Dangerous Dragonflies: Meet the 2015 Golden Heart Romantic Suspense Finalists

Danger. Heat. Romantic suspense delivers thrills and chills with a happily ever after. It is my pleasure to introduce the 2015 Golden Heart® Romantic Suspense finalists. They are sure to be rising stars in the genre.




Jessica Darago

Jessica Darago is a two-time Golden Heart finalist, an American Title Finalist, and a Golden Pen winner. SCANDAL was inspired by her 30-year love affair with the Sherlock Holmes stories and raises the question no other adaptation of "A Scandal in Bohemia" has: "What if Irene Adler was framed?"

A modern retelling set in a gritty underworld of rogue spies and freelance terrorists operating just beneath London's glamorous surface, SCANDAL follows Renee Norton, a successful American actress with a murky past, and Will Gillette, a former MI6 operative whose brilliant mind and personal demons do daily battle. When Renee's diplomat ex-boyfriend accuses her of blackmail, Will thinks catching the woman will prove his worth to his former superiors and get him back in the game. But when the chase turns deadly, and Renee proves a worthy (and intriguing) adversary, he won't just have to stop Renee, he'll have to win her over to his side. Because he's no longer just trying to stop a scandal; if Renee's secrets get out, millions of lives will pay the price.

Social media:
Twitter: @justjayj


Brynn Kelly

Brynn Kelly is a New Zealand journalist and author whose Golden Heart-nominated debut manuscript will be published by Harlequin's HQN single title imprint in 2016.

DECEPTION ISLAND is a romantic thriller in which a rogue French Foreign Legion officer and a Californian conwoman reluctantly team up to fight modern-day pirates and slave traders in the azure waters and steamy jungles of an Indian Ocean paradise.

Find her at www.facebook.com/brynnkellyauthor, on Twitter @brynnwrites, and at brynnkelly.com.


Arlene McFarlane

They say write what you know. Arlene owned and operated a full-service salon for thirteen years, and because she loved reading comic mysteries, she combined her knowledge of all things beauty with all things comedic, and the Murder, Curlers series was born.

Blurb for Murder, Curlers, and Cream: Valentine Beaumont is in for a hair-raising shock when her spoiled client, socialite Portia Reynolds, is strangled right under her nose. Unfortunately, a dead customer in the beauty industry is not exactly a drawing card, and Valentine feels obligated to find the killer. She learns Portia had more kinks than curls in her personal life and, as she untangles the mystery, she finds out just how nasty Portia was. With Guccis on her feet, a bag of tools-of-the-trade over her shoulder, a hard-nosed cop on her back, and a kooky cast of characters in her midst, will Valentine survive her own investigation?

Arlene is currently seeking representation.

Website: www.arlenemcfarlane.com


Tracy Poole

A Shot Worth Taking blurb: After stopping terrorists from detonating a dirty bomb, Special Ops soldier Tony Vincenti and FBI linguist Angela Hoffman intend for their next joint mission to involve under-the-covers work, only someone wants to cash in on a contract on Angela’s life. With little evidence to support their suspicions of who is trying to kill her, Tony must convince Angela to violate her own ethics to expose the would-be assassin before they can get a shot at a future together.

Tracy is currently unagented, but seeking representation.  She is working on book three of her series about the Bad Karma Spec Ops -- who's love lives are just as dangerous as their missions.

You can find Tracy spending too much time on Facebook at Tracy Poole (she'd love for you to Like her page *:D big grin)  and occasionally remembering to tweet @BadKarmaWriter.


Sharon Wray

A librarian/archivist who also studied dress design in the couture houses of Paris, Sharon is an eight-time RWA Golden Heart Romantic Suspense author (who is a double Golden Heart finalist this year) repped by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency. In her spare time, she snaps photos of her family and her garden while negotiating backyard territory rights with her dog Donut. Sharon lives in Northern Virginia with her three biggest supporters — her amazing husband and twin teenagers. As she waits for the “call”, Sharon writes stories of adventure, suspense and love and blogs at some of her favorite romance sites:

www.sharonwray.com

www.kissandthrill.com  (Romantic Suspense and other things that do the night-bumps!)

www.ghfirebirds.com  (where she joins her 2012 Golden Heart class for all things romance writing)


She can also be found on:
Facebook: Sharon Wray Author
Twitter: @sharonbwray
Pinterest: Sharon Wray
Instagram: sbwray

Book 1: Hope Craves an Execution

When Sarah Monroe, a strong-willed historian, attempts to solve the last unbreakable Revolutionary War cipher, she draws the attention of a ruthless arms dealer. Now her life, and the secret hidden within the cipher, is at the mercy of ex-Green Beret Major Nate Walker, a man who suffers from seizures, memory loss, and regret. A man whose SF unit is serving life sentences for murders they didn’t commit. A man determined to do anything to save his men, prove their innocence, and take down the arms dealer, even if it means betraying the woman he loves.

Book 2: Every Unworthy Thing

When Madeleine Ashton, a Charleston, SC couturier and socialite, is targeted by an arms dealer in search of a 17th Century secret hidden in tunnels under her city, her last hope to save her family is Alex Mitchell: ex-con, ex-Army Ranger, and the baddest boy she’s ever met. Alex, besides being forsaken by his family and damned by the price on his head, has a secret — he used to work for the arms dealer. And when he’s given the opportunity to do so again, he must choose between a life of unlimited money and power and the prim and proper woman who’s stolen his heart.