Her ex-husband becomes her bodyguard in USA TODAY bestseller Cassie Miles’s gripping new suspense novel After his ex-wife witnesses a murder, FBI agent turned security specialist Sean Timmons steps in to be her bodyguard. One look at investigative reporter Emily Peterson and Sean is reminded why he fell in love with her years ago. But his beautiful, headstrong ex is being targeted by a crime … headstrong ex is being targeted by a crime lord–who Sean is determined to take down. Trapped in the Colorado mountains by a blizzard, the former Mr. and Mrs. Timmons rediscover each other with red-hot passion. But a cold-blooded killer is waiting to stop them from uncovering evidence–and ever saying “I do” again.
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Overall, this was a good book, but the book blurb isn’t exactly accurate. Though the book started in the Colorado mountains near Aspen, and there was a blizzard at the time, the blurb implies that they were trapped. In reality, the storm kept them housebound for a few days; then they promptly left for San Francisco, where they spent the remaining ninety percent of the book. In the years since their divorce, Emily turned from writing poetry and became an investigative reporter. In her latest investigation, she went undercover investigating human trafficking and ended up witnessing a murder. She left San Francisco to hide out at her aunt’s ranch in Colorado until she figures out what to do. Her aunt decided Emily needed a bodyguard and called TST Security and hired Sean – who just so happened to be Emily’s ex-husband. Neither was particularly happy with the idea. But once Sean knew what was going on, there was no way he could leave her unprotected.
Though Sean and Emily have been divorced for a long time, it’s obvious from the beginning that there is still something between them. Their divorce happened because both were too wrapped up in their own jobs to understand the other one’s point of view. Emily hated Sean’s work as an undercover FBI agent. She didn’t like that it took him away from what she saw as his rightful place at her side, being there for her (selfish much?). When he was there, he wouldn’t talk about it. Meanwhile, Sean saw Emily as a unicorns and rainbows, everything in the world is beautiful kind of person who refused to understand what he had to do. Other than chemistry, I’m not sure what they had in common back then.
The rekindling of their relationship did not go smoothly. Neither one wanted to revisit the pain of their marriage, but the chemistry was hard to ignore. They agreed on giving in to the physical but keeping emotion out of it. Emily came up with some “ground rules” that went out the window almost immediately. As they spent time together continuing Emily’s investigation, both of them realized that they had changed over the years. I liked seeing how each of them noticed the differences in the other, and also acknowledged their own parts in their marriage troubles. Over the next few days, they fought a good fight against falling again, but it was a losing battle. Sean accepted his feelings first but wasn’t sure he could get Emily to give them a chance. Emily’s self-revelation came at a moment of danger, and I laughed a little at her slightly loopy confession. Their decision about their future was made without any fanfare.
The suspense of the story was pretty good up until the end. It started with a bang as Emily witnessed the murder of one of the people she was investigating. After reporting what she’d seen to a contact at the FBI, she had to decide if she would step back or continue her investigation. I thought she was a bit naïve about the danger she was in until Sean laid it out clearly for her. I liked following along with the steps they took to get to the truth. Emily stirred up a hornet’s nest with her inquiries, and the attacks on her escalated. There were some interesting twists and turns as they got closer to the truth. The action ramped up as they witnessed a transfer and followed the bad guys. It looked like things were going to get interesting when the car Sean and Emily drove exploded, but all that lovely intensity sort of fizzled at the end. The bad guys got what was coming to them, but the takedown was anticlimactic.