Title: Cyclone
Series: Linear Tactical Series #1
Author: Janie Crouch
Author: Janie Crouch
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: September 25, 2018
Blurb
He’d protect her
from any threat…
But what if the biggest threat is him?
But what if the biggest threat is him?
Doctor Anne Nichols is back in Oak Creek, Wyoming, only because she has
no other options. Here, she was always the shy, stuttering girl, invisible to
everyone.
Except Zac Mackay. The very reason she left in the first place.
Zac’s years in Special Forces taught him survival skills, and he’s
created a company—Linear Tactical—to teach those skills to others, so they
never have to live in fear.
Then why is Annie, the last person he’d ever want to hurt, afraid
of him?
Zac’s determined to wipe the fear from the eyes of the woman who has
never been far from his mind. And fix the mistakes—his mistakes—that
put that look there in the first place.
But a predator has set his sights on Annie. And now survival
skills will become much more than lessons…
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Excerpt
“I was here a couple of years ago, but only for a day or
two,” Anne told Zac, looking away. She had booked a room out of Oak Creek both
times she’d dared come back. The thought of staying at The Mayor’s Inn had been
too painful. She couldn’t even look at that hotel without feeling sick to her
stomach.
And she’d avoided everyone—particularly Zac—as much as
possible. Just in case his words about not coming back were still true. She
tried to swallow the panic that threatened to overwhelm her. Maybe he still
felt that way now, even though he hadn’t said anything at the hospital.
“There.” He pointed at her. “That look that just came into
your eyes. I saw it at the hospital. It’s like you’re afraid of me, Annie.” He
took a step closer and she instinctively one back. One of his eyebrows shot up,
letting her know she’d proved his point. “Do you think I’m going to hurt you?”
“No.” Not physically. She’d never worried that he’d hurt her
that way, despite having five inches and probably fifty pounds—all muscle—on
her.
But he was right. She couldn’t continue living in Oak Creek
with them ignoring everything that had happened that night. What had been said.
What had been done. Maybe she would’ve tried to, and to avoid Zac forever, if
he hadn’t ended up in her ER.
But the truth was, there weren’t enough bushes in this town
for her to jump into. She was going to run into Zac. A lot.
Sometimes all you could do was face the past.
She pulled a breath in. “I’m not scared of you. I mean, I
know you would never hurt me physically. For crying out loud, you wrecked your
motorcycle rather than hit a dog.” She’d meant for her laugh to seem breezy,
but it just sounded stilted. “But yeah, I mean, we can’t pretend like that
night never happened. The stuff we did. Stuff you...we said.”
His eyes narrowed. “That night we spent together after Becky
died.”
“Yeah. That night.” As if they’d had another. “The bottom
line is, I can’t leave here, Zac. No matter what you said then, or even if you
feel the same way now.”
He shook his head, brows furrowing. “I don’t expect you to
leave. You’re obviously a respected doctor, more than competent. Why would you
think I wanted you to leave?”
Some of the tension she’d been carrying since his arrival in
the ER began to ease. He was right. Something said in grief and anger six years
ago didn’t necessarily hold true all this time later. She was silly for
thinking it did. “Okay, well, it’s good to know you don’t feel the same as you
did back then.”
He took a single predatory step closer, and she tensed
again. “I said something that night to make you think you needed to leave?”
She stared at him, her mouth flopping open like some sort of
fish. “You don’t remember what you said?”
Those words would be engrained in her memory forever.
Get out and don’t come back.
He rubbed his forehead. “That whole night is fuzzy for me.”
I can’t even bear to look at you. You just betrayed the
only person in this town who ever wanted you here.
Tossing her naked into the hallway before flinging her
clothes at her.
“What do you remember?” She forced the words past a throat
that seemed to have dried up.
His hand moved to the back of his neck. “Honestly, not much
at all. It’s sort of a blur.”
She retreated a step from him again. That night had been the
most important night of her life. The best. The worst. It had changed the very
fabric of her being.
And it was sort of a blur for him.
Author Bio
USA TODAY
bestselling author Janie Crouch writes what she loves to read: passionate
romantic suspense. She is a winner and/or finalist of multiple
romance literary awards including the Golden Quill Award for Best Romantic
Suspense, the National Reader’s Choice Award, and the RITA© Award by the
Romance Writers of America.
Janie
recently relocated with her husband and their four teenagers to Germany (due to
her husband's job as support for the U.S. Military), after living in Virginia for
nearly 20 years. When she's not listening to the voices in her head—and even
when she is—she enjoys engaging in all sorts of crazy adventures (200-mile
relay races; Ironman Triathlons, treks to Mt. Everest Base Camp)
traveling, and movies of all kinds.
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Giveaway
My Review:
Book 1 of Linear Tactical Series was this fast paced, sizzling, intense and fabulous read. Ms. Crouch put together an intriguing romantic mystery with a passionate romantic suspense and the perfect blend of action/ adventure which gives this story just the right amount of it all.
We learn that the main characters Zac and Anne had been friends because of Zac's late wife, Becky. They had all been friends during high school. Zac married Becky, and never knew that Anne had this huge crush which grew to this deep love for him. Two weeks after Becky's death, both of them ended up drunk together and grieving Becky's loss , Zac and Anne had sex, this event that Zac has very little remembrance of. Zac went back to the army, and Anne left town quite literally after. Six years later, Zac and his buddies have a very successful business teaching survival and safety. Yet Zac is haunted by the events of that night and feelings that he betrayed Becky.
Now Anne has just returned to Oak Creek as the new ER doctor at hospital. She never wanted or planned to come back, but after her recent divorce left her literally broke and broken, she was left with no other choice but to come home.
Anne is the very last person Zac ever expects or wants to see again. But when he sees fear in Anne's eyes when her eyes gaze at him, he is determined to find out the reason why. As Zach and Anne reconnect with each other, Zac realizes he never stopped having feelings for Anne, but while they are reconnecting, someone dark and evil has Anne in his crosshairs, one who has the capacity of taking Anne away from Zac forever. Can Zac save Anne in time or will she be forevermore lost to him ?
The romance really is front and center in this read with a mystery/ suspense that is weaved through the pages that builds to such an emotionally complex and fiery end that I didn't see coming. The emotions in this book are very complex and tissues will be needed at times. I felt as if i was right in this book, with the characters, experiencing everything the main characters were feeling. I cannot wait for the next book in this new series.
My rating: 4.8 stars *****
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