Author: Jill Sorenson

Off the Rails by Jill Sorenson

Off the Rails by Jill SorensonOff the Rails by Jill Sorenson
Published by Loveswept on December 13th 2016
Pages: 227
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Four years ago, when Ian Foster was working as a border patrol agent, he rescued an eighteen-year-old Mexican girl who’d been left for dead. He never forgot the gorgeous, resilient Maria Santos. Now Ian is an undercover ICE agent on the trail of a ruthless criminal with an intriguing connection: Maria. She holds the only clue to the man’s whereabouts. And Ian is tasked with crossing the border to find her.

Maria has always carried a torch for Ian, the handsome American who saved her life. When he shows up in her hometown, the attraction between them ignites. His intense gaze sets her blood on fire. But Maria is in serious danger. She owes a favor to a drug lord, and soon she’s caught in the crosshairs of a treacherous takedown operation. Once more, Ian’s her sole hope of survival—and his sizzling touch rekindles a passion that goes beyond borders.

Ian Foster’s and Maria Santos’s story starts straight in the middle of everything that has gone wrong, and without some kind of context laid out, it was difficult to measure and feel the connection between them, apart from what Sorenson tries to describe of their difficult history. This was until I discovered that their story is sort of a continuation from ‘Caught in the Act’ which I haven’t read. Even so, in ‘Off the Rails’, I felt as though I’d lost half their story, or at least the definitive part of the story so crucial in getting a grasp of who they had been four years ago.

But with their history glossed over in the first few paragraphs and a variety of POVs coming into play soon after, I floundered for a period of time, trying to play catch up with the cast of characters and the nasty cartel business that had gotten everyone’s knickers in twists. It did get interesting though, despite my struggle with the initial pacing and structure and I caught on enough to want to know how Ian and Maria got on by the skin of their teeth.

Their relationship isn’t easy given what they have both gone through but Jill Sorenson makes their incidental road trip through Mexico memorable in ways I hadn’t expected. Maria’s resilience is as remarkable as Ian’s devotion to a woman he hadn’t met in 4 years and I did get that thrill in wanting to know how their love would last beyond national borders. It’s an unusual pairing fraught with obstacles that Sorenson does well to lay out, and the yearning between them feels real with a push-pull dynamic that makes you think their happy-for-now ending is way deserved.

A side note that’s completely irrelevant: a moustache is always a bad idea.