Gage Butler's Reckoning

Trinity Street West #5

by Justine Davis, Justine Dare

Gage Butler's Reckoning by Justine Davis released on Jan 23, 1998 is available now for purchase.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Author biographies are supposed to give you all those statistics, books written, awards won, etc. and I will, I promise...but first let me tell you about this ornery little tomboy (back then, the boys had all the fun...) who was always the one to make up the stories the neighborhood kids would "play". For those who came of age in the computer game era, this is something that was done usually in the backyard, by any number of summer-bored children, with props where appropriate. (Did you know a 55 gallon drum tied to a picnic bench makes a very cool horse?) It wasn't until much later that this tomboy realized two things: A) not everyone made up stories in their heads all the time, and B) in real life, the boys that had already had all the fun now seemed to always be winning.

But I digress. I was born on a farm down in Iowa....well, not quite, but close; Boone, Iowa is in the middle of farm country, but I arrived at a hospital. In a snow storm. Make that a blizzard. My sister tells me she knew my destiny when I was very young, because when I first saw the Disney classic Old Yeller, I was apparently so upset that I promptly went home and rewrote the story. In my version, the dog lived, of course. Should have been a clue.

Possibly in response to that blizzard I was born in, I've been a West Coaster since before I was a year old, and intend to stay that way. I have a history of staying. I started my first full time job right out of school (well, there was a very brief sojourn at a place where they made, among other things, burial vaults, but I prefer not to recall that one...) and stayed for twenty-one years. I've been married to the same wonderful guy for going on two decades now. We lived in our last house for seventeen years. (I won't even mention how many dumpsters we filled moving after that long....)

Readers seem as fascinated by my first career as they are with my writing. My time in law enforcement was many things, exciting, nerve wracking, and irritating, but most importantly never, ever boring. It was fascinating enough that I didn't think about writing seriously for several years. I kept a journal, and wrote long letters, collected quotes, mentally rewrote movies, and still made up those stories in my head, but never dreamed of actually writing for publication. I was having too much fun helping to catch bad guys, and being continually amazed at the situations people get themselves into. And eventually I walked away with a wealth of background and story ideas, and knowing some truly great people who work very hard to keep all of us safe. I'm proud to have been one of them, and I'm very aware that I have had the great good fortune of having had two jobs in my life that I love. Many people don't get even one.

But now that I'm in the delicious position of being able to make a living telling those stories in my head, I promise my readers two things: A) I'm staying--I'll keep writing as long as you keep reading, and B) in my stories, the girl--tomboy or not--always wins!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And now, the official stats:

Justine Dare Davis sold her first book in 1989, and followed that up with the sale of nineteen novels in less than two years. Her first four books were published in 1991, and she saw all reach the finals for either the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award or the Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA Award. She has since won the RITA award four times, along with several Reviewer's Choice awards and three Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times. At the 1998 national conference, Justine was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame, making her one of a very select group of just eight writers. She also had four titles on the Romantic Times "Top 200 of All Time" list. Her sales now total more than 45, and her books have appeared regularly on best seller lists, including the USA Today list. She has been featured in several local newspapers and nationwide by Associated Press, has appeared on CN

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gage Butler's Reckoning is not the best book in the series but good.
Gage is a cop in the Juvenile and Sex Crimes division and he takes his work seriously, so seriously that his colleagues are worried about him. He has no life beyond work and tries to save everyone. The reason lies in his past and the horrific crime that took away his sister and made his parents virtually abandon him, he never really dealt with that and instead tried to be the best cop possible. His work is his obsession and cost him his marriage and also he is determined not to care for anyone so much that they become a lever against him, he fears losing people or their dying on him.

Laurey came across Gage when he first went undercover as a cop, in her high-school to bust drug-peddling and was arrested. She even after 8 years blames him because she feels betrayed, she had feelings for him. Her attitude in the beginning is childish but she does realize that slowly through people like Caitlin(her sister's friend and heroine of Lover Under Cover), that things are not always black and white and that cops have to take risks to make this world a safer place and what Gage did helped straighten her life around and prevented her from taking a wrong path. Laurey is still recovering after losing her sister and knows that she doesn't want to get involved with a work-alcoholic like her father.

But the high-profile case Gage is working on and the attempts made on his life throw them together. Laurey being a witness is also placed in the same safe-house as him.
What I liked, both of them apologized to each other for their mis-conceptions and outbursts and Gage even opened up to her about what happened with his sister. He knew that he was not the man Laurey needed atleast not when his work took priority over anything else, he needed to come to terms with the past and realize that he couldn't take responsibility for everything and Laurey made him see that but acceptance came much later and not in an instant. He had things to work through and he took time for that. Laurey realized that she couldn't help him see things her way unless he was willing to accept them himself.

The book was good but not great maybe because there wasn't that much going on in it, I mean unlike the other books the relationship here developed quickly and both the characters weren't that wounded emotionally Gage was but Laurey not so much.

[Mareli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit lame. I thought Gage Butler deserved a better story. It was not bad but it lacked in passion, feelings. Well, I'm onto the next.

[Miki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three hundred forty-two times. That's how many times the writer used an elipse in this book. In less than two hundred pages. Did I go through and actually count each one? Yes. Yes, I did. I didn't have the stamina to count the dashes. Every conversation in the book is liberally sprinkled, peppered, BOMBARDED with one or the other...or both--much to the...distress...of this reader. Even worse, every other book she wrote is the same!!

I pulled this book from my "keeper" shelf but can't remember why it was ever put there. It certainly will not be going back, nor will any of the others she wrote.

[Marge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked Gage in this one, but didn't think too much of the heroine, since she acts like a spoiled brat for way too long. It was nice to see the couples from the previous Trinity West books as well as forshadowing of the books to come.