Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, mass market paperback, audiobook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: Ultimate, #1
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Date Released: September 1, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Cannon Colter is quintessential hero material: chiseled jawline, shredded body—the works. He’s also the guy who rescued Yvette Sweeny from kidnappers, only to put an end to her romantic dreams. These days, she’s older, smarter, determined to face whatever life throws her way. Even the prospect of sharing a house and business with Cannon.

Cannon knew Yvette wanted him three years ago. But she was young—and some things are worth waiting for. Thrown together by her grandfather’s legacy, he realizes how deep Yvette’s scars really go, and how much danger lurks in their quiet town. As pent-up desire explodes between them, protecting her becomes the only fight that matters. And he’ll break all the rules to do it….

My Review:

No Limits is a Lori Foster story that ties together the alpha romance of her SBC Fighters series with the romantic suspense of her Love Undercover series.

In fact, the beginning of Cannon and Yvette’s relationship, including the horrific event that sent Yvette running to California, is part of the case that Dash and Margaret finally solve in Dash of Peril (reviewed here).

The way that Cannon and Yvette’s story begins in Dash of Peril, Cannon helps the police solve a serial rapist/murder case by trying his best to protect Yvette from the perpetrators. Although the bad get their just desserts, Yvette still suffers the terrible trauma of being kidnapped and doused in kerosene, threatened with rape and immolation, and forced to watch as another woman is raped.

Cannon is angry with himself because he wasn’t able to protect her, even though he was merely a neighborhood do-gooder, and not a police officer.

Yvette has always had a crush on Cannon, but he’s sure she’s too young for him. But she’s 20, not 18, and he never knew. She also throws herself at him, just before she leaves town to heal.

He never forgot her. He also kept kicking himself for thinking she was younger than she was. In three years, he’s been hoping for a way to start over, or to start where they didn’t quite leave off. Her grandfather’s death gives him that opportunity. Grandfather left his property in equal shares to Yvette and Cannon, not because Cannon needs it, but because Yvette’s grandfather is certain that Yvette needs to find a reason to come home to stay, and that Cannon will provide that reason if he ties them to each other.

Cannon’s perfectly willing to get with that program, its Yvette who balks. Everyone in their small Ohio town knows exactly what happened three years ago, and Yvette hates being the center of everyone’s attention, and especially their pity.

In California she can be exactly who she wants to be, and has carved out a life that allows her not to lean on anyone. She hates feeling like she’s still a victim.

Unfortunately for Yvette, there is more than one person in her town who is all too eager to make her a victim, yet again. But this time, she definitely has Cannon in her corner, and moving in to her life.

It’s up to her whether her inability to let herself lean on anyone will keep her from relying on Cannon and his friends when she really needs them, or whether she can finally let herself live her life.

Escape Rating B: No Limits is the first full-length novel in Foster’s Ultimate series, after the short and sexy novella Hard Knocks (reviewed here).

No Limits does a terrific job of filling in the stage and providing further background and setup for the characters, while letting long-term readers get a glimpse and what our old friends are going from the two previous series.

Cannon is definitely an alpha hero in Foster’s marvelous of pattern of strong, sexy men who can’t help their protective instincts, while still believing that the women in their lives have agency and control over their actions. He’s there to keep Yvette safe because the things that are after her are beyond any single person’s control. She’s being stalked by an ex who has lost his marbles and really wants to hurt her.

It’s not that she’s not capable, but that there is more going on than any one person can handle. She’s willing to let her friend Vanity look out for her, but it takes her longer to accept that she’s become part of Cannon’s inner circle, and that all the guys want to watch out for her.

She has a huge chip on her shoulder about the attack from three years ago. It’s a small town, and everyone knows what happened. Her desire NOT to be the center of any more attention is understandable, even if she does take it way too far.

That there is someone in town who seems determined to both attack her and make her the center of even more negative attention adds suspense and makes Yvette want to retreat back into her shell.

Everything that happens gives Yvette further reasons to doubt herself and any relationship with Cannon. His patient but relentless pursuit is surprisingly sweet, while his eventual “catching” of her provides some serious heat.

I really enjoyed Cannon’s character and all the guys at the rec center. It was fun to see where the next relationships are going to be, and who is getting involved with whom often in spite of themselves.

I wish that the chip on Yvette’s shoulder hadn’t been quite so large. I wanted to shake her and get her to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee pretty often. Still, it’s obvious at the end that she realizes both how lucky she is, and what a close escape from danger she had. Again.

She gets by with a little (sometimes a lot) of help from both her own and Cannon’s friends..

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