The Maverick by Carrie Alexander, Harlequin SuperRomance #1042

I was somewhat disappointed by Carrie Alexander's The Maverick. I felt it dragged in some places and the mystery subplot was a little too obvious. While this is a Harlequin SuperRomance and not a Harlequin Intrigue, I still would have liked to have been surprised.

Sophie Ryan has picked herself up by the boot straps and made a life of herself. A child who went through foster care after her mother's death only to be returned to her drunk father's care, she overcame obstacles of being a low class girl to become a deputy in Treetop. She even overcame the gossip single parenthood brought with it when she found herself pregnant and unwed at eighteen. Life was fine, she was content with living her life providing for her son working towards a social work degree until Luke "Maverick" Salinger returned to TreeTop after a fourteen year absence.

Luke "Maverick" Salinger returned to Treetop for a Lucas/Salinger family reunion knowing there was a fourteen year old warrant out for his arrest from a break-in he had partaken in years ago. He fled, abandoning Sophie thinking he had betrayed her. He returned to Treetop discovering things that he had been told, things he had been led to believe were not necessarily true. He just couldn't figure out what exactly his brother, Heath, had to gain by misleading him all of these years. He was surprised to find that the Sophie Ryan he had led to believe existed wasn't at all the woman he saw.

Luke and Sophie have to overcome a few obstacles, including their class difference and the misconceptions they had of one another to resume their relationship. Trust was key and something neither of them knew for sure if they could do. Sophie's son posed a problem, for both of them, but for different reasons. Luke's grandmother was desperate for a great grandchild, desperate enough since it seemed Heath and his wife Kiki were unable to produce one for her legitimately that it appeared she might accept Sophie's son, Joe, as that great grandson. Only one problem existed, Sophie wasn't sure just who Joe's father was.

Add on top of their relationship some wild mustangs mysteriously dying on Lucas property, Sophie's father who was bitter toward the Lucas/Salinger clan, and the motorcycle group Luke used to hang out with who appeared to be up to no good, and you've got layers of mystery and things for Deputy Sophie to keep Sophie and Luke busy.

The Maverick was a sweet read and an okay story, I just thought there were too many distractions taking the reader away from Luke and Sophie. The loose ends were tied up well, admittedly, but it was just too blatantly obvious (to me anyway) who the "bad guy" was and just where the whole subplot of Heath and Kiki's inability to have a baby was going. The story wasn't a read through in one sitting for me. Sophie and Luke, and even Joe, were likeable characters. I thought Ms. Alexander depicted true to form how a thirteen year old boy might act given the situation as it was presented in the book.

©Susan Matthews and phantomroses.com