Veena’s review of Race Against Time by Sharon Sala
Romantic Suspense published by MIRA 27 Jun 17

Beautiful teenage Starla Davis fell prey to a young, handsome predator and awoke into a nightmare.  Seven years later she’s offered a lifeline out of the hell she finds herself in, but her escape goes wrong. Has she landed from the frying pan into the fire?  Read on as this pulse-pounding story unfolds.

Quinn O’Meara rescues a baby abandoned at the site of a car accident in the Nevada desert, only to find herself in the cross hairs of a master criminal intent on eliminating all lose ends that could link the accident with him.  Fortunately for her, fate brought her into the arms of Nick Soldano, who had once been a rock to her in the foster care system.  As Nick and Quinn try to stay one step ahead of the feds and the bad guys, they re-discover their old friendship now has a lot of chemistry.

Starla is flung out of the burning car and dragged across the desert, losing her two-year-old baby son in the process. She is a determined young lady who has been waiting seven long years to get out of the hell her one innocent act of defiance led her to. I really enjoyed how Starla’s and Quinn’s stories intersect along with Anton Baba, who runs a well-oiled human trafficking ring.

Starla’s escape  from Anton, her ingenuity, and her safe escape from captivity is extremely well written and believable. Her reunion with her brother and parents and the baby who’s been in federal custody after being rescued by Quinn make a huge emotional impact. Quinn, with her PTSD, is compelled to help a baby she finds on the side of the road and then to rescue the master criminal who has made her life miserable since the rescue from a burning truck.

The Federal agents in this story come across as bumbling idiots as they fumble the details that they should control and are outsmarted at every turn.  All in all, this is an excellent story of a young girl’s sojourn in the foster care system and another young girl’s escape from hell. I found myself rooting for both of them to conquer their demons and win against all the odds against them.

This story just reminds me why anything with Ms. Sala’s name on it is an auto-buy for me.

Grade: A

Summary:

Sometimes fate brings you together…only to tear you apart
Growing up in the foster system, Quinn O’Meara made a point of never getting involved. But when she discovers a crying baby amid a fiery crime scene, she knows she has no choice. Suddenly in way over her head, Quinn turns to the police, unintentionally positioning herself in the crosshairs of a deadly human-trafficking ring.
The last time homicide detective Nick Saldano saw Quinn, she was still the young girl he’d shared a foster home with. The girl who’d loved and cared for him when no one else had. Now here she was, gorgeously all grown-up—and in terrible danger.
Unwilling to lose her again, Nick insists on keeping Quinn close, especially when the bond they once shared heatedly slides into desire. Quinn finally has someone worth holding on to, but what kind of future can they have when she might not live to see tomorrow?

No excerpt available.