Review: High-Caliber Holiday by Susan Sleeman

Held hostage on a train, ex-lawyer Morgan Thorsby finds her powers of persuasion failing her for the first time. Former marine sniper Brady Owens is her only hope—but his split-second hesitation on the trigger leaves her wounded. Yet when an obsessed stalker threatens Morgan, Brady steps up. Protecting someone so tough and beautiful is hardly a chore, but Brady pulls back every time they get close. Morgan isn’t ready for the connection forming between them, either, but she knows she needs his help. Can Brady capture the culprit in time for Christmas?

High-Caliber Holiday is the third book in Susan Sleeman’s First Responders series.  You can read my reviews of the first two books – Silent Night Standoff and Explosive Alliance – by clicking on each of their names.

Both Silent Night Standoff and Explosive Alliance were packed with action – gun shots, fist fights, murder attempts, bombs, houses being ransacked, kidnappings- every time the characters turned around.  While High-Caliber Holiday has a little less action, that doesn’t mean you can relax while reading it!  This novel is more of a psychological thriller and boy are there some disturbed bad guys running around in this one!! These are the scariest kind of villains to me because they mess with your mind more than your body – although the body is in danger more than once in High-Caliber Holiday too!  Susan Sleeman does a marvelous job of crafting this chilling plot – keeping it believable and potent.

Brady and Morgan are a great combination, and I really enjoyed the chemistry between them (which comes as no surprise to anyone reading this, I’m sure).  Cash is still my favorite (from Explosive Alliance) but Brady certainly had his own appeal! Plus, Cash shows up from time to time … I’m pretty sure just for me 🙂

Speaking of Cash – as always, my favorite part of Susan’s First Responders series is the First Response Squad itself.  I just love these characters and how they really are a family unit despite not being related.  I love how they have each other’s backs, how they tease back and forth, how they work together as a team. As friends.  As family. And that firehouse they live in? I’m going on record right now to say I want one, please.

Bottom Line: Susan Sleeman takes a small amount of space and fills it up with high-caliber action, suspense and romance until you forget you are reading a shorter-length novel.  Her First Response Squad reminds me in all the best ways of Dee Henderson’s O’Malley family (there’s a crossover idea for a publisher somewhere!).  I just can’t say enough good things about these books – get them. read them. You’ll love them.

(I received a copy of this book in exchange for only my honest review.)

About the Author:

Susan is the bestselling author of Christian/inspirational and clean reads romantic suspense and mysteries. She grew up in a small Wisconsin town where she spent her summers reading Nancy Drew and developing a love of mystery and suspense books. Today, she channels this enthusiasm into writing romantic suspense and mystery novels and hosting the popular internet website TheSuspenseZone.com.

Much to her husband’s dismay, Susan loves to look at everyday situations and turn them into murder and mayhem scenarios for future novels. If you’ve met Susan, she has probably figured out a plausible way to kill you and get away with it. Don’t worry, she’d never follow through on it.

Susan currently lives in Oregon, but has had the pleasure of living in nine states. Her husband is a realtor and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law and an adorable grandson. In her spare time, you can find her enjoying her grandson, reading, gardening or working on TheSuspenseZone.com.  You can also connect with Susan at her website.