Review - Prey by Linda Howard

Thirty-two year old Angie Powell and wilderness guide has finally decided to put up her family business for sale.  Business has slowed down in the past two years due to the economy and the arrival of fellow wilderness guide, Dare Callahan.  Dare, a veteran of the war in Iraq, returned to Montana three years ago, is seen as a stronger more capable guide.

Angie has one more client to take on a hunt before she leaves town.  Things go horribly wrong for her though when Angie witnesses a murder and must deal with a rampaging black bear.  Luckily for her, Dare has set up camp near by.  Together, they must overcome their hard feelings and work together to get off the mountain.

I was a little leery about reading this book.  Something about spending time in the wilderness just does not appeal to me.  It's a lot of work, it can be cold, rainy, and too many bugs (and now apparently I have to worry about psycho bears).  When my friends talk about wanting to go camping my eyes glaze over and I start to dream of resorts with spas.    The book started off a little slow but things really started rolling once Angie started the hunt.  I made the mistake a deciding to read a little bit more at 11pm last night before I went to sleep.  I stayed up until 3am to finish it.  This book is a perfect (or almost perfect) example of  why I enjoy reading romance.  Not everything may be believable and the suspense may be lacking because the reader knows who the villain is, but I could not put it down.  I also enjoyed the little snippets of humour between Dare and Angie when they were on the mountain and the sex and sexual tension was not steaming hot, but warm enough!  Warning, if you do not enjoy reading anything remotely gory you might want to skim the parts that involve the bear.  I also admit that I found the suspense really lacking near the end of the book.  I wish there had been more time devoted to the villain tracking Angie and Dare.  Even with the minor nitpicks I loved this book, maybe not as much as Open Season or Mr. Perfect, but Prey cam pretty close.