Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Desire, #851
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Chase Rafferty
Heroine: Margaret Rose McKenna
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: March 1, 1994
Started On: January 4, 2012
Finished On: January 4, 2012

Reading wise, the year 2012 didn’t start off so great for me. I picked up 2 books which have received rave and glowing reviews from several reviewers & readers, but somehow I found myself not really getting into the story that was developing. Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind or lets face it, I may very well be the odd one out when it comes to the said books. That being said, Caroline Cross’s Rafferty’s Angel was a recommendation I got off of a giveaway I held here on my blog and I have been awaiting this one’s arrival ever since I ordered a used copy from Abe Books. So  last evening I found myself engrossed in the story that unfolded, a book that delivered exactly what I was craving for which made me a very happy and satisfied reader all around.

Former DEA Agent Chase Rafferty is a man who is haunted by what took place 2 years ago. The fact that the widow of the man whom he had killed had come forward to provide the testimony that had freed him in the eyes of the law continues to haunt and taunt him. Chase had grown up without ever knowing an ounce of kindness from his military bred father and his life as a DEA agent later on makes him a cynical man, one who is befuddled and confused by the way Maggie comes forth to the rescue of the one man whom she should hate with every fiber of her being.

2 years pass on by and Maggie lives in her hometown of Mission in Eastern Oregon with her two children. Once again, Maggie finds herself playing the rescuer, this time to a Chase that seems to have lost all hope, a man whose tormented soul beckons Maggie to bestow upon him her soothing touch, a man she undeniably has a strong connection towards no matter how much she may try to think otherwise.

Its a slow and a moving journey that Maggie and Chase takes together towards the discovery that in each other lies their better halves and their entwined future, if only Chase is willing to let go of the demons that continue to hound him every step of the way. The sizzling sexual tension that is so much a part of Maggie and Chase’s relationship proved to be an oh! so delicious one, one that had all my nerves rejoicing in the way that Chase loses his control when it comes to Maggie.

Maggie is one of the most endearing heroines I have come across. She has this soothing quality that is hard to explain, heck she even worked her charm over me throughout the story. I was lulled into this place where the world was a beautiful riot of colors, one where loneliness and pain is a foreign concept. That doesn’t mean that this story is all fluff, candies and rainbows. Hardly that, but Caroline Cross’s writing came across to me as a thing of beauty, one that I fell hopelessly in love with and won’t be forgetting anytime soon!

For fans of tortured and cynical heroes, Chase Rafferty is the man for you! He is sexy as sin and has a way about him that would draw you into his character and make you want to shoo away all those nightmares that seems to linger on even after such a long time. 

Highly recommended!

Favorite Quotes

Yet as bad as she felt, it was nothing compared to the stark despair she saw in Rafferty’s eyes. It was so total, and went so deep, that it made her forget her own hurt to see it. It was the look of a man who’d given up deep inside where it mattered most, and for Maggie, who was a survivor to her very toes, it was profoundly disturbing.

Maggie lifted her head.
Chase lowered his.
Like the inevitable meeting of sea with shore, their mouths came together.

And then those dusky lashes fluttered up, revealing a lambent gleam of jungle green.
His hands circled her waist and she slowly flexed his hips, a wholly male sound of satisfaction escaping him when her eyes fluttered shut and she gasped.
And then a small, secret, feminine smile appeared on her lips and Chase’s control snapped like a power line in a high wind.
Wrapping her in his arms, he began to pump into her in a slow, relentless rhythm that was both too much and not enough.

“Oh, baby, I can’t wait….”
“Don’t. I want you, Chase….” She slid her fingers up the strong channel of his spine to lock in the soft heavy gold of his hair and urged him down until his mouth, hot and wet, latched hungrily on one distended nipple. He hooked his fingers in the fragile lace barrier of her panties and tore them away, then yanked at the fastening of his jeans.
This time there was no slow slide of discovery. There was one endless agonizing second of delay as he made use of one of the packets she’d purchased, and then he was gripping her hips and plunging inside her, the pair of them bowing together as the ache of anticipation became a white-hot pulse of pleasure.

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