Tracker's Sin

by Sarah McCarty

Book Review by Lynne Connolly

Official book blurb: Before his trade became his name, "Tracker" Ochoa was a scrawny Mestizo runaway. Now as fearsome as he once was frightened, he's joined the notorious Hell's Eight…and they have a job for him.

He must rescue kidnapped heiress Ari Blake and deliver her safely to the Hell's Eight compound—by any means necessary. Turns out that includes marrying her, if he means to escort her and her infant daughter across the Texas Territory. Tracker hadn't bargained on a wife—especially such a fair, blue-eyed beauty. But the erotic pleasures of the marriage bed more than make up for the surprise.

Tracker's well-muscled bronze skin and dark, dangerous eyes are far more exciting than any of Ari's former debutante dreams. In the light of day, though, his deep scars and brooding intensity terrify her. But he's her husband and she's at his mercy. With the frontier against them and mercenary bandits at their heels, Ari fears she'll never feel safe again.

Tracker, too, remembers what fear feels like. Though he burns to protect Ari, to keep her for himself always, he knows that money, history—and especially the truth—can tear them apart.

                                               
Review: I haven’t read any of the other Hell’s Eight books, but I’ve never been one for reading a linked series in order, where each book has a separate couple at the protagonists. But I’ve read McCarty’s books before, and enjoyed them, and since this one is listed as an erotic romance, I thought it would do nicely.

The book doesn’t actually read very well as a stand-alone. There are characters who aren’t explained and parts of the story were unknown to me, such as the heroine being an heiress. It’s just sprung on the hapless reader half way through.
The first half of the book works well and consists of Tracker and his brother Shadow getting Ari from the house where they find her to safety at Hell’s Eight. It includes a perilous climb over mountains to get away from the gang chasing them. I thought that was well done, and I enjoyed it, though I have to admit I wondered when the erotic part would begin. But it’s an exciting section of the story, well told, and I enjoyed it.

The second part isn’t so well done, sadly. It involves a villain I hadn’t come across before, which I could cope with, as it’s a part of a series, and several chases and gunfights. Two incidents that I felt were important to the story happen “offstage,” and they read as anti-climaxes. I felt they should have been on the page, or not there at all, as I got that arriving after the party feeling when I read it. “Oh, okay, so they did all that while I wasn’t looking.”

Tracker is a great hero. Part American Indian, he is a Texas Ranger, and has the hallmarks of a true man of action, one who knows how to use the tools of his trade, but doesn’t glory in it. Ari, who has gone through unspeakable experiences before the start of the story, has blanked out her memories. She is, as far as she knows, eleven months old. This works well in the story’s context, and I liked Ari, who combined love for her baby with a growing love for her rescuer. She’s competent and yet, when she does get her memory back, that, too, happens offstage, except for the first revelation. I didn’t get to share that with her, or feel what she felt.

Erotic – hardly. What sex scenes there are, and there are three main ones, are very well done, hot and realistic. I enjoyed reading them, except for the last one which seemed put in so the book would class in the erotic category. I didn’t believe that Tracker would feel it necessary, and he’d never really shown a yen for the kink he uses in the last scene, so it seemed imposed. And since, by then, Ari had her memory back, I’m not sure she’d have been comfortable with it. But the first lovemaking scene after she regains her memory is lovely, and probably the best in the book.

Lynne Connolly
November 2010

Tucker's Sin by Sarah McCarty
Harlequin Spice, October, 2010; ISBN-10: 037360548X)
Available at: Amazon |Amazon UK

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© 2010 Lynne Connolly. All rights reserved. Content may not be copied or used in whole or part without written permission.

About the Author:  Lynne Connolly - Reader, Writer, Lover.
You can find Lynne at her website at www.lynneconnolly.com

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