Grace Under Fire

May 30, 2022
Bestseller Garwood (Wired) entices with this high-intensity romantic suspense novel. Recent college graduate Grace MacKenna is in Boston to celebrate her sister’s husband’s parents’ anniversary when she stumbles into an active crime scene. While walking from her hotel, a shooting victim running from his assailant collapses into her. His would-be killer quickly follows, and, though traumatized, Isabel manages to grab the victim’s gun and shoot the attacker before he can do any more damage. Michael Buchanan, a Navy SEAL turned attorney and Grace’s least favorite of her sister’s husband’s brothers, meets her at the police station, quickly appoints himself as her lawyer and bodyguard, and helps her field questions from cops. Michael even follows Isabella on a trip to Scotland the following week to claim the land she inherited from a great uncle, determined to protect her and worried that her involvement in the shooting may not have been an accident. Indeed, Michael and his FBI agent brothers soon discover that there’s a price on Isabel’s head. As Isabel and Michael work together to untangle this mystery, the simmering attraction between them only grows. Garwood delivers plenty of twists to keep the suspense brewing and a subplot about Grace’s potential music career adds color. Readers will be hooked. Agent: Andrea Cirillo, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

June 1, 2022

This latest addition to Garwood's long-running "Buchanan-Renard" series (following Wired) is a steamy, opposites-attract, romantic suspense novel with a scattered, somewhat rambling storyline. All Grace Isabel MacKenna wants is to take a walk in the Boston sunshine. Zoning out and writing a song in her head, she doesn't pay attention to where she's going. When she finally realizes she's lost, she hears gunshots, and a bleeding man turns the corner and falls into her arms. His pursuer charges after him, and without thinking, Isabel picks up the bloody man's gun and fires, killing the attacker. Isabel's family sends Michael Buchanan, ex-Navy SEAL and attorney, to make sure she's okay. When it turns out Isabel was the intended target, Michael appoints himself bodyguard. Though they give in to the attraction between them, spending a few nights in each other's arms, they both agree that a long-term relationship between this inflexible alpha male and talkative, empathic dreamer would never work. VERDICT Fans of the series will clamor for this book, which can also be read as a standalone.--Heather Miller Cover

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 30, 2022
Not paying attention could prove deadly for Grace Isabel MacKenna. Arriving in Boston for a Buchanan family celebration, Grace sets off on a walk only to become distracted while composing a song in her head. Unexpectedly finding herself in a sketchy part of the city, Grace witnesses two men exchanging gunfire. When one man goes down, Isabel rushes to help him, only to find his gun in her hands and her hands pulling the trigger at the other shooter. Now part of an ongoing police investigation, Grace must not only put her upcoming travel plans to Scotland on hold, she must also reluctantly rely on the help of annoying yet sexy former Navy SEAL turned lawyer Michael Buchanan to help her sort things out. Some readers may find the impossibly perfect protagonists in Garwood's (Wired, 2017) latest a bit much to embrace, but many fans of this literary legend will enthusiastically welcome her return to the romance genre with a fast-paced and suspenseful tale successfully told with her stylish brand of storytelling.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.