Rancher Under Cover is a mostly average offering in the mostly average Kelley Legacy series (I’m starting to think the “legacy” is mediocre books, but then I’m still reading them, aren’t I?). I liked the heroine this time around, but found the hero’s behavior unethical.

In this installment, neither the hero or heroine is actually part of the Kelley family. Caitlin O’Donohue is a longtime neighbor of the Kelleys, and her father appears to be implicated in the same conspiracy in which Senator Hank Kelley is involved. Caitlin is a doctor who was in South America with Doctors without Borders, but comes home because she was raped and kidnapped. One of the men who abducted her told her to “tell her father his old friends said hello” – so she’s worried about her dad and wonders what’s going on. It doesn’t help that her dad has disappeared and isn’t answering his cell phone.

The ranch has a new foreman, though. An attractive new foreman who’s really an undercover FBI agent. His name is Rhett Kane, but he tells Caitlin and everyone else that his name is Randall. Rhett is there to find out where Mickey O’Donohue is hiding out, and arrest him as soon as he makes an appearance. He figures the best way to gather information is to cozy up to Caitlin, so that’s just what he does. He soon realizes that not only has she survived some personal trauma; someone is trying to kill her now.

The two bond as they dodge bullets and try to help a horse caught in barbed wire. Caitlin is naturally gun shy, but she warms up to Rhett/Randall – enough to tell him the truth about her past. Randall is not similarly forthcoming. Well, he tells Caitlin about part of his dark past (his wife died), but doesn’t tell her about his present, or what his name really is. He can’t help falling in love with Caitlin, but he knows that she’ll hate him as soon as she knows that he’s there to arrest her dad.

It all plays out about how you’d think, right down to the sex and the inevitable betrayal. I liked Caitlin and found her occupation interesting, and I didn’t mind the horse stuff (even though it has all been done before – in this series, even). But I found that I just couldn’t get past Rhett’s dishonesty. I thought he had no business sleeping with Caitlin under false pretenses. It was more than dishonest; it was completely unethical. She didn’t even know his real name. And though she found a a way to forgive him in the end, I couldn’t be quite that generous.

Actually, the Rhett/Randall stuff got pretty confusing. So confusing that the author at one point has Caitlin think of the man she knows as “Randall” as “Rhett” – before she’s been clued in to his real name.

If you’re following the Kelley Legacy series (which is about the only reason I can think to read this book), there isn’t much to add to the overarching storyline. Caitlin’s dad was duped by the Raven’s Head Society (just like Hank Kelley), the society’s tentacles apparently reach all the way to South America, and Lana’s still kidnapped. And now you’re all caught up. If you don’t have a problem with the false identity angle, perhaps Rancher Under Cover will work better for you. But really, I don’t think it’s worth the bother.