Rane Aria

 Just reading ,crocheting, and enjoying naps

Cold Case, Hot Accomplice (Men of Wolf Creek, #1) by Carla Cassidy

Cold Case, Hot Accomplice - Carla Cassidy

There's certain givens when it come to certain genres of romances. When it comes to romantic suspense I kinda assume suspense and romance would splice together to form a story. Cold Case, Hot Accomplice stars off like this but loses me in the end.
Raised by her aunt Liz, Roxy Marcoli and her sisters live and work in the small town of Wolf Creek. Her everyday in running her restaurant makes Roxy content in her life. Until her aunt suddenly disappears and the detective on the case is a man with a long playboy rep she would like to stay far away from!
Unearth his playboy persona Steve Kincaid is a man who has lost greatly understands Roxy panic and pain in finding her aunt. Working together to solve the case is going to put Roxy and Steve in close danger with a killer and an undeniable attraction.

Roxy and Steve carry some heavy scars. Roxy from her childhood and Steve from his own lost of a missing person. The story starts off wonderfully. Roxy is not a man hater, but Steve just rubs her the wrong way with his flirting, this brings out her sharp tongue in defense. There of course is a great attraction that neither really don't want to invest in with so many things still left unresolved.

With Liz missing, Roxy being the oldest takes the reigns in hopes that she could take the load off her two sisters in the worry dept. The case and the glimpses we see of Liz makes us wonder who is truly behind the kidnapping. I liked how the plot was going and how it parallel to Steve's own past.

Then suddenly someone wants Roxy killed and is 'throwing knifes at her head'. *blinks* This is where I felt there were to many stories going on to fit into the book. I would have felt the story would have stayed stronger if it focus on Liz missing and maybe the healing of Steve's heart and his own close case.
The romance was nice and alot of healing went on between Rozy and Steve but was hinder with to many things going on to make this story memorable and while it does leave a cliffhanger and loose ties as it will span three books. I just couldn't get into the story when another unneeded plot device IMO was added.