Ultimate Courage by Piper J. Drake

Narrated by Daniel Thomas May & Kristin Kalbli

I’m a dog person. It’s not that I don’t like cats – I do. But I like dogs best. When it comes to reading, a romance which includes a dog, as well as the hero and heroine, is mighty tempting. Especially when the dog is a critical part of the story. I’ve been drawn to romantic suspense books involving service dogs lately and Ultimate Courage is exactly that.

The second book in Piper J. Drake’s True Heroes series, featuring Hope’s Crossing Kennels and the men who run them, Ultimate Courage tells the story of single dad Alex Rojas and woman-on-the-run (from an abusive ex), Elisa Hall. (For those who are wondering, the abuse Elisa suffered was more of the mental/emotional/controlling kind than physical.)

Elisa and Alex meet in the local ER where Alex has taken his 10-year-old daughter Boom (her real name is Serena but everyone calls her Boom) for treatment after a mixed martial arts training injury. Elisa has a wrist injury. How she got that wrist injury, curiously, was never specified. Elisa’s reaction to Alex’s frustration that his daughter was waiting for treatment and in pain makes it fairly plain that she has a history of abuse. She is fearful, with eyes downcast, hesitant and careful, and trying desperately not to draw notice.

Alex, a former Navy SEAL, has PTSD and struggles to keep his shit together in public places. He has a temper (although he never takes it out on Boom or Elisa – he just struggles internally with his anger more than anything) and occasionally has flashbacks to more dangerous times. He prefers to stay in the more controlled environment of Hope’s Crossing Kennels but, for Boom, he has to venture out. This is becoming more and more difficult for him.

Elisa has been on the run from her controlling tech-whiz ex-fiancé for six months. She needs a job and a place to stay for a while, but believes she will inevitably have to move on. She has barely stayed one step ahead of her ex and does not wish to be caught by him. Alex is able to help with both of Elisa’s immediate needs – the kennels need an admin assistant and the MMA gym Boom trains at has a studio apartment available. Elisa quickly finds herself absorbed into the Hope’s Crossing Kennels family, bonding with Boom and increasingly attracted to Alex – who has made it clear the feeling is mutual.

While all this is happening, Alex is forced to begin to process his PTSD and he finds an unexpected ally in this project – Souze (pronounced “Zoo-Tsa”), a German Shepherd dog currently staying at the kennels for retraining. Souze was rescued from a couple who had been using him as a guard dog but who had not socialised him at all. Initially, the plan is to train Souze to be more comfortable with people and to send him off to be a service dog with the police or military. However, his prey drive isn’t as strong as they’d like and Alex is beginning to wonder whether Souze might just need to be adopted by an understanding family. But Souze is very sensitive and bumps Alex out of PTSD episodes, helping Alex to remain in the here and now and to maintain control. Perhaps Souze has a career as another kind of service dog?

Souze also takes a shine to Elisa and Elisa takes great comfort from the protection Souze offers her. Where Souze’s prey drive might be a bit lacking perhaps, it is clear that he will look after his “people” – of which Alex and Elisa are the prime members.

The story is dotted with information about dogs and canine behaviour and it is obvious that the author is also a dog lover and has, at the very least, done her research.

My biggest issue with the story was that it covered a very short time frame – a little over a week. And it is a hard sell indeed to get me to believe a HEA after so little time, particularly in stressful and dangerous circumstances. Alex’s PTSD didn’t seem to faze Elisa and becoming a de facto stepmother to Boom didn’t either. It strained my credulity.

That said, I did enjoy the romance and I thought the suspense plot hung together fairly well. There were a few holes (mainly around Elisa’s ex’s motivations) but I was listening for the romance and the dogs so they didn’t bother me much. I awarded extra bonus points for there being no sex while bullets were flying and I liked the connection Elisa made, not only with Alex but also with the other members of the Hope’s Crossing Kennels team – as well as Boom of course.

Daniel Thomas May did a good job of the sections from Alex’s POV, giving Alex a slight accent which indicated his Peruvian heritage. The narrative was in a midwest-type US accent and reminded me a little of Kaleo Griffith. Mr. May’s female voices were very good. However, some of the side characters were depicted as speaking very slowly without any apparent cause and there was some confusion in one section where characters names were mixed up.

Kristin Kalbli performed the sections from Elisa’s POV and I liked her narration as well. I was particularly impressed with her male character voices and I enjoyed the way she depicted Boom. Ms. Kalbli has a naturally husky voice and she used it to good effect here.

Ms. Kalbli gave Alex the exact same accent Mr. May did. That, and a couple other things made me wonder whether there was narrator collaboration on the voices and characters. Whether or not this occurred, the end result was a very smooth listening experience across both narrators, where the pacing, tension and emotion were delivered well. I could hear the build of the attraction between Alex and Elisa.

If the ending had been a little more HFN than HEA or if the story had spanned a greater length of time I’d have been a bit happier but I totally fell for Souze and I thought this story was stronger than the first instalment, Extreme Honor, which I reviewed (in print) for Dear Author, here. I think Ms. Drake’s storytelling is improving and from an audiobook perspective, Ultimate Courage certainly benefited from the dual narration.

Kaetrin

Narration: B+

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: Fighting, Domestic violence

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ultimate Courage was provided to AudioGals by Hachette Audio for a review.