Review: Bonded for Life by Sharon Buchbinder

Bonded for Life by Sharon Buchbinder

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Rating: 1

Blurb

Class of '85 Series

When Lola Getz receives the invitation to her high school reunion, her first impulse is to toss it into the shredder. A terrible thing happened the day before her graduation-she never wanted to return to that dreadful place. But, when the Mexican drug wars heat up literally in her back yard, she’s forced to flee her home and run to safe little Summerville.

Forty-three year-old police officer Webster (Web) Bond lives in Summerville and knows all about the bothersome reunion preparations. He has no fond memories of that time in his life when he was known as “The Dweebster.” The only person Web’s interested in seeing probably doesn’t even remember him.
Little does Lola know when she arrives under cover of night that The Dweebster has grown up to become a hunky cop--and he has her in his cross hairs.


Kris' Review

This story is another one from the Class of ’85 Reunion Series, so I was expecting a sappy romance between old high school flames at their reunion in Summerville, New York. However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this story was a breakout from the others. Ms. Buchbinder uses the reunion setting as the backdrop for a fast-paced, action packed romantic suspense. The heroine, Lola Getz is one strong Alpha female who goes to the reunion because her life literally depends on it. The story is one full of drama and intrigue involving the Mexican drug cartel, and contract hits.

Lola Getz is more than surprised when she finds a note by her cook Flora, with her dinner one night. Knowing Flora can’t write Lola immediately senses danger. She grabs her ‘go bag’, plenty of US currency, ammo and her gun. She barely makes it out of the garage in her armored Hummer when her house explodes in flames. She needs to get out of Mexico and quickly. She remembers the invitation to the reunion that she hadn’t planned on attending. In desperation, she heads to the sleepy town of Summerville, New York, hoping to blend in with the tourists.

Webster Bond is a cop in a dead end job, stuck in Summerville due to his mother’s Alzheimer diagnosis. He fantasizes about what it would be like if Lola Getz showed up at the reunion. He’d lusted after her their senior year in high school. Unfortunately, the lasting impression between them was when he fell out of her locker on top of her. She teased him with a James Bond joke that he was ‘stirred but not shaken, I like that in a man’. He figures she won’t come to the reunion. Therefore, he’s totally shocked when he pulls over a car for going under the speed limit, and discovers Lola with a different identity as Lara Spencer. She has some explaining to do and fast, since the hit man follows her to Summerville. Web is about to find out exactly what happens when Lola Getz shows up for the reunion.

Ms. Buchbinder has created realistic characters, in a fast-paced story that shows that even the strongest female can use a ‘James Bond’ guy in her life. Can she trust Web with the truth? Better yet, can he protect her? The story keeps you on the edge of your seat and reading long into the night to finish the story.

4 Tea Cups!