Run the Risk, by Lori Foster

Logan Risk is a detective, working undercover as a construction worker. He lives in an apartment next to Sue Meeks, Aka: Pepper Yates who is passing herself off as a dowdy woman, in baggy clothes, no makeup and skinned back hair in a ratty ponytail. Her brother Rowdy is believed to be a witness to the murder of Logan’s best friend. Logan is prepared to use Pepper in any way he can, to get to Rowdy, and solve the murder.  There is some corruption on the local police force too, so Logan isn’t really sure who he can trust, other than his partner Reece.

Logan and Pepper have dinner together at the apartment.  At this point, Pepper feels something for Logan.  We know early on that Logan is going to use Pepper, but the uninspired sex that results from this dinner together left me wondering what was wrong with Logan, that he found it to be amazing and can’t wait to come back for more.  What was even more confusing to me was why Pepper went to such extremes to totally change her naturally bodacious body (picture Kim K here for a minute) to the frumpy woman she appears to be. Then, on top of that she has zero personality.  Seriously, early on Pepper has trouble stringing an entire sentence together when Logan is around. There are those who probably think it’s funny she is so tongue tied around Logan, but given the woman she morphs into at the halfway point led me to believe that she just wasn’t going to be all that great of a heroine.  Sadly, not much changed for me there as the book goes forward.  She has her share of TSTL moments, especially when she voices her opinion to Logan that she would have taken down all the bad guys.  How she would accomplish that, I really haven’t a clue.  And last but not least, I’m still not convinced that Pepper loves Logan more than Rowdy!  She thinks she loves Logan because he realizes how much her brother means to her. Just because “the only Risk Logan wants her to take is his last name” means she loves him.  I need to be convinced!

We are looking at criminal, Morton Andrews, with mob ties, as the killer.  There are some pretty good suspenseful moments, once Pepper and Rowdy’s cover is blown.  Reese lends much support to his partner in solving the crime, along with dealing with corruption within the police department.  For many chapters, you have no idea who to trust, and that includes Lt. Margaret Peterson.  Another unrealistic character, who at the ripe old age of 32 is a ball buster who has seen and done it all!  Another eye rolling moment for me was the fact that Rowdy and Pepper mosey 40 miles down the road, the next county over, to hide from Morton.  You know, the guy with mob ties, who is also suspected to be in on human trafficking too.  Wouldn’t you move to the east or west coast to get as far as possible from this guy??    

Reese , Logan’s partner, and his brother Dash are both intriguing secondary characters.  Reese befriends quiet Grace, who lives in his apartment complex.  She agrees to watch Reese’s dog since he works such long hours, and very slowly over the course of the book they become friends.  Dash owns the construction business Logan pretends to work at.  Both Dash and Logan come from a wealthy family, but they prefer to work for their living.     Dash is the guy to die for, so I certainly hope he gets a book of his own!  Rowdy probably will too, although the way he ran Pepper’s life, I am not really overly endeared enough to him to want to read an entire book about him. 

All in all, the second half of this book redeems it – somewhat.  I had to suspend my belief too many times for me to tag this with a higher rating.  I have been a Lori Foster fan since her first book, many years ago.  None of the primary characters in this book came close to what I know to be her best work.  After I finished The Perfect Storm, I had some serious misgivings about the heroine in that book, and wondered if she is trying to appeal to new age group of readers?  I know our reading choices differ from time to time, but I am not being totally sucked in to Lori ‘s books like in the past.  And that makes me really sad!   

Copy provided by NetGalley for review.
Ratiing:  3 stars