Review – Imperfect Justice

The police say the woman was a murderer. Emilie Wesley knows they can't be talking about her client . . . but she can't prove it. To the world it seems obvious: Kaylene Turner snapped and killed her daughter and then was shot by police. However, attorney Emilie Wesley knows a different story. Kaylene was a nurturer at heart looking for a way out of a controlling, abusive marriage. Kaylene's death shakes Emilie's world and her belief that she can make a difference for these women. Self-doubt plagues her, and she finds herself struggling to continue her work in the wake of tragedy. Reid Billings thought he knew his sister---right up until he learned of the manner of her death. He receives a letter from Kaylene begging him to fight for custody of her daughters if anything should happen to her. No attorney in her right mind would take on his case, but Kaylene's letter claims Emilie Wesley will help him. Thrown together in the race to save Kinley Turner from a father who isn't all that he seems, Emilie and Reid pursue the constantly evasive truth. Can Emily and Reid hang on to hope together and save a young girl---and find a future for themselves in the process? My thoughts: I didn't read the first book in this series Beyond Justice, but IMPERFECT JUSTICE easily stands alone. I was sucked into the life of an attorney working for the abused women clinic, helping them to get the help they need to escape the nightmares they are caught in, as well as into the world of a financial planner. As characters, both Reid and Emilie had things coming at them from all directions. Forced together by the knowledge that Kaylene couldn't have possibly killed her daughter despite the neightbor's video and testimonies, Reid and Emilie struggle to find the proof that things are not as they seem. Add Emilie's struggles in her second job, a stalker (or two) and a boss who refuses to work with her, Emilie is facing an uphill battle. Reid likewise is racing against time to get his tween niece away from her abusive father--hard to do when his father has a restraining order against him to keep him away from his niece--and his boss is pitting the two main players in the office against each other for a position of control. Add in an undeniable attraction to Emilie and he hardly has time to rest. I couldn't put Imperfect Justice down. Despite deadlines of my own, I inhaled every page of this book. If you like romantic suspense don't let the word "legal" scare you off, because Ms. took the fear of that word out of the story while keeping the tension high in the suspense. While I did figure out early on who Emilie's stalker was, I didn't know how either situation would get to the climax and HEA ending. An engaging read.   For the screamish: There are some dead bodies.