When a cold case in Texas leads to a sinister string of disappearances, a newcomer to the small town helps the deputy sheriff piece together the clues in this new romantic thriller from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.
Corporate lawyer Ava Burch has had enough of the big city and the daily grind. She grew up with her father, who raised search-and-rescue dogs, in rural Texas and has moved to the small town of Cuervo to spend time in the dry, rugged wilderness near Big Bend National Park. When she and her dog, Huck, discover an abandoned campsite on a volunteer search-and-rescue mission, she’s perplexed, but she carefully photographs it all the same.
 
All Deputy Sheriff Grant Wycoff can see when he looks at Ava is a city slicker—with her designer jeans and expensive car—who has no business on a serious team made up of seasoned outdoorsmen and retired cops. But when she tells him of her discovery on the trail, he sees there’s more to her than meets the eye.
 
Ava’s discovery reminds Grant of the unsolved case of a young woman who went missing two years ago. As they look into the campsite further, another woman disappears under odd circumstances. With time running out, Ava and Grant must work against the brutal heat from both the Texas sun and their own electric chemistry to solve the case.

Missing children are an emergency. Always. Their little bodies are less able to regulate temperature, so they're especially vulnerable to exposure. And in a place as vast and rugged as Silver Canyon State Park, additional hazards abounded: rattlesnakes, coyotes, hundred-foot cliffs. Even the anemic little creek that Ava had been following was terrifying. A child Noah's size could drown in a bathtub.

Ava glanced up at the relentless sun that sucked moisture out of everything beneath it. She looked ahead at Huck, who trotted back and forth in front of her in his zigzag pattern. He was working the wind, as he'd been trained, tirelessly sniffing the air with his powerful nose, which could pick up anything with human scent on it, from a candy wrapper to a dropped article of clothing.

So far, nothing.

Ava checked her watch. Two long hours since she'd left the trailhead. Sweat stung her eyes, and she wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. She paused beside a boulder and dropped her pack on the dusty ground to retrieve one of her water bottles. Huck needed some, too, but right now he was intent on his work.

She took a lukewarm sip and scanned the scrub brush lining the canyon wall. Young children had a tendency to wander aimlessly until they found a place to curl up for a nap. Some would even hide from search teams, afraid of getting in trouble for being lost. So Ava had been incessantly scanning pockets of brush.

Huck halted in front of her, his nose lifted in the air. Ava froze and watched. But then his head dropped down and he resumed his zigzags. Ava tucked the water bottle away and pushed off the boulder to continue her trek.

She watched Huck, amazed by his energy. Even in this heat, he loved working, and when he had his vest on, he didn't have an off switch. As he bounded around in front of her, she thought of the other teams, especially the canine one. She was surprised they hadn't found something close to camp.

Of course, the parents had been there, which might have been a problem. Frantic parents threw off a lot of scent, which could have overpowered Noah's smell and possibly confused the dog. Also, the temperature rising in the canyon could have wafted the scent up, well above the dog's nose. Yet another challenge here was that young children didn't throw off as much scent as adults. And still bodies-ones that were either asleep or unconscious-threw off less scent, too.

So there were all kinds of factors in play, especially in a park this size.

Ava checked her watch again and sped up her pace, unable to shake the feeling of dread that had been settling in her stomach as the hours ticked by. Scanning the canyon wall, her gaze caught on something beige and triangular.

A tent? No.

A tarp. She climbed onto a boulder for a closer look. About halfway up the slope of the canyon was a sand-colored canvas tarp that had been stretched taut to create a patch of shade. It looked like a primitive fort-just the sort of thing that would attract a kid's attention, and her pulse quickened as she climbed closer. Nearing the tarp, she spied a small yellow tent tucked in the shade beneath it.

She glanced around for Huck, but he was sniffing along at the base of a rockslide.

Grabbing hold of a juniper tree, Ava levered herself onto the ledge. She ducked under the tarp and paused a moment for her eyes to adjust. The little tent was unzipped. Hope ballooned in her chest as she pulled back the flap and poked her head inside.

Her hope disappeared as she scanned the interior. No sleeping child curled up in the dimness. The air was utterly still, and everything was coated with a thin layer of dust, as though no one had been there in weeks, maybe months. A pile of gear in the corner included a cookstove, a hiking boot, and a blue bedroll with a carabiner clipped to it. Attached to the carabiner was a black key fob.

A chill snaked down her spine. Who would leave their car key out here? The fob seemed odd. Ditto for the hiking boot. Where was the other one? And where was its owner?

On impulse, Ava took out her phone and snapped a couple of pictures. As part of her SAR training, she'd learned to document crime scenes. She couldn't pinpoint why, exactly, but that was what this felt like. She ducked out and snapped a shot of the exterior. A faint bark pulled her attention back to the mission. She couldn't afford to get sidetracked, even though this place felt creepy. She put her phone away as she skimmed the surrounding area for the missing boot, or any sign of the boot's owner. She glanced up the canyon, looking for evidence of a fire pit or any other camping equipment.

A soft whimper had her turning around.

Huck sat beside a rock pile, his ears pricked forward and his gaze fixed on hers. Ava's heart skittered. This was his sit alert letting her know he'd found something.

"Show me," she commanded, and he sprang into action, bounding across the creek bed. She climbed down the rocks and jogged after him, frantically searching the clumps of trees. Huck darted around a giant prickly pear cactus and behind a line of mesquite trees. Amid the fluttering green leaves, she caught a flash of red.

"Please, please, please," she murmured.

Huck disappeared beneath the brush and barked. Ava spied a small white sneaker and a pudgy leg.

Huck danced in a circle, drunk on success and eager for his reward.

"Good boy, Huck! Good boy! Good boy!" She filled her voice with praise, even though her heart had lodged in her throat. The little body wasn't moving. Oh God.

Laura Griffin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five books and novellas. She is a two-time RITA Award winner, as well as the recipient of the Daphne du Maurier Award.

​I don’t read many romantic thriller series that focus on the same leads so Rebecca Zanetti’s Laurel Snow Thriller books have been an interesting shift for me.

Visceral books propelled along by their protagonist, the aforementioned Laurel, who has an eidetic memory & is the possessor of numerous degrees, the Laurel Snow series has intrigued me ever since she first arrived home to an isolated part of Washington state, a place where serial killers have recently come out of the woodwork.

In book 2, You Can Hide, FBI agent Laurel & Fish & Wildlife officer Huck work together to solve a new series of violent crimes, all the while dealing with many external challenges (including Huck’s ex & Laurel’s apparently without-a-conscience sister). Relationship-wise, at the beginning of this book the two leads don’t really have a relationship but they do have a history.

You Can Hide delivers a decent mystery & twist & it effectively sets up the next book. While the tension between leads is still there, I didn’t really appreciate how they’ve lost momentum at the beginning of this one & how it happens off page—it feels like a womp womp moment.

If you’re looking for a romantic thriller that doesn’t skimp on the visceral, the shocking, or the keen observations offered by a genius protagonist, you might like the Laurel Snow series.

This book isn’t quite Assassin Lite but there are so many things that got to my heart nonetheless.

🌻 Like a deliberately annoying lead + the lead who gets exasperated by him.

🌻 A grumpy & the sunshine combo.

🌻 Forced proximity.

🌻 I have to trust you (even though I shouldn’t) if I want to survive.

🌻 Let’s make a home together.

In N. R. Walker’s The Kite Harry & Asher are both assassins who go on the run together once they realize that hits have been put out on both of them.

Neither man is quick to trust so that makes the inevitable walls coming down all the better. The steam had me fanning my cheeks, the caretaking scenes grabbed at my heart, & I was genuinely happy to see them at the end, forging a new, safe life separate from the violence of their past.

Be warned: there’s a lot of violence in this one & lots of deaths, some committed by the leads. In an effort to establish their own safety Harry also threatens a villain’s family in front of the villain only & while I think he was bluffing I prefer my leads to make less threats against possibly innocent people please & thanks.

But on the whole The Kite really satisfied.

I’ve seen people recommend Josh Lanyon before & a 1940s, atmospheric read with a murder mystery seemed like a good place to start.

It feels difficult to sum up my feelings on Snowball in Hell but basically: on one hand, the book’s portrayal of how dangerous it was for queer men in the 1940s feels authentic to real life but on the other, from a romance-reading perspective the book is darker than I expected it would be. And while I think this is book 1 in a series, I didn’t totally appreciate how I felt hopeful but not necessarily settled about where the leads are together or separately at the end of this one.

In Snowball in Hell Lieutenant Matt Spain is tasked with finding who murdered the son of a wealthy man & left his body in a tar pit. Also helping him investigate, but on an unofficial level, is reporter Nathan Doyle.

Bringing in some lingering trauma from their respective war experiences, their various perspectives on their sexuality & the shame & in Matt’s case, denial, about some aspects of it, & the homophobia of the time period in general, Snowball in Hell is not a light read.

The murder mystery aspect is fun, & seeing Matt & Nathan connect, particularly while they’re basically cut off from the world on Christmas Eve & Christmas, is touching. I hope that the next books will allow both men to come to some peace in how they view themselves & their sexuality & carve out a space for their relationship that feels relatively safe.

📖 Q: are you a true crime fan? I don’t read or watch a lot of it but I would like to check out I’ll be Gone in the Dark one day!

Tessa Bailey is one of those authors I’m so grateful for. Mostly because she consistently delivers blisteringly hot romances with typically smooth heroes who are rendered BEWILDERED by the depth & power of their totally unexpected feelings for the heroine. Bewildered I say.

My Killer Vacation offers both of those things in spades with second grade teacher Taylor going on a vacation with her brother, realizing someone at the beach house they’ve booked has been murdered, & encountering the bounty hunter / private investigator asked to check into the case, a hottie named Myles, as she tries to do her own murder solving.

Though the narration was at times a little stiff for me—mostly in the beginning—& the mystery could have been a little tauter, this book delivers where it counts: it’s a sexy, escapist read that I enjoyed soo much (& honestly that counts extra right now).

There’s one scene toward the beginning of Taylor & Myles’s acquaintance where he licks her stomach (!) & one memorable scene in a church. Plus more.

Tessa adds to the sexual chemistry burning up the pages by giving me more of what I want: Myles is supposedly worrying about Taylor catching feelings after sex but instead after their first time she’s casual & he’s like WHAT, DIDNT THAT ROCK HER WORLD TOO? I eat that up.

Not to mention the ending, which is just superb as far as gestures are concerned.

This isn’t a total, unqualified 5 ⭐️ for me, especially if I consider it as a romance with a mystery. But it is sooo good & sooo fun to read—& I’m thankful to Tessa for delivering another book that put a smile in my lustful heart 😆—so after waffling a little it’s 4.5 ⭐️ from me!

I grew up loving Julie Garwood’s historicals & I really wanted to like Grace Under Fire, her upcoming romantic suspense release, but this one just doesn’t work for me on multiple levels.

The MCs Isabel Mackenna, a recent college graduate, & Michael Buchanan, who’s no longer a SEAL & currently in between jobs, have had a mildly antagonistic relationship before reconnecting at the beginning of the story. They’ve only met once, at Isabel sister’s wedding (to Michael’s brother) & they didn’t hit it off.

But things are *a little* friendlier now, if only because Michael comes to Isabel’s rescue when she saves a man’s life & shoots another man who shoots at her first.

What follows is quite a lot. The plot of this one feels pretty sprawling to me, with Isabel becoming a singing superstar, traveling (including to Scotland to get her inheritance), trying to avoid being killed, & more.

While I can love a clueless hero &/or an alpha hero & I’ve loved some of Garwood’s other heroes, Michael frequently comes across as excessively so. There isn’t enough for me to love about him & his tone or comments in some moments are grating.

The characterization of Isabel sometimes grates too. It feels like she’s often oblivious & not in a way that the book itself is aware of. She frequently ended up just annoying me, like when she thinks she’s a slut after enjoying her make-out session with Michael so much. I hate to say it but there are other examples of when she veers into TDTL territory for me.

It’s cool seeing other Buchanans again, & on paper I can totally get behind a story about beautiful and brave people falling in love, but this one disappointed me. While I’ll always love Garwood’s historicals, I think I’m not really a fan of her contemporary romantic suspense in general and might not read any future ones.

A taut murder mystery, a charmer hero who finds himself having unexpectedly serious thoughts about the heroine, a series of twists & some help-me-escape-stressful-reality for a little bit sexytimes…Laura Griffin’s Midnight Dunes was—as always—a great time.

Recently let go from her job Macey Burns is on Lost Beach pursuing a dream: making a tourism commercial, her first big job for her new production company.

But soon she’s on the fringes of a murder investigation that’s led by the completely hot detective, Owen Breda.

I had a guess about how this mystery would resolve itself & I was…wrong 😆. When I’m sucked into Griffin’s books I always have the sense that she knows what she’s talking about & it was fun seeing the characters work together to piece together what happened.

While the romance is open door & definitely enjoyable—especially when it comes to Owen—it ultimately falls a little short for me. I wanted more, especially at the ending 😅.

I was also surprised by how much focus was on a secondary character throughout the book.

But this is another solid romantic thriller from one of my favorites in the genre, & I definitely recommend this series to anyone looking for some scares & adrenaline-rushes with their kissing.

TBH the hero might have made me roll my eyes a few times or so 😆 but Rebecca Zanetti’s Unforgiven gave me the kind of uncomplicated thrills and excitement I was looking for.

With this book another member of the Deep Ops team gets his HEA—whether he accepts it or not.

Sexy Brit Jethro Hanson has had a lot of lovers but mostly of the one night only variety. When he meets ice queen professor Gemma Falls he immediately makes snap judgements about her, based on his own past.

It turns out single mom Gemma has lots of secrets & might not be as icy as he thought. But someone’s targeting both of them.

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, despite Jethro’s many fine attributes, his appearance, charm, intelligence, physical prowess & save-the-day-ness, his judgments about Gemma seem largely unfounded to me & he isn’t self-aware of them fast enough/deeply enough for my taste.

But in general it’s sweet watching him fall for Gemma & her daughter & seeing how much the team values & cares for him. The sense of found family—& the shared life they’re building in the neighborhood—is heartwarming.

This was a fast-paced read that was great for the moment & my mood—& to me that’s so satisfying.

Q: what’s your fave song to dance to at a wedding?

Special Ops Seduction wowed me in a big way with some of my kryptonite: an ice cold hero who can barely engage with the heroine because of his *very* reluctant feelings for her; a nuanced, standout heroine who’s a physical powerhouse & the only female on her special ops team; fake dating (!) for the job; & a pivotal sex scene that’s an exquisite mix of steam & emotion.

I ate this one up with a spoon.

Bethan Wilcox is immensely capable. She’s worked very hard for her military & special ops accomplishments & while she loves what she does, she’s also drawn a thick line between how she comes across in public & her outrageously soft, cushy home.

If Bethan is secretly decadent, Jonas Crow is—to no one’s surprise—ascetic inside & out. He’s stoic to the extreme & afraid of having good feelings, especially when they’re sparked by Bethan.

Pretending to be a fake couple for an op really shakes them up in the best possible way.

Megan Crane really has her pulse on every emotion I wanted wrung from me with this one; when I say that this ending made me happy. Well. Jonas has denied himself for so long that when he finally reaches out I wanted to cheer. Or cry. Or both.

Sexy, thoughtful, & with leads I adored, this book is practically wrapped with a bow for all lovers of romantic suspense.


CWs:


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Chemical warfare plot line. Also, the hero almost dies before the story begins & he didn’t want to be saved. There are flashbacks.