Wild Heat by Bella Andre is .99c. This book was originally published in 2009, and features an arson investigator heroine and a forest firefighter hero – by which I mean he fights fires in the forest, not that he himself is a forest or made up of forest, though that would be interesting for a paranormal. This book has a 3.9 star average on GR, and readers loved the tension and suspense that's part of the setting, as well as the steam, though some readers were confused by the degree to which they could take a time out from running from the bad guys to get it on.
He's a hotshot firefighter addicted to risk.
She's the sultry beauty he never saw coming.
Maya Jackson doesn’t sleep with strangers. Until the night grief sent her to the nearest bar and into the arms of the most explosive lover she’s ever had. Six months later, the dedicated arson investigator is coming face-to-face with him again. Gorgeous, grinning Logan Cain. Her biggest mistake. Now her number one suspect in a string of deadly wildfires.
Risking his life on a daily basis is what gets Logan up in the morning. As the leader of the elite Tahoe Pines Hotshot Crew, he won’t back down from a blaze—or from beautiful, lethal Maya Jackson. She may have seduced him with her tears and her passion, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before Logan lets down his guard again. But when Maya’s life is threatened, his natural-born-hero instincts kick in, and Logan vows to protect the woman sworn to bring him down. And as desire reignites, nothing—not the killer fire nor the killer hot on their trail—can douse the flames.…
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Mine to Keep by Cynthia Eden is $2.99 right now. This is steamy/erotic romantic suspense and is book 2 in Eden's “Mine” series. This book has a 4+ star average and readers really liked the intensity of the hero and the suspense woven through the plot. (Also, completely unrelated, I typoed 'steampie erotic suspense' which sounds like something entirely not good.)
Love is the most dangerous obsession…
Skye Sullivan is trying to put the pieces of her life back together. She survived a brutal stalker and escaped his abduction, and now she is looking to the future—a future that includes Skye’s lover, billionaire Trace Weston. Skye thinks the danger is finally over for her.
She’s dead wrong.
When Trace’s past comes back to haunt him, Skye discovers that the man she loves isn’t quite who he seems to be. Trace has been leading a double-life. An ex-special forces agent, his military training turned him into the perfect killing machine. He made more than his share of enemies during his time in the military—and as he built his security empire—and one of those enemies is striking back.
He won’t lose her.
Skye is the one weapon that can be used against Trace—his only vulnerability. But he won’t let her go—he can’t. Trace will do anything necessary to protect Skye. Anything. Yet when she discovers the secrets that he’s tried to keep hidden, Skye’s pain and rage may send her running directly into the cross-hairs of a killer…
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Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson is $2.99 right now. This is romantic suspense and I suspect may contain more than a little of your catnip: the heroine is a biologist doing a research study in the Canadian wilderness – in Labrador, to be specific. She has diabetes as well, and is immediately dropped into WTF-land when she discovers a body. The hero is a helicopter pilot with PTSD and backstory demons who takes her and her assistant to the research site and has plans to drop her off and leave, but can't when Things Happen and he has to stay. This book has a 3.7 star average – have you read it?
Dr. Cameran Young knew her assignment wouldn't be easy. As lead biologist on the Environment Impact Assessment team, her findings would determine the future of a large mining project in the northern Canadian bush. She expected rough conditions and hostile miners–but she didn't expect to find a dead body her first day on the job.
Former SAS Sergeant Daniel Fox forged a career as a helicopter pilot, working as far from the rest of the human race as possible. The thrill of flying makes his civilian life bearable, and he lives by his mantra: don't get involved. But when he's charged with transporting the biologist to her research vessel, he can't help but get involved in the murder investigation–and with Cameran, who awakens emotions he's desperate to suppress.
In the harsh and rugged wilderness, Daniel and Cameran must battle their intense and growing attraction while keeping ahead of a killer who will stop at nothing to silence her…
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The Professor by Cathy Perkins is $2.99. This is also romantic suspense, and has a 3.8 star average on GR. The heroine is a grad student in South Carolina, and the hero is state law enforcement on the hunt for a serial killer who is targeting young women at different colleges. Except for the serial killer part I'm wondering if my alma mater is disguised and included in the story! Anyway, a few reviewers on GR said this book was taut and scary and difficult to figure out – though a few reviewers say the “romance” part was way, way muted and not nearly enough for their tastes.
The Professor presses his palm against her flank, feeling the liquid warmth of her blood, hotter than her skin. Hot, like the life force that he has claimed… The power over life and death is the ultimate thrill.
Someone is murdering women on South Carolina's college campuses: three women, three different schools. The Governor's order to State Law Enforcement Agent Mick O'Shaughnessy is simple: make it stop. More political maneuvering diverts Mick to nearby Douglass College. There, instead of another dead body, he finds Meg Connelly, grad student and faculty advisor for the latest victim.
Determined to finish her master's degree, Meg doesn't need anybody's help – including her estranged family – to succeed.
There's something irresistible about Mick, but the last time she let someone get close to her, she lost everything except her self-respect.
As the investigation heats up, so does their relationship. But Mick's interest in Meg doesn't just endanger her heart–it puts her in the sights of the killer.
Once he gets her alone, he can take all the time he needs…
I have to be honest: I was nodding along at the description of “Edge of Survival”, then I got to “Cameran”, and… I just can’t. I would spend the whole book having the little brain explosion that typos give you.
Also, “Steampie” made me laugh out loud. So disturbing.
The first book in CS Harris St. Cyr series is 1.99 for Kindle. It’s a bit overwrought and you hear way too much about Sebastian’s tawny, wolflike eyes, but the main plot is good, and the rest is enjoyably over the top.
Do people actually like these books? I’m in the market for more romantic suspense, but the books I got from Bella Andre and Cynthia Eden spent too much time telling me about the super-hotness of the guy and the way he couldn’t get the girl out of his mind.
I bought the Eden with Skye and Trace and didn’t make it past the first chapter or so. The Bella Andre was more promising, but I put it down and never bothered to pick it up again. Nor did I get far on a Toni Anderson I tried. The Carla Neggers was so full of the previous couples that I was surprised that it needed a chart to keep them straight, I was constantly being told that this secondary character was the husband of that one and this is how they met, but that secondary char was the niece of this other one who . . . To the point where I’ve plowed through a lot of pages and not much has happened between the MC of the plot I’m actually reading.
I like Karen Robards and Tami Hoag. Is there anyone else out there?