A K-9 cop and Colton nanny come under fire A Coltons of Red Ridge romance Officer Dante Mancuso pursues justice with only the company of his K-9 partner. But when tragedy strikes, the bewildered bachelor winds up with custody of his infant nieces. Desperate for help, Dante hires heiress Gemma Colton to help him care for the little girls. As they grow closer caring for the babies, shadows from … babies, shadows from their respective pasts threaten their growing bond.
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Colton’s Twin Secrets is the first novel I’ve read in the multi-authored The Coltons of Red Ridge series, and, since I’ve been a fan of author Justine Davis for decades, what an excellent read it was. Since I don’t often stay awake until 7:00 a.m. because I simply couldn’t put this novel down, it gets 5 stars from this reader.
K9 police officer, Dante Mancuso, our hero, was born on the wrong side of the tracks and into a family of career criminals. He leads a rather solitary life with his K9 bloodhound, Flash, and if you’re a dog lover and a Justine Davis fan, you’re already aware of her canine-centered Cutter’s Code series, which I highly recommend, since the dogs in her books are as much characters in her novels as the hero and heroine, and that’s certainly the case in this novel. The only career Dante ever wanted was that of becoming a police officer, preferring to live a life enforcing the law to his family’s tradition of breaking the law.
Gemma Colton, our heroine, is the youngest daughter of the wealthy and powerful Colton family, scions of wealth, privilege and power, and she is in love with Devlin Harrington, also uber-wealthy and privileged, so she knows he’s not after her money. While she’s dreaming of a storybook life with him, at his father’s behest, he’s expected to produce an heir, preferably male, to keep his family’s business enterprises in the family, and socialite Gemma doesn’t seem to fit the maternal mold, and so he ends their relationship, leaving her shocked, angry, and hurt, and desperate to prove him wrong.
When Dante’s lawbreaking brother, Dominic, and his wife, Agostina, are killed in a suspicious car crash, Dante’s life is about to change in a major way. In their will, Dominic and his wife gave custody of their 6-month old, twin girls to Dante, who hasn’t a clue what to do with them, and is in search of a nanny, and heiress, Gemma Colton, who is as unlikely a nanny candidate as he could hope to find, wants to prove her ex-boyfriend wrong so that he’ll reconsider their relationship and take her back, and Dante’s sudden emergency gives her the perfect opportunity to do so. While he agrees to give her a chance, having no other options, he doesn’t have high hopes for Gemma’s longevity as the twins’ nanny, but soon Gemma moves into Dante’s condo, and into his life, and what shocks them both is her ability to relate to, work with, bond with and love his adorable twin nieces, and Dante soon sees that there’s a lot more to Gemma than what he’s read about her in the society pages.
When it becomes clear that Dominic’s car crash was no accident, and Dante becomes immersed not only in that case, but also in the case of the lawbreaking Larson brothers and the mysterious serial Groom Killer, the action in this novel heats up, and so does the relationship between Dante and Gemma, and their slow-growing attraction to one another is as perfectly paced, as the suspense in this novel, and things really heat up when Gemma and the twins become targets, and Gemma protects them with her own life, raising Dante’s respect and admiration for her, as well as his attraction to her, and the feelings between them are becoming mutual in a way neither of them ever expected.
Few authors write romantic suspense novels as well as Justine Davis, and this novel is a fine example of that. As stated at the outset, I couldn’t put this novel down because the characters and their affection and respect for one another were so compelling. It was, quite simply, an excellent read and I highly recommend it.
I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel, which somehow got lost in my Kindle back in 2018, but better late than never. The opinions expressed are my own.
K9 officer Dante Mancuso worked hard to pull himself away from the criminal life of his family and only trusted his K9 partner. That was until the death of his brother and sister-in-law left him as guardian to their 6-month-old twin girls. He didn’t know anything about babies and needed help fast.
Wealthy socialite, Gemma Colton, was seeing a man she thought she was going to marry. Until he broke up with her because he thought she didn’t have an ounce of maternal instinct. To prove him wrong, she became Dante’s live-in nanny. It’s not long before she realizes she does have maternal instincts. She really likes caring for the babies – and their uncle, too.
When the lives of Gemma and the twins are threatened, Dante hopes he can keep them safe. The babies and Gemma have come to mean a lot to him.
Romantic suspense fans will like this book. The mystery kept me wondering how everything would turn out and the romance was wonderful!
What a good book! I haven’t read any of the Colton books until this one. Colton’s Twin Secrets can be read as a stand-alone, however reading it made me want to read the other books in the series. Dante Mancuso was a great hero. I thought his reactions were very realistic when he suddenly became responsible for twin babies. I really, really liked Gemma too. And of course, Flash. I loved this book!
4 1/2 STARS!
A life they never expected! With another trip to Red Ridge, we get the story of a cop out to track down the troublemaking Teflon Twins who gets sidetracked with a personal crisis and gets aid from none other than Gemma Colton. A little less intrigue in this one than we might have become used to in a Red Ridge story, but the adorable life with twin babies makes up for it with the heartstring pulling it brings. A really sweet one!
K-9 officer Dante Mancuso is used to life with just his partner Flash by his side, but when an accident happens, he finds himself suddenly the guardian of his infant twin nieces. He’s a single guy with no immediate plans for settling down, so what does he know about babies? Absolutely nothing … and panic is ensuing!
Heiress Gemma Colton is tired of being thought of as an air-head with nothing to offer, and she’s determined to somehow find a way to prove that she can be a wife and mom like the best of them when she decides she wants to be. Dante’s emergency gives her the perfect opportunity to step in and offer her services as the live-in nanny he desperately needs. Before long, she finds herself liking the baby girls and their sexy uncle a little bit too much!
I received a free advanced copy of this book from the Netgalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.
This is a round robin like series, with each book penned by a different author. The Colton family has a large presence in Red Ridge, some of the branches wealthy, some not so much and even some on the criminal side.
K9 office Dante Mancuso’s family are all criminals, but that was not the life he wanted to live. He has worked hard to pull himself away from that life and only trusts his bloodhound partner, Flash. While working on a case, his brother, Dominic and sister-in-law, in the wrong place and the wrong time are killed in an auto “accident” and Dante finds himself the guardian of their 6 month old twin girls.
Gemma Colton, youngest daughter of wealth Fenwick Colton, has been dating wealthy Devlin Harrington, after having dogged many men who were really out for her trust fund or connection to her father. But he breaks it off, claiming it is because she has no maternal instinct. To show him she does, she volunteers to be the nanny for the twins. And finds out that her instincts were there all along, just the man was wrong. When the lives of Gemma and the twins are threatened, Dante realizes the gift his brother gave him, but can he keep them all safe and can he get over Gemma’s wealthy background?
On the pro side, the characters were well developed and appealing, so the reader cares what happens to them and the scenario, intriguing. Since I have read some of the previous books, I am already familiar with some of the characters and “The Groom Killer”, but new readers would be confused, so it would have been helpful, especially since the previous books were written by other authors, to have some sort of Cast of Characters or Prologue. That some many male characters had names begining with D, was very confusing. In addition, there was no secret about the twins, so the title, really doesn’t work.