Review: Western Romance with Strong Characters and Great Suspense
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2014
“Wilder than the Rest” starts out in a burst of action; Pierce MacLaren and his partner in the United States Secret Service, Mollie Jamison, are using their wits to catch a counterfeiter. They succeed—and vow never to work together again. The only problem is, the next proposed job offers a considerable sum of money—and the two must pose as a married couple in an opulent hotel in San Francisco, getting close to the wealthy to investigate and carry out their next mission. Soon Mollie and Pierce are on their way to San Francisco, attracted to each other in spite of themselves.I liked how the suspense in this novel works on two levels—first, if Pierce and Mollie will overcome their headstrong preconceptions about each other and get together, and second the mission itself, which ends up being much more important and dangerous than they could have imagined when they started. Both are likeable characters—Pierce is a sexy, confident leading man with an inner soft side, and Mollie is determined to remain her own woman; she’s spunky, smart, but still vulnerable from a hardscrabble childhood. There’s also a nice and poignant secondary romance between the two other agents, Eva and Lee, who are on the job.“Wilder than the Rest” is the sixth book in the MacLarens of Fire Mountain series and the first one I’ve read, but it worked well for me as a standalone novel (the point of that opening sentence being don’t skip this one over just because you haven’t read the others!) Recommended to readers who enjoy Western romance with a little sensuality, strong characters, and a lot of adventure.