Logan and Daniela meet while hunting a bounty in a sunken ship, while other malicious forces chase them for the bounty and for retribution, and they eventually must work together to defeat both Daniela's ex-boyfriend and Daniela's cousins, and eventually fall in love. While this is part of a romance series, it works just fine as a stand alone novel.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
Logan is a bounty hunter, and together with a team of divers and other operatives with specific roles, he has taken his ship into the warm waters of the Carribean to hunt the treasure of a ship from the colonial era named the Nuestra Senora de Garza, which sank with a fortune in emeralds, diamonds, gold and silver. This romantic tone makes up for some of the unbelievable things that happen - like, for example, how Logan finds his romantic interest Daniela (who goes by "Annie" for most of the book until she decides to trust Logan) floating unconscious in the water and dives to rescue her, only to have her come to and try to kill him (she has PTSD at that moment) as he attempts to rescue her. This whole sequence is unrealistic and hard to believe (even with her life vest), but if you swallow it and suspend disbelief, the story becomes more fun. There will be other ridiculous moments (the most hilarious being a reference to Daniela's "grapefruit-tinted perspiration", which made me snort out my wine), and you just have to enjoy it for what it is.
It's a typical adventure tale featuring two leads (Logan and Daniela) who have a common goal (finding this buried treasure) but at least one of them has hidden motives and they don't fully trust each other. But the two leads are likeable enough to make a predictable plot line fun.
Through her mother, Daniela is descended from one of the original sailors on the Spanish ship, and the family story is that the treasure was transferred from the Nuestra Senora de Garza to another ship, La Daniela. She lived in DC instead of Lima, an upper-middle-class member of DC society and engaged to Senator Victor Stamps, but after she learned that he used her art gallery for his drug dealing (bringing cocaine into the United States), she broke up with him because of his drug and mafia connections. She became a liability to the Senator, who wanted her dead, and so she ran away. Daniela believes her cousins Piero, Angel and Hugo tossed her into the sea for Logan to find so that Logan would be able to use her to find the treasure. She suspects that once Logan finds treasure, her cousins will swoop in and steal it from him. Daniela's secret motivation for finding her cousins in the first place was to find a way to get safe harbor from her abusive ex as well, which proved to be a misjudgment.
There is a lot of romantic and sexual tension building between the pair as they challenge and test and verbally spar with each other, exchanging kisses but not going further. They don't fully trust each other, but Daniela keeps comparing Logan favorably to her abusive ex, Senator Victor. Logan's suspicions are confirmed when Daniela unwittingly remarks on a secret map that he possesses (in an emerald) that she should not have known about, but she does know about because that emerald-map was her family heirloom before Logan got it. And when he questions Daniela, she has grown to like him enough to reveal her cousins' plan.
Once Logan finds the treasure and begins retrieving it, the cousins try to sabotage the ship to get it. After the first day of retrieving treasure, it looks as if the cousins cause a carbon monoxide gas leak that knocks half the ship unconscious. However, after Daniela survives an attack in her own cabin, saved at the last minute by Logan, Logan and Daniela begin to realize that they coordinated attack on them is too sophisticated to be the work of her cousins. They figure out that Daniela's abusive ex, Victor, who wants to erase Daniela from his life before he runs for president, is trying to kill her, and Logan finally starts trusting Daniela. Daniela is guilty that she has brought this danger to Logan and his quest, and when she realizes the attacks are all about her and not necessarily about the treasure, she decides to leave to save Logan. She delays her flight from the ship, and in that delay, Victor himself arrives, with goons and aides. When Logan tries to protect Daniela, she finally explains why the Senator wants her dead. Logan threatens the senator with bad publicity if he stays, forcing him to leave, and Victor warns her that if she opens her mouth, she'll be dead, but he leaves. Logan and Daniela formulate a plot to unveil the Senator's dirty past during his presidential campaign and return to the American Southwest with the treasure. They are forced to keep their movements secret at Victor is tracking them, but they eventually arrive at one of his speeches. Bravely, Daniela approached the podium where Victor is standing, knowing he cannot kill her right in front of all of the audience and the TV viewers. Daniela speaks to the audience, telling them that despite having a gunman trained on her as she speaks, she is going to tell the truth about Senator Victor Stamps. As she reveals his drug trade before a live audience, Victor can do nothing because of the public nature of it all, and immediately the police converge on him and arrest him as all of Daniela's carefully collected evidence is shown on camera.
At last, Daniela and Logan are safe and according to law, they now own the treasure they found (finder's keepers). She returns to the art world and they finally consummate their feelings for each other, and tentatively begin a relationship.
Best part of story, including ending:
I liked the buried treasure aspect - it was fantastical and adventurous - and the mistrustful yet tense relationship between Logan and Daniela, and how that became trusting.
Best scene in story:
when Daniela faints from the gas leak and Logan wakes her up, scoops her up in his arms, wraps a blanket around her and carries her to her cabin. It's very protective.
Opinion about the main character:
how authoritative and masculine Logan is. I don't usually fall for romance heroes but I liked this one.
