Romance Book Review: Dahlia West's Shooter

Author: Dahlia West

Series Connection: Burnout

ISBN: 978-1499176421

Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance

Purchase Link: Amazon

Meet the men at Burnout, a group of ex-Army Rangers making their place back in the world after serving their country. Chris "Shooter" Sullivan is the teams leader. He moved back to his home town and brought what was left of his former team with him. When his friend Maria calls him about his rental unit for a new employee Shooter doesn't want to trust her, but slowly she worms her way into his heart.

When "Hayley" gets off the bus in yet another small town she keeps to her routine and works to just live another day. She's on the run and has been for a long time. Maria takes her in as a new employee at her biker bar. For "Hayley" this is supposed to be just another temporary place to stay until she can go home again. That is until she meets Chris and his team mates. 

While on the run she's made friends before, but no one she ever wanted to be close to until she meets Chris and his group. 

This is another of those books that might not appeal to everyone. It seemed to have all my favorites in the book-- romance (in some places the sex was just a little too much), suspense, humor--everything that makes a book good. But at the same time it was a bit disjointed. For instance in the beginning of the book Hayley seemed like a street-wise hard ass. She knew to keep her head down, protected herself from jerks be placing the dresser in front of her door, that kind of thing. Then midway through the book she suddenly turns into Susie homemaker. That part seem so out of character for her and not someone that Shooter would be interested in at all. Without saying too much, at the end she turns back into the heroine you'd expect from the beginning of the book. 

At times it also seemed a bit long and while it was giving the readers a chance to really see who Hayley was and explain her story, (another part I wasn't crazy about when it happened). 

The saving grace for this story for me was that I did wind up liking all the characters and was interested in seeing where the rest of them ended up throughout the series. I think I'd like to try again and read on of the other books in the series and see if it makes a better impression.  

Description:

Chris “Shooter” Sullivan has returned to his home town of Rapid City, South Dakota to pick up the pieces of his life shattered by a roadside bomb in Iraq. He only wants to focus on holding what’s left of his old unit together, running his garage where he builds custom bikes and cars, and pretending that his murdered father’s motorcycle gang doesn’t exist. 

Hayley Turner is a young woman with her own traumatic past. Fresh off the bus from Nowhere, USA, all she wants is a job and a place to live, until it’s time for her to leave again. She doesn’t want to make friends, or enemies, least of all the ex-Army Ranger who obviously doesn’t like her. She bristles under his watchful eye. He’s even got her convinced she’s bad news. 

But circumstances force two people who don’t need anyone to need each other more and more. The more Chris gets to know Hayley, the harder it is to stay detached. And the more Hayley gets to know Chris, the more she realizes she’s been alone for so long she might never recover from it.