Targeted Blog Tour, Review, and Giveaway #LoneStarLit

Anthologies are always a great opportunity to discover new authors and stories and TARGETED is an excellent example of this. This a collection of three romantic suspense novellas by Lynette Eason, Lynn Blackburn, and Natalie Walters. While I haven’t read books by any of these authors previously, I certainly have added to my TBR list after reading these novellas!

ON THE RUN by Lynette Eason: In this novel, we have a twist on the usual! This time around, we have female FBI agent, Daria, doing the protecting and keeping Ryker and others safe. I really liked this twist! ON THE RUN is action packed from the start, which really drew me into the story. The romance between Daria and Ryker is a whirlwind. They know of each other due to tangential connections but have never met. The story is told from alternating points of view, which gives the reader insight into what is happening with both characters, rather than all from Daria’s pov. For a short novella, I felt like I really got to know Daria and Ryker as characters. Conversational writing and tone result in a quick and fun read. My only real struggle with reading this novel is there are a lot of other characters thrown into the story who are connected to Daria and/or Ryker, but who I have no context or knowledge base. I’m guessing they are introduced in other novels by Ms. Eason. Which means more books added to my TBR!

DEADLY OBJECTIVE by Lynn Blackburn: In the case for not having to pick a favorite, this novella wins the top trophy from me. There’s just something about the flirting and work-place romance between Emily and Liam that I adored. Like the other novellas, DEADLY OBJECTIVE shows excellent character development in a short amount of time. Emily begins the story adamantly not interested in dating anyone who puts his life on the line for a living. And I feel this! I also don’t know that I’d want to be in a relationship with someone when I’d have to spend a lot of time wondering if they were injured or even coming home. But luckily Liam manages to turn around those feelings! 😉 He even manages to convince Emily that she might enjoy camping. That takes some true convincing if you ask me! The suspense and general threats to the characters is palpable when reading. The bonus epilogue cleans up the ending of this novella very nicely.

CAUGHT IN THE CORSSHAIRS by Natalie Walters: Hints of humor and lots of nerdy pop culture references hooked me for this novella. Plus, a James Bond comparison for agent Ari Blackman!

I chuckled my way through this novella. Ms. Walters wrote some great banter! Most of the action is at the front of this novella; the remainder is political intrigue, spying, and mystery solving. Having both Claudia and Ari as agents is an excellent twist, as they are both capable of doing any rescuing needed. Like ON THE RUN, there are some other characters and backstory introduced which could have used more clarification, but are probably in other stories written by Ms. Walters.

These stories balance one another with strong female lead characters, exceptional character development, and plenty of action to keep my interest! Pick this up if you are interested in some fast reads and discovering three excellent and new (to me at least!) authors.

Thanks to authors Lynette Eason, Lynn Blackburn, and Natalie Walters and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing this opportunity to review TARGET. I received the novel free in exchange for my honest review.

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