Format: E-book
Read with: Kindle for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
Hero: Sam Cooper
Heroine: Julia Devaux
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: October 1, 2005
Started On: June 10, 2011
Finished On: June 11, 2011

Julia Devaux finds herself in the mother of all fixes when she witnesses a mob hit and becomes a valuable witness who could put away the dangerous Joey Capruzzo behind bars for a good long time. However that also means that one seriously rich and pissed off Capruzo is after her pretty little head served on a platter which would mean another failed attempt by the US government  to indict him.

A book worm and film buff at the core, though Julia has lived a life of moving from one place to the other with her parents always on the move, she is not at all prepared to change into a Sally Anderson, a second grade school teacher in the middle of nowhere in Simpson, Idaho. With her life turned completely upside down, Julia is one step away from just simply sitting down and wailing at the winds when things take an interesting turn and she starts having an unholy fascination for anything to do with the tall, strong and silent Sam Cooper who turns up on her doorstep most unexpectedly.

Ex-Navy SEAL, Sam is a man who finds himself in serious trouble when the delectable new teacher in Idaho leaves him with a raging hard-on for the first time in almost two years. Sam’s past and the famous Cooper curse makes him a wary man on all counts. On top of all that, Sam is not a man who has much inclination to talk which has him sweating buckets when it comes to wooing and seducing the one woman whom he wants more than his next breath.

With a whopping figure of two million on her head, Julia is far from safe even in a no name town such as Simpson when it brings out a killer most cunning who will do anything to find out and kill Julia, all for the luxury the money for the kill would bring.

Whe Sam finds out that Julia, the woman who has turned his life and that of his town around is a woman on the run, there is no stopping him from pulling out all the stops in protecting the one woman who means the world to him. Towards the end, the cunning killer almost wins in putting Julia six feet under until Sam arrives to the rescue with just seconds to spare.

I loved Woman on the Run by Lisa Marie Rice as this turned out to be refreshingly different from the rest of her novels I have read to date. I say different because of the take on humor this story has which had me laughing out loud in several places when Julia’s quirky sense of self-depreciating humor along with the small town life comes into play.

From the aspect of the hero and the trademark LMR sensuality, this book is another winner with Sam being the uber-alpha and the protective kind whose want and need for Julia goes beyond anything describable. Julia is an endearing heroine whom I loved from the start of the novel though she sounds a bit confused of what she wants and needs at the beginning of the story. The villain when brought to light turned out to be the biggest shocker rendering this as one of the most enjoyable romantic suspense by the author. For me the best part of the epilogue of the story which takes place 4 years later turned out to be how different a man Sam is towards the end. And I would love to point it out that the overly descriptive narrations that annoyed me in Hotter than Wildfire which I reviewed earlier were non-existent in this one, making it earn a whopping 5 stars from the sunny side of life!

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