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First Line Friday — Waylaid

13 Nov

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring Waylaid, a romantic suspense novel by Jerusha Agen. It’s been a suspense-filled few months, at least in my reading life 😉 , and I am slowly catching up on posting. I’ll be filling the blog with reviews and FLF posts in the coming weeks. Waylaid is the first book in Agen’s Windy City Westons series which features the Chicago-based Weston siblings. This novel centers on a competitive biker — a new subject for me.

Here’s the first line:

A pop pierced the night.

Someone wants to kill her. She wants the killer to finish the job.

Spring Weston will do anything to rise in the ranks of pro cycling and prove she isn’t the one failure of the five Weston siblings. Anything except cheat. When she learns of doping on her cycling team, she’s determined to uncover the truth. But she can’t if she’s dead.

Sergeant Torin Cotter may not be the hero the public thinks he is, but he recognizes fear when he sees it. When he takes over the investigation of the collision that landed Spring in the hospital, he’s compelled to protect her from whatever danger she’s in, even though he knows he might fail. Again.

Spring’s faith in God isn’t enough to help her face the living nightmare she awakened to after the accident. But neither she nor the handsome sergeant see the greater threat that’s coming until it’s too late.

If they’re going to survive, Spring and Torin will not only have to confront their worst fears—they’ll have to find a reason to live.

Waylaid is the first installment in the thrilling Windy City Westons Christian romantic suspense series that features five siblings who encounter danger, love, and God in the city of Chicago. (Each book can stand alone or be read as series installments.)

If you enjoy nail-biting suspense, love-at-first-sight romance, and faith-infused reads that bring you closer to God, then you’ll love Jerusha Agen’s romantic thrill-ride.

Jerusha Agen is a Christy Award finalist who imagines danger around every corner but knows God is there, too. So naturally, she writes romantic suspense infused with the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. Visit Jerusha’s Amazon Author page to find more of her thrilling, redemptive stories.

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First Line Friday — Two Seconds Too Late

6 Nov

Happy Friday! Today I am off for a weekend of bookish fun with several book-friends! Tonight I’ll attend the Christy Award Gala and then tomorrow I will have a full day at Read Write Rendezvous. I will be exhausted but so happy by Sunday. Do you ever center your time away around book events? I’d love to hear some of your adventures.

One of the authors attending Read Write Rendezvous is Dani Pettrey. Dani is an auto-read for me. Her romantic suspense is just the thing when I need a fast-paced book. Today I am featuring Two Seconds Too Late, the second book in her Jeopardy Falls series.

Here’s are the first two lines:

Thwack. The bullet collided with the car at Riley’s back a moment before a retort echoed in the stale air of the junkyard.

A missing woman. Two hit men. When every second counts, who will survive?

In the stark but beautiful wilds of northern New Mexico, a couples’ retreat at a luxury resort turns into a chilling nightmare when a woman vanishes. Skip tracer Riley MacLeod and private investigator Greyson Chadwick pose as a couple to hunt for clues that might reveal the missing woman’s location. Those leads uncover a harrowing truth: They’re not the only ones looking for her. What begins as a normal tracking case turns into a deadly chase when they, too, become the hunted.

As Riley and Greyson work together, their partnership ignites a tumultuous attraction, but Greyson’s secrets prevent him from acting on his feelings for her, and Riley can’t bring herself to fully trust him. Delving deeper into the case, they find themselves fighting not only for justice and the chance at a loving relationship . . . but also for their very survival.

Publishers Weekly and #1 Amazon bestselling author, Dani Pettrey has sold nearly one million copies of her novels to readers eagerly awaiting the next release. Dani combines the page-turning adrenaline of a thriller with the chemistry and happy-ever-after of a romance.

Her novels stand out for their “wicked pace, snappy dialogue, and likable characters” (Publishers Weekly), “gripping storyline[s],” (RT Book Reviews), and “sizzling undercurrent of romance” (USA Today).

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First Line Friday — Fire Mountain

30 Oct

Want a fast-paced romantic suspense with some unusual elements? Then check out Fire Mountain by Dana Mentink. I have to say an erupting volcano is not what I would want on my bingo card! LOL! But that’s what the main characters of this novel run into, along with bad guys who always seem to be a step ahead.

Here’s the first line:

Cold and ice-pick pain bored into Kit Garrido’s temples.

Fire rains from above as they fight to discover the truth and stay alive. 

In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she’s suddenly in possession of someone’s baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help.

As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he’s the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck. He doesn’t want to get tangled up in the mystery of the beautiful woman with an abandoned infant, but when he sees the bullet hole in the windshield and the bloody handprint on the interior, he realizes that he’s in this thing, like it or not. 

When two armed men with ill intent approach, the race is on to stay alive, discover the truth, and find the baby’s missing mother–all while a deadly mountain rains fire from above.

Dana Mentink is a New York Times bestselling author of more than fifty novels for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense, Revell, Poisoned Pen Press, and other publishers. She lives in sunny California with Papa Bear and close to her two cubs, affectionately nicknamed Yogi and Boo Boo.

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First Line Friday — The Final Word

23 Oct

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring the 2nd book in Laura Thomas‘s Bite of Betrayal series, The Final Word. This book takes place mostly in a small village in England. But true to form in a romantic suspense, danger can go anywhere! Baker Sophie Brooks’s new beginning is tainted by an old relationship. This novel is perfect for fans of the genre.

Here’s the first line:

The deserted street was deliciously sinister in the glow of a solitary lamp — the perfect milieu for Sophie’s final nights living in Paris.

Terrorized by darkness from her past. Real life is no fairy tale…

When aspiring author Sophie Brooks chooses to trade a vibrant Paris life for the tranquility of a quaint English village, she imagines her final days in the City of Lights will be magical. Sophie doesn’t anticipate a chilling encounter with an old flame—nor does she plan to find a new love on her very last night.

Miles Morgan’s life has been defined as a successful opera singer—until now. His chance encounter with Sophie in Paris ignites renewed hope … if he can figure out his next chapter and if she can accept what his future may hold.

In the heart of the English countryside, Sophie and Miles’ fairy tale romance turns into a noxious nightmare as the darkness of Sophie’s past—and her volatile ex—catch up with her. Both Sophie and Miles must surrender everything to the One they thought had betrayed them as they lean into love and fight for their lives.

Travel from Paris to England in this fast-paced, faith-over-fear story of surrender.

An award-winning Christian author, Laura Thomas writes heartwarming encouragement for your soul… with the ultimate desire to inspire fiction readers in their real lives with her stories of hope.

Laura is a certified writing coach, a book-loving chocoholic mom and nanny, and is married to her high school sweetheart. Originally from the UK, they now live the empty nest life in Kelowna, British Columbia, with their French bulldog!

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First Line Friday — The Lies We Trade

16 Oct

The Lies We Trade by debut novelist Kristine Delano was a unique read for me. I admit that most of my suspense comes in the romantic version with unmarried main characters. The plots also do not usually include white color crime. Arsonists, serial killers, drug cartels are the usual suspects. The Lies We Trade has none of the above. The main character is married with kids, and the suspense arises from underhanded Wall Street types. I liked it a lot.

Here’s the first line:

I always watch for the pivot — I sense it before I see it and I notice it before the crowd.

A high-powered Wall Street career, a beautiful family in a quiet suburban neighborhood—she seems to have everything. Which means she has everything to lose.

Meredith Hansel should be having the best week of her life. After establishing herself as a portfolio manager at a prestigious Wall Street firm, she’s in the national spotlight for the innovative funds she created. But as Meredith prepares to celebrate, the plates she’s kept spinning for years begin to crash: Her strained marriage reaches a breaking point. Her conscientious teenage daughter acts out under mysterious pressures. Someone vandalizes her home with disturbing graffiti. And Betsey, her most trusted ally at the financial firm, goes rogue, and Meredith is forced to sign a restraining order against her.

Then her worlds collide when she receives a thumb drive and a cryptic note from Betsey threatening to reveal a secret that could have devastating effects on Meredith’s family . . . unless she can figure out what Betsey wants and deliver it in time.

As Meredith begins to dig into the data, however, she begins to suspect that it’s no coincidence her life is crumbling. That maybe what’s happening to her family is connected to what’s boiling beneath the surface at her investment company. Soon Meredith realizes there’s only one way to avoid taking the fall, and it all hinges on Betsey’s true motives. Was she really threatening Meredith or trying to warn her?

Kristine Delano is a former Wall Street executive turned award-winning author of domestic thrillers set in the high-stakes finance world. She hosts the We Talk Careers podcast and mentors women on work-life balance. When she’s not writing or reading, she enjoys scuba diving, playing games with friends, and chasing her family down the ski slopes of western Maine.

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First Line Friday — Girl Lost

9 Oct

Happy Friday! Leading up to the 2026 Christy Awards next month, I am featuring first lines from some of the nominees. Today I am featuring Girl Lost by Kate Angelo. This romantic suspense is book 1 in The King Legacy. Set in south Florida, it is a chilling novel — real enough to make you believe the unthinkable is possible. Nominated for the mystery/supense/thriller category, this book is perfect for fans of the genre.

Here’s the first line:

Luna Rosati could disappear into any crowd, any city, any life.

A LOST BABY
Luna Rosati found acceptance and comfort with her childhood foster family, but when she became pregnant at sixteen, she gave the baby up for adoption and left without a word. Now a CIA counterintelligence officer, Luna wants to reconcile her fractured sense of self by finding the only blood family she has–the teenage daughter she’s never met. As Luna closes in on learning the girl’s identity with the help of her mentor, Stryker, she prepares to meet him in her old neighborhood–the last place she wants to be. Then Stryker is captured.   

AN INESCAPABLE PAST
Special Agent Corbin King changed his last name to escape the shadow of his convicted father serving a life sentence. When he runs into Luna, the object of his failed teenage romance, the two must put their pasts aside and work together to expose a secret that someone’s willing to kill for.

A DEADLY THREAT
But when they encounter a kidnapping, missing bodies, and murder, the secrets Corbin and Luna are keeping from one another are only the beginning of the threat they face with more than their own lives at stake.

Kate Angelo is a Publishers Weekly bestselling author, Selah Award winner, and Amazon Top 100 bestseller from Southwest Missouri. She writes fast-paced romantic suspense novels where her characters confront trauma and find faith and healing.

When she’s not putting fictional people through the wringer, Kate works alongside her husband, Jerry Angelo, as the co-founder of their nonprofit ministry dedicated to strengthening marriages and families. Whether she’s helping people survive in fiction or thrive in real life, Kate is passionate about helping others discover their happily ever after.

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First Line Friday — The Accused

2 Oct

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring another 2026 Christy Award nominee in the mystery/suspense/thriller category — The Accused by Cara Putman. The Accused is a good choice if you like courtroom drama. The author is an attorney and law school professor, and her two main characters have those careers in common. It’s another twisty mystery in the Secrets to Keep series.

Here’s the first line:

Margeaux Robbins sprinted from her parked Sonata toward the Loudoun County Courthouse, miles from her comfortable office on the Monroe College campus in Kedgewick, Virginia.

When a popular college student is murdered, her international roommate, Anneliese, becomes a prime suspect. But law professor Margeaux Robbins doesn’t believe that the quiet, lonely German girl in her class is the killer.

Chase Crandall is a burned-out defense attorney ready to extricate himself from the grind of criminal law. After he loses a client to tragedy, he’s ready for an in-house corporate position.

When Chase is assigned to Anneliese’s case, Margeaux is horrified. She doesn’t want him to provide legal counsel—not after what happened to his past client. And not with the evidence incriminating Anneliese.

Despite their mutual misgivings, the lawyer and professor pair up to find the killer and prove Anneliese’s innocence. Will they be able to untangle the mystery—and navigate their growing interest in one another—before the wrong person is charged with murder?

In addition to writing, Cara Putman is a mom of four, an attorney, a Clinical Associate Professor at a Big Ten university who also runs a center, and an all-around crazy woman. Crazy about God, her husband, and her kids. She graduated with honors from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Go Huskers!), George Mason Law School, and Purdue University’s MBA program. You can learn more about her books on her website, which is easy to find because it’s simply her name dot com.

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First Line Friday — Tempest at Annabel’s Lighthouse

25 Sep

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring another 2026 Christy Award nominee — Tempest at Annabel’s Lighthouse by Jamie Jo Wright. This dual timeline novel is a twisty, spooky, gothic mystery/suspense with a married couple in the modern day storyline. I loved that! If you haven’t read it, what are you waiting on?!

Here’s the first line:

This great water will be my sepulcher.

Where the lighthouse no longer illuminates, ghostly lore and legends emerge . . . 

1874
A battered woman awakens atop a forgotten gravesite by Lake Superior’s southern shore. Identified only by the locket around her neck inscribed with the name Rebecca, she seeks refuge with an elderly lighthouse keeper. But as Rebecca struggles to remember who she is, she finds herself haunted by the lingering memories of Annabel, a mysterious woman who perished in the lake’s unforgiving waves years earlier. With the spirit of Annabel seemingly reawakened, and an unknown adversary on the hunt to silence Rebecca once and for all, more is at stake than reclaiming her own memories. Rebecca must reclaim Annabel’s as well. 

Present Day
Author and researcher Shea Radclyffe escapes to the lighthouse outside a historic Michigan mining town to seek clarity about her failing marriage. Instantly drawn to the lighthouse’s landlord, Shea contends with the legend of Annabel’s vengeful ghost and a superstitious community that has buried the truth about a current murder. As the secrets harbored around Annabel’s lighthouse unravel, Shea must navigate a fight between torn loyalty, self-discovery, and the haunting forces of love.

. . . demanding vengeance for secrets that should have drowned a century before.

Jaime Jo Wright, multi award-winning author–including the Christy and Daphne du Maurier awards–is a coffee-fueled and cat-fancier extraordinaire. She has entwined her life with the legendary Captain Hook, residing serenely in Wisconsin’s rural woodlands. Her literary vocation involves penning chilling Gothic tales, a baffling change from that of Austenites, with a strong preference to the master of dark, Edgar Allan Poe. Two mischievous urchins adorn their family, who keep their mother on her toes – providing an exhilarating amount chaos.

Visit her at: http://www.jaimewrightbooks.com and listen to her podcast MadLit Musings on your favorite podcast player or at http://www.madlitmusings.com.

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First Line Friday — Final Approach

18 Sep

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring the final book in Lynette Eason‘s Lake City Heroes, Final Approach. If you like an ensemble cast of characters, then this romantic suspense is for you. Full of twists and turns and secrets of the past, this novel starts off with a bang!

Here’s the first line:

Air Marshal Kristine Duncan leaned back in her seat, her eyes skimming over the sunrise outside the Airbus 319’s window.

She’s intent on investigating a sinister plot of revenge, and it will take all her courage to survive. 

Air Marshal Kristine Duncan is on duty when a hijacker attempts to seize control of the plane she and her friends are on as they head out on a much-needed vacation. Jumping into action and aided by FBI Special Agent Andrew Ross, Kristine thwarts the attack and the plane lands safely. But as the investigation into the incident gets underway, Kristine and Andrew are confused at every step. Nothing about the investigation goes as it should, and each layer they peel back just reveals another layer of perplexity. 

As the two work together to navigate a web of deception, blame, and personal reckoning, they find there’s more to this story than meets the eye–and more to love and admire about each other. They’ll have to put their skills to the test–and their hearts on the line–to unravel the truth and ensure that justice prevails.

New York Times and award-winning, best-selling author, Lynette Eason writes for Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense line and for Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Her books have hit the New York Times, Publisher’s Weekly, CBA and ECPA bestseller lists and have won numerous awards such as the prestigious Carol Award, the Selah, the Daphne, the IRCC award and more. Lynette is married, has two children, and lives in South Carolina.

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First Line Friday — The Heartfelt Formula

11 Sep

Happy Friday! Today I am featuring another great book by Leslie Kirby DeVooght. The Heartfelt Formula is a fun way to kick off the Christmas holidays, whether you begin your holiday reading in December or you can’t wait to skip all the pumpkin spice frenzy. 😉 A sweet, sassy, Southern romance I can’t wait to read, The Heartfelt Formula releases October 22, but you can preorder now.

Here’s the first line:

The Kiss.

She’s got a formula for love… but real life isn’t a Christmas movie.

After another breakup, Atlanta attorney Hope Elliot decides to stop waiting for her happily-ever-after and write it herself. Inspired by her beloved Christmas romance movies, Hope crafts The Heartfelt Formula: a foolproof plan including snowball fights, cookie baking, and a perfectly timed first kiss.

Trading the big city for coastal Georgia, Hope sets out to find her small-town soulmate. But the actors in her carefully plotted scenes keep shuffling—especially when Brennan Taylor, her ambitious co-counsel continues to fill in for Cole Walker, the carefree furniture maker, who Hope cast as her hero.

Between courtroom drama, a mismatched leading man, and a mistletoe mishap, Hope must decide if she’ll trust her formula or accept a plot twist that might leave her all alone, or perhaps, with happiest ending of all.

A faith-filled romantic comedy for anyone who believes love, like Christmas, can still surprise you.

PW Best-Selling Author Leslie Kirby DeVooght writes women’s fiction inspired by romcoms, coastal Georgia, and fried okra! While Leslie and her family live in Jacksonville, Florida, they often visit her hometown of St. Simons Island, Georgia, where she loves to go for long walks on the beach. A graduate of Florida Southern College and Mercer Law School, Leslie is always revising her life from prosecutor to judge to PTA president to author of happily-ever-afters.

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