Title: Cyclone
Author: Janie Crouch
Year of publication: Out today! The author kindly gave me a copy to read and review
The heroine: Doctor Anne Nichols
The hero: Ex-marine/Linear Tactical specialist Zac Mackay
The blurb: 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…
Standalone or series: Book one in the Linear Tactical series but can be read as a standalone
The review: If this book, the first in the Linear Tactical series, is any indication then we are in for one whirlwind of a ride! Zac Mackay is a widower, having lost his wife, Becky, and his young son, Micah, in an accident. Becky’s best friend all through high school and beyond was Anne Nichols, an introverted loner who was mocked for her stutter. But underneath the facade was an intelligent, funny young woman who happened to be in love with Zac.
Nothing happened between them until one drunken night after the funeral. Their whole world already turned upside down, Annie fled, unable to stay. Zac can’t remember that night, as much as he wants to, so when Annie turns up again six years later, he can’t understand the fear in her eyes. Why is she afraid of him? What really happened that night?
As Zac and Annie try to establish whether there’s any relationship to salvage, there’s a serial rapist on the loose. When Annie is targeted by this monster, Zac and his Linear Tactical teammates will stop at nothing to bring him down. When the truth about that night six years ago comes to light, will Annie be able to forgive Zac? Can he forgive himself?
It was Annie who really shone for me in this book. One of this author’s strengths is her ability to have her heroines rise above difficult situations and become warriors who are determined not to be defined by it. Annie was lovely, gentle, and kind, but also determined and fierce. She’s my perfect kind of heroine!
Cyclone has everything you want – romance, suspense, characters you’ll fall in love with and cheer for. If this is just the start, I can’t wait for the rest of the ride.
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