Seconds To Live by Susan Sleeman {A Book Review}

**I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for consideration. All thoughts are 100% my own. 

When cybercriminals hack into the US Marshals' Witness Protection database and auction off witnesses' personal details to the highest bidders, the RED Team led by FBI Agent Sean Nichols begins a high-stakes chase to find the hacker. But before he can even get started, the first witness is targeted and barely escapes with her life. Sean believes Phantom, an obsessed hacker who previously outwitted the top minds in the field, is behind the attack, and Sean needs this witness's help, as she's the person who has come closest to discovering Phantom's identity.

Trouble is, she's a witness under the care of US Marshal Taylor Mills, and Sean is reluctant to work with the captivating marshal who knows his deepest secrets. But Phantom claims he knows where the witness is hiding and will kill her, so to stop the hacker, Sean and Taylor must work through their personal pain and learn to trust each other. . . . The seconds are ticking down before someone dies.

Susan Sleeman is the bestselling author of more than thirty-five romantic suspense novels with more than 1 million books sold. She has won several awards, including the ACFW Carol Award for Suspense for Fatal Mistake. In addition to writing, Susan also hosts www.thesuspensezone.com. She has lived in nine states but now calls Portland, Oregon, home. To learn more about Susan, visit her website at www.susansleeman.com.

Witness protection, murder, cyber crimes and romance... Seconds to Live had a LOT going on. While sometimes that can make a book hard to keep up with or overwhelming at points, I felt like in this one is was a perfect blend of all of the above, keeping me captivated from page one right through until the end.

In Seconds to Live we meet Taylor, a US Marshal tasked with keeping those in witness protection safe. When their database is hacked and the security of the program threatened, this brings her online friend and FBI agent Sean into her real life. Their easy online relationship turns out to be a little more difficult to navigate when they are working side by side. As someone who met their spouse online, I really found that part of the story to be rather interesting. While my own experience was quite different from that of our romantic leads, I certainly did know a little something about the adjustment that they faced. Theirs however was certainly more to the extreme, both having built up walls after past events in their lives that made it hard to trust. Trust was a huge theme in this book, both in their relationship with each other, on the job and with God. I really enjoyed seeing them work through some of that throughout the story, though I must admit both characters could be a little frustrating at various points throughout the story... but then, aren't we all?

Though this was the first book in the series, I found myself wondering if perhaps I had missed a previous book as it referenced a previous crime that the team had worked on several times throughout--- an unsolved crime that is. As best as I could tell, this WAS in fact the first story, but it seemed to me that perhaps this was setting the series up for another side mystery that I hope we will see more of throughout the series. This didn't take away at all from the primary story at hand, but really kept me intrigued even further to want to pick up the next book.

I believe this is the first book that I had read from this author, but it most certainly will not be the last. I cannot wait to see what she has in  store for us in the next book!