Tag Archive | romantic suspense

Undetected (Book Review)

May30
Reading Time: 2 minutes

UndetectedDee Henderson’s recent series of books has taken a different approach to romantic suspense. Her recent one, Undetected, was given to me free from the publisher in exchange for a review.

I fell in love with Dee Henderson’s writing when I managed to snag a free copy of The Negotiator (The O’Malley Series). The entire series is filled with intensity in the action along with the emotional and spiritual drama. Her Uncommon Heroes Series also had that same intensity.

The style of storytelling has changed with this series. Starting with Full Disclosure there was still some of that intensity. With Unspoken, the intensity was less and more of an emotional nature and suffered for not having the female’s point-of-view (in my opinion).

Undetected starts out slow. Commander Mark Bishop is in the US Navy commanding a ballistic missile submarine. He had been married once before but as a widower, longs for a partner to spend his shore leave and life with in between 90-day missions at sea.

Gina Gray is the sister of another commander and close friend of Mark’s and he’s known her for years. She’s on the lookout for a husband and her brother, Jeff, suggests to Mark that he look that direction. Due to an age difference (11 years), Mark initially balks this and gives way to another worthy Navy man to have the field.

As Gina “the genius” uncovers game-changing ways for the navy to use deployed submarines and protect them, Mark is by her side and guiding her through. So is his competition, Daniel. Gina continues to uncover ways to make life safer for her brother and his friends when deployed on the floors of the world’s oceans. It also comes with a cost. Security and the implications if other nation discovered these findings.

Mark has to convince Gina to consider him as a potential husband in between deployments and the emotional toll of uncovering complicated science for simple ideas that change the way underwater war is fought. Can she also see her way clearly to loving Mark?

This book has a bit of suspense towards the end. It is a well written romance filled with complicated details of the Navy and sonar and submarine science. This is not a book filled with an ongoing personal threat. I kept anticipating that since Gina was a security asset that her own personal safety would be at risk, but that never happened. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler.). This book is more of a contemporary/military romance.  It is well researched and written but consists more of a relationship being built than it does any major suspense.

Tide and Tempest (Book Review)

Apr4
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Tide and TempestI am given opportunities to review books and was thrilled to read Elizabeth Ludwig’s newest novel, Tide and Tempest. 

I knew I was getting a historical romantic suspense and was transported into the world of Irish immigrants and their struggle to fight for their country’s freedom as well as adapt to life in a the new world of America.

It’s been two years since Tillie McGrath left her Irish home, against the wishes of her parents, to travel with her fiancee to America. He died before they could arrive and Tillie has forged a new life for herself, moving past her grief and loss and personal shame over some of her own choices. She now lives in New York boardinghouse, has a steady job and plans to open an orphanage. Maybe she would never marry and have children of her own, but she would care for others. Living a life of hard work and service in an effort to purge her soul of her own sins, her life comes to an abrupt change.

Captain Keondrick Morgan had never forgotten the young Irish lass who had been heartbroken on his ship. Following a life of duty though, precludes marriage. When he discovers that Tillie’s fiancee had been murdered, he worries now that maybe whoever did it might also be after Tillie. Morgan will do everything in his power to keep the invisible threat from succeeding.

Accompanied by his younger brother, Cass, Morgan struggles with stronger feelings for Tillie, who he believes he can never have. At the same time he starts to unravel a threat more deadly than he ever expected. Now he will do everything in his power to keep Tillie safe, even if it means giving his own life or losing her to the affections of his charming brother.

This book starts out slow as it builds the characters and the rich picture of the evil that is simmering behind the scenes. There is a light touch given to the faith of the characters. It is most fun when things really start to move forward with the action and the complexity of the underground societies that exist and could eventually bring about the demise of them all.

With a beautiful ending this book qualifies as a happily-ever-after. If you love historicals and some suspense, this is a great read.

I was given a copy of the book, by Bethany House, in exchange for this review.

Trinity – Military War Dog (Book Review)

Jan17
Reading Time: 2 minutes

trinity mwdI have loved Ronie Kendig’s writings after reading her Discarded Heroes series (click on the name to see my review). I had been wanting to read Trinity for awhile and finally had my chance.

This is an intense romantic suspense. Ronie is a master at understated romance. I love the romance between Heath and Jia/Darcy and how Trinity, the dog, seemed to keep bringing them together. I don’t want to give away the plot or any of the surprises but there are some sweet moments woven into the tension of the war that the characters are involved in.

Heath was a Green Beret until he was injured and left with a traumatic brain injury. His dog refused to work with anyone else so both were dumped from service. Pulled into a moral boosting training program called A Breed Apart, Heath has to struggle to swallow his pride at the lost dreams. Heading oversees to a military base and running into the unit he used to be an integral part of only rubbed salt in the wound. He meets Jia and something seems familiar with her and he is instantly attracted to the elusive woman he nicknames “Rock Girl.” She ends up being so much more — the focus of his future as well as a ghost from his past.

I have great respect for Ronie’s deep research of the military, the way they work and the role of the often unsung canine warriors who put their lives on the line to keep others safe. Again – another wounded warrior here is finding a place to be useful once again and is willing to lay his life on the line for others. Heart-stopping action, well written and the ending left me with a smile on my face for a long time. I look forward to reading the rest of this series.

Rescue Team (Book Review)

Dec27
Reading Time: 2 minutes

rescue teamA complex and satisfying romantic suspense came out this year, by author Candace Clavert. Rescue Team makes the most, once again of Calvert’s experience as an ER nurse. She not only takes you behind the scenes at a hospital Emergency Department, but in this novel, opens up the world of Search and Rescue operations.

Kate Callison has a tragic past but it catches up to taunt her when a baby is found delivered and dead on the bathroom floor. Did the mom check in at the ER desk? Is she responsible for abandoning her baby when Safe Haven laws would have allowed her to give it up? Who is going to be held accountable for this? As Kate runs the ER it ultimately falls on her shoulders and she had even spoken to the woman in obvious distress. Should she have pushed harder to help her? If only she had known . . . But Kate is burdened with overcoming the spectre of the fabulous nurse who had been previously in charged. Much loved and murdered. How does one compete with a dead woman?

Wes Tanner specializes in finding lost people. Having once been lost himself as a young man, he has nver forgiven his mother for abandoning him before she killed herself, nor has he forgotten the feeling of being found again. Something about Kate Callison intrigues him. Her walls are up, but just who is she hiding from? She denies being lost, but is that true? Confronted with his own demons from the past, can he overcome his resentment towards his mother and love Kate in spite of her own past?

Throw in a swarmy lawyer, a repentant father, a cast of characters who are friends and Wes’ family and a flood, and you have a story that keeps you enthralled and wondering how it would ever be possible for these two lost souls to find God–and each other. When they both realize God never lost either of them, well, that’s when the magic happens.

Unspoken (Book Review)

Nov1
Reading Time: 2 minutes

UnspokenI was looking forward to Dee Henderson’s latest release with great anticipation. Unspoken, while not a part of a series, per se, does follow up on Paul and Ann Falcon’s story from Full Disclosure, but only as a background to the story that Bryce Bishop lives through.

The story is intriguing as it starts out with Charlotte Graham but is never written from her point of view. She was involved in a crime that was supposedly solved. She had been kidnapped at 16 and released four years later, changed her name and never spoke of what really happened.

Bryce Bishop is a God-fearing man who runs a successful coin business. Charlotte approaches him with the opportunity to purchase and resell, at a significant profit, millions of dollars worth of valuable coins she inherited from her grandfather. Neither knows at first that their partnership was set up by her security agent and her best friend.

Bryce had been bored and praying for release from that when Charlotte mysteriously appears in his life. She’s a mystery that he slowly begins to uncover as he falls in love with her. Charlotte is not quite so convinced that they could be anything more than friends.

As Ann and Paul Falcon work on trying to solve a cold case, and an investigative reporter digs into Charlotte’s past, it soon becomes clear that the two crimes are intertwined and that the criminal is still at large and a threat to Charlotte and her family as well as others.  Can she, with Bryce’s help, come to help with the investigation? Can she also managed to answer the hard questions that plague her faith of where God was in the midst of terrible pain?

This book was evidently heavily researched and I admire Dee Henderson for that attention to detail. The story itself is a slow-moving one. While dubbed romantic suspense it does not reach the level of intensity of previous stories she has written and is in essence more of a love story with a mystery woven in.  Written only from Bryce, Paul and Anne’s perspectives, it is missing some intensity by not giving Charlotte’s point of view and perhaps letting us in to her deep inner struggle that goes beyond the words she shares with Bryce or her friends.

While the ending was nice and all the loose ends were tidied up – it left me wanting more and in a way feeling cheated that there was only that hint of the healing that Bryce had been praying for. Unlike Full Disclosure, this part of their relationship was not explored further, but with the mystery solved, I suppose that was just not going to happen in at least this book. Maybe Bryce and Charlotte will show up in the next book and we can see how their relationship develops as the backdrop to another story.

Full Disclosure (Book Review)

Apr5
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I finally got a hold of Dee Henderson’s latest romantic suspense novel, Full Disclosure, snagging a copy at the library. At over 400 pages it’s a longer book and different from her previous ones and in the back of my mind raised a lot of questions about Dee Henderson herself.

First – the story. Ann Silver works as a MHI (Midwest Homicide Investigator)  position one is voted into. At age 40, she has her secrets and enjoys the solitude of the single life. However, after she drops one of her cases on the desk of Paul Falcon with the FBI in Chicago, things change.

Paul is intrigued by the case Ann drops in his lap – one that could solve 30 cold murder cases. More than that he is intrigued by the woman who never boasted or bragged about her position or  contacts.  A detective who likes mysteries finds that the cute cop who walked into his life was someone he would like to know better, in spite of his previous vow to never date a cop.

full disclosureBut homicide investigations are hard and time consuming for both Paul and Ann and a relationship takes effort. Paul is outgoing and a lark while Ann desperately needs alone time and is a night owl. Paul willingly bears his past but Ann holds hers close, hesitant to trust. Through perseverance and tapping into the wisdom of friends and his faith in God, Paul pursues Ann with a specified intent at romance.

The road is rocky as two investigations come to a head and Ann’s past is going to burst into the public. Paul vows to protect her and keep her safe.

This book is a sweet and unconventional love story.  Dee Henderson cleverly weaves in characters from many of her previous novels into this story with Ann being the one who has written The O’Malley’s and Uncommon Heros series of books based on real life loves (being an author is her fun thing to do). This added a fun dimension to the book as you get to revisit and see where those characters are at now (some, not all).

This book lacks the intensity of some of her other books but it still has a lot of detail and was fun to read. Sometimes the dialogue felt a bit long and repetitive but this is a relatively minor complaint against the backdrop of the story at large. Complex and tightly woven, it is a wonderful journey to see where Ann and Paul end up. The ending made me smile after all the twists and turns of their relationship.

If you like Dee Henderson’s books, you will most likely enjoy this one too but it is not the same as the rest. Dee has flexed her writing muscles to tell a different kind of story, but one that is fun for all that.

The Negotiator (Book Review)

Dec6
Reading Time: 2 minutes

NegotiatorI do not normally read romantic suspense but this one intrigued me. And I got it when it was offered for free. So what did I have to lose? After all, I love romance. So I thought I would give Dee Henderson’s book, The Negotiator, a try.

I am so glad I did.

FBI agent Dave Richman finds true love while being a secret hostage in a tense situation in a bank. Talk about a bad birthday. David watches Kate O’Malley exercise her talent as a negotiator and save the lives of all the hostages as well as his own. From that day on he knew his life would never be the same. She’s a hostage negotiator. He protects people. That one incident embarks them on an adventure as they try to untie the reasons for the situation to have developed. It becomes increasingly complicated and Dave becomes introduced to a colorful group of orphans who have made themselves in to a family, all taking the same last name. Dave falls deeper into the adventure as well as love but he discovers that that falling in love with a hostage negotiator is one thing, but keeping her safe is another!

Dee Henderson is masterful in her writing of this fast paced, multi-layered novel, just one in a series that I itch to read. The book is well written with intricate details that kept me on my toes (and losing sleep so I could get just a few more pages in). It is rich and handles the deeper spiritual issues that Kate O’Malley faces as she not only tries to uncover the truth behind that hostage situation, but also the truths about just who Jesus Christ is as well as the juxtaposition of God’s justice with his mercy so powerfully met in our Savior.

Beautifully done, Dee. As an author I am in awe of your God-given talent and pray many will be blessed by your powerfully written fiction.