Series: Ivy Avengers (Book 1)"Romance and danger--worth the hype..."
Arizona Ivy won't stop until she gets her story. The fearless blonde is rebuilding her life--leaving Hollywood and heartbreak behind--to jump-start her journalism career. When a woman is abducted, she knows she has her big break, and wants the truth. If only the victim's ruggedly handsome brother wouldn't keep getting in her way.
Braden McCrae knows that danger isn't a game. A military weapons engineer, the tough, smart specialist can take on just about anything. But when his sister is kidnapped, he has to be extra careful. And he's not going to allow a sexy reporter to distract him. They'll have enough trouble taking down the arms dealer who has his sister. Passion could be a deadly distraction.
Okay book. I enjoyed the mystery portion but I had a hard time connecting with the characters. Braden's sister has disappeared after being accused of aiding an arms dealer. He knows there is something wrong so he goes to a friend for help. There he runs into Arizona, who is trying to get her life back together. Her fiance was kidnapped and murdered four years earlier and she is still battling guilt over it. She's also trying to build a life separate from her famous family and thinks being a "serious" reporter will do it. She is determined to stick with Braden and help him find his sister then do a story about it. There is attraction between them but both have baggage that is preventing them from taking advantage of it. I enjoyed the storyline dealing with arms dealers and human trafficking, but found the details of their involvement a little far fetched. Neither one has any kind of experience with this type of investigation. There's an interesting twist in the story that explains the sister's predicament.
Arizona is still trying to get over her fiance's death. She feels guilty, which spurs her on to trying different things to try to atone or just keep busy enough to not think about it. Her latest attempt is to give up her entertainment reporting and try to break into serious journalism. Her determination to help Braden find his sister so she can write the story is a bit insensitive of her. When she is nearly kidnapped Braden decides to keep her with him but is determined to keep his distance. I also found her vocal dislike of children to be pretty obnoxious. She just went on and on about how disgusting she finds children but has a total turnaround by the end. As the investigation went on she got more interested in Braden but was still clinging to her fiance's memory, afraid to take a chance. I liked that she wasn't afraid to jump in during the investigation. She had some good self defense skills that helped her and was smart enough to help figure things out. She did change some at the end which gives me hope for their future.
Braden is worried about his sister. He is sure that she has been unjustly accused and refuses to hear anything against her. He is attracted to Arizona when he meets her, but turned off by her attitude toward children and her wish to make a story out of his sister's troubles. He's not happy about involving her in his search but feels a need to protect her. He also finds his attraction to her growing but feels that the time is wrong for anything to come of it. He's only been divorced from his second wife for six months and doesn't want to jump into another relationship. I did feel that his abilities were a little more believable but involvement in a risk that big was a stretch. I liked the ending with the restarting of their relationship and how things are being resolved.
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