In Don’t Play With Odin, the heroine’s best friend was nearly killed by a serial killer. She’d been left for dead in the Gulf of Mexico. Whitney didn’t die, but once she was found, the past six months or so were gone from her memory. This is Whitney’s book.
Whitney knows she’s missing something big from her life, even though she doesn’t quite know what. To an extent, that’s to be expected with amnesia, but this is more than that. It’s a feeling that while her friends and family, and even her job have all embraced her as if no time has passed. They missed her and they are so happy she’s alive, that she’s okay, that she’s back. But…she’s not really okay. She’s missing a huge piece of her life. She hires Trouble For Hire, Odin specifically, since he’s her best friend’s man. And while he knows what’s going on, she tells him something that he doesn’t know. She’s pregnant. The baby was conceived before she was dumped in the ocean and nearly drowned. This means that only one person can be the father, and that one person, wants nothing to do with her.
Ramsey has left Whitney alone, knowing that she doesn’t need his kind of trouble in her life. He’s a criminal. Or at least he was. He runs a shady bar in a sketchy part of town, and lots of people are afraid of him. She’s a professor at the local university, she’s respected and well-liked…and she’s too good for Ramsey. When he went to see her in the hospital, she didn’t remember him, and he felt that was his chance to leave her life for the better. But it wasn’t better. She knew she was missing something, and that something was him.
Whitney , in the mean time, has had some roses delivered to her house and to her work, and thinks they’re from Ramsey. Spoiler alert: they aren’t. The main reason Ramsey felt her life would be better with a fresh start, without him, is because he has a lot of enemies who would love to hurt him. If they hurt Whitney, they would truly hurt him. So by staying away, he is protecting her. She just doesn’t know it.
But as they progress, so does the danger. And when the danger becomes something Whitney can’t ignore, or mentally explain away, it’s a good thing Ramsey is there. Little does he know, though, that he’s not alone. He has a team of guys, friends, who want to help. I think my favorite scene was where all the guys are gathered and in the same room, and it’s really touching and sweet. I loved this book, and I loved Ramsey and Whitney (especially after Ramsey got his head on straight and fought for Whitney). This author is always a win for me, and this book was an extra big giant win. I will always read a Cynthia Eden book.
This book may be an amnesia book (not typically my fave), but I feel it was handled really well. I loved how Whitney’s memories came in bits and pieces, or just a hard knowledge of something, even if the memory itself wasn’t there. This felt right for the heroine and right for the story. Cynthia Eden’s books are always well-researched, well-thought out, and well-written. This book is an excellent example of that. I am really looking forward to the next book in the Trouble For Hire series.
***ARC courtesy of the author via Netgalley
