Name: Thicker Than Water
ISBN: 9780778322436

Maggie Shayne

From the bestselling author of "The Gingerbread Man" comes this tale of a trusted journalist being blackmailed with information from her past. When the blackmailer is found dead, a new faceless enemy wants more than money. Original.

Thicker Than Water

Straight-laced upstate New York news anchor Julie Jones has a deadly secret: 16 years earlier, as a teen runaway named Jewel, she fled the besieged burning compound of fanatic cult leader/drug dealer Mordecai Young, with his hidden fortune and her dying best friend's newborn child. Self-proclaimed "Reverend" Young and the rest of his cult, save two other "favorite" girls, perished in the attack by federal agents -- or so Julie always thought. But when a blackmailer threatening to expose Julie is murdered and two former "favorite" girls turn up dead as well, it appears the messianic madman may be after the daughter Julie has raised as her own. Her only ally is sensationalist shock-jock radio reporter Sean MacKenzie, Julie's worst professional rival.

I absolutely like this book. This is one of the few from the genre Romantic Thriller, and I was NOT disappointed! 

The beginning was not very credible, but you could actually be aware of the dangers they were in.The verbal sparring between Julie Jones and Sean MacKenzie, and their obvious sexual tension, provides light relief from the more serious aspects of the novel. Speaking of which, the originality of the cult storyline is really good! That was one of the most original plots I have encountered. 

THE CHARACTERS:
Julie - is a badass heroine. PLus, she's a TV reporter, which is what I wanna do when I grow up. 
Sean - is sarcastic & annoying at the surface, but is actually very caring deep down.

And the subsequent drama surrounding Julie after sixteen years, sets the novel apart from others of the same genre. All in all, this was an epic page turner.