The Deadly Shallows is so so good. I suppose I should expand. But really just go buy the book. Grab the entire series if you haven’t read them all. Each story stands alone but it’s more fun if you read them all because you feel like you’re hanging out with friends.

The Deadly Shallows is the third in the excellent Coastal Guardians series. Full disclosure: Dani is a dear friend and also, more recently, my writing mentor. However, my husband and our bookish bills will tell you I was a huge fan of her work long before she and I became acquainted.

Anyway, book three. We finally get to see Noah Rowley, who leads the CGIS team, face his growing feelings for Coast Guard Flight Medic, Brooke Kessler. But while he’s busy trying to avoid those emotions, a mass shooting rocks their base to the core. As the team scrambles, alongside other agencies, to figure out what’s going on, before the body count rises, Noah focuses on keeping Brooke alive after she overheard something that makes the killer want her silenced forever.

If you’ve never read a Dani Pettrey novel before, here’s what you should know: A tightly woven plot that twists and turns and where you typically can’t guess the actual culprit until quite near the end. Characters who go on an emotional journey together and grow while tackling the crisis at hand, and make you care about or, really, befriend them, in the process. And a sense of loss when it all ties up and you read the end.

If you enjoy romantic suspense, Dani Pettrey is highly recommended.