Thursday, December 17, 2020

About the Book

Book: Rocky Mountain Revenge Rocky Mountain Revenge Cover

Author: Rhonda Starnes

Genre: Inspirational Romantic Suspense

Release Date: July, 2020

To survive her deadly homecoming, she’ll need to trust a man from her past…

Temporarily home to help at her family’s vet clinic, Grace Porter has no intentions of staying—but someone’s determined she won’t live long enough to leave. With both Grace and her sister in the crosshairs, her ex-boyfriend, Police Chief Evan Bradshaw, must protect them. But can the single dad lawman uncover the truth about why a killer’s out for vengeance before time runs out?

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About the Author

Rhonda Starnes is a middle school language arts teacher who has dreamed of being a published author since she was in seventh grade. She lives in North Alabama with her husband, who she lovingly refers to as Mountain Man. They enjoy traveling and spending time with their children and grandchildren. Rhonda writes romantic suspense with rugged heroes and feisty heroines.

More from Rhonda

Probably the number one question any author receives is “How did you come up with the idea for the story?”

When the Love Inspired editors announced, in February 2019, they were hosting The Great Love Inspired Author Search, I knew I had to enter. After all I’d spent the last six years targeting the Harlequin Love Inspired lines. This would be my fourth time entering one of their pitch contests, my third pitching to Love Inspired Suspense. The only problem was I didn’t have anything new to enter. They’d already seen all of my manuscripts.

I follow the Love Inspired editors on social media, so I had read several posts on themes and settings they’d like to see. One editor had even mentioned Colorado as a setting she’d like to see in a book. This started my wheels turning because my husband and I lived in Colorado for a few months when we were first married. We loved our time there and have often talked about going back one day. I started researching parts of the state that we didn’t get to visit when we lived there, and then I created the fictional small town of Blackberry Falls.

I’d had an idea in the back of my head for while about a story that involved a heroine who wasn’t in law enforcement but who witnessed a crime while on video chat. That’s how I came up with Grace Porter, a veterinarian who had run away from her small-town roots. And what’s a homecoming story without a reunion romance? Enter, Police Chief Evan Bradshaw, the man Grace had left behind. Once I had the opening scene, main character, and setting in place, everything else just kind of evolved from there.

MY REVIEW

My oh my is this an intriguing story. I was swept away into an adventure from the beginning. It was fun to read about a small town where everyone watches out for each other. I did like Grace but at times she seemed a bit gullible. When her sister and her are in danger you could feel the tension rise. Coming back to where she grew up might have been a big mistake for Grace.

Someone is determined to kill Grace and her sister and I began to try to figure out who was behind the plan. Evan and Grace have a history but right now all the chief of police wants to do is focus on keeping Grace safe. I loved getting a behind the scenes look at horse racing. How sad it is that people will do evil things to make sure a horse wins. The mystery takes a scary turn when Grace comes up missing. I did think it was weird that Grace would fall for a trick to get her into a car with a suspect. I had a hard time believing she was easily persuaded to go with this person.

The story is good, but there are a few places where I think the author could have made the story more believable. Grace let’s her guard down too much and puts herself in harms way even though Evan has warned her to never be alone. The romance between them was good but I knew what the outcome would be. I liked the story but wanted a bit more suspense and less predictable outcome.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.