VANISHED BY MARGARET DALEY

Without a Trace
As a detective in Chicago, J.T. Logan had put away a lot of criminals--and had made a lot of enemies. However, the last thing the widowed father and current small-town sheriff expected was crime in his own backyard. Until his young daughter was kidnapped.

FBI agent Madison Spencer found herself working with J. T. again on a case painfully different from their previous one. She could only watch as he struggled to remain coldly professional while his heart was in anguish. And what of her own heart? Romance should be the furthest thing from their minds. All she could do was hope--and pray--for them all.

Sabrina Here: I recently "found" this book on my bookshelf. I had put it there and when I got another shipment of books for review I must have temporarily missed this one. This is a May 2007 book by Steeple Hill. It is still available to purchase here.

This book was actually a great read, but it was not a lighthearted fun read for a lot of reasons. First it dealt with a tough subject--the kidnapping of a child. Daley did a good job making us fear for the child. She also made it easy to relate with the father and his feelings of inadequacy. I hurt for J.T. and even felt myself almost praying along with him that his daughter would be returned safe and sound. Isn't that a great feeling when the book becomes real enough to you that you want to pray for the characters? ;)

Another thing I found a little hard was I wanted so much to know the backstory with these characters. Sometimes reading one book out of a series isn't a big deal, but with this book I could tell that I have to at some point read the other books in this series of Daley's. I felt like there was some "good" stuff that I apparently missed. That's not really a negative more that I cared enough about the characters to find out more about them. I was sad to leave their small town. The romance was believable and very well written. I loved Madison's character and could easily see her in J.T.'s life.

It was a great read and I'd highly recommend this book. I myself am eager to catch up on some of Margaret's other books. I'll let you know when I do.

In the next few days I'll be reviewing Nikki Arana's As I Have Loved You. It was a very interesting book. I may even give a copy away. ;)