Once and Always

Historical romance author Elizabeth Hoyt (Darling Beast) fills the pages of this contemporary romantic thriller, her first as Harper since 2009’s For the Love of Pete, with rip-roaring and somewhat improbable action. Maisa Burnsey first meets small-town cop Sam West when her great-uncle, a former member of the Russian mafia, moves to sleepy Coot Lake, Minn. After a lot of speeding tickets—and a one-night stand—she decides it’s safer to stay far away from the handsome lawman. Sam, on the other hand, is determined to win Maisa’s heart. Their ro­­mance is interrupted by a suitcase mix-up that puts Maisa, Sam, and the entire town of Coot Lake directly in the path of a ruthless Russian mobster determined to exact revenge from an underling who stole several million dollars’ worth of diamonds. After a promising start, a good chunk of the book reads like a one-dimensional action film—lots of people getting shot or meeting far-fetched calamities of one type or another—at the expense of romance and plausibility. (Mar.)