Trapped - This story, about Ethan and Rosie was my least favorite of the anthology I read it in. There's hardly even a rescue here and Rosie irritated the hell out of me. It's one thing to be straightforward about liking a guy, but its another to be so pushy about it. And how long has she been obsessing about this guy anyway? Its a wonder she didn't claim him right after his first fiance failed to show up for the wedding.
Riley - 3 /5 - This picks up with a miniseries started in an anthology focusing on local heroes. This one involves Riley, a CSI, ex-SWAT member and gym owner. He's loving and lusting after Regina Foxworth, or "Red" who he knows is in trouble and he wants to be there to help her, so maybe he can finally get her to see that he's the one for her. She's oblivious though, until Riley lays a kiss on her and tells her point blank they're going to bed together. After that, she's on board, but still hesitant because of her past. When Riley realizes that Regina's life is being threatened, his protective instincts kick into gear and he'll do anything to get to the bottom of this, so he and his woman can have their HEA.
This is fairly fluffy, with a mild amount of suspense to kick up the action a bit. There isn't really any relationship angst between Riley or Regina - they kinda work out that they're in love and want to be married fairly smoothly. It's drawn out, but decidedly snag-free. But it's Regina's being stalked or threatened that keeps Riley in action, as he chases down burglars and basically does the police's job (for which he takes them to task too). Riley was pretty much a great hero. He's the first to fall in love (and I'm a sucker for stories where the hero falls first) and he's infinitely patient with Regina, which probably makes him a TRUE hero to me. Riley also seems to be a jack of all trades, with awesome fight skills, the analytical mind of a crime scene investigator and apparently the skills of a business owner. Where does he find the time?
Regina was quite a bit less enjoyable for me. She's your classic ditz I guess. Not too bright, painfully naive and a little slow on the uptake for some things. I'm pretty sure it was the moment that Regina says she's eager to go in her new home in the suburbs, all alone, without a security system or protection and she KNOWS she's being stalked and threatened by some mystery villain, that I knew I was in for a struggle with her. Most especially when Riley says he'll be staying with her to ensure her security and she gets all prudish and argues about propriety instead of considering her own fricking safety. RME. Hardcore. Then she agrees to get a dog, so she'll have some protection. And she ends up shelling out $600, which she says she didn't have, for a pure-bred Chihuahua because he's so adorable. Meanwhile, she later talks about doing a story on animal shelters and feeling so bad for those animals. Now, I presume she either went to a breeder or a pet store or something - didn't say anything about being at a shelter and she talked like she could have gotten a dog much cheaper elsewhere, so I want to know why she didn't. If she was so caring and compassionate, she'd adopt a mutt from a shelter, wouldn't she? But she takes this dog home and proceeds to spoil it rotten (and being a dog owner, gah, it made me so mad). He pees all over the place and she says, "That's not nice" and then holds him because he looks so remorseful and ends up reinforcing the behavior. She's one of THOSE dog owners. Granted, this was a small part of the story and I could get over her behavior to read more about Riley, but I wasn't really connecting to this heroine or dying for her to be with Riley or anything. I was very meh about her and somewhat annoyed by her.