Author: Rachel Dylan

Series: Capital Intrigue #2

Publisher: Bethany House

Release Date: October 6, 2020

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

The second installment in the Capital Intrigue series gives readers all the thrills, chills, and heart stopping moments I’ve come to expect from Rachel Dylan.

Layla Karam joined the CIA as an analyst, she never wanted anything more, especially after she was thrust into a dangerous operation with the DEA against a major drug cartel that puts a target on her back. When one of her team members ends up murdered, she and the rest of the team scramble to stay safe. Along with staying alive there is now an internal investigation against her causing Layla to turn to the one person she never wanted to see again for help, her ex-boyfriend Hunter McCoy. Hunter is a private investigator and uses his skills to try and find out who is trying to sabotage Layla’s career. Together they discover a mole inside the DEA that has given information to the cartel on the team. Layla must do the hardest thing imaginable, put her trust in the man she used to love to keep her alive and keep her heart safe from him.

This is the second book in the Capital Intrigue series and is just as enjoyable as the first. With all the characters in high risk positions, the story starts with a bang and doesn’t stop until the very end. I liked Layla, she wasn’t looking for danger and high stakes missions, she preferred to stay back and do the job she was brought on for, an analyst. However, others higher up had different plans for her though. She could have played the pity card, but she never did, she got mad and fought back. The relationship aspect of the novel was well played, there were several different directions it could have gone but I was pleased with the way Dylan wrote it. Even though this book is mainly about Layla and Hunter I couldn’t help but be pulled in by the scenes with Izzy, (I’m hoping the next book in the series focuses more on her.) There was just something about her story line that pulled me in faster than the others. There are a lot of tense scenes and violence, but it is never written in a way that would turn squeamish readers away. With that being said, the whole story was an enjoyable read, I read it in just over a day. It had been a good while since I read the first one and it didn’t keep me from enjoying any of the story which leads me to say that even though this is the second in the series it could be read as a standalone without any problem. Fans of the romantic suspense will not want to miss this one.

Author: Kelly Irvin

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Release Date: June 9, 2020

Reviewer: Jessica Higgins

A great, clean, action-packed mystery with just the right amount of romance at all the right moments!

Instead of going into the family business of law enforcement, Teagan O’Rourke decides to go her own route and become a court reporter. Listening to hours of real-life murders and dealing with crime scene photos, her life is covered in death and destruction, but she has never been the victim of a crime. Until now. As she is riding in the car with a young police officer, the car window explodes and the officer is killed from a sniper rifle shot. The man responsible starts leaving Teagan notes signed by different murderers from some of her favorite mystery novels. Teagan’s family is in law enforcement and come to her aid along with one of her oldest friends, Max Kennedy. Max wants to be more than friends with Teagan but is afraid his past will keep them apart. Teagan is determined to keep those she loves from being hurt, but with each passing moment, the killer comes closer to her and those she is striving to protect proving he is closer than she imagined and doesn’t plan to stop until he finishes what he started.

Closer Than She Knows was a fun, exciting read that was full of mystery and suspense with just the right amount of romance. I flew through the pages of this one and enjoyed the story. While it was predictable at times, it wasn’t one that I knew everything that was about to happen; I just happened to figure out the bad guy quite a bit earlier before it was revealed. The relationship between Teagan and Max was paced perfectly, while they had known each other a long time, nothing was rushed; but when she was in danger, the feelings they had for each other couldn’t stay dormant any longer. It works perfectly in true fashion that when we are in high stress situations our true emotions tend to surface even if we want to keep them at bay. I enjoyed the rest of the family dynamics, the way Teagan related with her stepsiblings and her father was all very realistically written. The ending was not a big surprise for me, but some might not catch on to the clues early on that I saw. I would recommend this book to those that enjoy a good, clean suspense with romance that brings the suspense up a notch.

I received a complimentary copy of this title from the publisher.  The views and opinions expressed within are my own.