Staggered Cove Station

Dreamspun Desires, Book 54

By: Elle Brownlee

Narrated by: Colin Darcy

Rescues are wild in the Alaskan terrain. So is romance in this coast guard rescue novel.

Sun-kissed California guardsman Dan Farnsworth might be at home in the water, but he’s out of his element at remote, rugged, and freezing Staggered Cove Station. Acclimating proves hard enough, but he’s also digging into how the station’s previous rescue swimmer was lost at sea. Was it an operation gone bad or something more sinister? Add to that the instant tension between him and his partner, no-nonsense, Alaskan Karl Radin, and Dan has his hands full.

As his investigation heats up, so does the attraction between Dan and Karl, even if they don’t completely trust each other. But as suspicious events escalate to sabotage, Dan starts to fear that he and Karl won’t get the chance to become more than reluctant coworkers.

©2018 Elle Brownlee (P)2018 Dreamspinner Press

Didn't quite work for me

I liked the story, but not the narration. This is probably a great example of where sometimes the book works better than the audio. For me, the voice of the characters were speaking in a kind of ghetto-talk instead of professional or sun-kissed Californian. But hey, I am not from Alaska, the location for this story, so maybe that’s how they speak, but it just kept pulling me out of the story and I had to force myself to finish it, and not trade it in for the book. The narration just did not work for what I was hearing in the story. Don’t get me wrong, I can be a ghetto girl with the best of them, and if the location or character calls for it, I am all in, but that was not the setting for this book, at least not to me.

Now, the story I really liked. A great setting, a mystery, and betrayal all wrapped in a remote Coast Guard station in nowhere Alaska. I loved that Karl was a really good guy who took his role very seriously, and was still hurting over the loss of one his men. His mentorship for Dan, the newbie Coastie, showed that he was one of the most honorable and conscientious characters in the whole story. Dan came to Alaska with a secret. Nobody knows that he is the brother of the lost coastie, and his purpose is to find out how one of the best rescue swimmers could just disappear. And that is where it gets interesting.

We have a budding romance, danger around every corner, and a mystery that will either kill Dan and Karl, or be the catalyst that cements their relationship. One of the things I really liked was that the mystery was front and center, with the romance simmering on the back burner. You know it is there, but it progresses slowly but keeps pace with the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Dan’s brother. I will recommend this book, but not in the audio format.

Not enough of something

I usually like action stories and instalove is fine if done right, but this story just dragged on for me. The attraction between the MCs felt forced. I suppose it could have been the narration.