The Neighbor by Lorhainne Eckhart 💕 Book Blitz & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Romantic Suspense)

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After the devastating loss of her husband, Jenny Sweetgrass packs up her teenage daughter, Alison, and moves to Livingston, Montana, hoping for a fresh start—that is, until Ryan O’Connell knocks on her door.

Park ranger Ryan is one of the six O’Connell siblings in Livingston, raised by an independent mom who has been a rock to him. He has a career he loves, and up until six weeks ago, he lived a comfortable life. When a new neighbor moves in and disturbs the quiet peace of the area, bringing with her a daughter who’s walking trouble, Ryan is shocked to discover that the woman is a one-night stand he picked up at a bar years ago.

Right now, the gorgeous Jenny isn’t too interested in making friends, but despite her cool façade, as Ryan gets to know her, he can’t fight an idiotic need to try to ease the pain he sees her trying to hide. At the same time, he knows deep down that both mother and daughter have a secret, and if he were smart, he would listen to his brother’s warning and walk away.

When Alison goes missing, everyone in town believes she simply ran off or found her way into trouble, but nothing about her disappearance adds up. She simply set out on an afternoon hike into the park and never came back.

Jenny soon learns she’s not alone when Ryan takes matters into his own hands and sets off with her into the park to find her daughter. What he doesn’t know is that Alison is actually his daughter, too, and when he learns the truth and the real reason she left, the secret could end up dividing the O’Connell family and the community.

She was freaking out.
This was something about her that Wren had always hated, her inability to keep a straight face. That was likely why he’d started keeping things from her, the deeds, the loans, the empty bank accounts.
She heard the door and his footsteps as she rinsed off dishes in the sink and loaded them into the dishwasher. If she stayed busy, then she could keep it together. Ryan was just someone from her past. She didn’t really know him, and he had nothing to do with her and Alison. She just had to remind herself.
“Why the hell are you acting this way?” he said. “You’re literally freaking out. It seems every time I ask you something, I see this fear in your face as if you’re afraid of what else I’ll ask. It’s the kind of expression I see from people who are trying to hide something, but I can’t figure out what this big secret is or why it would matter. Does it have something to do with why your daughter is skipping school and avoiding you and is now off on a trail, doing God knows what?”
Ryan was direct, and he moved into the kitchen, filling space in her home in a way she’d never expected a man to do again. He was watching her, and she was having so much trouble keeping herself together. He was doing that cop thing, trying to figure out what she was thinking. She had to look away. She hadn’t ever expected to see him again, and she needed a minute to find her daughter and sit her down and set some ironclad ground rules.
“Everyone has secrets, Ryan…and maybe with Alison, this is her way of getting back at me. I don’t know what’s going on with her or why she’s doing what she’s doing. I’m doing the best I can.”
“I’m sure you are, but you didn’t really answer my question. You do that a lot. So why did you leave Atlanta, Jenny? You said you had to, but what exactly does that mean?”
She shut her eyes, seeing the blood on her hands, her husband in the ER, reliving the moment the doctor had told her he was gone.
She turned away, back to the sink, and rinsed out the coffee grounds from the carafe. She took her time turning around, bending over, closing up the dishwasher, until she was forced to face him.
“My husband died,” she said. “I told you that already. And my aunt left me this house. You know, you’re making me feel like a criminal, the way you keep asking questions about me, my life. I’m not sure what that has to do with my daughter. You know what? I’d like to just find her, and then we can go back to being neighbors from afar.”

Deputy Marcus O’Connell is blindsided one night after a series of calls comes in from an unknown number, and the caller on the other end is a child. All he knows is she’s six years old, her name is Eva, and there’s someone in her house who wants to hurt her.

Marcus is the ultimate bad boy turned deputy. He knows everything about how to get away with something, considering he was one of the middle of the six O’Connell siblings. He never had responsibility resting on his shoulders like his brother Owen, and he’s never been the center of attention like his little sister, Suzanne. Marcus knows how to find trouble and talk his way out of it.

Now, as the head deputy for the Livingston sheriff’s office, he knows everything about everybody, and no one can pull anything over on him. It’s why he’s such a damn good deputy. But even Marcus dreads what cops know as the third call.

When Marcus takes the call the first time, he thinks it’s a prank. The second time, he knows there’s a problem. The third time the call comes in and is patched through to him, he knows it’s something he can’t ignore. The only thing is, the girl is terrified and keeps hanging up, and Marcus knows someone is in the house with her.

Where are her parents, and who is this mysterious girl who needs his help?

With flawed strong characters, characters you can relate to, New York Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Lorhainne Eckhart writes the kind of books she wants to read. She is frequently a Top 100 bestselling author in multiple genres, and her second book ever published, The Forgotten Child, is no exception. With close to 900 reviews on Amazon, translated into German and French, this book was such a hit that the long running Friessen Family series was born. Now with over sixty titles and multiple series under her belt her big family romance series are loved by fans worldwide. A recipient of the 2013, 2015 and 2016 Readers' Favorite Award for Suspense and Romance, Lorhainne lives on the sunny west-coast Gulf Island of Salt Spring Island, is the mother of three, her oldest has autism and she is an advocate for never giving up on your dreams.