Fatal Exchange by Lisa Harris

Book Description:
Emily Hunt might come from a family of cops, but she never goes looking for an adrenaline rush. She lives the quiet–well, relatively quiet–life of a teacher and thrives on making a difference in the lives of her students. But she’ll have to draw on a well of strength and savvy she didn’t know she had as student Rafael Cerda takes her class hostage for ransom money to save his brother’s life.
Undercover cop Mason Taylor has been working with Rafael to find his brother and bring the cartel thugs who hold him to justice. Can he talk Rafael down from his impulsive actions? And is there something more sinister at work here than he realizes?

Fatal Exchange draws readers into a complex matrix of intertwining lives and unraveling secrets, where every answer creates more questions. Romantic suspense fans will hardly want to come up for air.

My Thoughts:
I completely enjoyed this book.  It seems that everyone in Emily's family is a cop.  Her siblings, her father, she on the other hand is a school teacher.  Mason has been friends with the Hunt family for years and has known Emily's sister believes he is involved with their brother's death.  Still, he has to work with her because the case he is bringing to her ties in with her active investigations.  A kid he mentors, Rafael, is in big trouble and both he and Emily (Rafael's teacher) will be in more danger than either of them expected as they try to help him.
I liked the complexities in this book.  Mason was already a part of the Hunt family except it was always because his best friend included him.  With his best friend dead and his sister suspecting Mason of foul play, the relationship is strained to say the least.  Emily didn't jump to the conclusions that her sister did about Mason and I liked that.  I also loved that she was willing to do whatever it took though she wasn't a cop.  The author knows how to drag you along for the ride, wondering what will happen next and I can't wait for the next book in this series!
I rate this a 5/5.  I couldn't put it down.

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy of this book.  I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.