"Holy moly," Chelsea breathed, no longer appearing like she was about to laugh. "I want one. I want a George. Are there more like him in the mountains? Because we can close the store, fly to Colorado, and go George-shopping, only for me this time."- Gone to Deep

Favorite Hero ever! GONE TOO DEEP is the third audio in the Search and Rescue romantic suspense series set in Colorado by Katie Ruggle. In GONE TOO DEEP Geroge Halloway, an expert survivalists agrees to guide Ellie Price into the Colorado Rockies. It will take three days to reach her family's cabin where her mentally unstable father is hiding. Filled with suspense and a slow burning, adorkable romance, I dare you not to fall in love with George.

Ellie receives a phone call from her estranged father who is frantic and convinced someone is trying to kill him. Picking apart his conversation, she realizes he is at their family cabin n Colorado and leaves Chicago to find her Dad. I liked Ellie from the onset, she was smart, determined and funny. Any woman who sees whining as a weakness is welcome to be my friend. Chin up and all that. She arrives in Simpson, CO a small mountain town where all of our books are set and stops at the coffee shop. Dressed as a Chicagoan she immediately falls in the parking lot and is picked up, literally off her feet by George who carries her into the cafe and leaves. Hells yes, I am all in.

Ellie ends up befriending a few characters from previous books who aid her and ultimately have George taking her on the three-day hike up to the cabin. George doesn't speak, in fact, he kind of grunts. I wasn't sure how I would handle a man like George..but oh gods I want one. (sorry hubs) I absolutely loved their interaction and the slow building romance that develops. Elie is this outgoing, confident and sometimes awkward character who gets George. I melted, laughed until I saw tears and swooned over this sensitive, shy, intelligent man.

While the romance was enough to keep me listening and happy, we had the added bonus of a suspenseful mystery concerning Ellie's Dad and a couple of dark villains. Ruggle picked up on the previous suspense thread left opened in FAN THE FLAMES and gave our hero and heroine quite the adventure. I loved how this seamlessly tied into the overall series and while the romance wrapped up and left me happy, the suspense thread had me yelling out loud and begging for the next audio. The twists and turns not to mention the need for more answers despite getting more tidbits have left me pushing the next audio to the front of my TBR pile.

GONE TOO DEEP is my favorite installment of the Search and Rescue series to date. I loved George!

This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Melanie

Written on Mar 11, 2017

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

4.5 stars

In this third installment of the Search & Rescue series, we actually start off in Chicago. Eleanor Price receives a call from her father. He is spouting some crazy talk at her. Nothing new from her father. He has always had battles with mental illness, but has never been diagnosed with anything in particular. She’ has worked with him to try to get him to stay on some meds, but if you’ve ever been around someone with a mental illness, they generally don’t like to be on their meds. Anyway, she decides she needs to go to Colorado and find her father before he does something to harm himself (even if it is just getting lost in the woods).

When Ellie arrives in Simpson, she goes to the little coffee shop. Needless to say, she didn’t have proper footwear to even cross a parking lot in snow and ice of Colorado. She falls on her ass. That’s when a “mountain” didn’t help her up, but instead picked her up and carried her into the shop.
Lou (heroine of book one) offers to help her find a guide. The best person for the job is George, who happens to be the mountain that carried her into the coffee shop. He’s not known for being social. As a matter of fact, he tends to just grunt if he makes any sound at all. I was a little worried at this point. How can we have a story with a hero that only grunts. My worries were unfounded.

George didn’t want to take this city woman out into the backcountry to find her father. At first, he refused, until another character (that actually gave Ellie the creeps) offered to take her. George stepped up and decided that he would take her. Ellie was smart enough to go to The Screaming Moose to buy some proper clothes.

Things on the trip out to cabin were much more difficult than they had expected. It was difficult enough with Ellie not knowing anything about being out in the backcountry. George wasn’t also very good and expressing what he wanted her to do. There was a lot of miscommunication at the beginning, but Ellie caught on pretty quick. But when some people attack them and steal one of their packs, things only get worse.

I really enjoyed this story. It might even be my favorite, though I really loved book two also. George was a great hero. He doesn’t talk a lot, but he does speak some. He never treats her like an idiot for not knowing how to get around in the woods. He does do some things that are a little eyebrow raising. Like instead of asking her about the layers of clothing she has own, he just goes and pulls up her shirt to see the layers. He doesn’t want to talk so much, that he just goes into action. He never complains though she asks for a rest during the hike. He was constantly trying to get her to eat and drink water.

This is a slow building romance. Just like in the last book, this book has a virgin. As with the book two, the virgin story was very well written. I’m not a huge fan of the virgin trope. In this one, there is huge difference, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with a virgin hero, but that is what George is. I think that really helped to make him an even sweeter character. You can really see that he has a lot to learn about relationships and even just being social with other people. I will tell you, I would take a George any day.

I should also add that we do learn more about Headless Dead Guy (or HDG as Lou calls him). I’m assuming that the story wraps up with next book and we will find out who killed him and why.
There were several scenes I wanted to include in this review. I don’t think I did a very good job of showing what a great guy George is. I searched for several snippets to include and came up with too many and several long ones (I love when I can get the ebook from the library, makes finding these quotes to include so much easier).

This is a scene of them sleeping (just sleeping) together in a single sleeping bag after one of their packs were stolen. They were trying to stay warm.

George seemed to read her mind. “This is how you like to sleep.”
“Yes. I mean, this is good.” Her neck was getting tired, and her throat ached, so she let it settle onto his shoulder. “Are you comfortable?” His amused snort confused her, and she would’ve looked at him if her eyelids hadn’t suddenly weighed fifty pounds each. Their vigorous wriggling had warmed both of them, judging by the toasty interior of the sleeping bag. When he didn’t answer beyond that wordless sound, she forced herself to stay awake.
“George? Is this okay for you?” She hated the thought of him being uncomfortable all night because he didn’t want to disturb her.
“Yes. Go to sleep.” There was a light pressure on the top of her head, and her eyes popped open again. Had he just kissed her hat? After a few seconds, though, exhaustion began to blanket her brain again, and she tucked away the possible affectionate gesture to overanalyze later.

“You will be telling me every single detail, including how you got the love child of Grizzly Adams and Pa Ingalls to get a cell phone. Impressive, El. Very impressive.”

Narration
Again, I really loved Rachel Dulude. I love her male and female voices. I don’t know that she really got George’s voice to what I had in my head. I don’t think she went as deep as the author made it sound. She did a pretty good job though. I’m not sure if any woman could nail the voice that I had in my head. The more I listened, the more her voice became George’s voice.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Amanda

Written on Sep 19, 2016

Holy reveal at the end. So much left to discover. Come on, book 4!

thebookdisciple

Written on Jul 21, 2016

Link to full review below! I so, so, love this series! I was concerned that a book about hiking through the snowy mountains would be...boring. But its NOT! And, now we know who the killer is but we have to wait to see what will happen next! This review was originally posted on The Book Disciple

EBookObsessed

Written on Jul 20, 2016

Another book on camping to give me nightmares, but if I had to take a hike into the mountains and snuggle up for warmth, I would want my own George to keep me company.

This book features a strong, silent hottie who is also sweet and innocent and who protected his lady from the dangers of nature both four legged and two. Ahhh! I definitely I have a new book boyfriend. But I am going to have to move my BB to a new location since Simpson, Colorado seems to be covered with snow 11 1/2 months of the year and has more than it's share of meth dealers, arsonists, stalkers and murderers.

Eleanor Price receives a frantic and confusion phone call from her father, who she hasn't spoken to in years. Her father was traumatized in the war and suffers from PTSD. He has always had trouble separating reality from his imagination. He calls to tell her he is danger from the person who killed his friend, that he loves her and he is going to go hide at her grandfather's cabin. Ellie isn't sure she believes his rantings about murder, but she doesn't want her delusional father traipsing through the woods, trying to find a cabin. He is confused and could easily get lost in the mountains. So Ellie drops everything and takes off to Simpson.

Ellie knows nothing about hiking in the snow covered mountains so she needs to find a guide. The best guide in the area is George Holloway, a big mountain of a man who rarely speaks to anyone in Town unless it has to do specifically with Search and Rescue. George has no desire to drag a city girl around the mountains no matter how pretty she is, but when he realizes she is desperate enough to ask another guide, one who isn't so trustworthy with young, beautiful women, he gives in.

Ellie has to learn quickly how to survive away from civilization in the cold snow and thankfully, she has George guiding her. He might not say much, but she has never felt safer especially when dangers arrive both on four feet and two.

But worse than peeing in the woods, freezing your butt off and eating MREs, is returning to civilization and telling all your friends about your adventures. Now everyone wants a George of their own.

THOUGHTS:
I loved George and Ellie. They are my favorites from this series.

There is a continuing storyline, so you really should read these stories in order. We do get a Holy Sh*t!! WTF? moment on the last page where we learn the name of the murder. Dun -- dun -- duuuuunnn. And it doesn't turn out to be the jerk-off cop I wanted it to be. Damn it! Apparently, he is just an ass.

Just an aside, that other Search and Rescue guide takes creepy to a whole new level. The woman who runs the only hotel in town has no problem giving him a key to the rooms being rented by single, young women because *wink, wink* who wouldn't invite him to join them. Since he hasn't learned what "No" means nor does he consider anything wrong with having sex with women who say "No, thank you. Go away," you can understand the level of creepy when this guy helps himself to Ellie's room key to find out when they are having sex. While no proof of what he has done has been brought to light, most of the SAR guys have an idea about him and that is why George wouldn't let Ellie go alone with Creeper into the mountains. Ewww! He gives me the willies.

I am definitely enjoying this series and have an ARC of the next book. I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

See more at EBookObsessed.com