Books & Spoons Review HOLD YOUR BREATH by Katie Ruggle

1/5/2016

In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...

As the captain of Field County's ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise "Lou" Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he's never felt more alive...even if keeping her safe may just kill him.

Lou's new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she's determined to make it on her own terms...no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themselves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou-and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.

This story has it all, interesting, complicated characters, sweet, yet passionate, adorable romance, suspense, that makes you bite your nails, humor, life, and extreme circumstances, all in a well built plot! This is a story that you want to lose your sleep over.
There's a lot of banter in the story, and it is the kind that is fun, a little flirty, and lots of humor in it. Lou is a strong heroine, she manages well with the male rescue workers, and holds her own in a crisis. Callum, even though a crunchy exterior, completely melts, when it comes to Lou. Those two made me smile and sigh so many times. It is not a syrupy love story, more on the side of awkward and clumsy, but it is real, and delightful. Both of them prove through the story, that they are willing to do anything for each other. There's conversations between Callum and Lou, so fragile, and tender, but so charming.
The suspense is built slowly but surely. The danger expands, and gets tangible, when lives are in peril, and what was thought to be 'just a stalker' turn outs to be so much more.
The characters, even the supporting cast and crew, are complex, and charming. I wish there would have been a more information about Callum's background. There's several hints about it, that there's even more to him, that was told, and references about his past, but the details never came forward.
As a book one in the series, it is solid, it does a great job to build the scene, and set the stage. The major crime of the story is not solved in this book, and the readers are left to wait with a sort of a middle of the conversation cliffhanger. I hope this only means that the next instalment of the series is coming out soon, since the story was built strong enough, the interest to the characters was keen enough, so that the cliffhanger ending was not needed, to bring the readers for more.
~ Four Spoons with a teaspoon on the side