Rio Star by Pepper Smith

Title: Rio Star
Author: Pepper Smith
ISBN: 9781606592496
Publisher: Mundania Press LLC, 2010
Paperback, 200 pages
Genre: Thriller
Rating: A
Source: the author

First Line: The day I discovered I was pregnant was the day my husband Micheál decided I wasn't going with him to watch him race.

Assistant trainer Patty O'Donnell is pregnant, and her loving husband has turned into a Neanderthal. They don't have any real time to discuss his behavior because Patty is kidnapped by a couple of con men, putting her career and her baby's life in danger.

It takes a while, but Patty puts the pieces together and realizes that she's been taken from Ireland to Argentina where she's being forced to help in a racing scam. She wants nothing to do with it until she understands the reason behind it. Once she knows what's going on, she is a willing accomplice in a scheme involving a million dollar bet and long planned for revenge. The target of the scam is a very dangerous man who has killed in the past and will not hesitate to do so again-- and it makes no difference if Patty and the others hide in Buenos Aires or out in the Argentine pampas, this man's reach is long.

Patty O'Donnell is rapidly becoming one of my favorite fictional characters. I love her intelligence, her level-headedness, her courage, and her ingenuity. Whether she's facing down a pig-headed husband, standing up to kidnappers, or adding her own ideas to a dangerous scam, she's a character to watch and to enjoy whole-heartedly.

If you like swift-moving plots, strong, intelligent women characters, a bit of horse racing, and con games, you can't go wrong with Rio Star. Although it's not necessary to read the first book in the series, Blood Money, in order to follow the plot, I advise you to do it anyway. Why deny yourself the pleasure?

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