LOGAN'S REDEMPTION by Cara Marsi

LOGAN'S REDEMPTION (Redemption Book 1) by Cara Marsi
(U.S. link: LOGAN'S REDEMPTION )
Published: August 2010, Carolyn Matkowsky

Sixteen years ago, Doriana Callahan had to adjust plans and dreams for her future, when she found herself pregnant and alone. She never told anyone who Josh's father was. 

She has worked hard to make her way up in her fathers company, but it feels like she still needs to prove herself worthy every day. Especially lately, since they have had increasing vandalism at some of their building sites and someone looks to have been feeding confidential information to competitors, who have managed to conveniently underbid them just marginally most of the last substantial contract tenders. It reeks of sabotage and looks like it might be an inside job. To top it all off, her assistant is on maternity leave and her father has hired a temp for her. When the temp turns out to be Logan Tanner, who disappeared sixteen years ago and has no clue he fathered her son, her anxiety is at full force.

Logan had always felt the Callahan's were out of his league. She was the daughter of a successful construction company and when he first met her, he was working as an eighteen year-old labourer on one of her father's job sites. He should have known then that with his abusive background, he would never belong in Doriana's world, but he fell so hard for her. They allowed themselves to have dreams of a future, until he found himself on the run one night, and could not turn back.

As irony will have it, Dan Callahan contacted Logan, who has made a reputation investigating corporate crimes, to help him uncover who is causing the problems for his company, and he wants him to do so undercover......as his daughter's temporary assistant. Needless to say, the initial meeting after so many years stirs up a myriad of emotions for both Logan and Doriana, but underneath all the conflicting feelings, the heat and attraction bubbles up as if it never left.

Both struggle to work together and keep their respective secrets, Logan has to try and gather information on a possible leak in the company, while Doriana is bending over backward to hide the fact that Logan is the father of her son. But when Doriana starts receiving threats and Logan is compelled to protect what is 'his', keeping secrets becomes almost impossible and trust has to be rebuilt, but it seems the love never really left.

***

The story plot is good, I always enjoy 'second chance' stories.......they smack of hope! However, I felt the storyline was left fairly unexplored and predictable, while other parts were repetitive.

Doriana's character was rather weak, even though she worked hard to get where she is, she allows her lazy brother to walk all over her, as well as her parents. I don't see her standing up for herself at all and that doesn't sit right, especially for someone who is supposed to be holding such a responsible position. It seems contradictory. She also seems rather wishy-washy with her son, who is being a bratty teen and playing all sides against the other........as teens do. As a single mom, her alarm bells should have been going off loudly already, but she is just clueing in now that she might have a problem. I had trouble finding Doriana credible.

Logan fared a little better in my opinion, although I don't always buy into the sacrificial disappearing act some adolescent men seem to justify actions with. ".....I left because I knew you could do so much better.....", or some such baloney. Let's be real, you were young and stupid and you took the path of least resistance, end of story. Don't spend your adult life hanging on to a teenage justification......that is not very 'manly'. I did appreciate the stepping up in the role as father without hesitation, and keeping recriminations to a minimum. Of course, being a woman, I enjoyed his protective side, both regarding the abuse issue as well as with the threats against Doriana. 

For me, the writing style would probably have been better suited to a historical romance, rather than a contemporary romance, just because of use of language and sentence structure. It had a slightly old-fashioned feel to it and was a bit too dramatic.