Vigilant

Detecting Love #1

by Lexy Timms

Be vigilant, without being paranoid...

Marisa

There's nothing I want more than to give my all at my job. My goal is be the best detective possible, a confident professional solving the crimes that hit the small town of Palmer I've always called home. I've grown into this role, proud to be part of a team that's more like a second family. It's what fits.

Well, maybe that's not all I want. It'd also be nice to find a guy who'd last longer than a first date. Especially with the thought of my baby sister getting engaged and expecting me to bring a plus-one to her big day.

Trying to solve a couple of homicides keeps me too busy to think about meeting a man, but my life is truly upended the day I meet the gruff, hard-to-please jerk from the city who thinks we can be partners.

Ryan

There's something freeing about giving up the hectic life of fighting crime in Chicago. My plan is to relocate to a little town in the middle of nowhere. A place I can soon take over as chief of police. No more women. Just work. My career is all that I've got the time and energy for after a lousy breakup.

However, it seems that I'm not going to have an easy transfer in Palmer. Meeting the daughter of the man I'm replacing turns into a test of wills, and I'm not sure how I can ever get along with the sloppiest, most laidback, and unorganized detective I've ever had the misfortune to meet.

Arguing about how to handle our investigations keeps my blood pressure soaring, but my idea of resisting women is sorely challenged when I let my fellow detective too close for comfort.

Genres: Contemporary

259 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2025

About the author

Lexy Timms is a mom, business woman, dreamer and writer. She finally decided to write her first romance novel and Saving Forever is her debut story.

Reviews

[Klare · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quick read

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Problems number 1: Although Lexy never uses the Lord's names in vain, she unnecessarily uses too many f-bombs. There are many readers who would prefer cleaner stories.
Problem number 2: I was having trouble with the unrelenting meanness that Mari demonstrated. I don't think she has a kind bone in her body.
Problem number 3: Most of the time when a book is listed as 1 of 8 or 2 of 10 each story stands alone. Not to page 206 does the reader finds that there are 2 more stories continuing -not stand-alone. I will not finish the other 2 because of the constant antagonism that quickly becomes REALLY old.
Pluses: Not many.
I would only recommend this book if one can tolerate the unrelenting, unrelenting, unrelenting (see what I mean) nasty dialogue.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt cheated

The story was going well, and I liked the characters. However, it was just getting started and then it was over...at 77%! Nothing was finished in the story. Not one of the murders was closed. I get their relationship issues will drag on, but the one with her father was also left hanging right after that bombshell was dropped. Just way too incomplete.

[Annette Sullivan · Rating 1 out of 5]

language and sexual innuendo

I was very disappointed with this story, as what I read was, as the heading says, full of sexual thoughts and bad language. It was neither respectful nor of women or men, it objectifies them as sexual objects . I didn’t get far before I thought yuk.
Thankfully it was a freebie

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good anthology.