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Can she have the man of her dreams and the life she's always wanted?

It's love at first sight when head pastry chef Brendan Pope meets private investigator Harley Banks at the Serenity Inn in Jubilee, KY. Harley is staying there for her latest investigation. But unknown to them both, Harley has a hitman after her, courtesy of the wrong-doer she put behind bars on her last case. The FBI gets involved to clean up the loose ends so Harley can continue the investigation at the inn. But after nearly losing her, Brendan will stop at nothing to make sure Harley is safe and the criminals get their comeuppance.

Praise for New York Times bestseller Sharon Sala's thrilling romantic suspense:

"Emotionally wrenching, sensually appealing, edgy and suspenseful, and hopeful and endearing."—USA Today for Going Gone

"Vivid, gripping...this thriller keeps the pages turning."—Library Journal for Torn Apart

"Skillfully balancing suspense and romance, Sala gives readers a nonstop breath-holding adventure."—Publishers Weekly for Going Once"

Quoted material is from the book's Amazon sales page. The bulk of my review is in the further comments section, near the bottom.

People who like fast-paced romantic suspense novels, people who like small-town, big family vibes, people who like strong characters.

The characters and world building.

There are a lot of potential triggers with violent crime and crime against sensitive parties.

Read more by this author.

Like I was living the adventure with Harley.

"About the author

Sharon Sala is a New York Times/USA Today, best-selling author.

She has 147 plus books published under two names, Sharon Sala and Dinah McCall.

Published in eight different genres – Romance, Young Adult, Western, Mystery Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Children’s books.

Industry Awards include:

Eight-time RITA finalist. (Romance Industry award)

The Janet Dailey Award.

Five-time Career Achievement winner from RT Magazine.

Five time winner of the National Reader’s Choice Award.

Five time winner of the Colorado Romance Writer’s Award of Excellence.

Heart of Excellence Award.,

Booksellers Best Award.

Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award presented by RWA.

Centennial Award from RWA for recognition of her 100th published novel.

CROW National Excellence in Storytelling Award.

Will Rogers Gold Medallion Award.

For book list and updated blogs, visit her on Facebook"

It was a gripping, fascinating read for me.

Again, the triggers. It's a bit more than maybe it needs to be in those departments.

Sharon Sala is one of the best authors for tugging at my heart strings. Even though she breaks a lot of the traditional rules, she gets me right into the story and attached to the heroic characters right away. It's hard for me to put her books down in general, and this continuation of a series book was no exception. I've loved all of the Pope men, and Brendon was a great addition. I've been waiting for his story and it was even better than I expected.

Harley Banks was a fantastic heroine and Brendan Pope an equal to her kind of hero. All of the "good" characters were great. All of the "evil" characters were desipicable. If you like more shades of gray, this is probably not the book for you.

I do think she could leave more room in her books for forgiveness and redemption, but with the kind of issues Justine had, I'm not sure that's even possible. Creepily, Justine (evil character) is remarkably like someone I know that actually has narcisistic personality disorder with rage component (commonly known as a violent sociopath, though Justine takes it to another level as a psychopath).

I really love the whole Jubilee and Pope mountain world that Sharon Sala created. I greatly enjoyed this fast-paced book.

If you haven't read the others, I do recommend reading this series in order. The books build on each other. I think it started with a cousin, and that was an even more action-packed book. I loved that this book brought that missing thread from the cousin's wife story full circle too. If you read the whole series, I think it's an amazing set of stories.

I know it's early in the year, but I've been sick so have had lots of reading time. I think I've already read at least ten books and this was the best fiction one so far.

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