Three Stars

Romantic suspense novels are my favorite treat. I love reading about a couple falling in love while bullets are flying and the adrenaline is *ahem* pumping. So I was really excited to start my first book by Piper J. Drake. FIERCE JUSTICE follows Jason, a repenting mercenary for hire, and Arin, a K9 handler on a search and rescue special ops team. The three of them (counting Arin’s dog) are rushing to break up a human trafficking ring.

What I liked: I don’t want to spoil anything, but I thought the last quarter of this book was solid in both action and relationship building. I enjoyed watching Arin and Jason make it work by overcoming obstacles through compromise and discussion, not by those obstacles magically disappearing. I also thought Jason’s devotion to Arin was adorable. I loved being in his head when he was thinking about how badass and awesome she is.

What didn’t work for me: As much as I enjoyed the last quarter of the book, the first part didn’t grab me. I didn’t feel like Arin and Jason had any real chemistry, and I really couldn’t connect with Arin. I could tell that he was into her, but she was almost too introverted and contained. It made her seem like she lacked depth until much later in the book. The action plot was a little convoluted and it took me a while to figure out, or really care, what the primary objective was. To put my reading experience in perspective, it took me four days to read the first 75% of this book and 1.5 hours to read the last 25%. That’s how disproportional it was for me.

Overall, I thought this was a fine romantic suspense novel. I liked the dedication to diversity and the K9 layers to the story. The author has obviously done her research. I was intrigued by the lead in to the next book but I am still undecided as to if I will read it.

**I received an ARC of this book in order to provide an honest review**

Find/Follow me on Twitter and Instagram!

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon