#42 [2024/CBR16] Searching for Rescue by Tonya Burrows

One day I came upon a list of free, steamy romance novels. I was intrigued and probably procrastinating, so I looked through the list. That's where I found Searching for Rescue (2023) by Tonya Burrows. I picked it up on Amazon, not sure if I would ever read it. After all, it was free. How good could it be? But in the end, the dog sucked me in. I love dogs, and I figured a romance with a kick-ass, military-trained, Belgian Malinois was going to be interesting. 

Zak Hendricks is back home after a mission went bad. He was a black-ops soldier doing some of the hardest jobs and seeing the worst you can imagine. He was captured and tortured on his last tour, badly injuring his knee. Now that he's home, he has nothing to live for. He's drinking constantly, driving drunk, getting in trouble, and feeling suicidal. He doesn't want to talk to his family and is deeply unhappy.

Anna Rawlings is a dog trainer who owns Redwood Coast Rescue. She rescues all kinds of dogs from all kinds of situations. When Zak is ordered by the court to volunteer at the Redwood Coast Rescue, as well as attend meetings at the related Paws for Vets program, Anna is very nervous. She loved Zak before he took off with the military and left her. 

Zak reluctantly starts showing up at the Redwood Coast Rescue. The Paws for Vets program is small group therapy run by a woman with a very sweet dog. We get to know the vets in that program and their struggles. Zak also is tasked with helping Anna out at the shelter. He meets Ranger, an ex-military dog struggling as much as Zak is. The two seem to understand each other and take to each other almost immediately.

If the story weren't already dramatic enough, a murdered body is discovered at a nearby campsite. Two children who had been staying at that campsite are missing. Anna, Ranger, and Zak are brought in to help search for the kids. Despite all of Zak's problems, Anna still can't resist him, and the two start something up again before all hell breaks loose.

This book was better than I expected. Sometimes I felt like there was a little too much thrown into the plot. Just one man battling his demons might have been enough. I'm not sure we needed missing kids, adopted kids, and murderers as well. However, Burrows managed to keep all the plotlines understandable and easy to follow. Zak probably became healthier unrealistically quickly, but the book couldn't last forever. My favorite parts by far were the descriptions of the dogs. I imagine that Burrows must love dogs and have spent a significant amount of time with them, because her descriptions of the dogs' mannerisms were spot on.