Flirting with Disaster

Ever since Ride With Me, I have been a huge admirer of Ms. Knox's novels. She never disappoints, there is always lots of humor, secondary characters that are very much a part of the story, and strong female characters. Flirting With Disaster is in my opinion her most compelling so far.

Katie Cook is trying to restart her life after a disastrous marriage. Her ex emptied their joint account and left Katie to clean up and close their business in Alaska. She is now back in Camelot working for her brother Caleb ( Along Came Trouble) in his security business. " Katie wanted to throw herself headlong into new experiences, skate the edge of recklessness, flirt with disaster". She is sent on her first assignment at the request of a very popular singer, who is getting mysterious threatening letters. Caleb reluctantly sends her with another operative Sean Owens. Katie and Sean have known each other since high school. He was always the silent geek with his nose in a book. She was already dating the boy who turned out to be the man who tore her world apart. She does not want to go with Sean, he never speaks to her, and she's sure he hates her. Caleb insists she go with Sean or not go at all. They are on their way.

Ms. Knox touches on many serious issues in this amazing story. Sean doesn't speak to Katie, at first, because he has a problem with stuttering. He has stuttered all his life, finally going for speech therapy as an adult. He seemed to have conquered the problem for the most part, except around Katie! Therefore, he doesn't speak at all. Sean had a very traumatic childhood, because of his speech impediment, and a mother he could never seem to please. He left after high school, moved to California with his best friend and started a very successful company. He has not spoken or seen his mother since then, and is in Camelot to clean out her home after she passed away. He just can't seem to make himself do it. Katie and Sean are immediately drawn to each other , but they have a lot of issues to accept about themselves, before they can accept each other.

As always, there is plenty of humor, visits with other characters from Along Came Trouble, and a beautiful wedding. I found myself fighting tears for Sean and Katie two damaged people who love each other, but just don't know how to make it work.

I enjoyed this book from the first page to the last. It has a mystery, some very cozy adventures in cars and various places, and a beautiful love story.
Camelot is a wonderful town to visit!

I received this novel from the publisher and NetGalley for an honest review.

I was fortunate to win an early copy of this book. What a wonderful surprise. Even better was how much I loved the book!

Ruthie has a wonderful way of creating unique situations for her characters. Sometimes an author will start a series and by the third book you can see a pattern... how they meet or what will be the issues. Not with Ruthie. (I still hope that someday I'll get trapped during a storm in a storage room with a mysterious & gorgeous guy... but don't we all! - check out Ruthie's How to Misbehave if you don't get the reference.)

This book continues the Clark siblings stories. The youngest, Katie Clark is a mess and trying to rebuild her life. After reading the first two books about Amber & Caleb, I wondered where Ruthie would take Katie's story. I was worried it might be too simple: girl likes moody boy, draws boy out of shell, misunderstanding happens, make-up, all live HEA... right? We've read them before. Well, Flirting with Disaster is not that story. I'm not going to say anymore except "read it!"

P.S. Ruthie - I love, love, love Judah!