Gone Pecan

Favorite Quote: “You are so impressive in so many ways.”

He didn’t want her under some misplaced delusion that he was more than himself, more than a hardworking guy, trying to do the right thing whenever he could. Especially with her. “I’m just a man.”

“Not even close.”

Arizona Storm is a victim of human traffickers. She was traded when she was seventeen years old and endured years of sexual slavery, being sold again and again, until one day she is rescued by Jackson, the hero in Savor the Danger, and her surrogate big brother. So, she understandably has a lot of trust issues. Jackson, Dare and Trace do a sort of vigilante justice work, mostly in the area of human trafficking.

Being around Jackson and his cronies, as well as her background, has made Arizona want to be in on their little gang, righting wrongs, kicking butt, that kinda thing. And she seems to be good at it, but, duh, she’s a WOMAN (oh, fragile creatures that are we), so the guys are hesitant to really let her get involved, especially if it means using herself and her body as a decoy.

On the fringes of their group is Spencer Lark. Spencer is very attracted to Arizona, but is cognizant of her past and the psychological/emotional toll she must be under because of it, so he tries not to get too close to her. Plus, at 21, she’s a little young for him and he may not quite be over the death of his wife. When she proposes they team up to check out a bar that may be in the human trafficking trade, with herself as bait, he’s kind of wary, but agrees because she’s gonna do it anyway.

This whole series has been dedicated to the subject of human trafficking (well, that and big, hunky alpha guys falling head over heels). Granted, not really what you want to read about to escape from everyday life, but Ms. Foster did an excellent job of handling such a delicate subject without going into the particulars of what Arizona and the others actually had to endure, which I don’t think I could have read about.

Spencer is my favorite hero in the series. What that man does to my imagination is…well, let’s just say that if you knew, you’d be blushing. He was very honorable and quietly delicate with Arizona, respecting her hang-ups and letting her set the pace. And he could not keep his hands off her. I loved that he never forced his attraction on her, because you would think that even an assessing glance would be innocuous, but coming from where Arizona did, even that could be considered a threat. He carried the burden of his lust for her without being obvious to her about it (but it didn’t escape the attention of the rest of the characters in the story).

Arizona is just something else, entirely. In a lot of romantic suspense books where the woman is in danger in some way, these crazy women will often be the one putting themselves in it, or, maybe more accurately, not turning away from it. This was true, too, of Arizona. However, I can understand it in this case. The past is a difficult hurdle to jump, and I’m glad her emotional recovery was not easily achieved in the matter of a few pages. She needed to be the one kicking the butts. She didn’t play the victim.

Arizona is probably one of my absolute favorite heroines. She was tough and vulnerable. Not only did she want to be in the middle of the fight, she could actually stand on her own. I loved that in the end, she was the one who saved the day. Sure, I wanted to throw a book at her or tie her to a chair, but she couldn’t be contained. She delivered on all her promises, she wasn’t comfortable letting the guys do all the work.

Overall, the book was funny and sad and thrilling. And the love story was believable and inspiring. Everything I was hoping for. I’m going to miss these characters.

5/5