You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO comes from Susan, who is trying to find this romantic suspense:
During my stint working at a lovely used bookstore about 2 years ago (best job ever!), a customer brought in a romantic suspense book that I wanted to set aside and borrow to read for myself before it went out onto the shelves. As happens, I set it aside in the wrong spot and somebody else shelved it and I could never find it again. Here’s what I remember:
The hero and heroine meet during mutual layovers in Paris. They end up spending the day in the city and I believe they spend some time in the Louvre. They hit it off and spend the night together (I think?) but go their separate ways as he’s convinced that his life as a Navy SEAL/black ops/what-have-you makes it impossible for him to find true love, happiness, blahblahblah.
I don’t remember the main characters’ names, but his NS/BO/W-H-Y name is “Ghost” (99% sure that was it.) He’s part of a team and I got the impression that the book was part of a series where all the other team members end up with their own books, but I can’t swear to that.
Anyway, some time later, she ends up in Egypt (I think?) and gets captured by terrorists who kill off several of the other people she’s with, including possibly a sibling or sibling-in-law, or maybe both? She gets hauled off and almost raped, but somehow Mr. Ghost and his buddies have been called in to deal with the situation and he finds her and rescues her.
(Possible triggers following) Now, it’s the lead-up to the almost rape scene that I remember most vividly, mainly because it was a serious WTF? moment for me. She’s been captured, stripped, chained to a bed and this kid/young man who she had sort of befriended (but who turns out to be in league with the bad guys) is told by some other terrorists that he is to rape her repeatedly, in various specific ways, and they are going to judge him as a kind of initiation before they let him become a full-fledged member of this terroritst group. I don’t consider rape or sexual torture a laughing matter, but I couldn’t help getting a mental image of the terrorists sitting by the edge of the bed holding up scorecards, Olympic judge style. (end triggers)
The last part I remember is when Ghost and his team are flying out after rescuing her and somebody else on the team figures out, or at least suspects, that she is the reason their buddy has been down in the dumps since coming back from Paris.
All of this happens in the first 30% or so of the book. No idea where the story went from there.
I haunted the shelves in our store looking for this book, but could never find it again. I did some research and I am almost positive it is NOT a book written by Maya Banks or Suzanne Brockmann. I have a vague thought that the author’s last name was somewhere in the middle-ish section of the alphabet, maybe?
Fingers crossed that somebody recognizes this weirdness.
If we haven’t even reached the halfway mark in the action, I shudder to think how bonkers this story truly gets!
Rescuing Rayne
by
Susan Stoker
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There’s Code Name: Ghost by Sawyer Bennett. It has the security team but it’s the male protagonist that’s being held captive by terrorists and there’s no sexual torture. The Paris elements come from another book in this series so maybe you have it all confabulated somehow. Or it’s not the right book.
Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker has a black ops hero named Ghost, part of larger group of bikers/black ops called Black Knights. But I do not recall the Paris/sexual torture plot in that book. It has been a while since I read it though.
I snorted when reading about and imagining the Olympic scorecard imagery, and was intrigued enough to google “paris ghost romance novel egypt kidnap terrorist” and found this! I think this is it?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28398502-rescuing-rayne
There can be only so many Ghosts who has a one night stand during a layover and then has to rescue the girl of his dreams in a hostage situation…right?(hahaha). Hope this is the right one! 🙂
@lightonfire The book you linked, Rescuing Rayne, has great reviews on GR. It’s an author I’ve never heard o or read, but since I like RS, I may give it a try.
Sounds like Susan Stoker’s “Rescuing Rayne”, the first in her Delta Forces series (the first Delta Forces series – she has since started a second Delta Forces series). Ghost is the nickname of the leader of a special forces team that had just returned from rescuing a POW (detailed in Stoker’s “Protecting the Future”, the last full-length book in her first Navy SEALS series). Rayne was a flight attendant, and Ghost’s flight had been delayed due to weather issues. Since they were both stuck in London, they decided to play tourist, culminating in a one-night stand in London). Ghost did not reveal his true identity to her, thinking that he had no business being in a relationship – instead, he sneaks out of their hotel room the next morning to catch his flight. Time passes, and Rayne is caught up in an attempted coup in Egypt, and is held hostage. The attempted rape scene while Rayne is held hostage is very WTF. Ghost’s team just happens to be the one on-scene to rescue the hostages, and Ghost is the one who saves Rayne. The rest of the book is set back at Fort Hood, and we’re introduced to the cast of characters who make up the rest of the series. Later in the series, there is a cross-over between Rayne’s brother Chase (an Army captain-turned-security specialist) and Lexi Blake’s Masters and Mercenaries series, as Chase is paired with a niece of the lead heroes in the M&M series).
For those interested, Rescuing Rayne is free right now on Kindle.
Definitely Rescuing Rayne
This sounds similar to (but not exactly) Suzanne Brockmann’s Tall, Dark & Dangerous SEAL series Everyday, Average Jones. The heroine is in a terrorist situation and is rescued by the hero, make their way through the desert, they stay for a few days in Paris, etc. I don’t recall if there’s ah.. *that* scene in the book, but I know that was a plot line in one of her other novels.
@Carrie G: if you like Stoker, she’s written a lot of book, plus there are additional books written by other writers but set in the same world as the Delta Force books. I love it when I discover a new-to-me author who has a big backlist.
I’m pretty sure it’s one of Julie Walker’s Black Knights series.
This sounds like Natasza Water’s book , Code Name: Ghost!
It’s the first book in the series and the rest of the team get their own books later on.
Yes agree, this is Rescuing Rayne. The first HaBO I’ve even known and I only know this because I read it a couple days ago.
@DiscoDollyDeb,Thank you! I love finding new authors, too. I’m going to read this one, and if it works, I’ll keep going. I might hit you up for info on the other books in the world.
Rescuing Rayne, that’s the book! Thank you all!!
(I would have put money on their meeting being in Paris, not London, but everything else is spot on for what I remember.)
I was in the mood for some crazy sauce so I downloaded a copy of this, and alas it strikes me as just crazy…bad. So y’all can manage your expectations, here’s a sample of what we’re up against.
Ghost can’t believe Rayne has a tattoo! A 28 year old woman in 2016 with a tattoo is pretty unexpected. To his surprise she responds: “Don’t look so surprised, stud. I’m not as dorky as I look.” Which is absolutely how youngsters are speaking nowadays, and definitely not the kind of dialogue that takes you out of the action.
Speaking of action, that repartee is shortly after they are on the tube together – she’s so adventurous that when she’s in foreign cities she forces herself to visit major tourist attractions even though she’d prefer to be home with a book – and we get this realistic subway experience: she was eye level with his crotch and boy was it impressive. He was all man, and made her feel small and protected.”
Because the scenario (a dude with his dick in your face looming over you on the subway) is so inherently hawt, do you even need to amplify the atmosphere with sexxxy words like crotch, boy, and small?
Wondering if the author is Elizabeth Lowell or Elizabeth M cNaught?
I’m agreeing that it’s Susan Stoker’s Rescuing Rayne. Free on Kindle, along with others in her different series. The series often interconnect. The initial hookup is in London.
I find that although Susan Stoker tends to put her heroines in extreme perilous trauma, she doesn’t really downplay the traumatic effects on the heroines. Because the heroes are military/law enforcement they have some understanding and acceptance of the likelihood and tend to go slow on their women. And the women form support groups within the series.
My personal favourite is Protecting Caroline. Caroline is a scientist who tends to blend into the background, but comes to the attention of the hero when she uses her science skills to recognize that Something is wrong.
Another vote for Rescuing Rayne. My personal favorite is Rescuing Emily.
I haven’t read this one, but my favorite Susan Stoker book is Securing Caite. An army interpreter/civilian assistant overhears a plot to kill the Navy Seal she was supposed to go on a date with, so she saves the whole team’s lives and then her life is in danger.