Hi, everyone!
I have been posting Feature Post and Book Review blog posts on the Harlequin Investigators Blog Tour for all of these great reads throughout this month and the last.
Today I am sharing my blog post for COLTON K-9 TARGET (Coltons of Grave Gulch Book #8) by Justine Davis.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Come back throughout the month for more and enjoy!
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Book Description
Man’s best friend
…is this cop’s most trusted partner
New to the Grave Gulch Police Department, K-9 detective Brett Shea feels like an outsider among its many Coltons. Even Annalise, his dog’s trainer, is a Colton! But when she’s attacked by a man pretending to be her date, Brett vows to track down the criminal. Though he’s sworn off forever love—which is proving harder by the day—Brett will protect her at any cost.
Add Colton K-9 Target to your Goodreads!
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My Book Review
RATING: 3 out of 5 Stars
COLTON K-9 TARGET (Coltons of Grave Gulch Book #8) by Justine Davis is a romantic suspense in the Coltons of Grave Gulch series. This is the first Colton book I have read in this series and while the romance is enjoyable, I wish I would have read the previous books first. This series should be read in order and not as standalones.
Detective Brett Shea was happy to move to the small-town police force in Grave Gulch and become their first K-9 officer. Brett’s canine partner is the black lab, Ember who has been training with Annalise Colton.
Annalise Colton and many in her family are all part of law enforcement in Grave Gulch. Besides her job training dogs, she wants to find a forever love like many in her family. She goes on-line and believes she has found her perfect match, until she is attacked and discovers she has been “catfished”. Brett happens to be close by and interrupts the attack, but he gets away.
Brett and Annalise have grown up with very different examples of family and love and even as Brett does want to catch Annalise’s attacker, he is hesitant about their strong attraction. As the two grow closer, so does the danger from an attacker who wants to finish the job.
I enjoyed Brett, Annalise and all the dogs in this story, but the romantic suspense plot itself was not strong enough for me. Much of the book was two supposedly successful and mature adults not honestly communicating enough until three quarters of the way through the story and the “catfishing” plot was interesting, but it was interrupted repeatedly by the series overall plotline of a serial killer on the loose.
Overall, it was a fast, enjoyable read, but not as good as other Colton books I have read.
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Excerpt
Annalise stared into the darkness, hoping that forcing herself to keep her eyes open would perversely trigger the overwhelming urge to sleep. It was her last resort; she’d been lying here for two hours, unable to find a way to turn off, or at least slow down, her whirling thoughts.
And the fact that a few minutes ago Brett had come to her open doorway and lingered a moment didn’t help.
She’d heard the faint creak of a floorboard and felt a spike of that adrenaline rush before she realized it was him. That realization caused a spike of an entirely different kind until she heard him walk away and realized he’d only been checking on her.
What did you expect? That he’d climb into bed with you?
She rolled over and buried her face in her pillow, wondering why these wild thoughts kept careening into her mind. What kind of woman was she, to have been so very excited about her date tonight—never mind that it had all been a scam—yet almost simultaneously so attracted to this man who had no interest at all in her that way? Or in anything like the kind of relationship she was looking for?
I’m not looking for what you’re looking for.
He meant it. She didn’t doubt that. And she knew she should consider it fair warning. A warning some men would never bother to give. Why had he? She felt her cheeks heat at the thought that maybe he knew, how she reacted to him. Maybe she’d betrayed it somehow. That would be embarrassing. They’d always gotten on well in the joint training sessions with Ember, but her focus had been on the smart, willing dog, not on him.
Well, not any more than usual. Qualified, capable K-9 officers with a record like his weren’t thick on the ground, and he’d proven that rep well-earned in their first exercises together. That he was quietly competent and apparently unaware of his own looks were big points in his favor, in her book.
She’d assumed at first he was married, because how could he not be? He didn’t wear a ring, but some men didn’t. Then Troy had told her a week later he wasn’t and had never been.
You have to believe in love before you can give up on it.
She sighed into the darkness. That just might be the saddest thing she’d ever heard. Yet he didn’t seem sad to her. Or bitter. Just…closed off. Except with Ember. That alone told Annalise that he wasn’t completely closed off.
But that didn’t mean she should be lying here thinking about him.
And about what she would have done if he had climbed into bed with her.
“I can drive myself—”
“I know you can,” Brett said patiently to Annalise the next morning, “but I have to drop Ember off anyway.” He didn’t mention that he also didn’t want her taking off to go get lunch or something. He wanted her under observation at all times, and he’d already called Sergeant Kenwood to let him know to keep an eye on her; the man might be retired from active duty, but his instincts were as sharp as ever.
“But I’ll need my car to get home.”
“I’ll pick you up when I come get her,” he said, with a scratch of the Lab’s soft ears. “After I talk to the two other women this jerk targeted.”
“I want to take Apple and Jack,” she said. “I don’t want to leave them alone. They were scared, too.”
And that was Annalise Colton in a nutshell, he thought. “Fine. There’s room. And Ember won’t mind.”
And so he ended up with a carload of three dogs and the woman adored by them all.
Including you?
He yanked his mind off that fruitless path. He drove, trying to concentrate on mentally organizing his day.
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About the Author
Justine Davis lives on Puget Sound in Washington State, watching big ships and the occasional submarine go by, and sharing the neighborhood with assorted wildlife, including a pair of bald eagles, deer, a bear or two, and a tailless raccoon. In the few hours when she’s not planning, plotting, or writing her next book, her favorite things are photography, knitting her way through a huge yarn stash, and driving her restored 1967 Corvette roadster—top down, of course.
Social Media Links
Website: https://justinedavis.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustineDareDavis
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Justine_D_Davis
Buy Colton K-9 Target by Justine Davis
Harlequin.com: https://www.harlequin.com/shop/books/9781335759382_colton-k-9-target.html
