Ooh, let’s celebrate the weekend with a sexy, former marine with a heart of gold … it’s gonna be hard to not fall in love with big, bad, gruff Brogan!

*****

Finding Peace

Baytown Boys Book 4

by Maryann Jordan

Release Date October 27, 2017

Blurb:

The Baytown Boys Mysteries

Military duty called them away to war zones, but after tours overseas, the group of friends found their way back home as men, seeking the peaceful little seaside town. Now, the band of brothers, together once more, work to provide a place for less fortunate veterans to call home.

Brogan MacFarlane, a former Marine, filled his days with hard work at the family bar and his nights running along the shore to rid himself of the war memories he would rather forget. But there was one thing in town that provided a distraction…the pretty cop with the haunted eyes.

Ginny Spencer loved the small, shore town and her job, as long as she could keep people at arm’s length. Former Army Military Police, she carried her own battle scars deep inside and that was just where she planned on keeping them. If only the surly bartender with the Irish blue eyes did not make her long for more.

When reports of a Peeping Tom in town escalate to a man accosting women, Ginny and the Baytown police work to find the culprit, but for her, it opens wounds she would rather forget. Brogan, seeing her pain, steps in, no longer willing to sit on the sidelines. And in doing so, allows her to soothe his nightmares as well.

When two scarred souls come together, their love allows them to find the peace they’ve been seeking.

Due to scenes of an explicit sexual nature and language that some consider crude, please be warned – for 18+ only! If you do not like alphas with heart who fall instantly in love with strong female characters while dealing with real life issues…again be warned!!

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*****

Excerpt:

“You want to tell me what happened last night?”

Brogan looked over at Aiden, standing at the bar with a dishtowel slung over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Ginny,” Aiden replied, rolling his eyes. “Who else?” Still staring, he added, “And I saw you high-tail it after her when she left suddenly.”

“She wasn’t feeling well, so I wanted to make sure she got home okay.” Brogan lifted a heavy crate of alcohol and moved it to the bar, where he opened it and began to sort the liquor. Not hearing anything from Aiden, he dared to glance up, not surprised to see his inquisitive brother still staring. “You got something to say?” he growled.

“Yeah, I do,” Aiden said, tossing the rag down onto the bar with a slap. “You never were Mr. Talkative, so I don’t expect that. But after you got outta the Marines, you sure as shit came home different.” Jerking his hand up, he said, “I know. I know. We all came back changed, some just older and wiser. But you…you’re different, Bro. It’s like you’ve dug a hole, buried yourself, and have been content to stay there.”

Grimacing, Brogan remained silent, wanting to refute Aiden’s description but not willing to lie.

“At least until recently.”

At those words from Aiden, Brogan looked up, his brow knitted in question. “Recently?” he asked.

Nodding, Aiden placed his forearms on the bar as he leaned forward. “Yeah. The first couple of years we were back, we threw ourselves into taking over Finn’s. You worked harder than anybody, but we all just figured you needed the work to keep focused—”

“We?”

Aiden rolled his eyes. “Are you shittin’ me, Brogan? Of course, we. Hell, you think in this family, anything is hidden from Pops, Mom, Dad? Sure-as-shit not Katelyn.”

Silence acknowledged Aiden’s words, so he kept going. “You grew your hair…so did I. Mom hated it but we both had that finally out of the militaryrebellion thing going on.” Seeing Brogan about to speak, he added, “Okay, that’s what I had. What you had going on was an I don’t give a fuck what Ilook like.”

Brogan’s lips twitched, knowing Aiden hit the nail on the head. He really had not given a fuck what anyone thought since getting out.

“Then suddenly Ms. Spencer shows up in town as the new cop, and a pretty one at that, and we all see you’re interested. Oh, I know you tried to hide it, but hell, Brogan, you’d have to be dead not to get a walking hard-on when she’s around.”

At that, Brogan growled, stepping forward, his fist at the ready. Laughing, Aiden danced back from the bar, now safely out of reach.

“Sorry, Bro. I just had to get that in there to see what your reaction would be.

*****

Review:

This is the first in this series for me but it didn’t matter from a story perspective (this one can easily stand on its own).  I think that returning readers may have been a bit more amp’d for this one, though, because it looks like Brogan and Ginny’s story has been a long time coming 🙂

So there is two main parts of the story – the romance and the peeping tom mystery.  I’m gonna start with the love story, which I really enjoyed.  Both Brogan and Ginny have some things in their past that they need to address, with a professional and with each other, to be able to build a solid relationship.  I think that my favorite thing that Jordan does is make sure that these military vets get help from a therapist and have a chance to talk about their pasts & work on their issues.  It is such a hot topic today and one that I think she handles really well.

And working through their troubles help bring Brogan and Ginny closer.  They’ve apparently been doing this dance for a long time 🙂 so they don’t need a lot of build up but their finally getting together is handled very realistically.  (The writing style isn’t the smoothest, especially at the beginning, but once I carried through the early rough parts things started working for me.)  Their’s is a wonderful slow-burn romance that is finally seeing it’s HEA ending and it’s a sweet ride, especially for those who have been there from the beginning.

The other piece of the story, though it is a bit less important, is the peeping tom case.  I’m not sure how well the suspense portion of the other stories were done, but it wasn’t the strongest part here.  There are a lot of red herrings and not a lot of hints to who actually did it.   Instead you get attitude from lots of people, without explanation in some cases, so readers are busy looking in a lot of different directions but with clear clues lacking it seemed a little like the bad guy came out of nowhere.

BUUUUT to me this part of the story was really a catalyst for Ginny to address her feelings and for the two of them to work on some potential trigger points for their relationship.  It’s not as vital to the story as it could have been so I easily let it go in favor of a satisfying coupling. 

And Ginny & Brogan getting together definitely made me happy!

*****

Author Info:

As an Award Winning, Amazon International Bestselling and All-Star author, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble Best Selling Author, I have always been an avid reader. In 2013 I started a blog to showcase wonderful writers. In 2014, I finally gave in to the characters in my head pleading for their story to be told. Thus, Emma’s Home was created.

My first novel, Emma’s Home became an Amazon Best Seller in 3 categories within the first month of publishing. Its success was followed by the rest of the Fairfield Series and then led into the Love’s Series. Soon, other spin-off series came along and 8 of my books have made Amazon top 100 Bestselling books.

Gabe, from the Alvarez Security Series won Silver Medal and 5 Star Review by the 2016 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Honor Love was an award winning novel from the 2016 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Serial Love was an award finalist novel from the 2016 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Coming Home was awarded the 5 Star Review by the 2017 Reader’s Choice Awards.

My books are filled with sweet romance and hot sex; mystery, suspense, real life characters and situations. My heroes are alphas, take charge men who love the strong, independent women they fall in love with.

I worked as a counselor in a high school and have been involved in education for the past 30 years. I have just retired and look forward to more time with family and writing!

I have been married to a wonderfully patient man for 36 years and have 2 adult, very supportive daughters.

When writing, my dog or one of my cats will usually be found in my lap!

I love to hear from readers, so please email me!

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*****