Rescuing Moira: Guardian Hostage Rescue Specialists (Book 3) by Ellie Masters

Moira is a young woman that has gone through life the hard way, scraping for everything and every day she’s been given. She’s chronologically 22 but much wiser than her age reveals. She knows secrets and tells like a blackjack dealer knows a hot hand. It’s her superpower.

Four is a Guardian. He and his team rescue people from sex trafficking around the globe. She was a job, a rescue mission. That’s all she was ever supposed to be. He’s worked hard to maintain those professional boundaries while teaching her how to become a true survivor. She hasn’t made it easy for him but her strength and determination have always impressed him.

When she is taken, along with another girl from the Facility, the Guardians kick into high gear to find her and save her but in the meantime, she has to survive. She has to be wily, manipulative, and cold.

Can she do it? Will the team make it in time?


I liked Moira immensely. She’s hard, tough, and won’t die easy. She has a sarcastic streak a mile wide and a chip on her shoulder. She has survived on her strength and wits. She has no quit in her DNA. I love a strong heroine. She might trade on her looks but it’s all she’s been given in this life so she uses them to her advantage every time.

Four (Petty Alert) I didn’t love. Why? Because I didn’t like the look of the cover model for him. He isn’t the Four in my head and I had real trouble pushing the cover model out of my head long enough to like Four. I liked him, but it was hard. I loved his qualities. I loved his friends. I just couldn’t make the two pictures of him mesh in my head. I know!! That’s a stupid reason not to like an imaginary character! But I’m stupid that way!

Another very petty issue I had with this book was instalove. Oh, where have you been? Here, in this book, waiting for me! There is a year-long history with the two mains, but we didn’t get more than a few peeks and it ended up feeling rushed. Of course, this ISN’T book one and it’s possible they had appearances in the other books but I picked this one based on a recommendation. This is book three of a six book series so…maybe read them in order, if you’re curious. Each are however complete standalone books with various characters from the other books popping in.

Spoiler alert!!
The ending is so far out that the James Webb Telescope hasn’t seen it yet. Thinking that any reader could accept that this 22-year-old girl could make it into a well-oiled, fully functioning soldier in 2 weeks made me laugh out loud. Thank goodness it doesn’t come down to her somehow saving the day or this review would be completely different. Having said that, the author clearly states in her bio on the Amazon book page that she guarantees HEA’s in her books and really that’s the reason we read these things! We get our hearts broken nearly everyday by life, we don’t need it in our books too!

Okay, now for the juicy stuff.
The sexual tension is nicely handled but the actual sex? Meh. It’s unnecessarily acrobatic in at least one instance and it detracted from the story for me. The power balance was nice and that added enough spice and flair to keep me reading but I honestly worried about Four’s leg. I know! Call me crazy!

My rating? We started at 5 stars as always. I have to deduct a full star for the ending. I also have to deduct for the gymnastics that brought me out of the story; half a star. I have to add back half a star because I loved Moira. It’s hard to write a female heroine that isn’t weak-willed and falling all the time. I mean, it must be! Look at all the movies!

Final tally? ⭐⭐⭐⭐

No One Crosses the Wolf by Lisa Nikolidakis

This is a memoir about a troubled childhood full of abuse and neglect. It’s not an easy read and I wasn’t looking for one. It follows her growing up years with her brother and parents and all the trauma you can imagine.

Her father is a piece of crap, to put it lightly. He is an alcoholic that spends most of his at-home hours terrorizing his family. When he isn’t home, they dread his coming home so they are never truly free of him. After reading her recollections of him, I can understand that fear.

And her mother isn’t much better in comparison. She doesn’t abuse the kids but she doesn’t stop the abuse either. She puts her head in the clouds and pretends that everything is just fine. Domestic violence doesn’t go away because you want it to, you have to stop it! Her mother failed them all.

When her father finally snaps, I expected more somehow. More untangling the emotional threads of her life. More in-depth onion peeling. I wanted to see her do the hard work to undo all the lessons that her upbringing taught at such high prices. But she did none of it. She drank, slept around, and went to Greece. I’m healed!!! The end. What?? Yeah, I’m confused too.

My first inclination was to give this a 2-star review. I mulled it over though, for several days I might add. Three is as high as I can go. She writes well. She knows how to create an atmosphere and add texture and shade to a story but in the end, there’s no story. There’s no healing final chapter. There’s no Oprah “Aha!” moment. And that is a true letdown.

⭐⭐⭐ /⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ruby: Come-By-Chance Mail Order Brides Book 1 by Juliet James

Ruby Robinson needs an income after the death of her mother. In 1884, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for a single woman so she gets a job as a school teacher. However, the conditions of the job are less than ideal. She takes some advice that her mother had given her and a nudge from a new friend and undertakes a new adventure that could be disastrous. She becomes a mail order bride and travels west. When it goes awry she must face a new hurdle. Is she strong enough to overcome or will she settle?

Matt Wilkinson is one of three brothers making a life for themselves on a homestead in a small town. Come-By-Chance Montana is a sleepy western town where not much ever happens. When a pretty woman comes to town word spread faster than a wildfire in a dry season. Matt and his brothers have lost their parents and but still have the values they taught them. He wants to settle down and start a family like his own so he throws his hat into the ring in an effort to win a bride.

This is a clean, sweet romance. I would even call it a borderline Christian romance. Religion was highly featured and there is no bad language. There is a sex scene but without nudity. The drama isn’t tense or overblown, just steady and plodding along carrying the reader. It is shorter so that made it a perfect middle of the night read for a raving insomniac like myself. I read it in about an hour.

This is essentially a quick introduction to the town and the cast of characters that are a part of the series. I didn’t find any major technical issues but fair warning! The language is typical of the time period so words like ya, meddlin’, and so on are very present. If that is going to bother you, I highly advise that you skip this series.

Can I recommend this book? Yes. It was short, and ended kind of abruptly but since it is book 1 that isn’t a huge turnoff. This isn’t my typical genre so I can’t say if this is better or worse than books like this but it was a good way to pass some time.