Review of Against the Wind (Raines of Wind Canyon #1) by Kat Martin

Against the Wind is the first book in the series The Raines of Wind Canyon.

Sarah Allen married the wrong man. After his murder, she runs to the only place she can think of—home to Wind Canyon where she grew up. She rents a cabin on a ranch and takes her six-year-old daughter from Los Angeles to small-town Wyoming.

Jackson Raines was spurned cruelly by Sarah in high school, and upon discovering her presence in Wind Canyon, he also discovers she's rented the cabin on his ranch via his housekeeper. He's determined to keep his distance, but Sarah's allure draws him closer than he'd like.

When Sarah's dead husband's enemies hunt her down in Wind Canyon, Jackson is determined to help her save herself and her daughter. Whatever these dangerous men have in store, Sarah and Jackson will face it together.

This book was a big DNF—Did Not Finish. I made it a third of the way in before I just couldn't take it anymore. I rarely DNF a book, with only one other in the last two years when I read a book or two a week.

I can't think why a publisher would print this book, let alone the eight that come after it. There were no redeeming qualities to it, though it was not painful to read.

There was nothing ticking beneath the surface of the main characters besides worry about Sarah's husband's enemies. The chemistry between the couple was nonexistent, and the lack of it sucked the life out of the book. I couldn't figure out why any of the characters did what they did. Jackson abandons his ranch to his foreman and housekeeper to go with Sarah to L.A., but I couldn't figure out why on earth he'd do that—I felt no emotion from him and no attraction to Sarah. Similarly, Sarah had almost no emotion, only showing a tiny sliver of fear a couple of times. Yet they had a night of blandly described sex that was supposedly life changing.

The environment was described better than I would expect given the problems I've already described, but it still wasn't done well. Actions were better than that, though the lack of emotion behind them cancelled that out. I couldn't picture the characters well at all.

Dialog was cheesy, and the inner thoughts of the characters, the few times they had them, were also cheesy. Sometimes painfully.

Everything was dialog and action. Almost no reflection or pausing to let the reader take in the emotions brewing under the surface. It was blindingly fast-paced, and with no context from the characters, it was emotionless action based on reasons listed for the reader without waiting for the reader to understand—or helping the reader to understand.

All in all, it was a bad book, the worst I've read in a long time.

No stars rating. Just a big old DNF.

Photo Credit Travel Photographer