Books like Played by Barbara Freethy

Executive assistants Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman battle over a promotion, turning office rivalry into a witty, high‑stakes game of love and humor within Bexley‑Gamin Publishing.

Amid writer's block and a looming deadline, a skeptical romance novelist and a disenchanted literary author trade their craft: she must write a happy ending, he a Great American Novel, as they race to finish before summer ends.

Poppy, a free‑spirited New Yorker, and Alex, a quiet book‑lover from their hometown, have shared summer vacations for a decade until a fateful trip tore them apart. Now, desperate to reclaim their friendship, she invites him for one last getaway.

When an elevator encounter turns into an unexpected fake date, a high‑powered groomsman and a nurse’s aide must decide whether a night of fun is enough to bridge the miles between a pediatric surgeon in Los Angeles and a Berkeley chief of staff.

Special Agent Kate O'Hare teams up with con man Nicolas Fox to dismantle a powerful global drug smuggling ring spanning Nashville, Lisbon, Istanbul, and London, confronting dangerous enforcers and enlisting unlikely allies.

International thief Nicolas Fox and FBI agent Kate O'Hare join forces to recover a stolen Chinese artifact from a powerful private security leader, embarking on a globe‑spanning heist that tests their wits, loyalties, and the limits of law enforcement.

Alessandra Lamont survives a mob hit and is targeted by FBI agent Harry O'Dell, whose past grief fuels a relentless pursuit of crime boss Michael Trotta. Amid danger, a volatile attraction threatens both.

A con man and an FBI agent, who pretend to be at odds, secretly team up to dismantle super‑criminals, including a ruthless casino magnate, in a high‑stakes game of deception and danger.

Sixteen‑year‑old Julie Beaufort‑Stuart returns to her Perthshire ancestral home for one last summer, confronting a family sale, the disappearance of a London archivist, and the theft of a treasured pearl collection—while battling prejudice against the Highland McEwens.

Nick Fox, a top FBI fugitive turned covert operative, must team up with Special Agent Kate O’Hare to thwart a deadly international plot after he’s kidnapped and cons are on a global chase.

He'd vowed to capture the pretty thief, but would she steal his heart instead? Detective Sergeant Michael Taggart watched as the woman passed the stolen Art Deco gems to a fence whose record was as long as her legs--and then quickly arrested her for robbing the museum! Wendy Thayer struggled in his cuffs, insisting she'd only been doing errands for an elderly client. Could this feisty redhead with the kissable mouth be as innocent as she claimed, or would her secret be enough to shatter his dreams? In a delightful tale of passionate pursuit and irresistible intrigue, Karen Leabo sends two unlikely lovers chasing after the truth--and on a journey to discover their own unspoken longings. She wanted him to see her as she truly was, but could a tough guy on a mission be hero enough to cherish a woman with a shadowy past?

FBI agent Kate Donovan, once blamed for a serial killer's murder, must re‑team with forensic psychiatrist Dillon Kincaid to stop a cyber‑stalking predator before his live‑streamed kill of teenage girl Lucy Kincaid ends the world in static.

When Rowan Smith’s bestselling novel eerily mirrors a real serial killer’s victims, the former FBI agent must confront her haunted past to protect her own life and the lives of those around her.

FBI scientist Olivia St. Martin breaks every rule to expose a serial killer she may have wrongfully convicted while racing against time in Seattle.

FBI agent Megan Elliott and ex‑soldier Jack Kincaid unite to stop a brutal serial killing spree that links a homeless veteran’s murder to a national pattern of torture and murder.

A suspenseful tale of a FBI agent investigating a deranged serial killer and her former colleague racing to save lives.

A grifter’s daughter turns her own FBI boyfriend into a pawn in a tangled web of deception and desire.

A former FBI trainee, Miranda Moore, survives a serial killer and now hunts his latest victim, a Montana college student, as the FBI interrupts her relentless pursuit of vengeance.

An FBI agent with an autistic brother hunts twin psychics who kidnap children for a madman's sinister experiments, racing to save the most vulnerable before they vanish into darkness.