Rookie K-9 Unit Christmas: Surviving Christmas/ Holiday High Alert

The romance is nonexistent in this pair of inspirational tales, and the promising premises are hindered by insufficient research, excessive drama, and contradictions. In Hansen’s “Surviving Christmas,” when police officer Sean Murphy, a single father and ex-soldier, is attacked in his home, he and his son, Patrick, move to Desert Valley, Ariz., to stay with his high school friend Zoe Trent, who’s also a cop. Zoe makes arrangements to get Sean—who’s suffering from PTSD—into the service-dog training program; in the meantime, she and fellow officers will investigate the attack. In “Holiday High Alert,” day care owner Josie Callahan is receiving threats from an unknown source. Widower and rookie K-9 officer Dalton West’s daughter attends Josie’s day care, so he wastes no time becoming her protector. The motives of the antagonists are flimsy, the actions of the police are questionable, and the responses of the townspeople are illogical. Neither couple spends any time developing intimacy, and the relationships form because of, not in spite of, the danger they face. (Dec.)