Packed with fast-paced action, nail-biting suspense and blazing sexual tension, Shiver plays on a single mother’s tender...
Samantha Jones, a repo driver, gets caught up in a dangerous FBI undercover operation when she inadvertently interrupts a torture in progress and must flee with the...victim? criminal? hero?...bloody guy in the trunk in order to keep her son safe.
All Sam wants to do is repossess the Beemer, collect her money and get home to her 4-year-old son, Tyler. But when the trunk flies open and she goes to investigate, she finds a wounded man, and the next thing she knows, she’s waking up next to him, apparently on the way to her execution. Lucky for Sam—and Marco, the bloody guy—she packs heat, so she’s able to save them both. Now, if only she could lose Marco, who for some reason is determined to keep her close. When she realizes that the bad guys have colleagues hellbent on finding them, and have gone after her son, she knows she’s out of her league. Against her better instincts, she and Tyler go into hiding with Marco, and the U.S. Marshals pledged to protect him. Against her better judgment, she finds herself falling for Marco and placing way too much trust in him. After all, he’s a former federal agent turned traitor, and now he’s ratting out the drug cartel he’s been working for in order to save his own skin. So why does that story not ring true, no matter what the Marshals say? And how could anyone so deceitful promise to protect her? Or worse yet, make her believe that he actually will? Undercover agent Danny Panterro wants nothing more than to end his dangerous “Marco” charade and tell Sam he's falling in love with her. But too much is at stake until the mission is truly over, and he's determined not to lose the woman he's been waiting for. Romantic suspense writer Robards grabs the reader by the throat in the first few scenes and doesn’t let up. A couple of abruptly handled twists slightly mar the last quarter of the book, but overall, this is a riveting, satisfying romantic suspense read.
Packed with fast-paced action, nail-biting suspense and blazing sexual tension, Shiver plays on a single mother’s tender love for her son and an FBI agent’s deep undercover assignment to keep the story taut and the romance conflicted.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-7867-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.
A promise to his best friend leads an Army serviceman to a family in need and a chance at true love in this novel.
Beckett Gentry is surprised when his Army buddy Ryan MacKenzie gives him a letter from Ryan’s sister, Ella. Abandoned by his mother, Beckett grew up in a series of foster homes. He is wary of attachments until he reads Ella’s letter. A single mother, Ella lives with her twins, Maisie and Colt, at Solitude, the resort she operates in Telluride, Colorado. They begin a correspondence, although Beckett can only identify himself by his call sign, Chaos. After Ryan’s death during a mission, Beckett travels to Telluride as his friend had requested. He bonds with the twins while falling deeply in love with Ella. Reluctant to reveal details of Ryan’s death and risk causing her pain, Beckett declines to disclose to Ella that he is Chaos. Maisie needs treatment for neuroblastoma, and Beckett formally adopts the twins as a sign of his commitment to support Ella and her children. He and Ella pursue a romance, but when an insurance investigator questions the adoption, Beckett is faced with revealing the truth about the letters and Ryan’s death, risking losing the family he loves. Yarros’ (Wilder, 2016, etc.) novel is a deeply felt and emotionally nuanced contemporary romance bolstered by well-drawn characters and strong, confident storytelling. Beckett and Ella are sympathetic protagonists whose past experiences leave them cautious when it comes to love. Beckett never knew the security of a stable home life. Ella impulsively married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended when he discovered she was pregnant. The author is especially adept at developing the characters through subtle but significant details, like Beckett’s aversion to swearing. Beckett and Ella’s romance unfolds slowly in chapters that alternate between their first-person viewpoints. The letters they exchanged are pivotal to their connection, and almost every chapter opens with one. Yarros’ writing is crisp and sharp, with passages that are poetic without being florid. For example, in a letter to Beckett, Ella writes of motherhood: “But I’m not the center of their universe. I’m more like their gravity.” While the love story is the book’s focus, the subplot involving Maisie’s illness is equally well-developed, and the link between Beckett and the twins is heartfelt and sincere.
A thoughtful and pensive tale with intelligent characters and a satisfying romance.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-533-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Entangled: Amara
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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