Book Review: Southwest Heat (Southwest Supernatural Society) by E.L. Adams

Southwest Heat is the first book in the Southwest Supernatural Society series by E.L. Adams. Addyson Owings is the best at what she does—working as an investigator for the Southwest Supernatural Society, where crimes come in all shapes and sizes. But when her ex shows up after seven years, partnering with her on a serious crime, she’s faced with not only figuring out why a family was killed without a single mark on their bodies, but also with the lingering attraction to the man who broke her heart. Cooper Braxton plans to get his woman back. He has one weekend to help solve a complex crime that combines the world of paranormals and humans while also convincing Addyson to give him a second chance. His success rate is high, and he doesn’t plan to lose now. But when a traitor takes a kid as a hostage, Cooper and Addy must overcome their past while saving the innocent, stopping a killer, and trying to salvage any chance of their happily ever after.

Southwest Heat is a mixed bag of second chance romance and suspense. I thought Cooper and Addy were good characters, although I do not feel like I know either of them well. I liked the premise and the potential of everything this book could be, but while it was an enjoyable read it did not quite meet my hopes for the read. Because of the second chance romance aspect of the book I felt like I did not get a whole lot of character building, and I felt like because of the series aspect of the book some of the world building was not quite as developed as I might have liked because there will be room for that later in the series. I thought the suspense as to how they were going to save victims was good, but again it felt very surface level with very little actual detective work happening. I think there were many great ideas, but each could have stood for more attention. Like perhaps have the pair do some sleuthing rather than getting busy in other ways, or have them figure out their relationship a bit more in depth and then hunt for the bad guys. It just felt like watching the trailer to a movie- just the big moments- and none of how we got there.

Southwest Heat is an interesting and engaging read but I felt there could have been more depth.