After his partner's death, homicide detective Troy Bennett left his life and family in Chicago and moved to New York City for a fresh start. The last thing he expected to find was Ruby Elliott. When she walks into the bar where he is hanging out with his colleagues, Troy can't take his eyes off of her. Ruby makes her living hustling pool. She has a dubious past, but she has serious plans for her future that don't include spending time with the criminals that she knew as a kid. Most of the people who knew her back then would laugh at the idea of her dating a cop.

After a fellow police officer is beaten by a loanshark named Lenny Driscol, Troy is put on the case. Both he and Ruby are shocked when they find out that the criminal he's trying to capture is tied to her past. Ruby isn't the kind of girl who sits at home and waits for someone to take care of her problems. When she hears that Troy is Driscol and his thugs' next target, she takes matters into her own hands.

HIS RISK TO TAKE is a hot romance. Troy and Ruby have serious chemistry together. They both enjoy him being dominant in the bedroom, but they struggle to balance that in the rest of their relationship. In the beginning, their relationship is mostly based on mutual lust, but there are also some very sweet moments as they fall in love. In the end, Troy really has to prove himself to Ruby.

The only negative aspect of this story is the suspense plot. It is very challenging to hit all of the important elements of a great romantic suspense story in the length of a novella, and I think that was the main problem with HIS RISK TO TAKE. The storyline with Driscol was weak because there wasn't time to develop it fully in this format. Novellas can be a great way to sample an author's writing, and I look forward to reading more of Bailey's Line of Duty series.

Book Summary

The greater the risk, the hotter the reward…

Homicide cop Troy Bennett had a reputation with the Chicago PD for being fearless and in control—until the night his daredevil partner is killed during a raid. From that moment on, he swears he’ll never again be responsible for the loss of a loved one. To escape his demons, Troy transfers to the NYPD, bringing him up close and personal with Ruby Elliott, a beautiful, street-savvy pool hustler.

Reckless and stubbornly independent, Ruby embodies everything Troy’s avoiding, but when she walks into the pub he’s at with his new coworkers and blows his carefully laid plans to hell, Troy knows he has to have her—risks be damned. But there’s a connection between Ruby’s shadowed past and a case Troy’s working involving a notorious Brooklyn felon, throwing her safety into jeopardy. Confronted with his biggest fear, will Troy push Ruby away to keep her safe or fight to keep her in his arms where she belongs?