Release Blitz & Review - HIGH INTENSITY by Freya Barker

 

Title: High Intensity (High Mountain Trackers HMT 2G, #2) 

Author: Freya Barker 

Genre: Romantic Suspense 

Release Date: November 4, 2024 

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC. 

Dog trainer and handler, Jillian Lederman, is moving with her pack to Libby, Montana, a place where she has made friends and hopes to find a fresh start. It’s time. For years, she’s just been keeping her wounds fresh by staying in Missoula—where there were regular reminders of all she’s lost—while the rest of the world has continued to move forward. 

Perhaps the new house, the beautiful mountains, and a certain pair of clear, blue eyes hold the promise of new beginnings. 

Since changing careers years ago, former FBI agent Lucas Wolff has found a much better work-life balance as a member of High Mountain Trackers. Still able to serve his community, he has also been carving out a comfortable existence for himself and is not looking to make any changes to it anytime soon. Not even for a particular bold and ballsy redhead he’s been trying to avoid.

That turns out to be an impossible feat when a plane crash during a blizzard sets both of them on the trail of a young girl, all alone in the mountains. But it soon becomes evident they are not the only ones looking, and staying safe means sticking close together.

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“Oh, Jillian, I’d like you to meet my son, Lucas.” I meet those pretty green eyes, now sparkling with amusement. Of course a dog named Peanut would belong to this woman. She named her cadaver dog, Emo, after all. Hell, I knew she recently moved to the area—Sloane mentioned it more than once—but I wasn’t expecting to run into her at my mother’s assisted-living home. That’s a little too close for comfort. “So you do have a first name; Lucas, huh?” “You already know each other?” Mom looks back and forth between us. “We do. How are you doing, Jillian?” She adjusts the small furball she’s holding in her arms. “Good, thanks.” I turn to my mother to explain, “Jillian and I met working on a search last summer.” Despite my immediate attempt to identify our connection as a professional one only, I see Mom’s mind already at work behind the gleam in her eyes. Great.

5 Stars

Ms Barker has outdone herself in this book. We get the same suspenseful story as we are taken to the mountains to look for any survivors of a horrific plane crash. But we get a strong mix of her soft side as we learn of Jillian's past and her healing after a tragedy, that draws her to the crash victim. Be ready to have your heart hurt while the story unfolds but don't stop looking over your shoulder.

Jillian and Wolff have met before and he felt a strong pull to her then but wasn't looking for any sort of relationship. But as the time goes on and he knows she is now there to stay in his town, he can't seem to fight the draw to her. She is a remarkable woman, loving her animals and sharing them with others in comfort and need.

Suddenly Jillian finds herself in a place she never expected to be again. Protector for a little girl. When the need arises, she takes charge like a master and Wolff is right by her side holding them both up.

This series just keeps getting better and I can't wait for what comes next.

**Advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review. **

USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories. With forty-plus books already published, she continues to create characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy. Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We've Read All Year Award for "Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, and Finalist for the 2020 Kindle Book Award with “When Hope Ends”, Freya spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!