Books & Spoons Review: NIGHT HAWK by Lindsay McKenna

28/12/2015

Once upon a ranch in Wyoming…

After losing his comrade, Sergeant Gil Hanford thought a visit to the man's widow would be the decent way to honor his late friend. But Gil found more than comfort in Kai Tiernan—he had always secretly desired beautiful Kai, but a sudden, mutual passion helped assuage their grief… until duty reared its head, removing him from her arms, seemingly forever.

Four years later, Kai is starting over at the Triple H Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Born a rancher, she is looking for a new beginning—but her new boss is unforgivably familiar. Kai has tried to move past the memory of what happened between her and Gil, even though she's never forgiven him for leaving her. But even as they begin their journey toward something new and oh-so-uncertain, a shadow emerges, determined to claim Kai for itself.

This story has a compelling premises, the widow of a former best friend, whom Gil has always liked, comfort him, after Gil's brother dies in combat. The always buried feelings burst into life, and Gil and Kai spend five magical days together, loving, laughing, and healing. Until the war, and life sets them apart, until they meet again, four years later, working at the same ranch.
I love that the ranch employs veterans, the camaraderie, family like atmosphere, is uniting and healing. The characters have charisma, are easy to like, and relate to. The secondary love story going on the background was sweet, and brought lots of joy to the family of heart at the ranch.
The story even has a little suspense element in it, where life is in danger, and possibilities of great peril at hand. This suspense was not brought to a conclusion, but left sort of an open ended.
I read a book usually, if not on one sitting, then on two, and most likely within 24 hours. So if a story has a lot repetition, same inner thoughts going through a person's mind again and again, same conversation had between two people again, the recurrence gets boring to me. I notice these things easily, and if it starts to happen a lot in a same story, I lose interest. That happened here, unfortunately. I felt that there was too much repeat of the same. Of course, if you read a book over a month's time, with thirty minutes here and there, this might be a great reminder of the events for a reader, but I felt after the half point, that the story wasn't offering that much new for me anymore.
But regardless, the dynamics of the relationship between Gil and Kai were alluring, the development of their feelings towards each other captivating, the passion between them was believable, and the protective strike Gil had towards her intimidating. A charming story indeed
~ Three Spoons with a teaspoon on the side