A slow burn cat and mouse game with action, heat, and a lot of suspense.

Sisters working to keep their family together, a crazy mom who skipped jail, and a two bounty hunters who will need to work together to set things right.

Molly and Pax have great scenes, great chemistry and the very thing they are both looking for is under their nose. Will they find a way to work together to have a happy for now?

Katie Ruggle writes on-the-edge suspense with characters that capture your heart and romance that leaves you satisfied.

I absolutely adore Katie's previous books, but I really struggled with this. The opening was confusing and a little overwrought. At times the emotions were a little too exaggerated and the chemistry didn't quite work for me.
Overall, a solid read, but I didn't connect as well to this book as I did to the previous. I am hopeful for book #2 in the series.

ARC copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In Her Sights was just an okay read for me. I'm giving the story a 3 star rating.

This is the first book in a series, and the series should be read in order as the plot line continues.

When I think of bounty hunters, I generally think of big hulking guys, not a petite woman. But Molly Pax, while described as tiny, is a successful bounty hunter who packs a punch. And her sisters are in business with her.

Molly is amazing. With a less than reliable mom, she was forced to step up and take care of her sisters, and the family finances from a young age. Based on her experiences with her mom, becoming a bounty hunter made sense. All of her energy is channeled into the business and protecting her sisters. Molly is driven, determined, and determined to rely on no one but herself or her sisters.

The relationship between the sisters is beautiful. There are five of them total, and they all have each other's backs. They are a tight unit and know they can rely on each other. The sisters are more open to accepting help from others than Molly, however.

Their mother Jane is pretty much a narcissist and doesn't seem to care about her daughters at all. Putting them in a load of trouble that they have to try to get out of. We only see Jane at the beginning of the story, but her presence is felt throughout the book.

And then there's John. He is exactly how I would picture a bounty hunter, big and buff. But he is also super sweet and incredibly protective of Molly and her sisters. He respects Molly's skills, but still wants to watch her back. And the chemistry between John and Molly is awesome! I kept waiting and waiting for them to act on it!

Based on the epilogue, the story continues with Cara's book next and I can't wait!

Disclaimer: I received an eARC of this book through Net Galley and the publisher {Sourcebooks Casablanca} in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In Her Sights is the first book in the Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters series by Katie Ruggle. The series will be focused on the Pax sisters, their work as bounty hunters and how they will find love. The story doesn't end with this book and it will probably take all 5 books to get closure. The blurb covers up what is happening in the book very well, so I won't add anything else on that front.

I have read a few of Katie Ruggle's books, so it was no question whether or not I would pick this one up. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with what I got. I found the book to be a little boring the romance was non-existent. The genre felt more like Suspense rather than Romantic Suspense which is the category the book is listed under. I would have liked to have some scenes with Molly and John where they start to build the ground for their relationship. At least I got a good idea about the rest of the sisters and that's a plus because they will be the next heroines.

In Her Sights gave the series a rocky start (I am sorry for the bad pun) and it made me a little reluctant to continue reading the series. Since I already that the arc for the second book, I was "forced" to read the second book and it was an improvement from this one, so I would recommend giving that book a try if you didn't like this one.

I've read several of this author's books before, and remember them to be quite enjoyable, but lacking on the suspense slightly. This book takes things to the opposite extreme, there's plenty of suspense, but not much in the way of romance.

Molly was an enjoyable heroine! I liked how snarky she was, and how obvious it was that she cared for her sisters. However, she did take the snark factor a little too far sometimes, which portrayed her in a bad light. I also liked John and how he kept Molly on her toes, but disliked the competitiveness between the two!

The story had a great premise, but I have to admit, I was bored while reading this! I had to force myself to keep going, and hated the fact that nothing of the mother's situation was resolved! I get that it was set up for other books in the series, but it was a major turn off for me, leaving me to consider if I will continue with the series or not.

This new series by Katie Ruggle features bounty hunter sisters, a nice change from male leads to female leads. As a huge fan of the author, I was excited to get my hands on In Her Sights, book one of the Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters series. The story focuses on Molly Pax, the oldest sister in the bounty hunting family.

Molly lives with all of her sisters and their mother in a home the sisters worked hard to pay off. When their irresponsible, sneaky, lying mother is accused of grand larceny, dear old mom bonds out of jail using their home as collateral and then skips town. Now, Molly has to turn to John, another bail bondsman, in order to try and locate her mother before her trial date. One problem - Molly tries to avoid John at all costs due to his attempts to steal her bond jumpers and his smugness and cockiness. Unfortunately for her, and much to John's and her sisters' entertainment, she needs him. She soon discovers she needs him for far more than she knows.

The chemistry between Molly and John doesn't jump off the page at first fut you feel its subtlety. Molly denies it but everyone else sees right through her. The duo reminds me of two kids on the playground teasing each other instead of saying they like each other. I really enjoy their interactions and the tension.

The writing is well-done but there is a bit of suspense lacking. I wasn't on the edge of my seat with this book as I usually am with stories by Katie Ruggle. Of course, I'm chomping at the bit for the next book since book 1 ended without a definite conclusion. There are certain aspects that are tied up, however, others will most likely take the entire series to be fleshed out. That's okay though, I'll just sit here and patiently wait....

Like Stephanie Plum but want her to actually get with, and stick with, a guy? In Her Sights might appeal!

Molly Pax owns a bounty hunter business with her sisters. They have built a life in spite of their truly deadbeat mom who has done nothing but drag them down their entire lives. When their mom gets them into the kind of trouble that could easily ruin everything they’ve worked for, Molly has to turn to rival bounty hunter John Carmondy for help. She and John have to work together, even though they hate each other...don’t they?

I thought this book was a lot of fun. Ruggle does a great job with characters and dialogue that are funny but not ridiculous. The banter between Molly and John is excellent, but my favorite part is probably the relationships between the sisters. Molly is totally devoted to her family, and in fact she’s more of the mother than their actual mother. She will do anything to save her family, and you get the sense that her sisters feel the same. I always love reading about strong families, and this was definitely a good one. 

I really enjoyed the progression of John and Molly’s relationship too. John is a giant teddy bear, contrary to what Molly thinks of him at first. The story is written in third person but is limited to Molly’s perspective, so like Molly we don’t totally know what John is thinking. Unlike Molly, however, as the reader we can immediately see John has a crush on her and she’s the one misinterpreting his actions. On the one hand I wanted him to just tell her upfront how he was feeling, but on the other hand I could understand why you wouldn’t be rushing to confess your attraction to someone who treated you like the enemy. It’s clear Molly too is feeling an attraction, too, and once she finally recognizes it they make an adorable couple. 

I always love a good bounty hunter story, and this one fits that trope perfectly. It’s fun to see Molly and her sisters doing their jobs. They’re all smart and tough and capable, and I had a great time getting to know them.

Grade: 4 out of 5

While Ruggle’s latest is more suspense than romance, I had fun reading it.  There’s a lot going on for Molly – the sister, their mother, trying to catch the next jump, and keeping one step ahead of John. 

I’m not 100% sure why she struggles so much with letting John close, but it does lead to some fun moments … and a few head-shaking ones full of snark on Molly’s side.  Honestly, if I was John I’d probably have walked away a long time ago but the man has grit, heart, and dedication (all good attributes for a hero).  Her resistance does throw a bit of a damper on their relationship so if you were hoping for more of a love story it takes a bit to get there. 

There’s a ton of action, danger, and suspense to keep you busy while you wait, though.  Half the siblings are busy trying to track down their mom and figure out what’s going on with her.  The rest are trying to catch a pretty dangerous character in order to keep their house out of the hands of a sleazy bail bondsman. 

Ruggle has always had a way at delivering extremely satisfying suspense elements and she proves herself again here.  I can see why some may have been disappointed at the lack of romance (and Molly pushing John away again and again) but I found it fun enough that it didn’t matter so much to me :)

(Start of a series with a cliffhanger of an ending, so be warned!)

First in a series about five sisters who run their own bounty hunter business, In Her Sights starts off with a bang, with Molly Pax chasing down a bail-jumper and bringing him in. Molly’s your archetypal tough cookie; the oldest of her sisters, she was forced to grow up much too soon to take care of them because her mother, Jane, is not only useless but actively criminal. And now Jane’s landed the entire family in hot water.

Molly needs help, more than what her (equally competent) sisters can provide, and the only volunteer is rival bounty hunter John Carmondy. He and Molly have been at daggers drawn for quite a while, though John seems more amused by the rivalry than anything else. Molly’s sisters just think it’s funny that Molly can’t figure out John’s carrying a torch for Molly despite his being completely blatant and upfront about it.

The thing I found really interesting here - apart from the gritty realism of being a female bounty hunter with a criminally-minded parent - was that Molly did known about John’s interest. And she never outright rejects it, she just makes it clear that she’s not in an emotional state to be receptive to it, until finally she is. And John does that best of all things in the situation, he doesn’t push. He puts his cards on the table, never leaves Molly wondering, makes it clear he’s going to support her no matter what her decision, but he never pushes her to make one or attempts to guilt her into it.

I mean, honestly, I’d fall in love with him too.

Katie Ruggle is one of my favourite romantic suspense authors. A police academy graduate, she knows her topic intimately, and there’s never anything jarringly unbelievable to make the reader curl their lip at the story. Except maybe for an artist owning a multi-million dollar necklace. All the artists I know of are starving, lol!

Honestly, I can’t wait for more in this series. A cracking, fast-paced read with a gorgeous hero and a stubborn, strong heroine, this one deserves every bit of its five stars!

I'm quite a fan of Katie Ruggle's novels, I really enjoyed her Rocky Mountain K9 novels, and thought her Search and Rescue series was really good, so when I had the chance to get in on an advanced reader copy of the first book in her new Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters series, I couldn't request it fast enough, but I'm sorry to say that once I started reading it, it didn't even come close to most of her previous novels. Because it took me 5 days to get through it, since it really didn't hold my interest for long, the best rating I can give it is 2 stars.

First off, I don't really know why the Rocky Mountains had anything to do with this novel, which didn't even mention a view of them. This story could have been based anywhere since the location had absolutely nothing to do with the plot or setting. The first character we meet is Molly, the supposed heroine of this novel. We learn that she's the eldest among her sisters, and quite motherly toward them, even though they are all adults. They're living in a house that needs work, and Molly and her sisters earn their living as bounty hunters, Molly being the primary breadwinner. Their mother, Jane, doesn't really rate as a mother, she's a thief, a liar, and a loser, who's out for herself and has no fear of sponging off her daughters or stealing from them. She's been in and out of trouble with the law for years, has several ex-husbands, and Molly is more of a mother to her siblings than Jane ever was. Although Jane's name is on the deed to their house, it was Molly who worked tirelessly to pay off the mortgage to keep a roof over her sisters heads and food on the table. When Jane commits a major felony--the theft of a $2 million dollar necklace, she's arrested. Putting up their house as collateral with the smarmiest bail bondsman in town, she steals Molly's car, the money out of her wallet and goes on the run. The smarmy bail bondsman has been trying to get Molly to round up a bail jumper named Sonny, who is extremely dangerous and good with explosives. Molly's been turning the job down for some time, but now he's got leverage--the deed to her home, and since Jane has already skipped town for parts unknown, it's take this job or become homeless when Jane misses her upcoming court date.

Adding to Molly's problems is what she sees as competition from another local bounty hunter, John Carmondy. He's a big, tall, handsome hunk of a man, whom Molly has decided is both her nemesis and her competition, and she spends the majority of the novel being irritating, snide and bitchy to John, who only wants to help her. When he learns that she now has no choice left but to try to round up the elusive Sonny, John insists on helping her. She's not at all happy about it, and isn't afraid try to push him away repeatedly. While I'm guessing that it was Ms. Ruggle's plan to make some of Molly's snarky remarks come off as funny, and I love snark when an author can pull it off, but it certainly didn't work for me in this novel, since most of the remarks just came off as nasty, mean-spirited and unappreciative of John's help.

In addition, this novel is billed as romantic suspense. Where was the romance? Molly and John finally share a kiss during the last 20% of the novel, they don't date, they still have an adversarial relationship (mostly on Molly's part), and Molly is still ornery toward and intermittently bitchy at John, even after sleeping with him not long after their first kiss, and as sex scenes go, their's was as dull as dirt. The action on tracking Sonny down finally heats up during that last 20% of the novel as well, and it was the first and only bit of excitement I found.

Yes, of course, there's an HEA ending, but, by the end of this novel Jane is still AWOL, thieves are still breaking into Molly's house because they think that's where Jane hid the necklace before skipping town, and as if that wasn't irritating enough, the novel ends in a cliffhanger! If your novel is about a family of female bounty hunters, couldn't the author have at least given us some resolution regarding their mother, Jane? As a reader, I expected at least that much, but even though we didn't get that resolution, having a cliffhanger ending as well was adding insult to injury. Cliffhanger or not, I doubt I'll be following up with the other novels in this series. I certainly cannot recommend it.

As stated, I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.

4 Hearts, Romance Junkies
Reviewed by SJ

In Katie Ruggle's new series, Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters, the Pax sisters work together to bring in their bounties while dealing with their thieving mother.

IN HER SIGHTS, the first story, belongs to Molly, who's pretty obtuse in regards to hunky John Carmondy, her rival and love interest. Grudgingly, Molly works with John to figure out why the heck her mother would steal a twelve million dollar necklace and then locate her mom after she skips bail. As the danger mounts, Molly and John have to rely on each other, with the help of Molly's sisters--and what a cast of characters they are--to stay alive and solve the case.

I'm a huge fan of Ruggle's previous series, SEARCH AND RESCUE and ROCKY MOUNTAIN CANINE UNIT, and the idea of bounty hunting sisters excited me.

The book is fun and filled with adventure, but the main characters took a little time to grow on me. Once they did I was hooked, but I was also a little let down by the slow burn to romance. It catches fire, for sure, but the build-up took more time than I'd figured to get going.

All in all, a decent opener to ROCKY MOUNTAIN BOUNTY HUNTERS. Ruggle writes compelling characters and adrenaline-filled adventure. I'm looking forward to Cara's story in RISK IT ALL, coming in Decembe

A fun kick off to, hopefully, a series of books staring an interesting group of sisters. They always have each others backs even if no one else does. In this first installment, the eldest sister has to learn to trust someone other than her sisters to have her back or lose everything.
Grear for fans of Stephanie Plum books.

Katie Ruggle’s novels always deliver a delicate balance of action and suspense combined with a swoon-worthy romance. With strong heroines like Molly Pax and interesting storylines, Ruggle always keeps her readers coming back for more.

I am now on another in the series and I loved this one as well. This was action packed and kept my attention. The characters were well thought out and well-developed. I would definitely keep this author on my TBR pile.

Molly has a lot on her plate. She and her madcap sisters have a Bounty Hunting business, all the while trying to keep their flighty, non-maternal mother on the straight and narrow. But when her mum gets involved in something and ends up on bail then disappears - Molly realises that the sisters may lose their home!

Now she also has to contend with the super sexy, super irritating John! He has a rival Bounty Hunting business and seems to make a game of snapping up her collars!

Molly and John are truly oil and water. They really should not work as a couple but do! The dialogue between them is snappy, sarky and supercharged. Molly is at turns super smart, strong minded (read stubborn as a mule!) but also quite naive, she really doesn't get WHY John is always bussing around her. It's like watching kids in the playground sometimes! All that's missing is the hair pulling LOL.

The story is fast paced, action packed and explosive (literally). Molly deserves sainthood for putting up with these sisters!

Great story about five bounty-hunting sisters deep in the Rockies and the men that win their hearts.
Bounty hunter Molly Pax fought hard to turn the bail recovery business she shares with her sisters into a successful accomplishment. So when their sticky-fingered mother jumps bail and puts their childhood home up as collateral everything that Molly and her sister have worked for is now in jeopardy.

So Molly turns to rival bounty hunter John Carmondy for help. The chemistry between them is off the charts.:

Molly and her five sisters run a bail enforcement business together. They each have different gifts that helps them be successful. Molly, as the oldest, feels a big responsibility and works hard to keep things running smoothly. When her mother gets into trouble once again and their home is in jeopardy Molly knows she will need extra help. She seems to run into a fellow enforcement agent John too often and finally agrees to his help. They have to race against time to apprehend a skip in order to keep. Molly is a bit clueless to what John feels for her which was a bit annoying for me. When things go from bad to worse regarding her mother they take a dangerous job. Not all is resolved as the story continues in the next book.

I really enjoyed Katie Ruggle’s stories, but this new series brings a fresh, new twist.

In Her Sights is the first of a new series which features five sisters who, despite their criminal (and criminally negligent) mother are in the bounty hunter business. Molly Pax is the oldest and the one who actually takes down the criminals. Her sisters support her with research and stake outs but most of the fence jumping and criminal tackling comes down to Molly herself.

Molly’s mother goes from one husband to the next until they get tired of her lies and manipulation. If she is between husbands, she manages to get caught for petty crimes so much so that she has gone through most of the lawyers and public defenders in town. Regardless, the girls have managed to pay off the mortgage themselves to keep a roof over their heads.

John Carmondy is the bane of Molly’s existence. He’s a hot, sexy competitor of Molly’s and she likes nothing more than to grab John’s skips out from under him. She is especially annoyed to find John always hanging around trying to grab her skips. No matter how much teasing she gets from her sisters, Molly doesn’t seem to get that John’s interest has less to do with grabbing skips than protecting Molly from getting hurt.

One of the local bail bondman is trying to get Molly to pick up a rather dangerous felon, a guy with a love of explosives. Molly and her sisters keep hanging up on him because they know better than to tangle with the likes of Sonny Zarver.

Things are going well for the sisters and their growing business until once again, Jane, gets arrested but this time for trying to steal a multi-million dollar necklace. Jane is going to face some real jail time over this offense and Molly can’t imagine how her mother could have gotten herself bailed out of jail. Until she gets an offer she can’t refuse, chase down Sonny Zarver and bring him in or the sleazy bail bondsman is going to have Jane’s trial date moved up and it looks like Jane is already in the wind. Molly wouldn’t care except that Jane put up the house they worked so hard to payoff as collateral and if Jane doesn’t show for her next court appearance, they lose everything they have been working so hard for.

While Molly has not idea why John is insisting on helping her track down Sonny, she won’t argue since her chance of surviving to bring Sonny in on her own is not very good. She needs all the help she can get, since her sisters are slip between helping her and finding their mom.

It also appears that John isn’t such a jerk after all and the longer they work together, the more interested Molly is in getting to know John and his perfect physique better.

It took me awhile to get over my anger of why anyone would payoff a mortgage for a house they didn’t own. In fact, I was almost surprised that the mother didn’t sell the house out from under them when she had the chance. The property abuts a national park and she would probably net more money selling the house than her cut from the heist.

I was entertained by how dense Molly was to John’s very clear interest in her and even her sister’s constant comments didn’t get through.

This was a fun group of characters. We were mostly focused on catching Sonny and finding Jane will be part of the remainder of the series I am certain. It was nice to get out of the snow trapped mountains of her previous stories. I was starting to get frostbite from the constant snowfall. It is not surprising that the characters in her other books had a touch of snow madness from being quite literally trapped in those small towns when the roads out became impassible.

This is the first Katie Ruggle series that I listened to rather than read, and the narrator did a nice job keep the characters exciting.

In Her Sights is the first book in Katie Ruggle’s new series, Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters. Thanks goes to the publisher, via Net-Galley, for inviting me to read and review in advance of publication. My opinions are my own and are not influenced in any way.

I enjoyed the family unity between the five sisters, and I empathized with their problems with their sticky-fingered mother. It’s amazing the young women are not seriously affected by her dreadful behavior. It must have been chaos living under her supervision, or should I say lack there of!

For me, the pacing is a bit slow because Ms. Ruggle is clearly setting up the series in this first installment. Unfortunately, it took the focus off Molly and John. Plus, the character development was not strong.

Molly clearly loves her sister and will do whatever it takes to protect them. That is a very positive characteristic. However, it makes her very controlling and closes her off from other relationships. For a good part of the book, she sees John as an annoyance to be tolerated. I’m not overly fond of the enemies to lovers stories. Of course, other readers love that trope.

I found John’s character somewhat superficial and never felt like I knew him. That kept me from truly seeing Molly and John as a couple. Overall, he came across as a decent guy, just not riveting.

The romance takes a back seat to the plot-driven story. For me, I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry or passion between them. That made it hard for me to care about their romance.

Let’s talk action and suspense. That too took some time to build. However, the climax is great and keep me engaged throughout the last part of the story. Earlier on, some of the scenes were a bit contrived.

Overall, this is not a bad read, just not one that grabbed me. I did find the sisters interesting and will probably read the next book when it comes out. Ms. Ruggle left several threads unresolved, and hopefully that will be corrected in the next one in the series. Happy reading!