Without a Trace by Nora Roberts

Hero: Trace O'Hurley
Heroine: Gillian Fitzpatrick
Grade: C-

Without a Trace.

A life of adventure and intrigue has left Trace O'Hurley bitter and world-weary. But in the innocent arms of spirited damsel-in-distress Gillian Fitzpatrick, Trace finds himself longing for the life-and family-he left behind.

This is Trace's story, Trace is the oldest brother of the O'Hurley clan who didn't have dreams of making it big as a family act on stage, his dream was to see the world and he did, in spades. He saw the good things and the bad things the world had to offer and has become weary of the life he is leading.

Circumstances put Trace in the path of a young physicist, Gillian Fitzpatrick who needs Trace's help to locate her missing brother and her niece. Trace has sworn off the life he led which landed him in the middle of nowhere, Mexico in a cantina where he wants to drink himself into oblivion while thoughts of his family he left behind many years before haunt him, making him yearn for a glimpse of them.

Gillian needs his help to get the only family she has back and the sparks fly when they get together. The chemistry between these two is scorching hot and fun to read. This story starts out a whole lot faster than Chantel's story did and I enjoyed it far more than Chantel's story, making Trace my second favorite O'Hurley, after Abby of course.

There were times when I wanted to strangle Trace for his way of thinking where Gillian was concerned, he was always trying to tell her how things should be when she's a grown ass adult, she knows all there is to know about you and yet she STILL wants to be with you, why can't you get over yourself and just let it be. Let things happen, he kept telling her she was stubborn, but she was no more stubborn then he was and right until the very end he was still running from her so by the end of his story I wanted to throttle his ass, but the saving grace of this story came when Gillian joined forces with Trace's sister, Maddy (from Dance to the Piper) to help her bring Trace home.

The homecoming of Trace O'Hurley was a long time coming. You read about Trace in all the other stories and you could feel how much his family missed him and for him to finally come home for good and make peace with Frank, his father was a great thing to read about. His reunion with his sisters was such a good thing and the way the whole series came to an end was fantastic. It made up for all the crap that Trace put me through in his story...so yeah it's a good story and it's a great family series and you should read it because it's cute.