High Country Rebel

July 22, 2013
The eighth in McKenna’s Navy SEAL–centric Wyoming series (after The Loner) focuses on the healing power of love. Veteran Talon Holt and his faithful companion, retired combat assault dog Zeke, barely survive being caught in a late-spring blizzard. They are rescued by local firefighter and paramedic Cat Edwin, who takes them to a local ranch to recuperate. Talon was honorably discharged, due in part to the fact that he suffered from PTSD after being captured and tortured. He has returned to the area to help his mother, who is jobless and fighting cancer. Cat and the Bar H residents are part of the local community-support system (which is peppered with characters from past installments of the series). Even under duress, Cat and Talon are immediately drawn together, but Cat’s abusive father and ex-boyfriend taught her to be wary of men, and her ex may threaten her future with Talon. A by-the-numbers suspense subplot doesn’t add anything to McKenna’s enthusiastic advocacy for wounded warriors, their lovers, and their canine co-combatants.