Risky Romance
Author: Kendall Talbot
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B+
What I’m Talking About:
Australian Border Patrol gets called out about a derelect ship just off shore in a remote area, and before they have barely been aboard, the bullets fly and a shocking new discovery leads to another adventure in the pulse-pounding Wolf Security series. Kendall Talbot is consistently putting the adventure romance back into action with each new book, bringing what she writes best.
Risky Romance is fourth in the Wolf Security series which is a spin off from Alpha Tactical Ops. Personally, I treat them as one extended series. The Alpha Tactical Ops series main driving purpose was completed when they tracked down who set up their military unit to be blackballed and why, but there were still some loose threads that are slowly, but surely getting wrapped up with the extended Wolf Security group continuing to track down Chui, the crime boss and his partners‘ empire.
Risky Romance is Whisper’s story. Whisper, so called because she talks loudly and all the time (growing up only girl among four brothers with a single mom), is also impulsive and gutsy so she rushes headlong into danger. This is why when put on leave for disobeying a direct order, she rushes off when her youngest brother texts that he’s done something bad and is now in danger.
Whisper tracks Dane to a remote corn farm, gets tangled up in trouble then rescued by Cody, whose uncle owns the farm. Before they went on the run, Whisper saw enough to suspect the farm is hiding an illegal secret, but Cody swears its on the up and up though he has no explanation for why they are on the run from his mean uncle, canning house manager, and the farm’s accountant.
Cody is a new character to the series and he had my heart as soon as I learned his story. He’s bewildered and things are moving too fast for him when it comes to what is really going on at the farm, but he really shines when they are out in the rainforest and his skills and knowledge of that wild, untamed area are what is needed to save their lives. I loved the isolated survival part of the story tucked between the suspense action of discovering and chasing the bad guys for capture and for answers.
The romance starts out as enemies to lovers and morphs to forced proximity out in the jungle. The author built the romance while pacing out a solid plot and a colorful, lush, and exciting setting. There’s no lag, but it paces slower than her usual stories in the series for large swaths of the story. Whisper annoyed me most of the time because of her personality and charge in where angels fear to tread attitude, but I thought she was a capable and heroic female lead. She got Cody out of himself and saw him as special when no one else ever has. I liked them together. Her Sunshine vs his Cranky was fun.
A large series thread got tied off in this one, but the mysterious Ms B is still out there ruling the remains of Chui’s crime empire, and I can’t wait to see what comes next in the series. Adventure romance and high-octane romantic suspense fans really should give this combined series of Alpha Tactical Ops and Wolf Security a try.
My Rating: B+
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
They both have secrets. Hers could get them killed. His could save them—if she lets him close enough to find out.
Border Force operative, Jewel ‘Whisper’ Wagner, never backs down from danger, but her attempt to rescue her reckless younger brother from a deadly crime underworld backfires when she is captured.
Brooding farmer Cody Mitchell carries the invisible scars of his father’s shocking crimes. Working on his uncle’s sprawling farm is his only solace—until he finds a woman bound and gagged in the barn, and her terror is a chilling echo from his childhood.
Risking everything, Cody fights to free Whisper, and together they flee into the heart of the Daintree Forest—the same unforgiving wilderness where his father vanished. Whisper is torn between her loyalty to her criminal brother and the rugged stranger who risked his life for her. Cody is desperate to earn her trust, but he can never outrun his own family’s legacy of betrayal.
Hunted by the underworld and Cody’s vengeful uncle, their only hope is to rely on each other for survival. But they discover the line between trust and betrayal can be razor-thin. And in this deadly chase, the secrets they guard—and the unexpected love that burns between them—could be their salvation… or their downfall.
Will their growing bond be strong enough to overcome the shadows of betrayal, or will family loyalties tear them apart forever?
Release Date: January 31, 2025
Publisher: Self-Published
Series: Wolf Security #4
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Format(s): paperback (340 pages), e-book
Book Source: Author