she does go a little too far when she thinks she and only she knows the *right* way to get things fixed. (Okay, her mom and another cousin helped her here too. But it’s Jay that made her reconsider in the first place.) Together they’re just awesome–and his inner fixation with her handcuffs made me LOL. Every. Time.
The suspense part of the plot was solid–even though, looking back I can see that there were some clues to who the bad guy was, I still didn’t suspect until we found out for sure. I loved that Ms. Giordano had Maggie use cutting edge technology to find out who was behind it all, too–very timely!
Since this is the first in this spin-off series, you could absolutely start your Steel Ridge binge-read here. Many (most? maybe even all? I lost track) of the original series characters at least get a mention here, and several play a role in the story, but you don’t have to have read their books to enjoy this one. A word of warning, though–chances are that seeing them all interact here (I. Love. This. Family!) will increase your TBR dramatically. Not that this is a problem…and hey, it will give you something to do until the next series book comes out 🙂
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
