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The Kavanaughs #4
Dropping the Hammer
Once a cowboy...always a hero.
Recovering from a kidnapping ordeal at the Double K ranch, Rachel Maxwell reexamines her life. Is she still the brilliant defense attorney she was before the attack? Before she can decide, an obsessed killer targets her, drawing cowboy Luke Dawkins to her rescue. He, too, is trying to escape his troubled past. Protecting Rachel gives him new purpose--but while their attraction sizzles, the danger grows.
Recovering from a kidnapping ordeal at the Double K ranch, Rachel Maxwell reexamines her life. Is she still the brilliant defense attorney she was before the attack? Before she can decide, an obsessed killer targets her, drawing cowboy Luke Dawkins to her rescue. He, too, is trying to escape his troubled past. Protecting Rachel gives him new purpose--but while their attraction sizzles, the danger grows.
272 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 20, 2018
40 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Joanna Wayne
187 books59 followersReal name: Jo Ann Vest
Pseudonyms: Joanna Wayne.
Joanna Wayne began her professional writing career with the release of her first novel, DEEP IN THE BAYOU, in 1994, but Joanna will be the first to tell you that the wheels were set in motion years before. She started reading at four years of age, the same age that she began making weekly trips to the library to check out as many books as they’d let her have, only to finish reading them all before bedtime. That love of books never waned.
Joanna was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana and was the middle child of a large family. She moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1984 when she married her current husband. New Orleans opened up a whole new realm of activities and she found the mix of cultures, music, history, food and sultry southern classics along with her love of reading a natural impetus for beginning her writing career. It was there that she attended her first writing class and joined her first professional writing organization. From that point on, there was no looking back.
Now, forty published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself as being on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and mainstream novels. She is known for the suspense and emotion she brings to the page, as she takes ordinary people and thrusts them into life-and-death situations. She has been on the Walden Bestselling List for romance and won many industry awards. She is a popular speaker at writing organizations and local community functions and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College.
She currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star state.
Pseudonyms: Joanna Wayne.
Joanna Wayne began her professional writing career with the release of her first novel, DEEP IN THE BAYOU, in 1994, but Joanna will be the first to tell you that the wheels were set in motion years before. She started reading at four years of age, the same age that she began making weekly trips to the library to check out as many books as they’d let her have, only to finish reading them all before bedtime. That love of books never waned.
Joanna was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana and was the middle child of a large family. She moved to New Orleans, Louisiana in 1984 when she married her current husband. New Orleans opened up a whole new realm of activities and she found the mix of cultures, music, history, food and sultry southern classics along with her love of reading a natural impetus for beginning her writing career. It was there that she attended her first writing class and joined her first professional writing organization. From that point on, there was no looking back.
Now, forty published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself as being on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and mainstream novels. She is known for the suspense and emotion she brings to the page, as she takes ordinary people and thrusts them into life-and-death situations. She has been on the Walden Bestselling List for romance and won many industry awards. She is a popular speaker at writing organizations and local community functions and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College.
She currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star state.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 16, 2018
This book is part of Joanna Wayne's series The Kavanaughs but can be read as a standalone, although it helps understanding the recurring characters if one reads the previous books in the series. In book 3 --Fearless Gunfighter-- FBI profiler Sydney Maxwell goes to the town Winding Creek in search of her missing sister, Rachel Maxwell, since she was last seen there before she went missing. Sydney manages to trace and rescue her sister with the help of Tucker Lawrence whom she later married -- a championship bull rider and youngest of the three Lawrence brothers, the other two being Pierce & Riley. The Lawrence brothers have one by one recently returned to live in Winding Creek , having lived with Esther and Charlie Kavanaugh for a brief period after their parents were killed in a car wreck while they were in high school.
This book is about Rachel, who is an attorney and is still trying to recover from her torturous captivity three months ago. She's seeing a therapist to help her. Her controlling boss wants her to take on a high profile case as lead attorney. The case is of a twenty-year old son of a senator who's accused of brutally killing his nineteen year old girlfriend. Rachel knows the case would boost her career, but then she realizes her boss was using because he knew seeing her the jurors would believe after the trauma she'd gone through because of her captivity, she'd never defend the guy unless she fully believed in his innocence. She therefore quits her job and goes to Winding Creek for the baby shower of Grace Lawrence -- wife of Pierce of Riding Shotgun. There she meets Luke Dawson of the neighbouring ranch and both are instantly attracted to each other.
Luke is an ex-marine who has returned to the family ranch after eleven years having received a call from Esther who informs him that his dad, with whom he'd had a fallout, has suffered a stroke and is in rehab. He now has to decide how he's going to handle his father's illness and the ranch.
He and Rachel meanwhile become intimate as she helps him make the house habitable and connect with his father. Rachel's boss also wants her back and is trying to woo her with an offer to become partner and Rachel is confused what to do. There is also danger lurking the form of the psychopath abductor, who is playing mind games with the doctor to woo Rachel to him because he wants revenge. She's glad to have Luke by her side. He is fiercely protective of her. As they fight danger and their own person demons they're beginning to realize they'll never be able to let the other go.
This book is much better than the previous book in the series, my favourites though are still the first two books Riding Shotgun and Quick Draw. Nevertheless, there's a deeper connection between the main characters in this book and as always it's always a pleasure when Esther and the members of the Lawrence family make appearances. And, there is a new addition to the family when Grace delivers a baby boy.
Overall a nice, suspenseful, engaging book.
This book is about Rachel, who is an attorney and is still trying to recover from her torturous captivity three months ago. She's seeing a therapist to help her. Her controlling boss wants her to take on a high profile case as lead attorney. The case is of a twenty-year old son of a senator who's accused of brutally killing his nineteen year old girlfriend. Rachel knows the case would boost her career, but then she realizes her boss was using because he knew seeing her the jurors would believe after the trauma she'd gone through because of her captivity, she'd never defend the guy unless she fully believed in his innocence. She therefore quits her job and goes to Winding Creek for the baby shower of Grace Lawrence -- wife of Pierce of Riding Shotgun. There she meets Luke Dawson of the neighbouring ranch and both are instantly attracted to each other.
Luke is an ex-marine who has returned to the family ranch after eleven years having received a call from Esther who informs him that his dad, with whom he'd had a fallout, has suffered a stroke and is in rehab. He now has to decide how he's going to handle his father's illness and the ranch.
He and Rachel meanwhile become intimate as she helps him make the house habitable and connect with his father. Rachel's boss also wants her back and is trying to woo her with an offer to become partner and Rachel is confused what to do. There is also danger lurking the form of the psychopath abductor, who is playing mind games with the doctor to woo Rachel to him because he wants revenge. She's glad to have Luke by her side. He is fiercely protective of her. As they fight danger and their own person demons they're beginning to realize they'll never be able to let the other go.
This book is much better than the previous book in the series, my favourites though are still the first two books Riding Shotgun and Quick Draw. Nevertheless, there's a deeper connection between the main characters in this book and as always it's always a pleasure when Esther and the members of the Lawrence family make appearances. And, there is a new addition to the family when Grace delivers a baby boy.
Overall a nice, suspenseful, engaging book.
March 31, 2019
Wow. What a pile of crap.
This follows on from Fearless Gunfighter, in which Sydney Maxwell rescued her sister Rachel from a kidnapper. This is Rachel's story. She's still recovering from her experience at the hands of Roy Sales. She's having trouble readjusting to her life as a lawyer. Her boss wants her to represent Hayden Covey, accused of murdering his girlfriend. Instead, she quits her job and heads off to Winding Creek to catch up with Sydney. While there, she meets Luke Dawson, who has returned to town after more than ten years to care for his estranged father, Albert, who has suffered a stroke.
This book seems to be the result when you write a romantic suspense book, but leave out any suspense. This was plotless rubbish. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK!!! It's never clear if the threat is from potential client Hayden Covey, or Roy Sales, the man who originally kept her captive. Joanna Wayne clearly had no idea herself, so instead delivers a humdrum tale of life on the ranch. As I said, NOTHING HAPPENS. Finally, in about the last 20 pages, the dilemma involving Roy is resolved off the page. Then a very brief "climax" involving Hayden. Then it's a happily ever after, with no indication of why Rachel is suddenly happy to live in Winding Creek with Luke when she's spent the whole book imagining her life back in wherever it was she lived, which I've forgotten already.
And a psychiatrist wanting to bring a victim in to talk to her kidnapper as part of his evaluation??? When would that EVER happen?!? This book had no plot, couldn't make up its mind about what it was actually about, and even with two psychopaths running around, managed to be boring and pointless. While Rachel's character was well-defined and her post traumatic stress believable, she was left floundering in a "plot" that had no idea what it wanted to be. It's not the worst book I've read by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly one of the most dull and pointless.
This follows on from Fearless Gunfighter, in which Sydney Maxwell rescued her sister Rachel from a kidnapper. This is Rachel's story. She's still recovering from her experience at the hands of Roy Sales. She's having trouble readjusting to her life as a lawyer. Her boss wants her to represent Hayden Covey, accused of murdering his girlfriend. Instead, she quits her job and heads off to Winding Creek to catch up with Sydney. While there, she meets Luke Dawson, who has returned to town after more than ten years to care for his estranged father, Albert, who has suffered a stroke.
This book seems to be the result when you write a romantic suspense book, but leave out any suspense. This was plotless rubbish. NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS BOOK!!! It's never clear if the threat is from potential client Hayden Covey, or Roy Sales, the man who originally kept her captive. Joanna Wayne clearly had no idea herself, so instead delivers a humdrum tale of life on the ranch. As I said, NOTHING HAPPENS. Finally, in about the last 20 pages, the dilemma involving Roy is resolved off the page. Then a very brief "climax" involving Hayden. Then it's a happily ever after, with no indication of why Rachel is suddenly happy to live in Winding Creek with Luke when she's spent the whole book imagining her life back in wherever it was she lived, which I've forgotten already.
And a psychiatrist wanting to bring a victim in to talk to her kidnapper as part of his evaluation??? When would that EVER happen?!? This book had no plot, couldn't make up its mind about what it was actually about, and even with two psychopaths running around, managed to be boring and pointless. While Rachel's character was well-defined and her post traumatic stress believable, she was left floundering in a "plot" that had no idea what it wanted to be. It's not the worst book I've read by any stretch of the imagination, but it's certainly one of the most dull and pointless.
December 16, 2025
Ok, someone put 49 Harlequin Intrigue novels in my little library. I had to try one out and it was EXACTLY as bad and as good as I expected. 🤣
October 27, 2018
Joanna Wayne has done it again with Dropping The Hammer book 4 in ( The Kavanaughs ). This story will have you on edge and grabbing for tissues. A Lawyer that was brutally beating along with other then almost dieded at a mad mans hand and you also have a Medal of Honor Ex- Marine ( Cowboy ) to come home to take care of the ranch and his ill Father only to fall head over heels for the very sexy Lawyer. They each have to over come some monsterest memories and he will give his life to protect her from not only one mad man but another as well.
April 25, 2020
Rachel Maxwell had been kidnapped by a madman who planned to kill her. Now, the law firm she works for is asking her to defend a man charged with a similar offense. Rachel meets Luke Dawkins while she is trying to decide the next step in her life.
February 15, 2018
This is the 4th book in the series. In this one we meet Rachel who is recovering from a horrible ordeal and the other person we meet is Luke Dawkins who is returning from war. This is a story about starting over and recovery. Its never easy when everyone knows your story. Rachel finds with Luke someone who accepts her for who she is. This is an excellent story about a struggle to find peace in oneself and acceptance. I found myself turning the pages to find out what was happening next. Its a well written story that I found interesting.
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April 2, 2018Miniseries: The Kavanaughs
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April 2, 2018Miniseries: The Kavanaughs
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews