[BWF] Rescue Instinct by Fiona Quinn by Fiona Davis - 4 stars

[Theresa]

This really is a 5 star read though I gave it only 4 as the ending felt just a teeny bit abrupt and a few plot points a little lacking for me. But the author does a fantastic 5 star job of incorporating interesting and timely research and information into what is a K-9 romantic thriller.

Mace and his gorgeous K-9 Diesel are part of an international disaster search and rescue team that's at its Caribbean headquarters om St. Kitts when he answers an SOS from a friend whose sister Tara is on a small island, Dominica, just south of St. Kitts. Tara, an environmental scientist engaged in research alone on the side of a volcano, has not made her weekly check-in call, and the family is worried, especially her mother. Learning that Dominica's underwater communications cables were severed accidentally, Mace and some of his teammates along with their K-9s head to Dominica, combining checking in on both Tara and the island's emergency liaisons with a training exercise. Besides Tara and Mace having an instant emotional connection - this is a romantic thriller - it becomes clear that a monster hurricane, two months before hurricane season, likely caused by the warming of the oceans, is forming and heading their way. And, as if that's mot enough deadly danger, a group of criminals enters the picture, ones who will not stop at murder if they don't get what they want.

Tara is a warrior queen, an awesome heroine, so enjoyable to meet. Mace is outshone by his dog Diesel, of course. But one expects that. While I spotted the secondary criminal gang plot very early, and the dangers posed from it, it didn't matter in the least to my enjoyment. Quinn puts so much fascinating background information into this series, on things that matter - here it's climate change, warming of the oceans, and a number of environmental issues and the dedicated scientists who with baby steps, are finding ways to reverse environmental damage. It's the advances being made in hurricane studies to provide better predictions of size and direction. It's also how search and rescue operates during hurricane season, how K-9s have an important role.

And it's also about that instinct one has when a loved one is in danger, and how playing a game called Survival in one's youth that can provide you with tools to literally survive an octopus wrapping around you out of curiosity or even landing in quicksand.

The romance is expected, just lightly smutty and lovely. Diesel it turns out isn't perfect - he snores.

BWF - Letter $ only