Rescue Me – Sharon Kleve

Rescue Me is the fourth book in the Sage McGuire Romance series by Sharon Kleve. It’s not necessary to read the books in succession, but they sometimes do refer to earlier books so I would suggest doing so. Or if you don’t want to do so, just read my review of the previous three books here.

So, let’s start with a quick recap: Sage McGuire is prone to get herself in trouble, is dating a super hot policeman (who works in narcotics) named Carter and they’re very much in love and just got engaged in fact, and she is working as a P.I.

In each book, she has one big case to solve, that usually ends up landing her in hospital. In number four, she doesn’t really get in trouble that much. It appears she has a stalker, though it turns out that the gifts were actually meant for her office assistant. She also plans a surprise for Carter’s Valentine’s Day that doesn’t turn out exactly as planned, but that they still enjoy very much together. And her big case this time revolves around a rich, older man who wants her to vet his fiance. He says he knew her old boss (who was murdered, then came to Sage in a dream to ask her to avenge his death which was caused by his very young, new wife) and that he came to Sage because her old boss came to him in a dream telling him to do so.

So Sage sets out to investigate the young woman to make sure that she isn’t after her client’s money or hiding something from him. She follows the young woman and then finds her passionately kissing another woman. When she follows her the next day to get the photo evidence, the young woman ends up tasing her (having recognized her from before and demanding why Sage is following her). And then it turns out that it was all a big misunderstanding because the young woman is actually the daughter of the woman her client is marrying (she got a picture of the two of them, and assumed it was the young woman since her old boss also married a much younger woman). She happily reports back to her client that his fiance is for real, and that night Sage is visited by her old boss, who apologizes to her because he also thought his friend was marrying the much younger woman and wanted to look out for him.

And that’s it. I feel a little double about this book. The previous three books were equally short but packed a lot more punch. Sage got kicked around, ended up in hospital, the cops were involved, she solved a murder, was almost murdered herself … That was all a little bit over the top and to be frank also quite unbelievable (that so much could happen to someone in such a short time and that that person would continue to do the same things, putting her in the same situations over and over again). But, since that was the case in the previous three books, I kind of expected the same here. And so, in comparison, this book was a whole lot tamer. But, that also means that it was much more believable. Sage didn’t end up in hospital, she tried to surprise her man, went out with friends, worked on some cases, set a wedding date, … and basically acted like a quasi-normal person. Her life seems to be quietly evening out. Yes, she’s still experiencing and doing some extraordinary things, but she is also an extraordinary person. It’s just a whole lot more believable, and for the few pages we get, there is still quite a bit of story packed in (just not as over-the-top as before). I liked the fourth installment!

And I’m very curious to see what will happen in the fifth. Will Sage continue on her more normal path, and experience something christmassy? Or will it be back full-on action and ending up in the hospital? We’ll find out in November this year!

Happy reading,

Loes M.