The Dangerous One

This audiobook is a spin-off of the last romantic suspense series by Lori Foster, The McKenzies of Ridge Trail. It is about Jodi, the friend of Kennedy who was the heroine of book 2. After some time working and training with the McKenzies and the trafficked women they rescued, Jodi wants the “everyday life for the everyday woman.” She buys a small home in need of rehab out away from people, but near a small town. The McKenzies set her up with a landscaping business. However, her home is not completely isolated. There is one other property down her dirt road, and it belongs to Hunter, who also move to an area of isolation, but near a small town after an experience with a pair of serial killers left him needing to be away from people. Despite wanting be annoyed with Jodi for encroaching on his isolation, he feels a kindred spirit in her and a draw toward her. He initiates a friendship, feeling protective of her, especially as she has caught the attention of some unsavory people in their small town. The story evolves from there as Hunter, Jodi, the McKenzies and Hunter’s brother work together to deal with whatever comes next. As usual, I enjoyed this book as I do all this author’s work. In crafting this story she describes a love affair which starts like the courting of a feral cat and gradually evolves into their happily ever after. Hunter and Jodi are able to help each other cope with the trauma in their pasts, but Jodi accepts that she will never be an “everyday woman.” Unfortunately, it lacked some of the suspense that the author’s books creates, placing it lower on my Lori Foster hierarchy, which lost it half a star. However, it is a good story and I look forward to the second book in this series, which I suspect will be about Hunter’s brother, Memphis. I had mixed feelings about the narrator for this audiobook. His voice was appealing when he was reading the story, and he used distinct voices for each character that he read. However, some of those voices sounded rather whiny, and characters like Kennedy and Madison from the last series were definitely not whiny women. This did detract some from my enjoyment of the audiobook, but not so much that I couldn’t appreciate the story he was reading. It did lose it a half star as an audiobook. All in all, I recommend this book for lovers of romantic suspense, but if whiny voices bother you, it might be better in book form.