Karen Rose is one of the OG romantic suspense authors for me, and one of the reasons I love the genre. Book 5 in her Cincinnati series, Into the Dark, is another exciting thriller. Over the course of, like, 23 books, she’s developed a whole world involving law enforcement and therapists and brave people who face and survive insurmountable odds. She writes anthems for our times, really. This was a particularly compelling book for me because the title really foretold the story—when one of the kids on Diesel Kennedy’s soccer team, Michael, and his brother show up at Diesel’s house, fleeing from their stepfather, he doesn’t hesitate to help them. He’s an ex-Army ranger, after all, even though he’s a journalist now … maybe he’s Superman? Because Michael is injured, Diesel takes them to Dr. Dani Novak, the woman he also happens to love. Layers of complexity dot the story, ranging from Michael’s deafness to Dr. Dani’s private reasons for resisting their attraction, and Diesel’s own issues from childhood, but Rose weaves them together in a fast-paced, compelling story that I’ve come to expect from her. Really, y’all, this is a terrific book.