Seconds to Live, by Susan Sleeman

Veteran novelist Susan Sleeman has started a new series with her character Taylor Mills, a U.S. Marshall with the Witness Protection Program.  In Seconds to Live, a hacker has stolen lists of all the protectees' personal information and put it for sale on the dark web.  Hundreds of lives are in danger, including many under Taylor's personal protection.  Given the scope of the threat, an FBI team comes in to assist Taylor's unit.

Taylor's life becomes much more interesting when the head of the FBI unit shows up--it's her friend Sean, whom she's never met face-to-face, but with whom she's had a long online friendship.  They found each other as confidants who, given their similar lines of work, could be trusted to bounce ideas off of, share frustrations, and give and receive encouragement.  Of course, each is instantly smitten with the other.  She's gorgeous, and he's a hunk.  Throughout the book, you know they're going to get together, but they are constantly trying not to, as they want to preserve their friendship, they live on opposite coasts, they don't want to be distracted from their work, etc.

Woven through their romance is a decent suspense story.  They and their teams are tracking this hacker, rooting out betrayal within their own ranks, and trying to protect their witnesses agains all odds.  It's a fun story and Sleeman keeps us guessing about where it's going.  Sleeman's stock in trade is the suspense romance.  This is the first book of hers I've read, so I only have other book covers to compare.  I suspect (based superficially on the covers, by which I'm not supposed to judge a book) that Seconds to Live is less romance-oriented than her other books.  But it was romance-y enough to detract from the story for me.  Everyone's a fashion model, the lead characters have this heart-pounding electricity between them all the time.  Overall, I enjoyed it, and I appreciate the fact the main characters are Christians who take their faith seriously enough to discuss it with each other and pray about their jobs.  But for the reading experience, I will take Lee Child or Vince Flynn for a more substantial helping of action and suspense.