Jenna Bennett – Finding You is featured in the HBS Author's Spotlight Showcase

The Showcase is a special feature of the Author's Spotlight. It is designed to highlight Spotlight author's NEW releases and their soon to be released novels.

The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Jenna Bennett New Book: Finding You.

Author Jenna Bennett a.k.a. Jennie Bentley is the NYT and USA International bestselling author of Mystery Novels. Jennie writes the Do-It-Yourself Mystery series and Jenna authors the Savannah Martin Mysteries series.

Finding You

Sex on the Beach Book 2

Author: Jenna Bennett


AVAILABLE
Amazon


Sex on the Beach, the do-over.

Cassie Wilder had a simple plan for what to do in Key West the second time around.

Testify at the trial of the rapist she helped catch last year.

Make sure he gets locked away for the rest of his natural life, so he can never, ever hurt another girl.

Wait for her BFFs to get to town, so they can celebrate.

And stay far away from Ty Connor, because three months after breaking up with him, she still doesn’t know whether being with him is worse than being without him.

Spring Break, take two.

All of the above? Out the window.

Turns out testifying is a lot harder than she thought it would be.

Not only is the rapist she helped catch last year not locked away for the rest of his life, he’s on the loose and looking for her.

Oh yeah, and it’s definitely harder being without Ty than being with him, especially when she has to watch him with someone else.

Welcome to Cassie’s world.

Prologue

My relationship with Ty Connor lasted six months before hitting the skids.

We met in Key West in March, he came to Chicago in May, and we broke up the day before Thanksgiving.

It wasn’t because of another girl, or even another guy. It wasn’t because I didn’t love him anymore. It wasn’t because he didn’t love me. He said he did, and I believed him.

No, it was a lot simpler than that.

It was his job.

I was still in college, finishing up my last year at UC. Journalism. Ty was four years older, and had been working for the FBI for the past two years.

Yes, that FBI. My boyfriend was a Fed. An undercover agent. That’s how I met him. He’d been in Florida for Spring Break to catch a serial rapist, one who preyed on college girls coming to Key West to get drunk and get laid. I got involved in the investigation when I got involved with Ty, and things escalated from there.

The bad guy was behind bars now, and would go on trial in March, just as Spring Break was about to kick off again. I’d have to fly down to testify.

But after all that went down, Ty transferred to the Chicago office so we could be together.

And my life was complete—sort of—until I learned that life with an FBI agent is hard.

We’d been dating for less than a month the first time he disappeared.

All I got was a text on my way to class one morning: Gotta go to work. Back in a week. Love.

Sure.

I mean, I worried, of course. I knew what he did for a living. He hunted down rapists and infiltrated street gangs and arrested drug dealers and had the occasional run-in with pedophiles who had convinced him to cross state lines for immoral purposes, violating something he said was called the Mann Act. He dealt with a lot of bad people. Bad things could happen to him.

Someone could hurt him, or kill him. He could disappear—really disappear—and I’d never know what happened.

A week passed, and he didn’t write and he didn’t call. I got angry, and then I got scared, and then I got more angry and more scared. I also didn’t sleep, and missed a couple of assignments

I should have aced because I was too tired to think straight. If this kept up, I’d end up having to take my last year of college again, and that wouldn’t make my parents happy. Me either, for that matter.

He returned a couple of weeks later, like nothing was wrong, and after I’d hugged him and kissed him and touched him and made sure he was in one piece, he told me that this was the way it was going to be. The Bureau needed him to go undercover, so he went. He was good at it. He could still pass for seventeen with a little effort. There weren’t a lot of agents who could, so it was important that he do what he could while he could still do it. If I didn’t want to deal with that, he’d be sorry, but he’d understand.

How do you tell a hero—someone who puts his own life on the line to make sure you and other people are safe—that your worry about his safety and your GPA are more important than what he’s doing?

You don’t. So I sucked it up. Because I loved him, and wanted to be with him. When he was around, it was great. It was the times he wasn’t around that were the problem.

But I stuck it out. Until Thanksgiving, when I couldn’t handle it anymore.

We were headed to my hometown in Ohio to spend the holiday with my mom and dad, and the day before we were set to leave, Ty came and told me he couldn’t go.

I guess I should be grateful that he told me. He could have just left again, with a text when it was too late to do anything about it. So it was actually very nice of him to give me advance notice. But it just became too much.

“It’s Thanksgiving!”

“Gangs don’t stop dealing drugs because it’s a holiday,” Ty said.

“Isn’t there someone else who can go? We had plans!”

“Cassie.” He put his arms around me. “We’ve talked about this.”

I fisted my hands against his chest. Part of me wanted to pummel him, and part of me wanted to grab fistfuls of his shirt and hang on. I didn’t do either. “My mom and dad were looking forward to meeting you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” He nuzzled my cheek and my ear, his breath warm. “It’s the job.”

The nuzzling was nice, but not nice enough. “I don’t think I can do this, Ty,” I told his shoulder. “I love you. I want us to be together. But I don’t think I can do this anymore. Every time you disappear, I worry that you won’t come back. And then you do, and I worry that you’ll leave again.” And so on, in a vicious cycle that I knew had no end. Until the one time he didn’t come back, would never come back—and since I didn’t even want to think about that possibility,

I forced my mind back to the present.

If this had been a stupid romance novel, he would have told me he’d always come back.

Like he was some kind of super-hero.

He didn’t. Instead, he was honest. “I try to be careful. You know that.”

I swallowed. “I know. It just isn’t enough.”

When he dropped his hands from my waist, I wanted to cry, to change my mind, to tell him to hold on and not let go.

I didn’t. I dropped my own hands from his chest instead, and took a step back. “I’m sorry.”

His eyes were the bright green of emeralds. “Me, too.”

“It isn’t that I don’t love you.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“Take care of yourself. Please.”

My eyes were swimming with tears. When he leaned in to drop a soft kiss on my cheek, I couldn’t see him clearly.

“You, too,” he told me. And then he stepped back. I didn’t blink until he was through the door and out of sight, because I didn’t want to watch him walk away. The tears kept my eyes nicely blurry, and that’s the way I wanted it. It wasn’t until I heard the door slam on the first floor, that I knew he was really gone.

Author Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Romance

Website: Jenna Bennett - Jennie Bentley
Author's Blog: Jenna Bennett
Twitter: @Bennett_Jenna
E-Mail: jennie@jenniebentley.com
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Author Description: Jenna Bennett writes the Cutthroat Business mysteries, featuring realtor and Southern Belle Savannah Martin, who stumbles over dead bodies in Nashville, Tennessee. She's also the author of the award-winning Soldiers of Fortune series of science fiction romances from Entangled Publishing, along with assorted other romance-type books, about FBI agents, Greek gods, and rich businessmen, among other things.

As Jennie Bentley, she writes the New York Times bestselling Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation mysteries from Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime, featuring Avery Baker, a textile designer, and Avery's boyfriend Derek Ellis, a handyman, who renovate houses in fictitious Waterfield, Maine.


Author's Book List
Past Due - #8 Savannah Martin Mysteries
The sins of the past are coming due, and someone has to pay the price...

Savannah Martin’s high school reunion is supposed to be a fun weekend of catching up with old friends and parading her boyfriend—Sweetwater bad boy Rafael Collier—in front of everyone who used to sneer at him back in the day. Not even the daily battle she’s waging with morning sickness can douse Savannah’s anticipation.

But when Rafe won’t come to Sweetwater, Savannah has to face her old schoolmates without his support. And her best friend Charlotte isn’t as happy for Savannah’s new relationship as Savannah had hoped. And when a dead body turns up in the Colliers’ old mobile home in the Bog, Savannah is thankful to be on her own. The sheriff is always looking for a reason to shove Rafe back behind bars, and a fresh homicide is just the excuse he needs.

But when another murder takes place at the reunion, even the threat of jail can’t keep Rafe away. Soon old classmates are dropping like bowling pins, and Rafe and Savannah are scrambling to catch up with a killer hell bent on making sure old enemies pay for old sins... all while trying to stay one step ahead of Sheriff Satterfield and the Columbia PD.


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Kickout Clause - #7 Savannah Martin Mysteries
When Shelby Ferguson, Savannah’s ex-husband’s new wife, begs Savannah’s help in figuring out what’s going on with Bradley, Savannah can’t in good conscience say no. Shelby has no one else to turn to, no one to whom she can admit that her marriage is on the rocks and that Bradley may be straying.

But helping Shelby turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. With two different sets of buyers vying to purchase Mrs. Jenkins’s house, and an escaped prisoner targeting Savannah, she has more than enough to deal with. And that’s before TBI rookie Manny Ortega is shot down in cold blood.

With Savannah’s boyfriend Rafe Collier, and their friend, homicide detective Tamara Grimaldi, busy looking for Manny’s murderer, it’s up to Savannah to juggle buyers and agents and vandals and lawyers, and come out on top... without losing her Southern Belle poise or her life in the process.


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Change of Heart - #6 Savannah Martin Mysteries
It’s late February, just two months after Savannah Martin and Rafael Collier finally worked things out between them, and Rafe is already sneaking out of bed in the wee hours.

Catching fellow realtor Tim Briggs rinsing blood from his hands in the office sink makes for a welcome distraction, and when Tim disappears just as one of his clients is found dead in a nearby park, Savannah throws herself into the investigation with abandon.

But even the murder mystery taking place right under her nose can’t completely distract her from worrying about personal problems. Has Rafe changed his mind about their relationship, or is something else going on? And what are the chances of Savannah coming out of this latest debacle with her life – and her heart – intact?


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A Done Deal - #5 Savannah Martin Mysteries
Silver bells, silver bells...

It's Christmas time in Nashville, and all Savannah wants to unwrap on Christmas morning is Rafe Collier. Unfortunately, things don't look so good. He's back in town, but not alone: on his arm is a stunning brunette, just the kind of woman Savannah always suspected was his type.

When Alexandra Puckett asks her help in figuring out a way to stop Maybelle Driscoll from marrying Alex's father Steven, Savannah jumps on the chance. It'll give her something to think about other than Rafe and the mysterious Carmen, and anyway, she doesn't like Maybelle much herself.

Between investigating Maybelle's past, helping her clients Aislynn and Kylie buy a house, and stalking Carmen and Rafe, Savannah soon has her hands full. And that's before someone starts gunning for her. Suddenly it's not a question of unwrapping anything on Christmas morning anymore; it's a question of whether she'll even survive to see another Christmas.


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Close to Home - #4 Savannah Martin Mysteries
Sometimes, trouble hits too close to home.

Savannah's late. The kind of late that comes with midnight feedings and the pitter-patter of little feet. And while it's a circumstance that should make everyone happy - now she can finally settle down and marry Todd Satterfield, the way everyone's been hoping and praying! - it isn't Todd's baby. And Rafe Collier, whose baby it is, didn't sign on for fatherhood.

Add in the murder of Savannah's sister-in-law Sheila, the trial of Sheila's friend Marley, and the disappearance of Rafe's twelve year old son David - the kid he never knew he had - and things get complicated fast. And there is worse to come: When Rafe comes back to Nashville to help look for David, and learns that Savannah's pregnant, things do not work out the way Savannah hopes. In the end, she's left with nothing she wanted and a whole lot of trouble she didn't, and when she gets in over her head, Rafe's not there to save the day.


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Contract Pending - #3 Savannah Martin Mysteries
They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Savannah is certainly learning the truth of that statement.

It’s been a month and a half since Rafael Collier left town, and although Savannah knows it would be hideously inappropriate—not to mention supremely stupid—to miss him, she wishes he’d come back soon. His grandmother’s ailing, the nurse he hired to take care of her has disappeared, and somebody is watching the house and following Savannah as she goes about the business of bringing her first real estate transaction to a close.

But when Rafe comes back, things only go from bad to worse. Resident nurse Marquita Johnson is found murdered, and Metro Nashville Homicide Detective Tamara Grimaldi is asked to handle the case. It doesn’t take long for her to focus her interest, once again, on Rafe.

Now Savannah has to make the choice between staying safe by accepting her old flame Todd’s proposal of marriage, or taking a chance on losing her heart and her life by trying to help Rafe, as the term ‘contract pending’ takes on a whole new meaning.


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Hot Property - #2 Savannah Martin Mysteries
When Savannah Martin’s fellow Realtor and friend Lila Vaughn is robbed during an open house, Savannah rushes to the rescue with tea and sympathy, or at least a really good lunch and a shoulder to cry on. However, Lila seems more peeved than distraught, and her main gripe is that the sexy robber who tied her to a kitchen chair—for her own good—didn’t follow her suggestion to tie her to the bed instead.

Lila’s description of the man fits Savannah’s old school-mate Rafael Collier to a T. Rafe has recently turned up in Savannah’s life again, and he isn’t above doing a little breaking and entering. Metro Nashville Homicide Detective Tamara Grimaldi is of the same opinion, and when Lila turns up dead, tied to her bed and strangled, Rafe becomes a suspect. Now Savannah must get busy finding the real murderer before Detective Grimaldi can arrest the wrong man.


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A Cutthroat Business - Savannah Martin Mystery 1
Everyone has warned new-minted realtor Savannah Martin that real estate is a cutthroat business. But Savannah doesn't think she's supposed to take the warning literally ... until an early morning phone call sends her to an empty house on the 'bad' side of town, where she finds herself standing over the butchered body of a competitor, face to face with the boy her mother always warned her about.

Rafe Collier is six feet three inches of testosterone and trouble; tall, dark, and dangerous, with a murky past and no future--not the kind of guy a perfect Southern Belle should want to tangle with. In any way. But wherever Savannah turns, there he is, and making no bones about what he wants from her.

Now Savannah must figure out who killed real estate queen Brenda Puckett, make a success of her new career, and avoid getting killed--or kissed--by Rafe, all before the money in her savings account runs out and she has to go back to selling make-up at the mall.


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Home For the Homicide - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 7
Avery Baker was a big city textile designer, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But she never expected her latest job would come to such a bone-rattling dead end...

For Avery and her husband Derek, renovating the Craftsman Bungalow was like stepping back in time. The quaint old home was just as its original owners had left it—from the beautiful butler’s pantry to the surprisingly exquisite ribbon tile. But it’s the attic that yields the most heart-stopping surprise.

In a discreetly hidden antique crate, Avery finds a clue to a decades-old missing persons case. As Avery works on the house and delves deeper into the sinister story, it becomes clear that someone very crafty wants the Craftsman home’s secrets to stay that way!


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Wall-to-Wall Dead - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 6
Avery Baker never thought she’d leave Manhattan, until she inherited her aunt’s old Maine cottage and found her true calling—home renovation. But when Avery goes to work restoring a condominium, she discovers it’s another condo owner who’s been condemned...

Avery and her partner, Derek, are fixing up a cute little condo in homey Waterfield, Maine, hoping for a quick turnaround and some extra money. It seems like a simple project—and Avery is looking forward to using her big-city experience with small spaces.

But they didn’t expect to have their every move watched by the resident busybody in the condo, Hilda Shaw, who loves snooping on everyone’s comings and goings. When the busybody becomes a dead body, Avery suspects foul play. Soon she’s doing some snooping of her own—and it seems everyone in the complex has a secret. Could one of them be worth killing for? Avery needs to work fast, before someone decides to fix her...for good.


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Flipped Out - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 5
Avery and her hunky handyman boyfriend are renovating a house belonging to a local news anchor who's thrilled to be filmed as part of a home renovation show. But cable television fame proves fleeting when the man is murdered and Avery faces the task of nailing the killer. Fast.


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Mortar and Murder - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 4
Avery Baker was once a New York textile designer, but inheriting her aunt's old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path-home renovation. Finding a property's hidden potential has rewards and challenges-especially when a mystery surfaces from behind the walls of a centuries-old house on an island that has more than its share of deadly secrets.


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Plaster and Poison - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 3
Ex-New York designer Avery Baker left the bustle of the big city to start her own home renovation business in Maine. But as she renovates an old carriage house on behalf of a soon-to-be wed friend, she stumbles across a lifeless body-a person known all too well by the blushing bride. The small town is abuzz with big suspicions, and Avery realizes she must unravel a matrimonial murder.


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Spackled and Spooked - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 2
Avery Baker and her boyfriend, Derek Ellis, are flipping a seriously stigmatized house rumored to have ghosts. Soon they'll have even bigger problems-and this renovation project might haunt them forever.


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Fatal Fixer-Upper - A Do-It-Yourself Mystery Book 1
Avery Baker was once a New York designer, but inheriting her aunt?s old Maine cottage has led her down a new career path?home renovation. Now, with help from hunky handyman Derek Ellis, Avery starts learning the ABCs of DIY. But when the designer-turned-renovator finds clues that lead to a missing professor, she wonders if she can finish the house?without getting finished off in the process.


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