CHASING KAYLEE KRINGLE

A traumatized fugitive, the FBI agent she betrayed, and murderous bikers collide in a small Idaho town during the holidays.

For the past two years, the only thing Kaylee Marie Taylor has “needed was to stay one step ahead of Ansel, the Vipers, and him.” Ansel is the sadistic leader of the Pit Viper Motorcycle Club and is responsible for the murder of her best friend, Elasia Gutierrez, and Elasia’s boyfriend. Despite her testimony being the missing piece of a case the FBI is building, Kaylee doesn’t trust the government to protect her or the family she’s left behind, especially after she learns that Elasia’s boyfriend was an undercover agent––and the reason the two women were put in harm’s way. Using the alias “Kaylee Kringle,” she and her beloved guinea pig, Pumpkin, settle in the relentlessly cheerful town of Holiday, Idaho, with its holiday-obsessed residents. Complicating matters is FBI Special Agent Rick Diaz, the rookie agent whom she duped, drugged, and abandoned in a motel bathroom. Assigned to protect Kaylee, Rick has spent years hunting the woman who humiliated him. Their eventual reunion crackles with equal parts resentment and attraction, but Rick’s mission to bring in Kaylee is complicated by the fiercely loyal residents of Holiday, who protect their own. As the bikers close in, the pair must learn to rely on each other and the townspeople to survive. Hall balances romantic comedy with the darker undercurrents of trauma, guilt, and survival. Kaylee is a sympathetic hero, burdened by the belief that she failed the one person who mattered most to her. The Idaho-specific quirks—like potato drops on New Year’s Eve—lend the story a delightfully eccentric texture. Kaylee and Rick’s enemies-to-lovers dynamic is also well developed. Although some secondary characters verge on caricature, overall, the residents of Holiday feel like a genuine community. Readers seeking a holiday romance with danger, humor, and heartfelt redemption will find this snowy tale difficult to resist.

Holiday cheer is laced with genuine suspense to great effect in this romance.