HOLD YOUR BREATH - Katie Ruggle
Search and Rescue , Book 1
Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN-13: 978-0-492-62817-4
April 2016
Romantic Suspense

Field County in the Colorado Rockies - Present Day

Louise Sparks (Lou) is part of the Field County Rescue Dive Team, and today, jumping into thirty two degree water is a far cry from diving into the warm waters off the coast of Jamaica, but Lou loves her volunteering and diving, and she loves helping people.  For all of her twenty six years, she did what her parents wanted, went to law school, took the bar exam, but then decided that their life was not for her, so she left Connecticut as fast as she could, moving as far away as possible to Colorado.  She left behind her staid parents and the man they chose for her, Benton Lloyd. She refused to be sold into a marriage she did not want to a man she didn't like.  Here, in Colorado, she lives a life she can call her own.  She barely makes ends meet, but she's happy working at The Coffee Spot and volunteering.

When Lou finds a dead body under the ice during a rescue, her life changes.  First a dead body, then in a string of other unconnected occurrences; she finds a flat tire to go with the one she found a couple days ago.  Callum Cook, the only paid member of the dive team and her boss, follows her to the repair shop then offers her a ride to her small cabin, twenty miles into the hills.  It's clear that someone slashed her tires, and Lou is mystified.  She isn't fighting with anyone; she knows very few people in this small town.  Why would someone want to hurt her?

Meanwhile, someone is watching Lou.  They hide outside her cabin waiting for her to return home.  They follow her everywhere, to work, then home again, spying through her uncovered windows at night while she dresses, then while she sleeps.  Lou thinks she's all alone in her cabin in the woods, but they are watching.

HOLD YOUR BREATH is a suspenseful romantic mystery that keeps the reader's attention far into the night.  Lou feels she has an obligation to the dead man she found in the lake.  She is driven to discover why he died and who killed him.  Warned off investigating by her friends and Sheriff Rob, she can't help herself.  She looks for clues, unintentionally drawing Callum into her investigative foray.  Callum only wants to keep Lou safe, and dead body aside, he knows someone is trying to harm Lou, so he sticks close.

HOLD YOUR BREATH is the first in Katie Ruggle's new Search and Rescue Series .  The second book, FAN THE FLAMES, (Also a dynamite book!) is coming in June, so hold on tight and watch for the review!  HOLD YOUR BREATH is a page turner full of romance, pulse pounding suspense, and lots of mystery.  The characters are a little quirky, but you'll love them.  There is Belly Leopold, the local coroner; Ivy, Lou's boss at the Coffee Spot; members of the dive team, Derek and Whit; one gorgeous firefighter, Ian, (who gets his own story in FAN THE FLAMES), and Smelly Jim, a local homeless man Lou befriends.

HOLD YOUR BREATH is a great book!

Diana Risso