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Serendipity Sweethearts #2

Her Valentine Sheriff

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Cupid To The Rescue 

 

Rugged and tough deputy sheriff Eli Bishop isn't scared of anything. Except dogs. When he's assigned a K-9 partner, he thinks things can't get any worse. Then he learns who'll be training him. Local vet Mary Travis is sweet as sugar…but she's also Eli's ex-fiancée's sister. Revealing his humiliating phobia to her is not an option. Neither is developing feelings for Mary�who's built her career around the dogs Eli fears. When a terrible storm hits their town, Mary and Eli must find the courage to work together and save lives�and fall in love. 

 

Serendipity Sweethearts: Three small-town matchmakers finding Texas-size love

220 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 26, 2013

11 people are currently reading
372 people want to read

About the author

Deb Kastner

109 books146 followers
Publishers Weekly Bestselling, award-winning author of over 50 novels and two million books in print, Deb Kastner enjoys writing contemporary inspirational and sweet western stories set in small communities, often including animals as major secondary characters.

Deb lives in beautiful Colorado with her husband, her puppers Gabby and Sadie, and two mischievous bonded brothers, black tuxedo cats Hype and Dab. She recently went through what she terms her midlife crisis and adopted her very first ever real live horse whose name is sweet Moscato.

She is blessed with three adult daughters and two grandchildren with #3 on the way. Her favorite hobby is spoiling her grandchildren, but she also enjoys reading, watching movies, listening to music (The Texas Tenors and The High Kings are her favs), singing in the church choir and exploring the Rocky Mountains on horseback.

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5 stars
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42 (35%)
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22 (18%)
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Ruth.
114 reviews7 followers
April 18, 2014
Right up there on the top of my list of "Best Christian Books Ever".....Eli was afraid of dogs, yet he took a job with the K-9 unit! How brave was that!! This is a great love story of two people that were letting their lives pass them by due to fears, but then they let God into their lives and with God, all things are possible, so they both got their problems solved and fell in love to live happily ever after!! Thanks Deb, for another wonderful book!
Profile Image for Robin Reynolds.
923 reviews38 followers
December 21, 2013
The Serendipity police force is getting it's first K-9 officer, and Eli Bishop is horrified to learn that he has been chosen to partner with the dog. A frightening encounter with a wild dog when he was very young left him with physical and emotional scars, and the thought of being around a dog still scares him. But he isn’t about to turn down a promotion, not to mention allow himself to become the butt of his fellow officers' jokes and teasing. He's still smarting from the jokes and teasing that followed his ex-fiancee jilting him, and he's not pleased that her sister will be training him. But he keeps his misgivings to himself and stoically accepts the new position.

Mary Bishop is excited about starting a K-9 training program, and if her first pupil and his partner do well, she hopes to get contracts from other local police forces. She's nervous about working with Eli, whom she had a crush on in high school, and she's still angry at her sister for the way she walked out on Eli and their engagement to be with another man.

Eli doesn’t tell Mary about his dog phobia, leaving her to ponder and wonder why he's so reserved and resistant to interacting with Bullet. She needs Eli and Bullet to become a cohesive unit in order to get the new training program off the ground. I'm fascinated by police dogs (well, by any dogs!), and Deb Kastner appears to have done some research into what makes them tick, and I enjoyed this brief glimpse into how the canine officers – and their human partners – are trained. And Eli's first training session with Mary and Bullet had me laughing page after page.

Mary quickly realizes her teenage crush on Eli is still going strong, but she doesn't think he would ever possibly be interested in someone like her. In fact, she spends a majority of the book convinced that he's fallen for her friend Alexis, and determined to be happy for them. Meanwhile, Alexis and Samantha, the other member of the Little Chicks, as the three girls are known around town, plot and scheme to get Mary and Eli together.

The storm scenes were descriptive and realistic, and I got a little tense but very immersed in the story. Thinking back, this is the first book I've read that featured any tornadic activity since my own city was devastated by a tornado back in May, and Mary and Eli heading out with their dogs for Search and Rescue made me emotional. But not in a bad way – with the happy ending it was also cathartic.

Overall an enjoyable and engaging read. I gather from Harlequin’s website that this is the second book in the “Serendipity Sweetheart” series, the first book having been Samantha's story, THE SOLDIER'S SWEETHEART, which thanks to my excessive subscriptions to Harlequin's Reader Service I already have in my massive TBR pile. But scrolling through synopses of Ms. Kastner's other books it looks like many of them are set in the same little town, such as MEETING Mr. RIGHT, which is the fourth book in the “Email Order Brides” series and is about Eli's sister, and which I'm pleased to realize is also in my TBR pile, along two more of her books. So, you know, just what I need. Another bunch of books to move to my “to be read next” bookcase, which is almost overflowing as it is.
Profile Image for Dorel.
4,354 reviews38 followers
June 19, 2018
This is the 2nd book I read by Deb Kastner. I liked the Christian theme in this story. I liked the dogs 🐕 in this story. I felt this story needed more romance.
Profile Image for Savannah Slaughter.
21 reviews3 followers
October 9, 2021
This book was okay. It sounded very entertaining, but after reading it, it was not. I feel it went way too fast. As soon as I started it was already ending. I would not recommend this book. Very disappointed.
4,416 reviews28 followers
August 10, 2017
Her Valentine Sheriff review

Her Valentine Sheriff is a cute and sweet Christian romance book in the Serendipity Sweethearts series written by author Deb Kastner.
51 reviews
January 16, 2021
Slow, boring, dragged on and on and on with the k9 training aspect.

Honestly, I’ll give another of her books a try but if it’s anything like this one, it’s getting recycled.
Profile Image for Dawn.
239 reviews1 follower
January 28, 2021
A nice read. Romance, comedy, & suspense in a small Texan town.
934 reviews4 followers
March 15, 2014
Her Valentine Sheriff is in the Serendipity Sweethearts Series. A very good series. Deputy Sheriff Eli bishop will be the first to be assigned a K-9 partner. He doesn't want to do it cause he is afraid of dogs after a bad experience at age four. He's not going to let anyone know his secret. Eli's ex-fiancee's sister will be training him, since she runs the dog rescue place. Mary has had a crush on Eli since high school. A tornado goes though town. A little boy is trapped in a building. Mary and her dog find the little boy. Mary falls coming out of the building, with the little boy. Eli and his dog find them and saves them. A very good story line.
Profile Image for Gail.
Author 25 books216 followers
April 9, 2016
Nice story. I found it particularly interesting that the hero was selected for K-9 police training despite being afraid of dogs. The way he was virtually coerced into accepting the offer sounded highly improbable to me, given the K9 officers I've known. But once that was done, the story did a good job of describing the training. The heroine's issues with being the "other sister," not the pretty one, rang true. I couldn't tell, given the absolute lack of description of pretty much anything, what part of Texas the town was set in, except probably not south or far west Texas. Didn't actually seem very Texas-y, to be honest. But it was a nice story and I enjoyed reading it.
Profile Image for Harlequin Books.
18.4k reviews2,804 followers
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January 12, 2016
"It is a nice twist to have a hero with a phobia, especially a cop. It makes Eli more relatable. Through Bullet, who plays an important role in Eli's development, Kastner also educates the reader on dog training and their place in police work." RT Book Reviews, rated 4 stars

Miniseries: Serendipity Sweethearts
Profile Image for Stephanie Frugis Foti.
Author 1 book9 followers
April 16, 2015
I absolutely loved this book!! Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday not to mention I am marrying a cop so this book was right up my alley! What a cute story- so sweet and romantic! I also loved the religious theme- you don't see that much anymore and it was very relatable for me. Honestly enjoyed this so much.
Profile Image for Rita.
305 reviews
February 9, 2015
This is the first book that I have read from Deb Kastner and will be reading more from her. Eli falls in love with Mary, the sister of Eli's ex-fiancee. Mary is a dog handler who is to train Eli with a K-9 dog, but she does not know that Eli has a phobia of dogs. This book tells us that no matter what problems we have that our Lord is always there to guide us through them.
Profile Image for Britney.
768 reviews12 followers
June 23, 2014
Her Valentine Sheriff is a fun romance, full of humor and heart! I enjoyed the characters, human and canine, and their delightful story. I also loved the epilogue, which left me with a happy sigh of satisfaction and a smile on my face!
Profile Image for June.
1,542 reviews17 followers
October 26, 2014
An awesome romance novel about facing fears and coming out on the winning end.

Eli and Mary have to spend time together while Mary trains Eli to be a K-9 unit with bullet. Mary's sister was engaged to Eli at one time which makes the situation awkward.
Profile Image for Karen.
1,811 reviews1 follower
July 6, 2016
Mary Travis has trained the K-9 Bullet for Eli Bishop, but will he be a good match for the program? Eli had a childhood trauma that makes him fear dogs of any kind. Mary's sister, Natalie, also dumped him a week before their wedding. Will all this. in a small town, will love overcome?
2,511 reviews13 followers
August 13, 2016
Excellent love story. I loved this book. I love being able to read a love story that is Godly. Very romantic and just a lovely story. Well worth reading.
5,411 reviews
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August 25, 2015
Loved the premise but the beta hero didn't work for me and the pacing was quite slow.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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