On the Chase by Katie Ruggle

Title: On the Chase

Author: Kate Ruggle

Publication Date: September 2017

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Blurb:

The sole witness to a horrific crime, Kaylee Ramay flees to the Colorado Rockies to start a new life.  There she becomes Grace, a dog kennel employee desperately trying to avoid attention—especially from dangerously attractive K9 Officer Hugh Murdoch.

Because Hugh is tall, dark… and nothing but trouble.

Hugh is anxious to get back in the field after an act of heroism left him warming the bench.  Until then, he and his K9 partner, Lexi, spend their hours teasing the town’s mysterious newcomer.  But when their simmering attraction is nearly cut short by a sniper’s bullet, Hugh’s mystery woman must come clean about the secrets she keeps…

Or both of them will pay the price.

Review:

People often ask me why I read romance novels.  I give them my generic answer and then they add the little “you know men like that aren’t real, right?” gem.  I don’t know that. I’m married to a spectacular man whom I do not deserve, for one.  But I do concede that, realistically, I’m unlikely to be swept off my feet by a handsome, high-ranking Duke who believes women can do anything men can but only because I don’t live in 1800s England and not because they didn’t exist.  Though, if we’re being honest with one another (we are, aren’t we?) the men in romance novels are the ultimate level of perfection.  Something which is rather difficult to attain in the real world.

Why am I on this tangent, you may find yourself asking?  Hugh Murdoch.  As I read On the Chase by Kate Ruggle I thought to myself, “This man is the real deal.”  He wasn’t over the top, ridiculous, man-perfection that so many modern romance novels are force-feeding us these days.  He was… real.  The dialogue, his witty retorts specifically, were some of the most honest bits of conversation I’ve had the pleasure of reading in a romance novel before.

I wanted to reach through the pages and tug humorous, kind, warm-hearted Hugh into my world.  But then I realized that the best part about Hugh was that he wasn’t all that special (besides being a cop and impossible to kill, of course).  His personality, his sense of humor, his kindness were all things that exist in men all around me, including my own husband.  And maybe that’s what made him one of those most attractive fictional men I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

Kaylee “Grace Robinson” Ramay is a regular girl who stumbles across a horrific crimes and she handles it better than I would, but certainly not with the finesse of someone used to fleeing scenes.  She doesn’t stay and fight.  She runs and that makes her your regular girl as far as heroines go.  I enjoyed getting to know her piece by piece and watching her find her confidence and bravery.  She’s the sort of character that has you thinking, ‘that could be me.’

On the Chase was a delightful read, the second in its series Rocky Mountain K-9 Unit.  If you’re looking for a spicy read before September 2017, the release date for On the Chase, you should pick up book one Run to Ground.  Theo, the star of book one, is a more serious, tenser version of Hugh and attractive for completely different reasons, but attractive all the same.  Those who love action-packed, crime filled novels with intermittent periods of making out will love what Kate Ruggle has to offer.