Saved by the Rancher: Book One: The Hunted Series
by Jennifer Ryan

Read on February 16, 2013

Saved by the Rancher: Book One: The Hunted Series
This book has its pluses and minuses. The dialogue is a bit melodramatic, but the plot, while a somewhat over-done lately in this genre (Romance. Suspense/Thriller), is still an interesting one. It is a story of a woman needing a protector and finding one in an ex-army Ranger/cowboy. The story and relationships are at times overly sweet and sometimes a bit cloying, but that can be refreshing to some readers after so many books featuring kick-butt heroine’s and dialogue with tons of sarcasm and snark. The characters do come off at times as caricatures and that sometimes makes it a painful read..

Her vile ex-husband is hunting Jenna, and her lawyer has sent her out to his old friend Jack to recover from her horrendous wounds and to hide. Very quickly (nearly too quickly) Jack is feeling more than he should for Jenna.

Very quickly (again nearly too quickly) Jenna is having sexual feelings for Jack and is feeling, after only a couple of days, that Jack has healed her.

Since Jenna is rich beyond most of our imagining, Jenna does a lot of good for Jack and his family using her divorce settlement. It is nice for once that the female protagonist is the extremely wealthy one and bestows her largesse over everyone. However, it just seems again to be too soon and too much. I believe I would feel this way even if it were a male protagonist doing this.

With only 295 pages, it amazed me that there were 62 chapters. Moreover, even though this is a relatively short novel, it reads as if it was much longer.

Jenna can act irrationally. Take, for example, in one scene she is confronting then leaving with her ex-husband David when he makes himself known to her while he is on Jacks ranch instead of going into the house and arming herself. This might be looked at as if she were a ‘too stupid to live’ heroine.

The author does a fine job of setting up the men for her next few books.