A review by wealie
Hour of Need by Melinda Leigh

5.0

5 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 - Excellent first installment in a romance suspense trilogy - good plot, realistic, but relatable characters with positive depictions of masculine and feminine behaviours and interactions between the sexes.

I really enjoyed this book it had a gripping plot that pulled at my heartstrings, had me emotionally invested in the well-being of the central characters and totally relating to the behaviours and choices they made throughout the story. The characters were very believable, their heartbreaking moments of development effortlessly drove the plot and never felt like they were shoehorned in for plot development.

I was heartened to see positive depictions of masculinity and femininity - I've had a few too many bad examples of this lately that have made my feminist blood boil. So, [b:Hour of Need|22730870|Hour of Need (Scarlet Falls, #1)|Melinda Leigh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413326189s/22730870.jpg|42266918] was like a cleansing balm to the soul. It's also proof it is possible to write strong virile men and strong independent women who can support and lean on each other without falling into outmoded, unrealistic and unhealthy tropes of ditzy child-women and toxic masculinity macho men character archetypes.

I mostly listened to the novel on audible and the narration by [a:Cris Dukehart|5776099|Cris Dukehart|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1339312685p2/5776099.jpg] was spot on, an engaging, but not intrusive style, which kept me rooted in the story without really hearing the voice.

I liked this book so much I went and bought the two sequels on kindle and audible.