Protecting Her Daughter

Wrangler’s Corner Series, Book 3

By: Lynette Eason

Narrated by: Charlotte North

Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

A classic tale of danger on the ranch by bestselling author Lynette Eason

After someone attempts to abduct her daughter, single mom Zoe Collier flees to a remote ranch for safety. But when the would-be kidnappers follow them to Wrangler's Corner, Zoe must figure out why somebody wants Sophia. Local vet Aaron Starke is determined to help Zoe investigate - and to keep his intriguing new neighbors safe. Zoe's used to relying on her own wits to survive. But quick-witted, caring Aaron is just the type of man she needs in her corner. And he might be her partner for keeps...if they can find the truth without losing their lives.

©2016 Lynette Eason (P)2020 Tantor

Lynette Eason

Any book that I have read by MS Eason has always been very good! This one is very good as are many!

It was a great story!

The narrator was good. Also, the story in general was a romance mystery. Great book.

Not Bad for a Quickie Mystery

This was a pretty good mystery although rather short. There was not enough time to
do much character development. A little thin on the motives for the kidnapping/murder
I have listened to many by Lynette Eason and this one is not as good as many others
but still worth a listen.
The narration was just passable but a little too much twang for me.

Good characters and narrator but has some issues

In this book, the characters are likable and dialogue believable. The writing is best when developing the main characters in an endearing manner. I liked especially the portrayal of drug addiction and recovery. The main character is serious about recovery but realizes that she still is not completely over it snd needs patience and support which I thought was a great message. It ended with a very sweet love story. The nine year old was funny and endearing. She was a very interesting character I wish I heard more about.

I can’t say how much I enjoyed the narrator in this series. I loved the southern accent. I like her voice very much and continue to listen to the books just to hear her, I think.

This is my fourth book in this series. I think the first one was the best one, probably because meth labs, a local drug trade, and children who need child protective services are more likely to actually happen than the plots presented in the other books in this series. Many of us have seen things like this in our neighborhoods, unfortunately. I also liked that the two main characters in that first book weren’t overly hung up on themselves and did not have a lot of dithering in regard to their feelings. They talked things through which I really liked. The female protagonist also showed realistic conflict resolution skills which listeners could appreciate.

All the other books in the series, including this one, had too many paragraphs dedicated to “I can’t be involved with … because of (insert old hurt feelings) or I am (insert leaving for whatever purpose) soon. Omg, just find another character motivation already! The first book had some of that, but it was dealt with throughout the story in a more interesting manner and was not constantly rehashed in an effort to add words to an essay that is 200 words short of the rubric’s mandated 500.

This story also suffers because the villains are more the stuff of melodrama than human. Sometimes they are over the top evil and other times they are a bit buffoon like. Finally, this book and series suffer because, though main character law enforcement are shown to be persistent, noble, and intelligent, none of them really seem to know how to fight. They are always finding themselves on the losing end of hand to hand skirmishes, and not one LEO uses lethal force when their lives or the lives of others are threatened. In this book, the DOCTOR uses lethal force, but NOT the police! It makes the stories less believable because it shows incompetence. The author and publisher seem to be completely oblivious to that incompetence, however, which makes the problem worse.

This leads me to my last point. In this book, the heroine decides to use a firearm to defend herself. She responsibly uses a safety and practices at a range. Good so far. However, she fails to use lethal force when her life is actually threatened. This might be the stuff of an imaginary fight, but in reality, if you are the weaker person who is being threatened with lethal force by a stronger person, and you choose to use a firearm to defend yourself, shooting someone in the leg allows the stronger person the opportunity to overpower you and use your firearm against you. She even comes close enough to the villain to touch him with the gun which is so incredibly stupid because she could easily be overpowered by the stronger male. In short, this book shows an irresponsible way to use that force multiplier called a gun, and the heroine’s unwillingness to use the gun to truly defend herself made the following plot crisis so obviously predictable that it was almost laughable.

All this would have been ok if the problems that happened as a result of the unwillingness to use deadly force were discussed afterwards, but that never happened because the author did not care about anything but prolonging the tension in the plot. The inability of police and victims to fight back effectively leads to a longer story without more substance.

Overall, the books are diverting because of endearing characters but the books themselves don’t require much brain power. They are available for “free” with membership and are an easy listen due to the narrator’s excellent reading. They are the quintessential “beach read” which is just fine but can be annoying when the same tropes are repeated too often. None of the problems have made me stop listening so that says enough, though I have been known to hit the fast forward more than once. 😂