Falling for the Deputy

and I'm not talking about the characters - I'm talking about me! I started this book really disliking the heroine. She's this pushy reporter who's trying to uncover dirt in the hero's life. And there is dirt in the hero's life, but it's well-deserved dirt due to his having been a soldier in Iraq. But as the story goes on, Chloe becomes altogether likeable. And the story betweent her and Mack - she has her own healing to do, and he helps her as much as she helps him - is totally believable. The story loses one star because it seems like there are pieces missing. I think maybe there was a prequel. Anyone who reads any of my reviews knows I subtract a star for publishers who make me go look for another book to finish a story. That torques me. (*)>

Western Carolina Sun reporter Chloe Atherton arrives in Applegate, North Carolina to do a story on the local sheriff's office. Deputy Sheriff Mack Whittaker is assigned escort duty, an assignment he detests especially since his mom keeps calling him with the same question did the reporter come yet. A Gulf War veteran, Mack wants his past to remain buried especially his need for atonement from his military days so he plans to keep the journalist focused on the department and not him. However, once they meet, neither can ignore the attraction between them so his strategy goes awry. Still, the consummate professional, Chloe keeps digging looking for the right angle to her story, which she believes is Mack's secret; whatever that is. Although she feels a bit guilty for her investigating as she has a whopper of a secret of her own. Chloe and Mack are a strong Carolina blue pairing as each has reasons to avoid a relationship, but shares one overarching motive to come together: love. The support cast adds eccentricity especially the sheriff's office and his interfering mom. Readers will enjoy this often amusing, but always serious contemporary as two people with a past fall in love. Harriet Klausner