Harlequin always thinks of me and it just makes me feel so special. Thank you so much for including me in these blog tours for different genres and seasons and all that. It’s been great getting the opportunity to read all of these different novels and share my thoughts. I hope you enjoy!

Murder strikes close to home for a new K-9 unit in Brooklyn. When a double homicide is strikingly familiar to a twenty-year-old cold case, Detective Nate Slater is rattled by the parallels. With a child as the only witness, he and his K-9 partner must protect little Lucy and her aunt, Willow Emery. Nate’s rough past means he always keeps an emotional distance…but in this case getting closer is the only way they’ll all survive.

Laura Scott is honored to write for the Love Inspired Suspense line, where a reader can find a heartwarming journey of faith amid the thrilling danger. She lives with her husband of twenty-five years and has two children, a daughter and a son, who are both in college. She works as a critical-care nurse during the day at a large level-one trauma center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and spends her spare time writing romance. Visit Laura at www.laurascottbooks.com.

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing, Netgalley, and Love Inspired Suspense for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

I swear Harlequin got me with this because of the dogs. Do you know how much dogs mean to me and seeing them as a key character or component in some form of literature always makes my heart swell? As long as the dog doesn’t die, then I’m good. And no, that wasn’t a spoiler because I’m not talking about that at all. But just saying.

This was an interesting plot for me because not only do we have the romance aspect but we have the issue of the serial killer – or at least a copycat killer from over twenty years ago – and our main characters Nate and Willow trying to make sure that things don’t go wrong. Nate is the police detective with his K-9 partner that is in charge of helping to protect his key eye witness: a little girl named Lucy. Because Lucy is the only eye witness to the double homicide and has no other person to take care of her besides her aunt Willow, Nate and Willow are needing to work together to solve this case before the killer targets Lucy to finish the job, or worse.

I think having a K-9 partner helps to show that Nate does have some sort of a sensitive side especially with his past. There’s something about an animal – whether it’s a dog, cat, turtle, etc. – that helps us humans dig deeper into our feelings and what makes us the kind of people we are. Even if we feel like everything is okay with us mentally or emotionally or whatever, animals really help us learn that there are things that we can do to improve constantly. I think it was super cute to see a little bit of this partnership in the novel, even though the plot was heavy and dealt with a traumatized child and her aunt trying to survive.