Pivot by Kat Martin, Alexandra Ivy and Rebecca Zanetti


Pivot by Kat Martin, Alexandra Ivy and Rebecca Zanetti
Publisher: Zebra
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (368 pgs)
Heat: Spicy
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Poppy

As girls, they bonded over broken homes and growing up in foster care.
As women, they’re fighting for their lives, and loves, once more . . .

MERI
When Meriwether Jones takes her young daughter and runs from trouble in L.A., that trouble follows. By the time Meri reaches Spokane, she’s out of gas, money, and ideas. Luckily, ex-cop Ian Brodie hires her to help him with his father’s farmhouse, and they seem like the answer to each other’s prayers. But Meri is keeping a dangerous secret—and Ian is in danger of losing his heart . . .

MELANIE
That secret explodes when Melanie Cassidy spots two men trying to kidnap a young boy she tutors and responds by ramming them with her car. The last thing she expects is for the man she once loved, Detective Gray Hawkins, to appear and rescue them both. Now she has no choice but to trust him as they investigate the truth about a conspiracy of dirty, drug trafficking cops—and the truth about their relationship . . .

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After a rough youth, Michelle Peach was finally content in Portland—until two men broke into her home, threatened her, and sent her mentally unstable mom on a blackmail spree that Michelle has to stop. The last person Michelle wants to see is her ex, Evan Boldon, a former marine turned sheriff. But Evan misses the woman who walked away instead of letting him help years ago. This time he’s not asking permission; he’s going to put a stop to the trouble stalking Michelle and her friends—and win her heart for good.

I expected a lot from this book, because the quality of the authors’ previous works has preceeded them. Let me review this anthology one story at a time.

First, we have Against the Heart by Kat Martin (Meri’s story). She’s escaping a one-night-stand who’s also, unfortunately, the father of her daughter. This guy wants to bleed her dry for every penny she has, and threatens her kid on top of it. So Meri runs … right into Ian Brodie.

Man, I loved Ian and his father. I have this feeling they may have been in other of Ms. Martin’s books, but I’ve never “met” them before. Ian is steadfast, honorable and loving. His dad is heartbroken from his wife’s death, incorrigible and hides his heart pretty well, until he gets thawed out by Meri’s young daughter, who basically adopts him as a grandpa.

There is no question this story’s suspense was first rate. I was absolutely worried about Meri and, as I got to know the rest of the crew in Spokane, worried about them, too. It seemed her ex would stop at nothing (which included beating up a friend and kidnapping) and, even though I knew in my head this story would have a happy ending, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through reading about them getting there. I did. Barely, and with heart pounding.

The part I didn’t love as much was the romance. Not that I didn’t adore Meri and Ian, I just couldn’t buy they could fall in love–like the “let’s get married and live happily every after forever” love–in that short a time. Honestly a ‘happy for now’ ending probably would have contented me more (and I don’t say that often).

Next comes Shaken by Rebecca Zanetti (Michelle’s story) and this one really had it all. I felt it was the strongest, most well-rounded story of the trio. The suspense was great (though I really did struggle with why she felt ANY kind of responsibility to her mother…but that is what the entire story hinged on so it had to exist). Evan was a take-no-prisoners (and take no crap) kind of guy, and refused to let Michelle get away with much when it came to their previous and current/potential relationship. I also adored Wolfe…his character was honestly about the most well-rounded one in the story! I think several of the secondary characters are also part of other books the author has written, and I’m definitely going to hunt those down. If her other books are as good as this story, she’s going to be an auto buy author for me.

Lastly we have Echoes of the Past by Alexandra Ivy (Melanie’s story). Another second chance romance! One of my favorite tropes when done right, and this one did pretty well. I did feel a bit of what I’m sure was a word count constraint here, so we weren’t able to see as much of their backstories as I would have liked. Still, the romance and the suspense both worked for me here.

All in all, I think this was a pretty solid romantic suspense anthology. I got to find two “new to me” authors that I’ll check out for longer releases and found a good amount of escapism and enjoyment from this well-written trio of inter-connected stories. If you’re a fan of any of these authors, or just the genre in general, you could do worse than grabbing yourself a copy and reading the day away.

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