Not a Moment Too Soon

by Linda O. Johnston

As a private investigator, jaded Hunter Strahm thought he'd seen every kind of cruelty. But someone had kidnapped his precious daughter, and Hunter would move heaven and earth to bring her home safely--even if that meant inviting beautiful, bewitching Shauna O'Leary back into his life.

Shauna had never forgiven Hunter for dismissing her psychic ability to channel a killer's mind--and leaving her with a broken heart. But now she was the desperate father's only hope to track down his baby girl. Could she finally prove she'd been right all along--not only that she had the gift, but also that their love was just as real?

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Linda O. Johnston's first published fiction appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and won the Robert L. Fish Memorial Award for Best First Mystery Short Story of the Year. Since then, Linda has had more short stories and novellas published, plus, by the end of 2018, she will have had fifty novels published, including mysteries and romance.

Linda currently writes the Barkery and Biscuits Mysteries cozy mystery series for Midnight Ink, and also wrote the Superstition Mysteries for them, both featuring dogs. She has also written the Pet Rescue Mystery series for Berkley Prime Crime, which was a spinoff from her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series. And yes, they involved dogs, too.

Linda also writes for Harlequin Romantic Suspense, including a new miniseries about a K-9 ranch where dogs are trained. Linda additionally writes paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne including the Alpha Force miniseries about a covert military unit of shapeshifters--and all the werewolves also have cover dogs.

Linda, a currently inactive transactional attorney, now writes fiction full-time. She is a member of the Los Angeles chapters of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America, including the Los Angeles, Orange County and Santa Clarita chapters.

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setup in this story was weird I mean weird, our heroine Shauna, therapist, owner of a restaurant, has visions and writes stories that come true, the latest one is about Andee, the daughter of her ex-lover Hunter.

Shauna and Hunter were involved seven years ago but Hunter never believed in her gifts, even made fun of her once that resulted in her keeping something back, his getting angry and quitting the police department and moving to LA, where he started a PI firm, got married to a struggling actress, had a child, got divorced.

Hunter is angry and scared that his daughter has been kidnapped and according to Shauna's story, is doomed so he takes her along with him to change the ending and in some ways the story she writes changes but not the end.

My problem was I didn't see what was so great about Hunter, that Shauna was so good to him, yeah he was hurting, his child lost but Shauna wasn't obligated to him, well not to provide him with sexual comfort.

I just didn't feel the romance much, that is all.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

So friend came to visit from Germany with a suitcase full of books. He walked in with a stack, holding the top book in place with his chin. "I know you read things like this." Wow, that's a lot. "I'll go get the next stack."

Right, so now I have a lot of "books like this." And seeing as how they made an international flight to get to me, I kind of feel like I have to read them all.

I'll admit to kind of wanting to know who done it. But it's really hard to get past the cover teaser: "Daddy to the rescue." And the cover art. And just everything.

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's awful! He's a diick who blamed her for something that was his own fault!! She should have been the one to break up all those years ago, cause in a relationship like the one in which they were, how he made fun/ ridiculed her power is abig NO! She really should have moved on in her life, like he did too! Not even a few months and he was married to some skaankk! This is such a old story where the guy get to move on, get married, have children, but the girl?!?!? Nope, she has to be pinning after him, like he is such a god, and when he has a little bit of time to pay attention to her, lay down and let him walk all over! And all he does in the end is fudging ask her to marry and she obviously says yes cause she's a masochistic without a bone.....

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the HEA and I loved the twist in the plot near the end (though I knew who the accomplice was). The psychic story telling that is Shauna's gift was intriguing and one I've heard of but never encountered in a book. It took me a bit to forgive Hunter for his disbelief and out right goading of Shauna's gift, but Ms. Johnston was able to redeem him. This was an okay read.