Guest Review: Karma by Carly Phillips

Tracy’s review of Karma (Serendipity #3) by Carly Phillips.

Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager. But despite his lifelong attraction, the closest he’s ever come to interacting with her is watching Liza regularly bail out her brother at the station. Dare’s dark past with Liza’s brother, Brian, has always kept him from pursuing her.

But suddenly Liza finds herself in need of protection and Dare appoints himself as the man for the job. And while the sizzling attraction between Dare and Liza draws them together, the past that Dare and Brian share threatens to keep the two apart forever.

Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight for a lot of years. Unfortunately whenever he sees her she tends to be bailing out her no good brother and the enabling just doesn’t sit well with Dare. He wants to approach her but he’s scared that all she’ll see in the cop.

Dare finally gets his chance and when the pair finally comes together it’s pretty explosive. Unfortunately Liza’s brother keeps getting the way. You see Dare was at a party when he was 15. He watched as Brian, Liza’s brother, punched a kid who then hit his head and eventually died. Dare, along with a slew of other kids did nothing. That one event had a major impact on Dare’s life and how he led it from then on. He doesn’t understand why Liza makes life so easy for Brian, who’s a raging alcoholic, when he should have made something of himself. Instead his parents just spoiled him, covered up the kids death from years ago and Brian never faced charges.

The problem of Brian eventually becomes a thorn in the relationship that Dare and Liza can’t see how to overcome. Especially when Brian now owes a ton of money to a loan shark and they have come after Liza to “warn” Brian. Dare’s not happy with Brian but he cares deeply for Liza and will keep her safe.

The first part of this book really started off great. I loved seeing Dare and Liza together and their first very sweet interactions – that weren’t at the police station. Unfortunately Dare and Liza both have so much baggage from days gone by that it’s impossible for them to figure out how to get through the obstacle course of their lives.

I really enjoyed the story for the most part. I was frustrated with Dare but understood his issues. Liza was a bit of a doormat for a large part of the story so I was really happy when she put her foot down with Dare and his big fat attitude problem. 🙂

I didn’t read the first two books in this series but this was a good standalone. Though the characters from those books were in this book they were explained enough that I never felt lost in the story. A good book.

3.25 out of 5

The series:

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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