In a story I think would translate beautifully onto film, police detective Quinn and bodyguard Maddy find themselves playing a cat-and-mouse game with a killer who believes God has chosen him to enact justice.
(Seriously. This book seems like it's made to be a Lifetime movie ... a good one, not a ridiculous one.)
Intensity. Skill. Tenacity.
The bodyguards of Elite Guardians Agency have it all.
When Maddy McKay and Quinn Holcombe don't show up for Quinn's birthday party, his friends know that something is very wrong. Their search turns up little beyond evidence that Quinn and Maddy have vanished. And it soon becomes apparent that they did not leave of their own accord.
Maddy awakens in a cement room with no idea where she is. But it's not long before she realizes she's in the clutches of a madman who exacts revenge through games--hunting games. His prey of choice? Humans. Now Maddy and Quinn must run for their lives and outwit their killer when their game begins.
Because if they don't win this game . . . they die.
Moving Target, the third book in Lynette Eason's Elite Guardians series, is the perfect blend of romance and suspense. The suspense thread is strong—I didn't fully figure out who was behind the killings until right before Maddy and Quinn did—and the romance felt well-developed and not rushed.
One of my most frequent complaints regarding romantic suspense is that the short time period normally covered by suspense novels doesn't allow for the development of a natural, realistic romance; rather, the hero and heroine are pushed together under unnatural circumstances, where emotions fly high, but it's hard to believe that real love develops. Eason gets around this problem by having protagonists who already know each other well and have complicated feelings for each other. So while danger does give their relationship a kick in the pants, they were already well on their way to love when their lives were threatened.
So, yes, I enjoyed the romance.
I also loved the main plot. Eason gives the reader small glimpses into the brain of the "Chosen One" (as he calls himself), and those glimpses, when taken together, combine to pretty clearly identify the killer. But they're parsed out so slowly that they kept me guessing (and then made me feel pretty smart when I did figure it out). Plus, there were subplots involving Maddy's and Quinn's pasts and their relationships with their families that kept the novel from only being about the Chosen One's game and helped bring another level of interest to the novel.
The only problem I had with the book was that I struggled to keep track of all the characters. This is because some characters changed their names following a tragic event, and they are referred to by both their old and new names throughout. A character list would certainly have helped save some confusion!
While Moving Target is the third book in the Elite Guardians series, it stands alone, and it's my favorite so far in the series. It's satisfying, thought-provoking suspense. 4-1/2 stars.
Read an excerpt.
Buy the book.
Read my reviews of Eason's Without Warning (Elite Guardians #2, 4 stars), Nowhere to Turn (Hidden Identity #2, 4 stars), No Place to Hide (Hidden Identity #3, 4 stars), and Blackout (Sins of the Past novella collection, 5 stars).
Lynette Eason is the bestselling author of the Women of Justice series, the Deadly Reunions series, and the Hidden Identity series, as well as Always Watching and Without Warning in the Elite Guardians series. She is the winner of two ACFW Carol Awards, the Selah Award, and the Inspirational Readers' Choice Award. She lives in South Carolina. Learn more at www.lynetteeason.com.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Revell through the Revell Reads program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
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