Romantic Suspense books

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Peau et os

Déterrer des os

Déterrer des os : Tome deux

Cloister Witte et Bourneville, sa partenaire K-9, retrouvent les disparus et les ramènent chez eux.

Mais le travail ne s’arrête pas toujours là.

Une jeune femme, Janet Morrow, est tombée dans le coma après s’être éloignée de sa voiture lors d’un orage violent. Mais ce n’est pas parce que Cloister l’a retrouvée qu’elle est rentrée chez elle. Qu’est-ce qui l’a amenée à Plenty, en Californie ? Et qui n’avait pas envie qu’elle en reparte ?

Avec l’aide de l’agent spécial Javi Merlo, qui continue de nier ses sentiments grandissants pour l’adjoint au caractère entier, Cloister met à jour une conspiration du silence vieille de dix ans, appartenant à l’histoire de corruption régnant à Plenty.

Les vieux secrets de Janet Morrow ne sont pas les seuls à éclater au grand jour. Javi a essayé de laisser son passé derrière lui, malheureusement, certaines personnes semblent déterminées à sortir les squelettes de son placard. Sa sombre histoire avec un agent, son supérieur à Phoenix, complique non seulement l’enquête, mais aussi ses relations avec Cloister. Et depuis quand est-ce qu’il s’en soucie ?

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The Muscle

By
Long Con Adventures
The Long Con

A Long Con Adventure

A true protector will guard your heart before his own.

Hunter Rutledge saw one too many people die in his life as mercenary muscle to go back to the job, so he was conveniently at loose ends when Josh Salinger offered him a place in his altruistic den of thieves.

Hunter is almost content having found a home with a group of people who want justice badly enough to steal it. If only one of them didn’t keep stealing his attention from the task at hand….

Superlative dancer and transcendent thief Dylan “Grace” Li lives in the moment. But when mobsters blackmail the people who gave him dance—and the means to save his own soul—Grace turns to Josh for help.

Unfortunately, working with Josh’s crew means working with Hunter Rutledge, and for Grace, that’s more dangerous than any heist.

Grace’s childhood left him thinking he was too difficult to love—so he’s better off not risking his love on anyone else. Avoiding commitment keeps him safe. But somehow Hunter’s solid, grounding presence makes him feel safer.  Can Grace trust that letting down his guard to a former mercenary doesn’t mean he’ll get shot in the heart?

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Sin and Tonic (Français)

Sinners (Français) | Tome 6
Série Sinners (Français)

Suite d'Absinthe of Malice
Série Sinners Tome 6

Miki St John croyait que les fins heureuses n’existaient que dans les contes de fées jusqu’à ce que sa vie prenne quelques virages inattendus… et désormais il a trouvé la sienne.

Son meilleur ami, Damien, est de retour d’entre les morts, et leur nouveau groupe, Crossroads Gin, grimpe en flèche dans les charts. Miki peut compter sur un compagnon solide et affectueux nommé Kane Morgan – un inspecteur de la police de San Francisco, doté d’une grande famille irlandaise qui le considère comme l’un des leurs – et son chien Mec se tient à ses côtés.

Hélas, quelqu’un essaye de le tuer.

De vieilles loyautés et d’anciennes rancunes émergent du sombre et mystérieux passé de Chinatown. Miki lutte pour faire face à l’abandon de sa mère décédée, aux secrets et au meurtre brutal de cette dernière, alors qu’il est traqué par un meurtrier énigmatique qui pourrait avoir des liens avec elle.

L’affaire atterrit entre les mains de Kane. Miki et lui sont entraînés dans un jeu mortel du chat et de la souris. Quand Miki est forcé d’affronter ses démons personnels et les horreurs de son enfance, une seule chose est certaine : la rock star et son flic sont déterminés à se battre pour leur avenir et à survivre aux démons menaçants du passé de Miki.

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The Mastermind

By
Long Con Adventures
The Long Con

A Long Con Adventure

Once upon a time in Rome, Felix Salinger got caught picking his first pocket and Danny Mitchell saved his bacon. The two of them were inseparable… until they weren’t.

Twenty years after that first meeting, Danny returns to Chicago, the city he shared with Felix and their perfect, secret family, to save him again. Felix’s news network—the business that broke them apart—is under fire from an unscrupulous employee pointing the finger at Felix. An official investigation could topple their house of cards. The only way to prove Felix is innocent is to pull off their biggest con yet.

But though Felix still has the gift of grift, his reunion with Danny is bittersweet. Their ten-year separation left holes in their hearts that no amount of stolen property can fill. A green crew of young thieves looks to them for guidance as they negotiate old jewels and new threats to pull off the perfect heist—but the hardest job is proving that love is the only thing of value they’ve ever had.

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Over the Top

Black Dragons Inc.

A Black Dragons Inc. Novel

Former best friends put their differences aside to rescue a child—but the baby isn’t the only thing that needs saving.

A preventable training accident that forced him out of the SEALs has left Gunner Vance bitter and angry. But all that changes when his childhood friend and onetime lover asks for his help.

When a gunfight lands a baby on lonely teacher Chasten Reed’s front porch, he knows Gunner is their best chance for survival—assuming they don’t end up killing each other while on the run.

Chas and Gunner have a simple mission: identify the baby and get her safely back to her real family. But with jeopardy around every corner of the desperate cross-country journey from New England to Hawaii, simple doesn’t mean easy. The attraction between them might be bulletproof, but their bodies are not. Will Chas and Gunner find what they’ve been craving? Or will the past, and the danger, push them over the top before they can fall in love?

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Who Knows the Moonlight

The Vigilante | Book Three

The Vigilante: Book Three

Vigilante Nox Boyet won’t rest until he brings down the man who has destroyed his beloved New York City and now threatens the people he loves. But once he’s taken prisoner by the monster behind the carnage, Nox needs help.

Cade Creel has come a long way from his days as a high-priced rent boy, but he never expected to join the Vigilante on a high-stakes quest, never mind fall in love with him. Now it’s time to step up.

Separated and desperate, Nox and Cade have their work cut out for them. With the help of new friends and old enemies, they must identify the man who has turned New York City into a dystopian nightmare and get the hell out before a raid by the Feds turns the city into a warzone. But first they must find their way back to each other.

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School of Fish

By
Fish Out of Water | Book Six

Fish Out of Water: Book Six

Jackson Rivers has been learning how to take care of himself so he can be there for Ellery Cramer, but after eight weeks of healing, body and soul, he’s itching to get back to work. Finally Ellery gives him a simple task: pick up a file on a kid who probably didn’t commit murder but who refuses to participate in his own defense.

Nothing is ever that easy.

A horrifying game of connect-the-dots leads one case to another, to the mob, to the local high school… and a bottomless list of potential suspects and victims. The case has a lot of moving parts, and Jackson and Ellery have to work fast to make sure the machinery of the mob doesn’t mow down everyone they care about—or rip them apart.

After a year of living together, Ellery is learning to accept that Jackson can’t let an injustice stand. Together they fight to keep kids out of jail while the streets of Sacramento threaten to explode. They’d better hope they’ve learned enough about each other to keep it together, because for this case, school is the most dangerous place to be.

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Out of Control

Black Dragons Inc.

A Black Dragons Inc. Novel

Hot SEAL. Hot spy. Hot reunion. Can they work together to find a notorious terrorist without killing each other first?

When SEAL Spencer Newman accepts a dangerous mission to bring in CIA agent Drago Thorpe—the only man he’s ever loved—he expects things to get FUBAR. He doesn’t expect Drago to convince him to go rogue too.

Drago regrets ending their torrid affair by pressuring Spencer to acknowledge their relationship publicly, and he wants a second chance. It’s always been a challenge to get the uptight SEAL to break the rules, but to eliminate a supposedly dead terrorist, they’ll need to operate outside the law. Tension heats up as they track their target, but can they find him before their attraction explodes out of control?

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Showdown

Stud Games

A Stud Games Novel

In crime, like in love, there can be no half measures….

Fashion model Zane Stryker needs money—badly. At almost thirty, his glory days are behind him, and he needs capital to start over. When his luggage is switched with a bag containing contraband he’s forced to deliver, it’s either the worst thing that’s ever happened to him… or the best.

Enter Sebastian Gigoni, formerly of the British Special Forces, who has to decide just where Zane’s loyalty lies and why. Sizzling attraction erupts between them, but that doesn’t mean they can trust each other. They double down in a race for their lives—and their love—but are their purposes at odds? As they struggle to reconcile their goals, their consciences, and the needs of their hearts, one thing is clear—they must go all in or give up altogether.

Previously published by Dreamspinner Press as All In by Ava Drake, July 2017.

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The Player

The Player Piano Mysteries

A Player Piano Mystery

When young music teacher Andre Beaufort discovers an antique player piano in the basement of his apartment building, he is visited by the ghost of the original owner: a dapper and charismatic playboy from the Roaring Twenties, Freddy Birtwistle.

Andre has never seen a ghost and Freddy has never been one, so they get off to a rocky start. But when Andre finds his neighbor murdered on his doorstep, he and Freddy join forces to narrow the pool of suspects.

Soon Andre and Freddy discover that opposites attract, even if one’s alive and the other dead. Together these amateur detectives make an enticing team, and it’s a good thing too, because the first murder they solve together won’t be their last. But the real mystery isn’t just whodunit—it’s how a romance between a man and a ghost can have a happily ever after ending.

The Player contains two stand-alone cozy murder mysteries, The City House and The Country House.

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'Nother Sip of Gin

Sinners Series

A Sinners Gin Anthology

For Crossroads Gin rock stars Miki, Damien, Rafe, and Forest, life is a Möbius strip of music, mayhem, and murder. Through it all, the sweet, hot moments between tours with lovers, friends, and family keep them sane, healthy, and happy. This Sinners collection features short stories spanning the entire series, from before the first note to after the lights go out.

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A Novel Murder

Merrychurch Mysteries

Sequel To Roots of Evil
A Merrychurch Mysteries Case

Hosting the Merrychurch Literary Festival is just the distraction Jonathon de Mountford needs. Placating his father and keeping his boyfriend, Mike Tattersall, happy is proving an increasing struggle. But the small event takes on new proportions with the appearance of Teresa Malvain—former Merrychurch resident turned famous murder mystery novelist. But is something about the quaint village setting of her books a little too familiar?

Teresa’s sudden death is certainly something right out of one of her stories, and Jonathan and Mike soon discover there are villagers who might not want the inspiration behind her books revealed.

When it emerges Teresa’s severe allergic reaction was no accident, Jonathon and Mike are compelled to investigate, aided by a few people keen to help them discover the truth. But they’re trying to work out what is fact and what is fiction, and the line between the two blurs constantly. And as for their relationship, Jonathon finally comes to a decision….

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Dead Man's Hand

Stud Games

A Stud Games Novel

Temptation, peril, and dirty poker.

Love is a high-stakes game.

When Collin Callahan, British secret agent, goes up against math genius turned surfer bum Oliver Elliot, the battle is epic—and so is the attraction. They’re pitted against each other in an exclusive, ultra-secret—and ultra-illegal—poker match in Gibraltar, but when players start dying and they could be next, they find a common goal: catch the killer before it’s too late.

Evenly matched at poker and romance, they each wrestle personal demons that threaten to consume them as the stakes climb. It’s an all-or-nothing gamble with both life and love on the line as they fight to be the last seven-card studs standing.

Previously published by Dreamspinner Press as Seven-Card Stud by Ava Drake, November 2016.

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The last three guys Phillip dated are dead. Is he next?

When successful businessman Phillip Barone attends a lover’s funeral and discovers he was just the latest of Phillip’s partners to die, Phillip knows he’s in trouble.

He also knows just the man he needs.

Former Marine Barry Malone would love a second chance with Phillip—he just wishes the romance could be rekindled under better circumstances. But Phillip’s stalker is escalating, and if Barry cannot solve the mystery of who wants Phillip dead and why, he might lose him for good. Barry’s determined, but the investigation struggles against the wit of a crafty killer—one who is closer to Phillip than they could have realized.

Luckily Barry is even closer, and he’ll do whatever it takes to protect the man he’s falling in love with all over again.

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Poker Face

Stud Games

A Stud Games Novel

Surveillance, seduction, and extra-dirty politics.

Christian Chatsworth-Brandeis has a problem. A huge one. The US senator he works for has run away with his latest mistress on the eve of a make-or-break fundraising event, and it’s up to him to cover his irresponsible boss’s tracks.

Stone Jackson, Senator Lacey’s new bodyguard, looks enough like him that, with some extensive grooming, he might pass for the senator. Christian and Stone hatch a plan to substitute Stone for the senator, but Miami madness and the incendiary heat between them are throwing obstacles in their way. It’s a race to find the senator and pull off the con of the century before the attraction between them spins completely out of control.

Previously published by Dreamspinner Press as Ace in the Hole by Ava Drake, July 2016.

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Martin Dance knows better than to get involved with a rent boy. After all, he’s been around the block a few times. And a few times after that. Still, there’s something about Johnny Cotton that catches his eye. And his heart.

When Johnny and his best friend find themselves in over their heads with the woman who owns them lock, stock, and barrel, Martin knows he has to step in.

Martin and his old buddy, Charlie Bass, might be retired from the Firm, but they still know how to manage a gunfight. And how to go underground with a couple of male hookers less than half their age. Just for the purpose of keeping them safe, you understand. No funny business intended.

Odd, though, how funny business tends to creep in when you least expect it.

It’s sort of like love that way, Martin decides. One minute you’re minding your own business, the next minute you’re in a world of hurt. Or, if you’re lucky, a world of happy.

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Senza più scampo

Marshals (Italiano)

Serie Marshals, Libro 3

Miro Jones sta vivendo la vita dei suoi sogni: ha un lavoro appassionante e gratificante come vicesceriffo federale, una bella casa alla periferia di Chicago, una splendida famiglia adottiva e soprattutto ha l’uomo che ha catturato il suo cuore, Ian Doyle. Il problema è che Ian non è solo uno sceriffo: è anche un soldato, e questo lo costringe ad assentarsi spesso e all’improvviso, gettando così un’ombra su quella che per Miro potrebbe essere una vita perfetta.

Senza Ian, la casa e il lavoro non sono gli stessi, e Miro deve fronteggiare le sue paure da solo: mantenere la calma in ufficio, sopravvivere a minacce provenienti dal passato e andare avanti tutti i giorni senza la presenza rassicurante di Ian al suo fianco. La sua vita sembra essere a un punto morto, e forse per sbloccarla dovrà prendere una decisione drastica. Ma cosa comporterebbe quello per lui e Ian? Le scelte che si prospettano a Miro sono difficili, ma a volte l’unico modo per trovare scampo non è sciogliere il nodo, ma tagliarlo.

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Back in Black

McGinnis Investigations | Book One

McGinnis Investigations: Book One

There are eight million stories in the City of Angels but only one man can stumble upon the body of a former client while being chased by a pair of Dobermans and a deranged psycho dressed as a sheep.

That man is Cole McGinnis.

Since his last life-threatening case years ago, McGinnis has married the love of his life, Jae-Min Kim, consulted for the LAPD, and investigated cases as a private detective for hire. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the shocking discovery of a dead, grandmotherly woman at his feet and the cascade of murders that follows, even if he should have been used to it by now.

Now he’s back in the dark world of murder and intrigue where every bullet appears to have his name on it and every answer he digs up seems to only create more questions. Hired by the dead woman’s husband, McGinnis has to figure out who is behind the crime spree. As if the twisted case of a murdered grandmother isn’t complicated enough, Death is knocking on his door, and each time it opens, Death is wearing a new face, leaving McGinnis to wonder who he can actually trust.

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