This story is Book 3 in the Raines of Wind Canyon. Dev Raines has semi retired from Raines Investigations. Lark Delaney shows up at Dev's house and begs him to help her find her 4 year old niece. They are attracted to each other right away but determined to find the child and stay professional during the process. The case should be straight forward and fairly easy but it becomes dangerous and Dev needs to reach out to his former associates to keep Lark safe. Good story. I enjoyed it very much. ( )

Against the Law
3 Stars

Similar to the first two books in the series, the basic premise has potential but the execution is poor with overly descriptive and redundant scenes.

Lark and Dev have tangible chemistry and there are, thankfully, no fade to black scenes as in book #2. That said, neither character is particularly likable. Dev is afraid to commit and constantly muses over the possibility of being with other women while Lark comes across as flirty and also mentions the possibility of having sex with another man. Their relationship is based almost solely on sex and their HEA is not believable.

The plot starts out well with the black market adoption ring. Unfortunately, this storyline is underdeveloped and plays out far too quickly. The book then goes off in a completely different, and unrealistic, direction with megalomaniac drug lords, rival cartels and special forces operatives taking over.

In sum, this series is nothing special and the secondary characters who will be the focus of future books are not that interesting. ( )

DESCRIPTION, NOT REVIEW: At thirty-two Dev is "mostly retired" from Raines Investigations, content to run operations from his sprawling Arizona home. But Dev has never been able to say no to a beautiful woman, so when Lark Delaney comes to him for help, the former U.S. Army Ranger from Wind Canyon gets back in the game.

Lark is sexy, successful and dedicated to tracking down the baby girl her sister gave up for adoption. It should be a straightforward case, but it's not long before Dev uncovers a shady adoption ring and worse—the child's parents have been murdered and the little girl has been taken.

As the case grows dangerous and Lark needs him more than ever, Dev can't ignore his growing attraction for her. He also can't trust his judgment with women or the emotions he's long-since buried. But there's a chance, if he gets this right and saves Lark's niece, that he'll end up saving himself, too. ( )

against the law by kat martin
in this series Devlin is the main character. He's the boss of a security agency, who has it all, a girl anytime he wants, houses,
sailboats, money, good apparel, etc. He's feeling he doesn't have it all.
she is a handbag designer and needs to find out where her dead sisters baby adopted parents are so she can make sure the baby is in
good hands.
she helps him with the investigation as they travel from one lead to another.
things happen where Lark now has the child and is raising her but her one night with Dev plays on her mind, and it also plays on his
mind. They can't get each out of their heads. Problem is somebody else wants the child so there is major mayhem.
Dev has to call on his trained buddies to help him retrieve the girl from another country. Love the planning that goes on. It's like the
ATeam show on TV, they have their act together.
I rate this a 5, very well written, down to earth and over the top in action. True characters and the author comes through as always. ( )

Against the Law is the story of the youngest Raines brother, Devlin. A few years before the series started, Devlin, a former Army Ranger turned private detective, had thought he had found the woman of his dreams--until she practically left him at the altar. Since then his life has been devoted to pleasure, avoiding any and all entanglements with the opposite sex that might lead to anything permanent...until Lark Delaney hires him to help her find her dead sister's child, given up for adoption four years before.

I did like Against the Law and was looking forward to Dev's story, but out of the three brothers I have to say his comes in third. I thought he spent far too much time stuck in his "I'm never going to marry/ I'm just not that kind of guy" rut and it caused far too much grief for himself and others. It was a good story, though, full of drama and action like the others, it just seemed to take him much too long to get to the point that everyone else knew he would eventually get to from chapter one. Martin is planning to continue the series with three more books following three of Devlin's friends, so I will be looking forward to reading them as well. ( )