Miranda Owen | Christmas Stalking and Other Holiday Romantic Suspense

Thoughts of Christmas tend to give some people a warm glow and they enjoy baking sweet treats, decorating with a multitude of colors and lights, and get together and watch a few holiday classics like It’s a Wonderful Life or A Charlie Brown Christmas. My favorite holiday film is A Child’s Christmas in Wales. For fun Christmas books, nothing beats Donna Andrews and her “Meg Langslow” cozy mystery series. While all these traditional treats are amazing, let me tell you about some equally amazing Christmas-themed romantic suspense stories by some of my favorite authors.

For me, Cynthia Eden is the best when it comes to romantic suspense. Her stories are always engaging, and she has a wonderful way of building suspense just as she builds the bond between her hero and heroine. Her newest book is called KISS ME THIS CHRISTMAS. It’s a standalone novel with tons of familiar romance tropes for readers to enjoy built around a gripping tale of holiday mischief mixed with malevolence. Noelle Lennon has always carried a torch for her brother’s BFF, Brady Breckridge. Brady is a special ops, alpha hottie. Unbeknownst to Noelle, Brady has been infatuated with her for almost as long. Brady was one of those “push her away for her own good” type of guys. Thankfully when the story opens, he’s realizing the error of his ways, and he’s done pushing Noelle away and not telling her how he really feels about her. When Noelle gets a stalker for Christmas, her brother gets Brady to be her personal bodyguard. This is a perfect opportunity for Brady to show his true love how important she is to him.  As with any Cynthia Eden novel, the steamy scenes are well-written, but the sexual tension and longing the main characters feel are on par with the sense of danger presented by the unknown stalker.

Another favorite Cynthia Eden story is ONE HOT HOLIDAY. In this book, Haley Quick is running away from an abusive ex. While hiding out in the charming small town of Point Hope, Alabama, Haley runs into sheriff Spencer Lane. Spencer is like all your fantasies of a hot lawman and cowboy combined. And he happens to be her new landlord. I loved ONE HOT HOLIDAY because it has the perfect balance of small-town flirty romance mixed with adrenaline-spiked thrills. This also has the Cynthia Eden trademark of not pinning down who the criminal mastermind is. The reader has fun guessing who the real villain is and what his motives are, along with swooning over the clinches and kisses.

CHRISTMAS STALKING by Ella Goode has some of the same thrills as a Cynthia Eden romantic suspense with some of the goofiness of SANTA MATERIAL by MINK. Like the heroine of Cynthia Eden’s ONE HOT HOLIDAY, artist Annabella “Bella” Cane is hiding out – not from an abusive ex, but from an unknown stalker. She tries to find some peace in a small town but instead has her neighbor Marly accuse her of using witchcraft to stop her chickens from producing eggs. Marly drags her brother, Jackson Knight – the owner of a fancy security company – to check Bella out. Check her out he does and instantly falls head over heels for her. There is a lot of cute banter between the main and supporting characters as Jackson woos Bella and digs around trying to figure out the stalker’s identity. My only issue with this story is that, while there is an epilogue giving readers a glimpse of the main characters’ lives in the future, I was hoping for more of a “Scooby Doo big reveal” when it comes to unmasking the villain. Still a sexy and satisfying holiday romance though.

In SANTA MATERIAL, MINK’s hero Mac is one of her former assassin-with a heart of gold heroes settling in retirement. Mac is crushing big time over his extremely self-sufficient neighbor Jocelyn. What Mac doesn’t know, is how many times Jocelyn has tried to engineer a romantic and totally natural way for him to fall for her. Both characters are adorable in their pining for each other and secret planning to win the perfect mate. The wrench in their plans is when Jocelyn believes she accidentally killed Santa. The jingle, jingle, jingle she constantly hears after that is an amusing take on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. A nagging elf named Cinnamon might be the true villain of this piece. Priceless. Mac is an example of a hero who people might be quick to judge too quickly based on his beefy bodybuilder physique, and the lingering bad guy aura from his criminal heyday. When it comes to the woman he loves, and his pet cat, he’s a protective softie.

Miranda Owen is the Editorial Manager, as well as a senior reviewer for Fresh Fiction. You can find more of her articles and reviews here.