Book picks similar to
A Field of Poppies by Sharon Sala


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romantic-suspense

Deadly Sanctuary


Sylvia Nobel - 1998
    Her assignment: Find out why her predecessor mysteriously vanished while working on a story concerning the unsolved deaths of two teenage girls. Why is the sheriff so hostile to her inquiries? Why is the woman operating the local shelter for homeless girls so secretive? And how is attractive rancher Bradley Talverson involved?When the body of a third girl is discovered in the desert not far from a private mental institution, Kendall's life hangs in the balance as she strives to uncover the horrifying secret.Deadly Sanctuary is the first title in Sylvia Nobel's popular mystery series, featuring spirited, flame-haired reporter Kendall O'Dell. The author's trademark style is to produce exciting, well-written, edge-of-your-seat, adventures with "knock your socks off" surprise endings. Her judicious use of language and lack of graphic sex and violence make her novels suitable from teens to seniors.Author Biography: Sylvia Nobel is the award-winning author of the Kendall O'Dell mystery series and two romance novels, all set in Arizona. She is an accomplished public speaker and a member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband and seven cats.

Love Is Murder


Sandra BrownRobert Gregory Browne - 2012
    Go on vacation with Allison Brennan's Lucy Kincaid, where she saves a man from drowning, only to discover he is in far greater danger on land. Meet Roxanne St. Claire's "bullet catcher"-bodyguard Donovan Rush-who may have met his match in the sexually charged "Diamond Drop." Debut author William Simon shows us what happens when the granddaughter of the president of the United States is kidnapped. And Lee Child's pitch-perfect "I Heard a Romantic Story" puts a whole new spin on Love Is Murder.Bodyguards, vigilantes, stalkers, serial killers, women (and men!) in jeopardy, cops, thieves, P.I.s, killers-these all-new stories will keep you thrilled and chilled late into the night.Love Is Murder is the third Thriller anthology written exclusively by members of International Thriller Writers, Inc. Barely seven years old, ITW has a roster that reads like a who's who of thriller writing, with 1,635 members representing 28 countries worldwide and over three billion books in print. Headed by current copresidents Douglas Preston and Kathleen Antrim, its board of directors has included such notables as Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Steve Berry, James Rollins, M. J. Rose, Carla Neggers, Gayle Lynds, David Morrell and David Hewson. More information is available on the ITW website, www.thrillerwriters.org.SANDRA BROWNSandra Brown is the author of sixty New York Times bestselling novels. Writing professionally since 1981, she has published more than seventy novels and has upward of eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide.She holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Texas Christian University, and in 2008 she was named Thriller Master, the top award given by the International Thriller Writers Assoc.DIAMOND DROP by Roxanne St. ClaireCOLD MOONLIGHT by Carla NeggersPOISONED by Beverly BartonSPEECHLESS by Robert BrowneLOCKDOWN by Andrea KaneSPIDER’S TANGO by William SimonNIGHT HEAT by Laura GriffinB.A.D. MISSION by Sherrilyn KenyonDEADLY FIXATION by Dianna LoveHOT NOTE by Patricia RosemoorLAST SHOT by Jon Land & Jeff AyersGRAVE DANGER by Heather GrahamWITHOUT MERCY by Mariah StewartEVEN STEVEN by D.P. LyleDYING TO SCORE by Cindy GerardTHE NUMBER OF MAN by J.T. EllisonHARD DRIVE by Bill FloydAFTER HOURS by William BernhardtBLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT by Brenda NovakWED TO DEATH by Vicki HinzeTHE HONEYMOON by Julie KennerEXECUTION DOCK by James MacomberIN ATLANTIS by Alexandra SokoloffBREAK EVEN by Pamela CallowDIRTY DOWN LOW by Debra WebbBROKEN HALLELUJAH by Toni McGee CauseyHOLDING MERCY by Lori ArmstrongVACATION INTERRUPTED by Allison BrennanI HEARD A ROMANTIC STORY by Lee Child

Dangerous Waters


Toni Anderson - 2012
    As she investigates the crime, Holly soon realizes the sleepy town is rife with secrets. But what unsettles her most is the residents’ insistence that she bears a striking resemblance to the victim of a murder from three decades earlier. She shrugs off the uncanny likeness as a coincidence. But her simmering attraction to Finn Carver, one of the divers who discovered the corpse, isn’t so easy to ignore.Finn, a former Special Forces soldier, knows it’s best to keep his distance from Holly. Yet it isn’t long before they both give in to the consuming desire they share. And as the danger escalates, Finn and Holly must rely on each other to thwart the plans of a cold-blooded killer who’s intent on keeping the past buried.

After You


Julie Buxbaum - 2009
    The unexplored doubts of a marriage. And the redemptive power of literature...Julie Buxbaum, the acclaimed author of The Opposite of Love, delivers a haunting, gloriously written novel about love, family, and the secrets we hide from each other—and ourselves.It happened on a tree-lined street in Notting Hill to a woman who seemed to have the perfect life. Ellie Lerner’s best friend, Lucy, was murdered in front of her young daughter. And, as best friends do, Ellie dropped everything—her marriage, her job, her life in the Boston suburbs—to travel to London and pick up the pieces of Lucy’s life. While Lucy’s husband, Greg, copes with his grief by retreating into himself, eight-year-old Sophie has simply stopped speaking.Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As the two spend hours exploring the novel’s winding passageways, its story of hurt, magic, and healing blooms around them. But so, too, do Lucy’s secrets—some big, some small—secrets Lucy kept hidden, even from her best friend. Over a summer in London, as Ellie peels back the layers of her friend’s life, she’s forced to confront her own as well: the marriage she left behind, the loss she’d hoped to escape. And suddenly Ellie’s carefully constructed existence is spinning out of control in a chain of events that will transform her life—and those around her— forever. A novel that will resonate in the heart of anyone who’s had a best friend, a love lost, or a past full of regrets, After You proves once again the unique and compelling talent of Julie Buxbaum.

Fuckin' Lie Down Already


Tom Piccirilli - 2003
    He always played by the rules until a two-bit junkie hit man destroyed his family and left him for dead. But Clay won't let himself lie down until he gets one last thing: revenge

SEAL The Deal


Kate Aster - 2013
    Yet she is the type of woman he wants to avoid – the kind that gets him thinking about settling down, spawning kids, and finding lower-mortality employment.Lacey has her own reasons for avoiding Mick. Tired of living in the shadow of her financial mogul sister, this real estate agent has tossed ethics aside to succeed in today’s beleaguered housing market. Her no-fail plan to land lucrative listings? Crashing the funerals of wealthy corpses with the hope their heirs will need to sell their homes.But when their circles of friends collide, Lacey can’t avoid Mick’s rock-hard abs and a smile that melts her into a pool of hot wax. Friendship blossoms and passion simmers... even as she struggles to conceal the unethical business plan that brought him into her life.SEAL the Deal is a full-length novel about the fine line that divides friendship and love, and the unexpected joy of crossing it.

Nothing Special


A.E. Via - 2014
    He's fresh out of the police academy, however, no one is looking to partner with the six foot four beast with a huge chip on his shoulder and an inability to trust. When Cash scans the orientation room he wasn't expecting to find sexy hazel eyes locked onto him. Eyes of the handsome Detective Leonidis 'Leo' Day.Leo is charming, witty, hilariously sarcastic and the only one that can make Cash smile. He’s proud, out and one bad-ass detective.Together Cash and Leo become the most revered and successful narcotics detectives Atlanta’s ever seen. Able to communicate and understand each other, without even having to voice it, they quickly climb up the promotional ranks.When Cash saves Leo's life in a raid that turns deadly, Leo begins to see something in the big man that no one else does…something special. But Leo fears he'll never break through the impenetrable wall that protects Cash's heart.Nothing Special takes the reader through various emotions throughout the richly fulfilling plot that’s full of erotic gay romance, heartache, passion, trials and tribulations, police action scenes, and an intriguing twist that comes to an amazing ending that’s impossible to see coming.

Die for You


Lisa Unger - 2008
    Then one ordinary morning, her husband, Marcus, picks up his briefcase, kisses her good-bye, and simply vanishes.That day, all her calls to him go straight to voice mail; the messages she leaves at his office go unreturned, too. Panicking after finally receiving a call from his cell phone in which all she can hear is a man's terrified cry, Isabel calls the police. But they aren't interested. Men leave, they tell her. They leave all the time. Desperate to find her husband, Isabel races to his office. But instead of finding him, she finds herself in the middle of an FBI raid. Hours later, she awakens in the hospital with a severe concussion and a homicide detective by her bedside waiting to question her about Marcus Raine-the real Marcus Raine.Now the only thing Isabel knows for sure is that her husband of five years is gone. Where is he and who is he are questions no one seems able to answer. But Isabel will not rest until she discovers the truth about the man she loves, even if it means risking everything--including her own life.New York Times bestselling master of suspense Lisa Unger takes us on a nightmarish journey from bustling, glamorous New York City to the twisted streets of Prague, seeking an answer to one bone-chilling question: What if the man you love, the one sleeping beside you, is a stranger?

The Girl She Used to Be


David Cristofano - 2009
    In this book, a woman who has lost her identity to the Witness Protection Program flirts with trusting her life to the Mafioso hired to kill her.

Secrets Exposed


Lisa Renee Jones - 2004
    Her enemy is her passion, her passion is her enemy.Lindsey Paxton was once the number one defense attorney in New York. She fought for those who were innocent, but charged. Her instincts were her lifeline, never failing her, as they guided her in her choices of who to defend. Or so she thought. Until she won a case she would forever wish to have lost. Her client, an accused rapist, kills and rapes a woman only a day after being set free. Destroyed by her role in the woman's death, Lindsey blames her father's controlling ways for what she has become, and runs from her career and life. Years later - the past becomes the present . . . Her father has cancer, and Lindsey is forced to leave her career with the Washington branch of the FBI. She finds herself facing the responsibility of running her father's law firm with the reluctant help of hotshot attorney Mark Reeves, a man who sparks her temper while also managing to tempt her body, her mind, maybe even her heart. With his help she finds herself fighting the emotional battles of the past, tempted to trust both him and her instincts. Now, faced with a case inherited from her father so similar to her career-ending one, she now must decide if her instincts will lead her down the path to saving an innocent man or setting free another killer. But while she fights her own battles, someone watches, wanting from the past what he had failed to get the first time . . . Lindsey.NOTE: Previously released as Hidden Instincts. Title change to indicate prelude to the new TALL, DARK, AND DEADLY trilogy coming in late 2011. I wrote this in 2004 and it was published by a library publisher and is in hardback in many libraries. You will meet the first Walker Brother-- Royce

Cutting Loose


Susan Andersen - 2008
    Jane thinks nothing can make her lose her cool. But the princess of propriety blows a gasket the night she meets the contractor restoring the Wolcott mansion. Devlin Kavanagh's rugged sex appeal may buckle her knees, but the man is out of control! Jane had to deal with theatrics growing up--she won't tolerate them in someone hired to work on the house she and her two best friends have inherited. Dev could renovate the mansion in his sleep. But ever since the prissy owner spotted him jet-lagged and hit hard by a couple of welcome-home drinks, she's been on his case. Yet there's something about her. Jane hides behind conservative clothes and a frosty manner, but her seductive blue eyes and leopard-print heels hint at a woman just dying to cut loose!

The President's Daughter


Mariah Stewart - 2002
    Attractive and independent at thirty, she runs her own business, funded by a generous inheritance. But an explosive chain of events will soon be set into motion--and her perfect life will spin out of control.A journalist with a fearless instinct, Simon Keller believes he's struck gold when he unearths an unsettling story about former president Graham Hayward, one that started with a secret affair and ended in tragedy. The trail leads Simon to Dina McDermott's front door--and threatens to expose a parentage that would rock the political world. Shaken to her core by a shattering truth, Dina is suddenly thrust into the crosshairs of a cold-blooded killer--and on the run of her life.

Saving Max


Antoinette van Heugten - 2010
    Until he's accused of murder.Attorney Danielle Parkman knows her teenage son Max's behavior has been getting worse—using drugs and lashing out. But she can't accept the diagnosis she receives at a top-notch adolescent psychiatric facility that her son is deeply disturbed. Dangerous.Until she finds Max, unconscious and bloodied, beside a patient who has been brutally stabbed to death.Trapped in a world of doubt and fear, barred from contacting Max, Danielle clings to the belief that her son is innocent. But has she, too, lost touch with reality? Is her son really a killer?With the justice system bearing down on them, Danielle steels herself to discover the truth, no matter what it is. She'll do whatever it takes to find the killer and to save her son from being destroyed by a system that's all too eager to convict him.

More Than Want You


Shayla Black - 2017
    Now I'm determined to have her for my own.I’m Maxon Reed—real estate mogul, shark, asshole. If a deal isn’t high profile and big money, I pass. Now that I’ve found the property of a lifetime, I’m jumping. But one tenacious bastard stands between me and success—my brother. I’ll need one hell of a devious ploy to distract cynical Griff. Then fate drops a luscious redhead in my lap who’s just his type.Sassy Keeley Kent accepts my challenge to learn how to become Griff’s perfect girlfriend. But somewhere between the makeover and the witty conversation, I’m having trouble resisting her. The quirky dreamer is everything I usually don’t tolerate. But she’s beyond charming. I more than want her; I’m desperate to own her. I’m not even sure how drastic I’m willing to get to make her mine—but I’m about to find out.Reed Family Reckoning: Siblings

Variable Onset


Layla Reyne - 2020
    Layla Reyne returns with a stand-alone romantic mystery. When the serial killer known as Dr. Fear seemingly reemerges after a cooling-off period, Special Agent Lincoln Monroe wants on the case. He knows his research on the calculating criminal, who targets couples and uses their worst fears to kill them, could prove invaluable. But nothing can prepare Lincoln for the agent waiting for him in Apex, Virginia: a brash and cocky former student. Carter Warren is everything Lincoln is not, and somehow everything he wants. And they’ll be going undercover. As newlyweds.For Carter, seeing Lincoln again—and flustered to boot—pokes his raging bear of a crush something fierce. He thinks posing as lovers will provide the perfect bait for Dr. Fear. But pretending to be married forces them to confront fears of their own…like giving in to the very real chemistry between them.With evidence pointing to the possibility of a copycat killer, Lincoln and Carter will have to race to separate truth from fiction. But when another couple goes missing, finding the killer will test every ounce of their training, skills and the strength of their bond like never before. This book is approximately 72,000 words