Romantic suspense and thrillers are for those readers who like heavy plot with their romances. The 2019 InD’Tale RONE finalists in this category do not disappoint.
Father Anthony’s devotion to God and His Church begins to unravel the moment Rita Wittier steps inside St. Catherine’s Cathedral in San Francisco. He struggles to control his feelings, but two years later, he is a man obsessed. In an attempt to rediscover the priest he intended to become, Anthony flies back to Delaware to visit Father Timothy. If redemption can be found anywhere, surely it can be found in the church of his childhood and in the soothing Irish brogue of his former mentor.
The months pass, 60 Minutes does a special on Father Anthony and the Shepherd Academy—a school he started for disadvantaged children. He’s become a national hero— nicknamed the Good Shepherd. But he can’t get Rita out of his mind. He wants her more than anything—even God—and can no longer deny it. Six hours after he tell her how he feels, Rita is found dead in her car from an apparent suicide. Or is it murder?
In the past, Jenny finds a love that has been missing from her life; the kind that comes just once in a lifetime. But Jenny can only stay in that time period for thirty-three days. Meanwhile, in the future, fearful Jenny will fail, plans are made to send another back in time–an assassin. How can she choose between saving the man she loves or saving the future?
Jenny is a lonely university lecturer who’s consciousness has traveled back in time to her younger body to try to save the future of the world. A young microbiologist is going to release a genetically modified wheat that will mutate and ultimately destroy all plant life, leaving nothing but barren windswept dust bowls.
AMAZON
THIS IS THE MOST DISTURBING CASE OF CANDICE SHANE’S CAREER.
Good little boys aren’t supposed to play with fire. While on stakeout to catch the cretin who’s stalking a client, Private Investigator Candice Shane finds a house on fire–at midnight. A little girl’s tricycle in the yard prompts her hasty decision to break in, saving a sleeping woman and her three children. The husband is out of town.
Candice is hired by the grateful woman to clear her husband from police suspicion and to find out who wants them dead. Fingerprints on the circuit breaker box connects the arson to two neighborhood boys, yet the troubled 12-year-old son mumbles the name Zane as he runs out of his smoke-filled bedroom.
Clearing the husband is easy. Finding Zane, the kid who is seemingly behind the ring of juvenile fire-setters, takes old-fashion, shoe-leather-thinning detective work, and luck. Staying alive while doing it takes a lot more. Having her ex-boyfriend who’s a cop helps, but even Alex can’t stop the bullets from coming through Candice’s kitchen window. He can’t stop her apartment from burning. And he can’t stop her heart from falling in love with him all over again.
AMAZON
Can broken be beautiful? Ryker McCabe. Former Special Forces. Survived fifteen months in an Afghan prison, tortured within an inch of his life. His scars-and his fears-keep him alone. Disconnected from the world. From his team. From any hope of redemption. Until he meets her.
Wren Kane. Hacker extraordinaire. Desperately searching for her brother. When police find his body in a drug den, she knows there’s more to his death than an overdose. He’d promised he was clean. And then, she finds the message he left her. Wren’s prepared to go it alone. Until she runs right into Ryker. He’s the biggest, baddest man she’s ever seen. And he’s willing to risk his life to fulfill her brother’s dying wish. But how can she trust him when he won’t let her in?
When danger comes for Wren, Ryker jumps into action. No one hurts his little bird. Except maybe him. Because if he can’t share his heart, he could lose her forever.
Heroes aren’t fearless. They just don’t let fear get in the way. Her life is in danger… Police officer Lexi Becker is being targeted. When her husband was murdered three years ago, Lexi moved to a small town to get away from the memories, to get away from the pain. But she can’t get away from the gut feeling that a drug lord, known only as The Falcon, was responsible for her husband’s death.
As she quietly conducts her own investigation, it becomes clear to Lexi she could be The Falcon’s next victim. Afraid her local police department has been infiltrated by The Falcon, she turns to the only man she can trust for help: her former patrol partner.
When ex-cop Marv “Fish” Frisch is assigned bodyguard duty instead of a covert ops assignment, he fears he’s being punished for a failed training mission. The last assignment he expected was Lexi Becker. Now he’s forced to deal with the attraction he felt when they worked together. As they go into hiding, Fish can’t keep his feelings hidden from Lexi. It seems she feels the same, but danger is everywhere. Someone’s bugged her house. An illegal opioid network. People dying. And an even more sinister plan is being put into action…
When Lexi is torn between hiding or coming to the aid of an orphaned child, Lexi leaves Fish’s protection. Now she’s on her own, a prime target for The Falcon…unless she can outsmart him.
AMAZON
Sworn to uphold the law, police officer Kate Dexter believes in doing the right thing. But when she meets an injured, altogether too sexy ATF agent, her entire world is turned upside down.
Jonas Burke is a wanted man. Framed for murder, he needs sanctuary – now. Finding it in the arms of a beautiful, feisty fellow cop isn’t exactly his best plan, but he’s desperate and wounded, and time is running out for him to prove his innocence. Armed with a little more than a conspiracy theory, Jonas has no choice but to ask for Kate’s help.
Kate is torn between her duty to “serve and protect” and her growing desire for this man on the run. With her colleagues in pursuit and Jonas’s enemies closing in, she and Jonas will have to work together if they want to survive. But can she really trust him beyond a shadow of doubt?
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EG Manetti 
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