Take Me Back by Rosalind James

This is the fourth book in James’ series of romance with a dollop of suspense set in the Idaho town of Paradise. This book opens with the death of a thoroughly despicable multi-millionaire. He chokes on an ice cube while an unnamed person watches him die and does nothing. We learn that he has divided his money between his daughter, Hallie, and an unacknowledged son. Hallie had once had a night of romance and lovemaking while in high school with Jim Lawson, the older half-brother of Hallie’s newly discovered half-brother. And when they were discovered making love, her father forced Jim out of town. He’d joined the army and has now returned to be a deputy sheriff in Paradise where he’s raising his daughter after his wife tragically died of cancer.

So there is a whole lot going on in this novel. We have the second chance romance between Jim and Hallie even though Hallie’s father had left a clause in his will that she can’t inherit his millions if she has a sexual relationship with Jim for six months after his death. Hallie and Jim rediscover their attraction though they have to hide everything. And then Hallie has to decide what she wants to do with her life and whether she wants her father’s money. The young son has his own problems. We find out how abusive and evil Hallie’s father had been.

If that weren’t enough, there is also the lurking presence of the guy who witnessed her father’s death. He just can’t leave everything alone and still keeps threatening and attacking Hallie. There didn’t seem any reason for him to keep doing that since he’d gotten away with the first death, but he keeps escalating his attacks on Hallie. And that of course brings Jim to help protect the woman he’s realizing that he is still attracted to.

I read this all in one sitting. Even though I didn’t buy that the bad guy would keep going after Hallie and it wasn’t that difficult to guess who it turned out to be, James builds up suspense interspersed with the growing feelings between Hallie and Jim as they both discover the strength to build a deep relationship on the sexual attraction between them.