Against The Wind

Kat Martin's Against the Wind

After the death of her abusive husband, Sarah Allen packs up everything and takes her daughter home to Wind Canyon, Wyoming.  Once there she moves onto Jackson Raines' ranch and begins a relationship with him.  However, her past refuses to let go when Sarah's husband's past illegal deeds follow her.  Business associates of Andrew Hollister want a list he made and believe Sarah knows where it is.

The first two chapters of this book really pulled me in, I felt Sarah's terror and held my breath to see if she could flee with her daughter before anyone caught her.   After that there were too many problems with the writing and storyline that pulled me out of the book.  First was the way the book was written.  The author Kat Martin also write historical romance and it comes through in her writing style.  At one point the hero, Jackson Raines is talking to his brother about wanting to "tumble" with Sarah.  Now in a Regency novel that conversation would flow.  In a contemporary between two 30-something men?  No, just no.  I cannot think of any guy that would use the word tumble when talking to another guy about sex. 

Next problem was the drama/suspense.  The back blurb leads a reader to believe that the book is about the kidnapping of Sarah's daughter, Holly.  It's not, the kidnapping doesn't happen until near the end of the book and takes up twenty pages of the story.  The suspense comes from men looking for a disk with some list and Sarah trying to find it before they do.  Sarah never wants to involve the police or authorities.  Even after her cottage is ransacked, her grandmother is attacked, and Sarah is approached and threatened on the street.  Too often I found that one had to suspend their belief in Sarah and Jackson's actions.

The third problem was the romance.  It felt too rushed, and lacked any oomph or depth.  Sarah and Jackson attended high school and have a bit of a history together.  They both liked each other but Sarah rejected Jackson.  But in present day even though Jackson is still bitter about it, they quickly become lovers and the author promptly glosses over their history in a sentence or two and everything is fine between them

There were other problems with the book like Sarah's worrying about her daughter's safety.  And yet completely willing to leave her with virtual strangers to head back to California with Jackson.  Then there is an addition of a logging company causing problems on Jackson's ranch that doesn't really go anywhere.  This book is definitely not a keeper for me and is going into the pile for the used book store.  However, I am still intrigued enough to want to read the next two books about the brothers Gabe and Devlin.