Category Archives: Romantic Suspense
SAVING HOPE
by Margaret Daley
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Published: March 1, 2012
Format: Paperback (336 pages)
ISBN: 9781426714283
Origin: Publisher through netGalley (egalley)
***Though the publisher provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
Kate Winslow is the director of Beacon of Hope School, but her charges are not just her students, much to her wealthy family’s dismay. These children have endured more in their short lives tan any child should, but Kate takes them in, gives them hope, counseling, safety, and schooling.
One of her current students, Rose, is the ideal success story. She’s turning her life around and wants to help others do the same. In Rose, Kate sees a wonderful transformation, and she prays her other students can realize this same change. Unfortunately, this director knows she could lose some of the girls back to the streets; it’s happened before.
However, when Rose goes missing, the school’s only van disappears. Could this girl whose made so much progress have gone back to her pimp?
Texas Ranger Wyatt Sheridan is part of the Child Rescue Task Force. This group of law enforcement professionals, consisting of Texas Rangers, FBI, and other agencies, must tackle child prostitution and human trafficking; Wyatt and his team try to make a difference in the lives of these endangered children.
A body is uncovered, and he gets the call. Soon, he arrives on scene, and Wyatt discovers the girl had been reported missing. She’s found. Dead.
This kid was the same age as his daughter, and he always fears this could happen to his own. As a widowed father of a fourteen-year-old girl, Wyatt knows how easy it would be for her to trust the wrong person or become prey for them. Already loosing his wife to a criminal’s hand, this ranger couldn’t lose her too. And while he gives thanks for the safety of his daughter, he never loses the chill of knowing he could be the parent on the other end of any notification.
Nevertheless, he won’t let these thoughts tie him in knots; instead, the worries push him to work harder at getting these predators behind bars and unable to hurt any other children.
In this case, an abandoned vehicle is still at the scene, but when this vehicle is registered to a local school and hasn’t been reported as stolen, he needs to find out why. Could other resident students been in danger there?
My Take:
SAVING HOPE by Margaret Daley is a book I recommend.
The author makes the reader’s heart pound as they know each character’s circumstance, but their suspense builds along with the danger.
Margaret Daley’s SAVING HOPE encompasses a fast-moving plot that not only deals with one of today’s very real issues, it showcases how these kids can overcome it and how adults can help them through it. Despite the seriousness of the topics, the author weaves a satisfying romance that keeps you in love with these characters.
After reading this title, you’ll run to order THE MEN OF TEXAS RANGERS (Book 2) as soon as it releases.
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ACCUSED
by: Janice Cantore
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: January 20, 2012
Format: Paperback (416 pages)
ISBN: 9781414358475
SERIES: Pacific Coast Justice Series
Origin: Publisher
***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
An officer-involved-shooting puts Officer Carly Edwards of the Las Playas, California police department on a desk assignment, but she is still there long after the investigation is complete.
The press sensationalism and a comment taken out of context have long reaching and forever lasting effects on her career. From the death of her father to a career in a perpetual standstill and a divorce final from a cheating husband, Carly rejects faith.
However, her career situation changes due to a telephone call, when the mayor is found dead in the trunk of a car, and in an instant, Carly sees her chance to get back into action at the job she loves. The juvenile suspect requests to speak to Carly because he knows her mother, personally. However, when Carly hears his name, she has nothing on her mind but getting his confession.
Hadn’t she told her mother that faith wouldn’t change that kid—or any other—for even a minute? This murder proves how right she was about faith and about him.
Carly wants to tell the juvenile that he’s playing the faith card with the wrong cop, but she is listening to get him to talk. As the police tactic goes, get him to feel you will understand, and you might walk out with a confession.
Nevertheless, a confession doesn’t come.
However, something else happens that Carly doesn’t expect. She believes him. Positive he or his “accomplice” did not kill the mayor, Carly’s left with many niggling questions.
Now, she needs the one person that she can trust, in police matters. But going to Nick will cause many other problems in her personal life; her former husband actually expects that one day Carly will believe that’s he’s a changed man. He’s not. She knows it. However, she does need help.
Suspecting a cover-up with this kid as fall guy leads Carly to set out on her own, and soon she’s the one running from the law.
My Take:
Janice Cantori writes from a fascinating perspective. As a former law enforcement professional, she uses her knowledge and skills to add police procedure then blend it with fiction and faith to provide a compelling read in ACCUSED.
She portrays real-to-life characters carrying heavy burdens with nothing to guide their way, but just like people, her characters change, grow, and find faith in the most tension filled circumstances.
The next title in the Pacific Justice Series Book 2, ABDUCTED, will release August 2012.
From the Tyndale Blog Network, I received this book free in exchange for my honest review.
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BEFORE SHE DIES Review and Author Video
by: Mary Burton
Publisher: Zebra (Kensington)
Published: January 31, 2012
Format: Paperback (416 pages)
ISBN: 9781420110217
Origin: Publisher
***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
Defense attorney Charlotte (Grace) Wellington is not who everyone thinks she is, but her secrets are safe until the past comes bounding up to her present day door.
Eighteen years ago, when she was a teen, Grace’s mother died, and her sister was murdered by a ritualistic nightmare. Grace fled leaving her mother’s infant and her baby sister, Sooner, to be adopted.
Now, Charlotte has managed to turn her life into a picture of what it never was.
She is a highbrow attorney who travels in all the right circles with all the right connections. Nevertheless, when her stepdad shows up at her expensive office, all bets are off on keeping her life the pristine image it has become. Emotions overwhelm her as memories flood from all directions, and the news he brings leaves her hollow.
The problem was Charlotte has always had a hole inside anyway, but she thought she did the right think by her baby sister, Sooner. She pacified herself believing Sooner had a real family and was growing up far away from the carnival. But that didn’t happen.
Her stepfather raised Sooner, and now’s she’s been arrested. He’s threatening to expose Charlotte’s past, but Charlotte’s problems are only just beginning.
Meanwhile, Detective Daniel Rokov discovers the ice goddess isn’t the queen of cold; in fact, she’s hot, sexy, and sultry. Moreover, their no strings attached, clandestine relationship suited him fine, for a while, but now he wants more. Though they are burning up the sheets, she has her heart locked in an ice chest, and she will not change the no attachment part of their relationship. Daniel Rokov wants to know her secrets, and he wants to understand why she lives without emotional entanglements.
Fresh from a hotel tryst, he’s arriving on scene.
A young girl has been murdered. Not news, really. Everyday something like this happens, and maybe some think he’s cold at heart due to indifference. He isn’t. Emotions will hinder his job.
However, even a seasoned detective isn’t ready for this crime scene.
The young woman had been killed elsewhere, but her body had been brought to an abandoned building and staged in the most ritualistic way. The salt outline only confirms what he already knows to be true. Investigating this death leads him straight to the carnies in town, as death and this group seem to come as a package deal.
However, he’s not at all expecting what he unearths.
My Take:
BEFORE SHE DIES by Mary Burton is a read I recommend!
Mary Barton lets us meet her killer on the first page, and you’ll learn this will be his first kill of many more to come. In this read, you are in for a suspense filled ride through a romantic suspense tale where secrets are deadly but distrust can save a life.
Her main characters are flawed but redeemable, and you’ll be rooting for them to live long enough to come together.
While this is a stand-alone title, you will want to read Mary Burton’s other suspenseful reads such as MERCILESS (Zebra January 2011), SENSELESS (Zebra December 2010), and DYING SCREAM (Zebra December 2009).
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THE PROFESSOR
by: Cathy Perkins
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: January 23, 2012
Format: ebook
Origin: Publisher through netGalley – eGalley
***Though the publisher provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
A serial killer claims his third victim, and SLED Agent “Mick” O’Shaughnessy is trying to piece together clues to stop the murders. This sick predator stalks his prey, college-aged women from well-to-do families, and Mick, his team, and the local police department must uncover his pattern before he strikes again.
A possible assault at a local college pulls him off the investigation; Mick hates the kind of political pandering that expropriated the police force, but he must deal with it. Although the assault was not that at all, Mick meets graduate student, Meg Connelly.
Like a schoolboy with a crush, he makes up a reason to see her.
Meg Connelly wasn’t ready for the lovesick feelings she’d get for the agent, but romance isn’t on her agenda. Been there. Done that. Moreover, she had the pain to prove it. Meg needs to keep her focus, move forward, and gain a career that will actually allow her creature comforts, like a cell phone. However, she really wasn’t prepared for his kiss, and she’s going to avoid agent Mick O’Shaughnessy like a bad cold.
Meanwhile, the professor watches his victims, and he’s been watching Meg. He notices the way she dresses and the confidence she exudes, but a woman like her needs to regain a subservient posture. Just like his other victims. He has also been watching the news reports of his deeds, and he laughs. The police are too stupid to put it together, but soon his hide and seek with the police becomes personal. That SLED agent is cocky and arrogant. Look at that superior body language; he would like to teach him just how superior he isn’t. Soon the professor dashes off an email to the agent, and his email won’t be traceable.
My Take:
I recommend THE PROFESSOR by Cathy Perkins!
From that first paragraph to the last page the suspense endures, the mystery grows deeper, and the police procedures stay a mainstay in this story line. The author shows how the police investigation progresses, as if she’s done one herself. In Mick, she paints a lovable guy whose job is intense, but he’s looking for more than just his career and his empty condo from life. Her other police officers are just as true to life, each with their own story.
Cathy Perkins is a debut author who will keep you in a perpetual state of suspense while you are awaiting her next book.
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DEAD BY NIGHTFALL
by: Beverly Barton Publisher: Zebra (Kensington) Published: November 29, 2011 Format: Paperback (416 pages) ISBN: 9781420110364 Series: Dead by Trilogy Origin: Publisher
***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
If you’re a fan of the late Beverly Barton, you might think the plot line in DEAD BY NIGHTFALL may seem familiar, but it is not. The author wraps up her Dead By trilogy by laying many lives on the line, again.
This is not just reminiscent of the past for Investigator Griffin Powell; it’s a nightmare times two.
Griffin Powell’s distant past has become his present and threatens his future, when his wife goes missing. Soon his telephone rings just to taunt him, the same way it did many years ago.
However, many things are different but not all of them are good. Grif’s former FBI Agent wife, Nicole is pregnant, and he’ll give his life to this deranged psycho to save her. Nevertheless, first he must play the game to find a way to rescue the woman he loves, even if it means others may die.
In a way, Malcolm York picks up right where Pudge leaves off, but he takes an even more perverse thrill in both the game and the hunt.
Will Grif and his associates at Powell Private Security and Investment Agency find Nic in time? On the other hand, will Malcolm win?
My Take:
The late Beverly Barton’s edge-of-your-seat, thrilling suspense continues with DEAD BY NIGHTFALL. This book will provide terror and romance to give readers sleepless nights.
DEAD BY NIGHTFALL is a standalone title, and if you haven’t read the other books in the Dead by series, you’ll just enter the game at a different point. However, you will experience the shocking jolt of thrills for the first time.
You’ll want to read the other titles in the series DEAD BY MIDNIGHT (Kensington 2010) and DEAD BY MORNING (Zebra 2011).
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NEW BEGINNINGS BOOK ONE: LOST THEN FOUND
by Christina Freeburn
Publisher: Desert Breeze Publishing
Published: October 31, 2011
Format: eBook
Series: New Beginnings
Origin: Publisher – PDF version
***Though the publisher provides the free ebook, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
Broken trust, broken hearts, abused women and children, a defiant teen, and two skip tracers all combine with a result that may lead to murder.
This inspirational romantic suspense promises new beginnings. However, the getting there requires these two skip tracers weave their way back to each other, though the job viewpoints are from the polar opposite of sides.
While Renee Strafford-Knight helps the abused go into hiding and into a life free from their abusers, her ex-husband, Jonas Knight helps to find the guilty and bring them to justice.
Right now, their jobs clash when Renee helps to hide and abused teen that Jonas is hunting down for stealing a million dollars from her uncle. This former couple must disengage from their rigid stance over the disintegration of their marriage and the reasons they believe how it really ended.
Renee blames Jonas for the death of her sister at the hands of her sibling’s abusive husband; Jonas agrees with that standpoint because he has never forgiven himself.
Meanwhile, Jonas suspects his partner and their client is not being forthcoming with answers, but Jonas doesn’t realize that he is under surveillance when he visits Renee. He’s trying to keep her out of police troubles with a harboring a fugitive charge and leads both his partner and their client’s henchman directly to the woman he cares most about. Now, he must protect her while she moves the endangered teen. All he wants it to retrieve the money and let the kid live her life away from the client he suspects has abused her the way she claims.
Will his presence on this mission put other hiding victims in harms way?
My Take:
I recommend NEW BEGINNINGS BOOK ONE: LOST THEN FOUND by Christina Freeburn.
Domestic violence takes many forms and Christina Freeburn fictionally displays this serious problem with its long-reaching effects on the victims and the people who love those in danger. Using fiction, this author gives hope to those in such situations.
Her characters reel you into their lives while their suspenseful tale keeps you hooked, as the romance builds.
After you finish book one of the NEW BEGINNINGS, you’ll join me in looking forward to the next book in the series: NEW BEGINNINGS BOOK TWO: LED ASTRAY, coming May 2012.
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ADAM: THE NIGHTWALKERS, A ONE DAY ONLY BOOK SALE, AND A GIVEAWAY!
by Jacquelyn Frank
Publisher: Zebra (Kensington)
Published: October 25, 2011
Format: Paperback (354 pages)
ISBN: 9781420109863
Series: Nightwalkers
My Look:
Nightwalkers battle against evil and magic, but in ADAM, a soon-to-be tragic death summons ADAM hundreds of years away into a world he doesn’t know.
He’s in a universe where the once forbidden relationships have already gained acceptance, and he faces a temptress he left behind when acceptance was never an option as Jasmine returns. Read ADAM to discover his true love and to see him battle to keep family alive.
Now, to celebrate the release of ADAM, the latest Nightwalker title, Kensington Books is giving readers a deal we can’t miss!
Nothing can get a book-shopping reader moving like a limited time offer or a one day sale with a bargain price. I mean . . . I cannot be the only one who moves like a cheetah chasing prey in pursuit of a great buy, right? Well, in case other book bargain hunters exist, I am blogging a special price bulletin to spread the word about a great deal for you and me.
On Friday, November 4, 2011, JACOB (the first book in the Nightwalker series) will be $1.79, as an ebook on KINDLE and NOOK. Yes, you read that right!
And there’s more good news!
For readers of this blog, throughout the United States and Canada, you can enter a random drawing for a free physical book of GIDEON (the second book in the Nightwalker series), just by leaving a comment (one comment only). The comment form will require an email address but this will not be published.
I will announce the winner on a future blog post. So, you stay tuned and check back often! I just may have more special price posts coming in the future.
My Take:
If you have not had a chance to discover the world Jacquelyn Frank creates in the Nighwalker series, you don’t need to take a large bite out of your savings. To find out why fans are so hooked, you’ll spend only $1.79 (for ebook on KINDLE and NOOK). In addition, you’ll get to start at the beginning to see why the enforcer, JACOB, is willing to break the law he’s charged to uphold, for Isabella.
This is a great deal!
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HIDE FROM EVIL
by Jami Alden
Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing imprint of Hachette Book Group)
Published: November 1, 2011
Format: Paperback (432 pages)
ISBN: 9780446572798
Origin: netGalley – EGALLEY
***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion. ***
My Look:
What happens when the convicting prosecutor and the former death-row inmate that she put away get together? Murder.
At the time, Krista Slater was sure she put away the right man, Sean Flynn, for the rapes and brutal murders of those women; today, she knows that he almost died for crimes he never committed. However, this case is not over, yet. When her shock wears off but the guilt remains, she does not believe Nate Brewster acted alone. Something isn’t sitting right about how it all fell too neatly into place, long after Sean had been tried, convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned. Though trusting her instincts is still hard, she asks a private investigator whom she trusts to poke around in her lone investigation.
She follows the crumb of a lead her investigator friend unearths to find the man who is willing to meet with her and who claims to know more than he said just three long years ago. But he turns up dead just before they are to meet; she knows this was no suicide.
Sean Flynn may be the only man left who would know what he knew, but how do you ask the man you nearly put to death for help?
Meanwhile, she was the last person Sean Flynn ever expected. Yet, here she stands. The ice queen, Krista Slater, wants him to care that she needs his help. He does not and would not and that was that.
He asks her to leave his property. Then he demands she leave. She doesn’t. He walks away from her into his workshop shed then shuts the door blocking out her calls, knocks, and pleas with the motor of his woodworking saw and music. Nevertheless, even to this day, Sean can’t take being cooped-up in a locked space no matter what the size thanks to the prison term and solitary confinement this ice queen provided him.
How dare she expect to come here and gain anything from him? Her veins must be colder than even he believed.
In the mean time, when he returns home, she’s still here with a stalled car, and he’s forced to deal with it. Not that she didn’t deserve to rot outside in the cold and be without cell phone bars to find help, but prison did not take away the man he’d always been. He’s former military and just cannot let someone stay in a bad situation. Not that she deserves even a shred of kindness, he takes her to call for help and to a place for the night. He was done. Done. Moreover, he’d never see his captor again. At least that’s the way it would’ve been, if his car hadn’t been tampered with and if they weren’t run off the road.
The situation only gets worse once the police arrive.
One officer hates this former inmate figuring he was in the middle of committing some crime while another officer drives both him and Krista away to the police station. Once their prowl car turns off the highway, Sean knows they were into the fire. As two thugs join in on the party, this turns deadly. They kill the cop who had played his part in their scheme and turn to kill Sean and Krista.
Thanks to Sean’s training and some luck, they live.
Forced on the run without anyone to trust but each other, can they survive? Does Krista have any warm blood? Can Sean ever forgive what she did to him? More important, who wants them dead, and why?
My Take:
HIDE FROM EVIL is a book I can recommend without any second thoughts, but I must give a warning here too. Adult situations, themes, and language will show up from time-to-time, and these instances are not distracting to the read and do enhance the story by driving it toward a steamy romance.
Jamie Alden’s characters come to life on the page, and her suspenseful pace keeps you in the story and afraid to look away. After you finish HIDE FROM EVIL, I have no doubt you’ll be looking for more, and BEG FOR MERCY (Forever June 2011) will fill that void until the next book releases.
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CHRISTMAS AT TIMBERWOODS
by: Fern Michaels
Publisher: Zebra (Kensington)
Published: September 27, 2011
Format: Paperback (352 pages)
ISBN: 9780821775875
Origin: Publisher
***Though the publisher provides the free book, I offer the opinion.***
My Look:
Heather Andrews, Head of Security, Angela Steinhart, display artist, and a Santa’s helper all work or have worked at Timberwoods. With their most hectic time upon them, the current staff can handle the the Christmas rush, but this season will be anything but ordinary.
Between ominous letters and an artist’s visions of explosions, everything spells disaster. Heather Andrews and the mall public relations guru Felix Lassiter confide to a local police officer, on loan to the mall for security, these threats and their credibility. In the meantime, while they are in way over their heads, the mall owner and the store owners refuse to shut down and lose money to avert what they believe is a Christmas bluff.
Now, time is running out. The last of those apocalyptic letters proclaiming a bomb threat gave them only seventy-two hours to head off an explosion that could kill thousands of shoppers at the area’s largest mega-mall. In addition, the only one who knows what she sees refuses to give them any more help and takes off.
The search is on to find the artist and to find the person or persons unknown who call their tinderbox this shopping mall.
My Take:
Fern Michaels begets a story of suspense woven with romance in a thrilling read that is CHRISTMAS AT TIMBERWOODS.
Twisting a holiday usually filled with joy into a demented mind’s plot of revenge on the world, she recreates one of her earlier works with fresher characters, a refurbished story line, and a lot of surprises. If you are a Fern Michaels fan, you may think you know what’s coming, but she’ll take you into a tale you never saw coming, until the end.
You will want to read BETRAYAL (reprint edition Zebra July 2011), and you’ll keep watch for her upcoming title MR. AND MRS. ANONYMOUS (Zebra December 2011).
