One Touch More

September 14, 2015
Baxter’s third U.S. Marshals novel (after One Kiss More) is a nail-biting, sensual romantic thriller. Undercover marshal Parker Evans, using the alias Damien, is on the trail of a major drug lord when he meets assistant hotel manager Tabitha Martin. The attraction is immediate and mutual, but he thinks she’s an accomplice to one of the ring’s dealers. Tabitha, the daughter of two addicts, is trying to keep her brother, Seth, on the straight and narrow while she studies to become a nurse. Unfortunately, her no-good ex-boyfriend is threatening Seth in order to blackmail Tabitha into helping with drug deals. The man she knows as Damien is hot beyond words, but his tattoos and tough attitude remind her all too much of her ex. Assumptions will be challenged right and left—assuming that Tabitha, Parker, and Seth can stay alive long enough to sort the whole mess out. Skillful plot twists are interspersed with red-hot love scenes, keeping the pages turning. Agent: Natanya Wheeler, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

September 15, 2015
U.S. marshal Parker Evans, despite becoming seriously jaded by undercover narcotics work, goes one more time to help capture a major drug dealer, Joey Cavallo, and falls hard for hotel manager Tabitha Martin. He soon learns that Tabitha is basically a hostage to Joey, who has threatened to turn her brother in if she doesn't allow him to sell his wares at the hotel. When she confesses during postcoital pillow talk exactly what Joey has on her brother, Parker has no choice but to arrest them and ask for their help in capturing not only Joey but also the big gun he works for. Tabitha feels betrayed, and in a dramatic climax, she nearly gets killed. For all the suspense, Baxter does engineer a satisfyingly happy ending. The explicit sex scenes are very well written, and the two main characters, with Parker's point of view central, are compelling. Good romantic suspense from Baxter (One Kiss More, 2015) in the third title in her U.S. Marshals series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)