Review Code Name Willow by Paula Graves

Code Name Willow is a well written romantic suspense. More romance, not terribly scary, a bit brutal, which sounds like an oxymoron. It was offered as a free ebook. I take every free book that is offered, if I think I might want to read it some day. I'm not sure this has been published yet.

The Story
Maggie Stone, the daughter of the former US President, counsels troubled youths. When she was younger, she was a wild child, guarded by secret service agent Jack Bennett. She felt she was in love with him then, but he turned her down, not that he wanted to.

Now one of the teens she counsels, Remy Chauvin, with a rap sheet as long as your arm, claims he has seen a policeman kill a man, execution style. He is, of course, not believed. The cop is squeaky clean. To make matters worse, not too long thereafter he goes to his foster home and finds blood on the carpet and evidence that his foster parents have been murdered.

In his excitement he waves a knife around Maggie. When she goes to his foster home there is no evidence, not even a carpet. However, she has never seen the place so clean, so she is inclined to believe him. Later, it is reported that a bloody carpet was found in the home, so they know something has happened and that Remy is likely being blamed for it.

She turns to Jack Bennett to keep them safe, but he isn't so sure which story is true.

Then Remy and Maggie are targeted for a kill by more corrupt police. Lucky for them that Remy had found a safe room in Jack's house where they hid and were able to warn Jack before he walked in on the men. Jack sees the two men leaving, realizes they are police, so he is aware that their story has corroberation.

Meantime Maggie's father is making appeals on the TV for Remy to let his daughter go, thinking or wanting others to think that Remy has kidnapped her by knifepoint.

When Jack contacts his ex-lover, Laura Sandoval, an assistant U.S. Attorney out of New Orleans, they find themselves seemingly traced. Who is the one who is betraying them? Is it Laura? Jack thinks it isn't. Maggie thinks she likely is.

Willow was her code name when she was being guarded by the secret service.

My take
I enjoyed this book a lot. The characters are well developed. There is genuine love between Maggie and Jack, though they have been out of touch for years. There is a sense of family between Jack, Maggie, and Remy, even if Maggie and her father do not get along.

I was annoyed by
I was annoyed by the nickname Naughty Marguerite for Maggie. I thought that was totally unnecessary. I would give the book 4 stars out of 4, if it were not for that. Because of that, I will give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Have you read the book or any other books by Paula Graves?
I would definitely seek out more of her books.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

Originally posted 2010-07-06 21:02:31.

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