Code Name: Gabriel
A Small-Town, Military Protector, Best Friend's Little Sister Reunion Romance
January 12, 2027
Angels Cove (Avenging Angels Security), Book 1
Not all angels guard. Some avenge.
Six brothers-in-arms, done with war, build new lives in Angels Cove, Alabama — where trouble has a way of finding the men most determined to leave it behind.
Asher McCrae spent ten years doing things his country will never admit happened. He has the scars to prove it, the nightmares that come with them, and five brothers who followed him out of the fire and refuse to be left behind. Now he’s home in Angels Cove, Alabama, with a derelict building, a construction crew, and every intention of leaving the past exactly where he buried it.
Until he comes face to face with Ember Logan, the girl he loved in secret for one endless summer before it all went wrong.
There’s a killer in the woods. And he’s coming for her…
Ember only wants her paintbrush, her cat, and her quiet — everything she scraped together after the accident that shattered her body and left her the last Logan in a town that will never forgive her father’s crimes.
But when she walks into the woods for wildflowers and finds a dead girl instead, she becomes a killer’s newest obsession. And Asher becomes her only hope for survival.
The town won’t protect her. The police won’t lift a finger. And someone out there isn’t finished with her.
Asher failed her once before. Never again.
A small-town, military protector, best friend’s little sister, reunion romance by NYT bestselling author Lynn Raye Harris.
About Point of View (POV)
Code Name: Gabriel is written in first person. After so many years of writing deep third POV, I need a change and a new challenge. Not that it’s too much of a challenge when moving from deep third to first. If you were to open any of my books and change the POV to I/me in a scene instead of she/her or he/him, you’d find it’s a seamless change.
Because I already write in a deep point of view where you feel things with the main character in a scene. Making a shift in pronouns is not actually a big change, though it may seem like one initially. I understand that, but I wanted to give the reader an even closer experience with the characters.
And I simply need a creative change. I’ve written 70+ books at this point, all of them (with the exception of Reckless Heat) in third person. It’s time for me to do this. As a reader, I read both points of view and enjoy them. I read widely across genres, and first is everywhere these days.
That said, I can hardly imagine some of my favorite books in first person. Can you imagine being directly in Frodo’s head for the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Or Elizabeth and Darcy’s dueling POVs throughout Pride and Prejudice? It doesn’t work because neither of those books are written in a deep POV.
POV is a distancing device when used in third and omniscient voices, and a way to put you right in the character’s skin in deep third and first. Second person is not as widely employed, but I think it takes a truly skilled writer to pull that one off. I have no intentions of giving that a try in romance!
But I hope you’ll give this book a try. I think you’ll find it has all my usual story elements: the protector hero, the strong heroine in a mess of trouble, the endearing side characters who will get their own books in the series, etc.
Read an Excerpt
This series is set in Angels Cove, the sister city to Sutton’s Creek, so you’ll be seeing many beloved characters from the Ghost Ops series again as Asher McCrae and his men move to town and work with the Ghost Ops team from time to time.
Book 1, Code Name: Gabriel, features Asher McCrae and Ember Logan who share a past. When Asher returns to his hometown after more than a decade away, the Ember he left behind isn’t the same one he meets now.
This Ember is harder, tougher, and wary. But she needs to be because a killer has his sights set on her. Ember stumbled onto something, and the killer is kinda obsessed with her. Eeek!
* * *
And now a small teaser from CODE NAME: GABRIEL!
Ember
Age Sixteen…
I could see the two of them in the yard, yelling at each other, flinging hands, saying things I could only imagine.I’d slipped onto the deck, hoping no one else noticed I’d been gone. A dozen teens stood with drinks in hand, watching the two people I loved most in the world face off.
Bethany turned to me, eyes bright. “Daniel’s pissed at Asher because he was staring at me.” Her grin was gleeful. “I told him not to say anything, but you know Daniel.”
I wanted to throttle this girl. “Oh really?” I said. “Are you sure he was staring at you?”
Bethany frowned, her eyes narrowing. “Of course I’m sure. Why else are they fighting?”
“No idea,” I said, turning to watch them go toe to toe on the lawn.
Asher was taller and broader than Daniel, but Daniel was stocky and fast. If it came to blows, they were evenly matched.
I didn’t want it to come to blows. I wanted them to shake hands, hug, and be friends again. But I also wanted Asher, and that looked about as likely as a snowstorm in July.
Part of me was angry that my brother could deny me something that made me so happy. Another part understood that he thought he was protecting me. I loved him for it.
But I also loved Asher. He made me feel like I was made of air, like anything was possible if only we were together.
* * *
As you might imagine, things aren’t going to go well at age sixteen. But what happened to Asher and Ember, and why? And what brings them back together in Angels Cove all these years later? That’s what I’m working on — and I’m having so much fun with it!
This story is my usual spicy romantic suspense with a protector hero who will stand between his woman and the gates of hell to keep her safe. As always, 100% my imagination and skill — with the helpful guidance of my editors, of course!