Take My Hand

Therapist Kaley Colbert is targeted by the Tampa mafia in this suspenseful romance from Parnell (the Rogues series). Hours before Kaley is scheduled to leave on a ski trip to North Carolina with her church group, she has to cover for a colleague and conducts an emergency therapy session with his client Anthony Casale, a “disturbed” man with shadowy ties to underground crime whose incoherent ramblings unsettle her. Afterward, she joins her church group and sets off on the trip, though she’s anxious about being around her ex-boyfriend, Reef, who is also attending the outing. Then Anthony turns up dead less than a day after his session with Kaley, setting his erstwhile accomplices on a hunt for her to see what he might have told her. Meanwhile, Kaley and Reef rediscover their old spark, but Kaley starts to suspect strange men are following her and she becomes stressed and withdrawn. By the time Reef realizes that Kaley’s life may be in danger, she has disappeared from the slopes, and he must trust in God to keep her safe until he can find her. While Anthony’s ties to the Tampa mafia and their interest in him go underdeveloped, Kaley and Reef’s relationship keeps the plot moving. Romance makes up for some hazy criminal intrigue in this one. (Dec.)