Wild Montana Skies (#01 in Montana Rescue Series)

3. 5 stars. Helicopter pilot Kacey Fairing is still suffering PTSD from her last tour of Afghanistan. She has a few months off over summer to spend back in her home town of Mercy Falls with her 13-year-old daughter Audrey. However, she's not expecting to run into former love Ben King, now a big country music star. Ben had promised her the moon, but landed in jail the night Audrey was born and then left town soon after. However, she doesn't know the full truth about why Ben left town. He was under the impression that she'd given their baby up for adoption, and isn't expecting to find he has a teenage daughter who doesn't know he's her father. Can these two wounded former sweethearts get beyond the past and forge a life together?\\n\\nSusan May Warren writes really well and I liked the Montana setting. This is very much a tale of second chances, and I liked the way life was messy and the characters had to work through issues with God and each other before they could move forward. However, Kacey and Ben were so angry with each other for the first third of the book, that it took me a while to warm to them. There were also a couple of things that didn't ring quite true for me, though I enjoyed it enough that I want to go on and read the rest of the series (This is No. 1 of the Montana Rescue series). All in all, a good romance story with some deeper issues and a great theme of how God is a God of second chances.

I enjoyed this first novel in the Montana Rescue Series, but was a little annoyed at the main character, Kacey. I was getting frustrated with her self-focused approach to her relationship with former fiance, and her continual denial that he should have rights to know his daughter - a result of a youthful mistake. Susan May Warren writes dramatic action, and romance. With a team of search and rescue personnel as the main characters, it is bound to be dramatic, with loads of on the edge of your seat thrilling near-misses. Her romance always works out well, but with Kacey, I have to admit, she frustrated me, and I wanted to give her a good talking to. I've since read two more in this series, and the action and romance continues,

I love Susan May Warren's books, and Wild Montana Skies, the first in her new Montana Rescue series, was certainly no exception. It grabbed my interest and attention on the very first page and I didn't want to put it down till I was finished. She introduces such real characters, facing such real issues, and develops them in such a way that readers become invested in their success. Kacey Fairing takes leave from her military career and returns to Mercy Falls to spend time with her teenage daughter. While there, she works as a search and rescue helicopter pilot for PEAK Rescue. She runs into Ben King, a country music superstar who has come back to care for his sick father who runs PEAK Rescue. They have a complicated past, and you'll have to read for yourself how Susan May Warren unravels their future. But wait until you have a few free days, so you can read it all at once!

I really enjoyed this book, the first of Susan May Warren's Montana Rescue series. I fell in love not only with the two main characters but the whole rescue team (and subsequently can't wait to read the rest of the series!). The story is both beautiful and gripping, far more than just a romance. My one frustration with it was that, while the story of the two main characters was complete, there were a lot of other plotlines and mysteries left wide open. If you're not planning on reading the whole series, maybe keep that in mind. \\r\\n