BOOK REVIEW- LOVE ON THE RISKY SIDE by Mariah Ankenman

Falsely accused of the murder of her best friend, Kayla Jenkins is on the run for her life. She ends up lost in dark, snowy woods off some backcountry road in the middle of nowhere. Frightened and colder than she’s ever been in her life, she almost thinks she’s hallucinating when a warrior on a white steed saves her.

In all his years as the sheriff of Peak Town, Colorado, Jake Ryder has never come across a half-frozen woman alone in the woods. She’s terrified…and lying to him, yet something about her calls to him on a primal level.

Even with her trust of law enforcement lower than the harsh temperature, Kayla finds it difficult to keep her secrets hidden from the kind and far too handsome sheriff. But as her faith in Ryder grows, she not only risks the real murderer finding her, but losing the one thing she has searched for her whole life and only just found…love.  AMAZON 4 STARS

This book had good main characters who were easy to connect to.  I liked the dual points of view.   And listening in to their inner dialogue was often pretty funny. 
The people who were secondary characters were interesting as well.  The two that really got my attention was Lizzie and Maggie.   Lizzie was described as a zany, outgoing, very pregnant fun person.  And she was all of that including her own made up words.  That made me smile.  Maggie was always telling her, that's not a word.  But in Lizzie's dictionary it was.  It simply was two words put together to form a new one. 
You know who the bad guy is from the start but he is a clever, violent bad guy.  He seems to enjoy hurting people and pity the person who gets in his way. And Kayla is definitely in his way.

There is an instant attraction between Kayla and Ryder even when he knows from the start that she was lying to him.  The sheriff part of him knew it but his gut instinct also told him that she was essentially a good person.   His criminal radar was not going off when it came to her. He's nobody's fool but he is a very caring man. 

The book comes to a dramatic end with a very satisfying H.E.A. for Kayla and Ryder.   I liked how she saw Ryder as a warrior.  And she proved how smart and brave she could be when the chips were down.

I enjoyed this book and this introduction to this author.  I don't think I have read any of her books before. 

Oh a side note, her dedications page was really sweet.  Wow, she had dreams of writing since she was nine years old.  I'm glad she got her dreams to come true. 



 "I received this book in exchange for a review and these are my honest thoughts. "