Ford continues Susan May Warren's excellent Montana Marshalls series. As the youngest Marshall brother, Ford has always felt the need to prove his worth, which led him to become a Navy SEAL. When his twin sister Ruby Jane (RJ) becomes the prime suspect in the assassination attempt of a Russian diplomat, Ford enlists his former teammate (and current love interest) Scarlett, and they head to Russia to find RJ.
A CIA analyst, RJ gets herself tangled up in an assassination plot and ends up on most wanted lists worldwide. York, a mysterious security specialist, swoops in to help get her out of Russia, and the two quickly fall for each other. As they try to escape, they come face to face with someone from RJ's past who has secrets of her own.
Once again, Warren has written a book with two love stories—Ford and Scarlett's story continues from Tate, and RJ and York's story begins. (Plus, there's Wyatt, whose love story is just hinted at but will get top billing in the next book, Wyatt.) I don't always like books with more than one love story, but Warren's "two for the price of one" romances never disappoint!
As for the non-romance part of the story, the plot is rather intricate and convoluted, but when you read it, it works. In fact, I enjoyed this particular story far more than the stories in Knox and Tate (and I liked those books very much). Ford marks the halfway point of this five-book series, and it's while reading it that I realized everything regarding the bombings in the first two books would carry through the series. (Perhaps I should've picked up on this sooner 😂.) Ford has a completely different feel from the first two books—maybe because of the setting and the involvement of the CIA and the FSB, the stakes just seem higher. I felt like the suspense aspect was amped up in Ford while still keeping all of the romance, and the result is a really good book!
Yes, you should read Knox and Tate first (though if you're going to jump in partway through the series, Ford would be a good place to do it), but the series is so good that you'll want to start from the beginning, anyway!
Disclosure of material connection: I received this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review, and the opinions expressed are my own.