Book
Review: Taken by Storm
Author: Rochelle AlersRelease Date: 8/1/2008
Taken by
Storm is the third book in the series of the Whitfield Brides. It covers the love story of Simone Whitfield
and Raphael “Rafe” Madison.
Simone Whitfield
is a 33 year old, five foot-three inch, petite divorced florist, who is out
jogging one morning and witnesses the brutal attack on her friend and neighbor,
who happens to be a federal court judge.
As a federal witness, she is placed in protective custody under the
watchful eye of hunky lawman, Rafe Madison.
Rafe Madison
is a 35 year old, six foot-three inch, two hundred and ten pound, blue-eyed,
blond-haired Deputy Marshal from Kansas.
Ruggedly handsome, and extremely athletic, Rafe walked away from a promising
career as a pro baseball player due to domestic problems on the home
front. Ever since then, he’d been sworn
to “protect and serve.”
I have two words for this book: Awe – Some!
I’m not being biased because Rochelle Alers is my fav romance author. No. Not at all.
I will admit
I thought there would be more action, maybe an attempt to get to Simone, or
something. To me, this was just a series
of family gatherings with a sprinkle of witness protection thrown in to break
up the parties. I still give it a big
thumbs up because of the character development.
I love well-written, character driven romances. And this one fit the bill. Leave it to me to read the last book in a
series, first. Ha-ha. I guess because I didn’t read them in order,
I kept getting the other characters mixed up.
And there were quite a few characters.
Lots of family members. One of
the things I like about trilogies is catching up on past couples’ stories. Seeing how things have progressed. I missed that by starting with the third book. But I loved this one so much, I don’t care
about the others.
Simone is feisty,
quick-tempered, and independent. She
will mouth off at the drop of a hat and hunky-hunk can stop her tirade with
just one word: “enough.”
Since her
business is based out of her home, Rafe moves into her house to protect her
until the trial. In public they pretend
to be a couple so people won’t question why Rafe is following her around like a
lovelorn puppy. The pretense turns into
reality as Rafe quicky realizes his feelings for Simone are more than
pretend.
I can’t rave
enough about this book. I truly enjoyed
reading about Rafe and Simone. Rafe is
my kind of hero: over-protective without
being smothering; assertive without being arrogant and intelligent without proving
himself by spouting off the Pythagorean Theorem. And, Oh-Em-Gee, is he super-fine.
Read my review on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/review/R329USV4IAFAKA
