Uncaged Review – Off the Grid for Love by Rena Koontz

Off the Grid for Love
Rena Koontz
Romantic Suspense

Jake Manettia, an undercover FBI agent working a public corruption case, stumbles into an opportunity to infiltrate the city’s largest mob organization. That’s not the only fall he takes after witnessing a bank robbery and meeting the beautiful and spirited teller behind the counter. 

Mackenna McElroy is that bank teller. She looks down the barrel of a gun on three different days, and per orders from the robbers, empties her cash drawers. Not only is she the FBI’s prime suspect, she’s the woman Jake falls in love with. He’ll do anything to prove her innocence, including jeopardize his career and risk his life. 

He’s either a guardian angel or a stalker, Mackenna can’t decide. Nevertheless, she’s attracted to him. And falling for him. But who is he? She presents him with an ultimatum: Either tell her the truth or get out of her life. Honesty is the only thing Jake can’t give Mackenna. Knowing his true identity endangers both their lives.

Broken-hearted and unable to prove her innocence, Mackenna abandons her hopes for freedom and for a life with Jake. Even though it makes her look guilty, she runs. But the mob is onto Jake and Mackenna runs right into their trap to kidnap her, knowing she is Jake’s Achilles heel. And suddenly, they’re both fighting for their lives. Their survival depends on their trust in each other. 

Will they find the love they long for? Or will it be the end of something beautiful? 

Uncaged Review: When you first meet Jake, you think, okay, this is going to end up being a motorcycle gang book. Wrong. It is a wonderful, thrilling suspencful romance with a goodly number of action scenes and characters you boo or root for during the book.
McKenna McElroy is the lead character. She goes by Kenna and has secrets she attempts to hide. The main one being how her exboyfriend Arthur cleaned her out by taking everything but her clothes and makeup from the apartment they shared. Along with that, he also locked all her accounts so she couldn’t discover he had taken all her money and credit cards, leaving her destitute.
The book opens with a bank robbery and Kenna is the teller. The only thing she is sure of is the gun the man was holding and his green eyes. Everything else if fuzzy.
When the police and FBI are finished with her, she goes to the mall to to kill some time until Aurther is gone. Once there, she goes to a coffee shop, hoping the coffee will help her nerves. She had no idea Arthur was a cheater along with being vindictive.
She noticed Jake or Motorcycle Man as they both left the bank. When he shows up at the coffee shop, she believes he is following her. By the time they finish talking, he is now Jake the Jerk. Afraid he is like Athur, she is willing to deal with her professional and personal life falling apart by herself. That was soldified when Courtney, Jake’s partner shows up. Even so, Kenna is attracted to him.
As the book moves on, you discover Jake is an FBI agent who is helping with a corruption case along with infiltrating the Cabacolli syndicate after rescuing, Vinnie, the heir apparent to the syndicate, when he runs his car off into a lake. Jake runs across Kenna at the grocery store, but Vinnie shows up and cuts into his converstation with Kenna. Jake warns her stay away from Vinnie while attempting to make her aware that she can trust him.
As you can tell, things go from bad to worse. Kenna is robbed two more times, her boss tries to rape her and she ends up kidnapped by Vinnie. Jake does what he can to keep Kenna safe after he realizes he loves the woman who he believes might be part of the robberies. Meanwhile, Kenna is unsure of which side of the law Jake is on, but she keeps believing he is one of the good guys from what he doesn’t say.
This book was a lot of fun as there were so many twists and turns you kept turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next. Even in the darkest hours for Kenna, you hope Agent Crews and Jake find the information which proves she wasn’t helping the band robbers. Even though I knew there was going to be a happy ending, I had to get through all the trials and tribulations to get there. It was a fun read which showed how not all bikers belong to gangs and can be the good guy without being nasty or condesceding, which was refreshing.
This book was a definite 5 stars. I spent almost a whole day reading, wanting to find out more about Jake and Kenna. My only complaint was the need for another run through to catch the last of the errors. A missing word or messed up sentence does pull me from the story, but with this book it was easy to fill in the missing word and move on without being totally pulled into reality.
Reviewed by Barbara

5 Stars