Book Review: Bullets

Title: Bullets 

Author: Terry Toler 

Date: 2026

Publisher: Beholdings

Quote: "That was the problem. He was too good at surviving."

Peter is a decorated veteran, the toughest of the tough, and he's tired of being one when he swims out into rough sea with the intention of drowning. But along comes a woman walking her German Shepherd, and the dog dives into the big, cold waves to rescue Peter. The woman knows something is wrong because he's swimming in jeans, and invites him to her house for breakfast.

Maggie is a veteran's daughter, pretty tough too, in her own way, but she has an Insane Admirer who's starting to give her the creeps. She tells Peter the call she rejected was a wrong number. He knew it wasn't by looking at her. Now he has a reason to live again: He will protect Maggie. He teaches Maggie, who has never been interested before, how to shoot. He can't resist showing her that, for him, shooting is an art form.

Local laws seem to protect the Insane Admirer more than they do Peter, Maggie, or the lovable rescue dog Bullet. When Peter and Bullet finally see the man face to face, he runs madly away, smashes his face on the curb, then fakes bite marks and tells the police they attacked him. The police reclaim Bullet. Maggie blames Peter and doesn't want to talk to him. Peter has nothing left to live for, but doesn't feel suicidal this time--yet.

In literary fiction, a happy ending to a story like this one is supposed to be caused by something the protagonists do. In Christian fiction, their alternatives include praying and catching a lucky break. This sweet romance ends with a wedding.

Toler (since this is a romance, I should probably mention: he/him) has written a lot of other novels. This one seems to stand alone, but it's actually #6 in a series of romances featuring rich, successful, dominant men. Maggie says more about what she doesn't like than the usual heroine of female-authored romance, because Peter is realistically damaged and Maggie is realistically tough enough to tell him what puts her off. We can tell it's True Love, though, because Peter listens and learns...as does Maggie. By the end of the book it's possible to imagine that their quarrels will become less frequent and less painful, over time, rather than the usual pattern of quarrels getting worse as each person locks into ego defense mode and refuses to listen or learn. Bullets is genre fiction, but in a small and generic way Toler has pulled off something few authors have even tried.