Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle Series: Search and Rescue #1
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on April 5, 2016
Genres: Contemporary RS
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Source: Advance Reader Copy
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In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...
As the captain of Field County's ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise "Lou" Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he's never felt more alive...even if keeping her safe may just kill him.
Lou's new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she's determined to make it on her own terms...no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themselves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou-and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.
Lou has moved to a small town in Colorado to escape her controlling ex, and her family. She’s a Connecticut girl who’s followed her mother and step-father’s plan for her to the point of dating whom they tell her to, going to whatever schools they pick, and even becoming an attorney!
But she’s tired of being a doormat. She doesn’t want to be a lawyer, she doesn’t want to keep dating the man they’ve picked, and when she overhears her step-father guaranteeing that she’ll marry the man, she finally realizes she’s done.
However it’s not that easy to escape the family or the ex-boyfriend who has never taken no for an answer.
Lou decides she wants to be a part of the search and rescue team, and since she’s been scuba diving since she was young, she knows she has the skills. Even though it’s icy cold and snowy, and completely different from diving in the warm tropical weather, she knows she can do it, and she knows it’s what she wants. For the first time, she’s doing something for herself. And as cold as that water is, it’s amazing.
Callum is Lou’s boss, and he’s a no-nonsense kind of man. He’s so orderly and regimented, she figures the stick up his butt is permanent. (side note: he reminded me of my husband so much I had no trouble at all picturing him LOL). Callum is running a drill with the team when Lou knocks loose a dead body. A headless dead body.
Lou and Callum keep getting thrown together, and soon we see that Lou has a stalker. A none-to-subtle stalker. Callum has begun to feel protective of her, and won’t let her leave his sight.
The romance was really well-done, the writing is enjoyable, and the characters are likeable. I ended up grabbing both the next book, and the prequel novella.
I think you guys will like this one, and the prequel is free. Amazon link- On His Watch
***ARC courtesy of Sourcebooks Casablanca
