Tuesday, October 8, 2013

In This Together - Kara Lennox (HS #1880 - Oct 2013)

Series: Project Justice (Book 8)

Desperate times call for desperate measures…

And Travis Riggs is way past desperate. With time running out to overturn his brother's wrongful murder conviction and stop his niece's adoption, Project Justice is Travis's last hope. But when his request for an interview is denied, he resorts to drastic measures -- kidnapping the founder's personal assistant, Elena Marquez.

Travis hadn't planned for any of this to happen, least of all the chemistry between him and Elena. Under different circumstances, they may have had a chance at a relationship. However, the last thing he wants is to drag her down with him, which is exactly what will happen if he accepts her help. Not that Elena is giving him much of a choice….


Good book.  Travis is getting desperate to get his brother out of prison in time to stop his niece from being adopted away from the family.  He's tried getting Project Justice involved but has run into problems with the online application and getting through by phone has been impossible.  Next he shows up at Daniel Logan's home, hoping to see him face to face.  Instead he gets Daniel's assistant, Elena, who he promptly tosses in his truck and drives off with, hoping to force Daniel to help him.  The kidnapping doesn't last long, with Travis regretting his actions immediately.  All Elena wants is a chance to help Travis clear his brother's name.

I really liked Elena.  She has been working for Daniel as his personal assistant for awhile and has a good feel for how things are done.  She is the one who takes the call when Travis shows up at the mansion and tries to get Daniel to listen, but he's on his way out to an emergency and just tells her to tell Travis to fill out the application.  When she goes down to tell him in person his frustration gets the better of him and he kidnaps her.  She's frightened at first, but soon learns that Travis isn't dangerous, just desperate.  Once the whole kidnapping thing is dealt with, Elena really wants to help Travis get the resolution he needs.  I loved the way that she uses her organization and research skills to try to help him.  She gets very frustrated with his refusal to accept the help she can give.  She is also very attracted to him which is adding a whole other layer to her frustration because he keeps saying he's not good enough for her.  I loved her persistence in keeping her eye on the goal of getting Travis's brother cleared and his niece back where she belongs.  There are also some great scenes with Elena's mother.  The ending was very satisfying and moving.

Travis is a man with a good heart and a problem with making some bad impulsive decisions.  One of those impulses got him some jail time, another one saw him married to a real piece of work, and the latest had him kidnapping Elena.  All he really wanted was a chance to get his request in front of the Project Justice people.  He had some real problems with the online application due to some learning disabilities and a definite aversion to asking for help doing something that should be easy.  As soon as he kidnapped Elena he knew he was in trouble but didn't know how to fix it.  Once he had convinced her that he really didn't want to hurt her he was surprised at how forgiving she was.  He was also surprised by her offer to help him.  He has a problem accepting any kind of help for two reasons.  First, his ex-wife had considered him a "project" and wasn't happy with him the way he was.  She kept trying to "help" him improve himself, so now he sees all offers of help as an indication that he isn't good enough.  Second, because of his jail time and background he doesn't think he deserves the kind of happiness that Elena's help could bring.  I have to admit that I got pretty frustrated with his constant negative attitude about himself.  It was great to see the way that she chipped away at that attitude, then really blasted him when it got to be too much for her.  I did like the way he came through at the end.

There was quite a bit of action also.  The kidnapping itself and Travis's efforts to evade being caught were pretty intense.  The most important action revolved around Travis's niece MacKenzie and his efforts to get her away from the foster family that is trying to adopt her.  There is definitely something fishy going on with them.  There are also multiple instances of vandalism to the house that Travis is renovating that seem to be tied to MacKenzie and Travis's brother's imprisonment.  It certainly kept me turning the pages to see how it was all going to work out.



No comments:

Post a Comment