Review: Carolina Blues (Dare Island #4) by Virginia Kantra

Carolina Blues (Dare Island #4) by Virginia Kantra

Published October 7th 2014 by Berkle

Paperback, 304 pages

Series: Dare Island 

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Rating: Steamy to Somewhat Sizzling

Source:  I got a copy of this book from the publisher  in exchange of an honest review.
Amazon | Goodreads

Mature Content Advisory, must be 18+ for sexual content

Summary from Goodreads

Jack Rossi is Dare Island’s new police chief. The laid-back North Carolina community is just what he needs to recover from a rocky marriage and a big-city police department.  He’s learned his lesson: no more high-profile women or high-pressure jobs. The last thing he wants is an unconventional alt girl rocking his world.

Grad student Lauren Patterson made headlines when she kept a bank robbery from going bad.  She’s fled to Dare Island to clear her head and focus on writing her story. However, sexy Jack Rossi is a distraction that’s too hot to ignore, and it’s igniting an affair too combustible to resist—or quit.

But when their pasts come looking for them, Jack and Lauren find themselves fighting for the future they deserve, whatever the price.

Let me start out by saying I came into this book having never read anything by Virginia Kantra before, and I know it's kind of in the middle of the series but this book can very much be read as a stand-alone. Thought now having a taste of Virginia Kantra's writing once does not seem to be enough. I will have to backtrack and read some of her earlier books from her Dare Island series and maybe fall in love with the rest of the characters, cause dang it did I fall in love with Jack Rossi and Lauren Patterson!

Jack Rossi is Dare Island's new police chief. He moved to the small town after a disastrous marriage and loosing his other job in a big-city police department. Small town life is different, but Jack seem to slowly warm up to it and enjoy it. He started enjoying it even more when Lauren Patterson stepped into his life. The woman is different, he knows she is different, and probably someone who he shouldn't get involved with but Jack can't seem to fight the sizzling tension between them, and neither can Lauren.

With everything Lauren Patterson had been through, witnessing a bank robbery and surviving, it's no wonder the girl needs a little distraction in her life in a form of Jack Rossi. I love Kantra made Lauren's fear and PTSD feel so real through the package as the book went on. I love the conflict in posed in her life, but also how she came out of it fighting. Yes it caused her to make some mistakes along the way, yes it caused her to make some mistakes with Jack and make me slightly angry with her, but I loved the way it all wrapped up in the end.

The attraction was there, the emotions were there, and so was the wonderful flow of the story that kept me hooked from the very first chapter. Kantra's characters are well fleshed out and completely believable. I will be picking up more books by this author in the future.