There are generally two reasons a woman is on the run: she’s hiding from an abusive ex, or she’s a criminal. The back cover of Broken by Shiloh Walker makes it clear that neither is true in this case, and most of the book is spent guessing what the reason could be.

Sara Davis is sick of hiding, but doesn’t have much of a choice. When a kind woman gives her a place to live, she meets the first person that might threaten her ability to hide: Quinn Rafferty. Quinn is a bounty hunter who has a dark past – an abusive childhood, a gritty job, and the violent death of the one woman he might have loved. However, when the two become neighbors, they are instantly attracted to each other. Neither of them are in a place to be in a relationship, but they can’t fight their chemistry. And as chemistry builds to a strong emotional connection, they’ll have to decide whether or not to trust the other with the secrets of their pasts.

Sara and Quinn have a good relationship. Their personalities just mesh really well. They have a strong physical attraction and a strong emotional connection, despite their secrets. They’re together for most of the book, and it was nice to see them just casually getting to know each other and develop feelings for each other. Despite the suspense element, most of their relationship development was sort of quiet. There are questions, but they’re not immediate. The threat looms rather than leaving dead cats on Sara’s doorstep, and that slow build worked much better than the obvious stalker option.

However, Quinn’s reaction when he discovers Sara’s secret left something to be desired. Despite being so open and understanding about women in abusive relationships, he can’t fathom why Sara would leave her life except that she was a bad person. His lack of trust irritated me. He redeems himself, but the way he pushed her away at first wasn’t in line with everything else we had learned about him thus far.

One tip: don’t flip through to the back of the book. I went looking for the author’s biography and found on the last page a piece of information that was a huge, massive, major clue to the reason why Sara was on the run. If you prefer to know, that’s fine, but I would have liked to guess. It is an interesting twist, though, one that I probably wouldn’t have seen coming if it weren’t for my accidental spoiler.

This book puts an interesting twist on the woman-in-hiding plot, and it worked really well. Quinn is one of those alpha heroes who would rather gouge his own eyes out than hurt a woman, and Sara is a strong, feisty woman who doesn’t back down from him. Good characters and a good story make for a good read.