#outFebruary62023

[echoesofbooks]

Brooke -- Ronie Kendig

Releasing February 6th, 2023! It can be purchased here

Prioritizing career over family cost Brooke Metcalfe Mulroney everything—her relationship with her siblings, her marriage, her children. Written off by her family, she delves deeper into her work. Until a life-altering moment offers a chance at something she didn’t know she wanted—redemption. But her self-centered ways nip at her heels as she goes on the lam to do what she knows is right.

Former Special Forces operator and founder of MiLE, Cord Taggart wages war on human trafficking by taking the violence to the wicked, determined to never again let an innocent die because he did nothing. But maybe he’s bitten off more than he can chew this time as he works to track down New York City high-powered attorney Brooke Metcalfe, who is MIA. Then there’s her brothers who have threatened to chase him into the afterlife should he fail.

Tricky are the hours as Cord negotiates many battles: freeing the captives, demolishing the Trench that has made millions off the skin-trade industry, and his growing, deep-rooted feelings for the bombshell in her highfalutin tower. Brooke must put her life—and heart—in the hands of the thick-skulled operator.

4.5 Stars!!

Holy crap!! Okay, so prefacing this with 2 things: a)If you haven't read the previous Metcalfe books ( Stone , Willow and Range ), it's probably best that you do that first. Or just be aware that there's parts you might miss. And b)This book is hard. It's tough. It shows the dirty world of trafficking and doesn't pull a single punch. But don't let that get you down. This book does show that there are people who are looking for those victims. It shows that there is hope.

Now that we've got that little disclaimer out of the way...

Brooke has been present in the previous books but she's been very cagey and clearly hiding something as she runs away from Cord, but you never quite got the full picture of who she was/what she was doing (I mean, it makes sense since this was her book and everything but she definitely peaked my interest in the last books). I will admit to rolling my eyes just a bit when she admitted to herself that she was probably in over her head and needed help yet still refused to reach out to Cord. I could have maybe understood not reaching out to her brother's because the situation was the slightest bit complicated. But she ended up reaching out to him anyway (even if she actively tried to stop it at first) and he did come after her, so it kind of worked out. I did wish there'd been a little more on her past/the broken relationship with her ex and her kids. Like, she told Cord how things happened/why she ended up divorced but towards the end, it seemed like she was wanting to reach out but we never got to see whether she did or not. Little thing, but I feel like I could have used a little bit of a wrap-up/closure on that aspect of things.

I've kind of loved Cord from the beginning. He was able to give as good as he got when it came to all the snark and sass that came his way and it was clear that he cared about Brooke, even if he was trying to ignore (not that he tried all that hard) his interest in her. I did want someone to throttle him for his assumptions when it was revealed that Mazin and the kids were living with her. Yeah, things were half setup to point that direction but all he had to go on were pictures on a fridge and Ishwin's comments. Yet everyone jumped to "I can't believe they're sleeping together" without bothering to consider what else could be going on. Again acknowledging that there was a ton of evidence that pointed one way, I just...I feel like even before they saw all of the evidence, everyone was half condemning Brooke.

I did wish there'd been a little bit on the reunions of people. Like, we didn't need to see all the kids getting reunited, but it would have been nice to see Willow and Chiji reunited with Ginika and Adesina. Or Mazin meeting back up with Jehan and Caliyah. It kind of felt like that part got shoved to the back in order to get to Brooke and Cord's HEA. Little thing, but I did wish we'd gotten to see it.