Review: Run to Ground – Katie Ruggle (Rocky Mountain K9 Unit #1)

Rating 4 Stars

What’s the book about?
He lost his mentor.
He lost his K9 partner.
He almost lost his will to live.
But when a ruthless killer targets a woman on the run, Theo and his new K9 companion will do whatever it takes to survive—and save the woman neither can live without.

Grieving the death of his partner, Theo Bosco has no room in his life for distractions. Though his instincts scream that he should avoid Juliet ‘Jules’ Jackson, he can’t seem to stay away. It doesn’t help that Theo’s new K9 companion has fallen head over paws with Jules’s rambunctious family.

Or that when he’s with her, Theo finally knows peace.

When Jules rescued her siblings, whisking them away to the safety of the beautifully rugged Colorado Rockies, she never expected to catch the eye—or the heart—of a cop. Yet as Jules struggles to fight her growing attraction to the brooding K9 officer, another threat lurks much closer to home…

And this time, there’s no escape.

My Review
I’m such a huge fan of Katie Ruggle’s Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters series that I knew immediately that I had to pick up more of Ruggle’s stories. Run to Ground was the first from a different series that I tried and also the first book in her Rocky Mountain K9 Unit series.

I’ve never read any K9-focused law enforcement books before so this was a new experience and learning curve. I didn’t realise how many different areas of law enforcement that dogs could assist with or that they typically focus on one or two key areas. In the case of Run to Ground, Viggy is in charge of detecting explosive devices. However, Viggy has also recently been affected by the loss of his original partner/owner Don so when Theo starts working with Viggy, he’s not at his best doggy self. Theo has his work cut out for him to build Viggy’s confidence back up.

While the series is based around the canines of the police department, it isn’t the main focus of the story. The focus is on Jules, her family, building a new life in a small town and a new relationship with a member of the police department. Jules has taken on a role similar to single parent by taking on the care and responsibility of her four younger siblings. She takes this role on voluntarily after kidnapping her four siblings from a bad situation with their mother/her stepmother. With new identities and hidden in a small town, the family must be very careful about who to trust and let into their lives including any police who could potentially break up their little household.

Like all of Ruggle’s stories, this book contained lots of fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat action that left me simultaneously wanting more and being worried about what would happen next! Ruggle is a wonderful storyteller and I loved seeing this story unfold. My only question is it did leave a couple of things up in the air so I’m not sure if they’ll be addressed later in the series or not. If they don’t get addressed, it won’t be a big deal since it was more just curiosity on my own end. Overall though, I’m very excited for the next book and will have to see if I can find a copy anywhere to continue on. In the meantime though, I do have several other Ruggle books from her other series to keep me occupied.