Review: Survive the Night

Survive the Night by Katie Ruggle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the third in a series, while each book follows a different woman the previous characters are heavily present so it is advisable, but not necessary, to read the previous books. I have only read the first book before this one but I recognised the characters.

Alice Blanchett is the daughter and sister of crime bosses. Effectively a prisoner in her own home, an asset to be sold off to a rival crime family as a wife for the prodigal son, Logan Jovanovic, until a mysterious note warns her to be prepared to escape.

Some time later Alice is rescued by one of her brother's henchmen and sent, via secret ways by the mysterious Mr Espina to the small town of Monroe, Colorado as yet another "old friend" of Jules under the alias Sarah Clifton. Jules was Mr Espina's first rescue and there is a theme to the women he rescues, they are all connected in some way with the Jovanovic family.

K9 Officer Otto Gunnersen does not, in my mind, look anything like the picture on the front of the book, Sarah describes him as a cross between a viking and a lumberjack, and one of his best friends describes him as a Ninja Paul Bunyan. Anyway, he is one of a trio of friends in the Monroe Police department: Theo and Jules are a couple and Hugh and Grace (the couple from the second book) are also a couple. Otto is a big, strong, silent man, he lives alone outside of town and rescues animals that no-one else will take. When he meets Alice/Sarah it is insta-lurve, he is struck dumb. Unfortunately, the overwhelming impression I got, at least from the first half of the book, was that Otto was a little simple. Maybe because he was slow to speak, big and lumbering, good with animals?

Anyway, its not too long until Sarah's brother and future husband find her in Monroe and try to take her back to Texas. What follows is a tense cat and mouse game through the snow with helicopters and bombs and all sorts. Unfortunately, I have very little visualisation ability and frankly I was lost. One minute Sarah is nine miles from town down a deserted road, the next she seems to be bumping into the townsfolk left, right and centre. Everyone appeared to be a suspect and gathers in one place for a finale that was both thrilling and confusing (because of the visualisation thing again).

Overall, while I still enjoyed the book my credulity was stretched pretty thin. This is supposedly a small town yet it appears to have a large police force, the majority of whom have been sent off on a special training course, leaving just our three intrepid friends. Why draw attention to strangers by having three fugitives move to the town in a short period of time? I though that this was the final book in the series but the ending (and indeed NetGalley) suggests there is another to come. Not sure the premise can hold out for another book.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

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