Can anyone recommend some steamy romantic suspence authors? I usually read paranormal but find myself wanting to try something different - The hero is military/secret service/law enforcement, and the heroine is NOT whiny or boring:) And something with plenty of sex, lol!

I hear a lot about Lora Leigh... Are her Nauti and Elite Ops series good? Tempting SEALs?

Any other good authors?

Cherry Adair is a good one.  Marliss Melton, Suzanne Brockmann.  I love them.

Ditto what Sherri said.  Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters series is one of my all time favorites, although hers are heavier on action than sex.  Cherry Adair definitely writes sexier books, more along the lines of Lora Leigh.  Shannon McKenna has some good ones as well.

Shannon Mckenna is the best to fit your description imo - super steamy! I would also recommend Linda Howard.

Shannon K Butcher is one of my favs.

Pamela Clare is one of my favs.

Amy Fetzer's are always nice and steamy.

Laura Griffin and Susan Crandall, although these two might have law enforcement not military, but are pretty good. One of my current new favs is Leslie Parrish.

The Leslie Parrish books got such good reviews at AAR that I've been meaning to get them...maybe soon!

I'm also trying to branch out away from Paranormals and Erotica...I've gotten some McKenna and Linda Howard books that came highly recommended...

Shannon Butcher, Jo Davis, Cindy Gerard, Helenkay Dimon, Jill Shalvis, Cherry Adair, Gennita Low (haven't read her yet so don't know how steamy), Shannong McKenna, Cheyenne McCray-that's all I can think of off the top of my head. 

How about Nina Bruhns? Please don't tell me that her books aren't good - I just requested a couple of hers, lol:) Do any of you go by the ratings on Amazon? I try not to because I loved one book that got a lower rating than I thought it should.

Cool:) Now I have a list of authors to check out. Thanks everyone!

ETA - Is JoAnne Ross a good author? I have one of her books on my bookshelf...

military/secret service/law enforcement, and the heroine is NOT whiny or boring:) And something with plenty of sex, lol

Hands down. You want Lora Leigh's Tempting SEALs. Skip the 1st story in the series (Reno's Chance - it is in the Honk If You Love Real Men anthology). Go straight for Dangerous Games. The heroine is every bit as tough as the hero and together, they're HOT.

Book 3 is For Maggie's Sake. It also is a shorter story that appears in the Real Men Last All Night anthology. Leigh does her best work when she has lots of room to tell the story. You won't miss a thing by skipping this novella.

But not to be missed is Book 4, Hidden Agendas. The heroine is a little bit fluffier, but after spending months in captivity, she's determined to reclaim her independent life. That includes erotic dance lessons where her final exam includes lap dancing on a stranger she doesn't know has been assigned to keep her out of trouble. Uh-huh.

Then comes Killer Secrets. Good but not as compelling as Dangerous Games and Hidden Agendas.

Atlanta Heat is a short story you can find in a MMPB anthology (Rescue Me) with stories by Cherry Adair (related to T-FLAC) and Cindy Gerard (another good RS author). Snag this antho to get a taste of all their writing styles, but remember that short stories are just snippets of the good stuff. What's nice is that there are copies available. No WL wait.

The Tempting SEALs series segues into the Elite Ops series and you'll find several familiar secondary characters if you read the Tempting SEALs stories first. The Elite Ops characters are all former military/covert ops who have been declared "dead" so they can go on living. The bad news is that they've signed up for a very lonely life as part of a black ops team. No personal life allowed.

Wild Card - He wants his life and his wife back!

Maverick - Her own father turned her into a drug lord's guinea pig then, after she was rescued, locked her away in a sanitarium where she was kept sedated. Finally able to reclaim her life, the Elite Ops team needs her as bait for an assassin. Of course, the only way to explain her presence is to have her pose as the lover of a very dangerous man...

Heat Seeker - For a "dead" man, he looks pretty good to a former CIA-agent who is trying to track down the CIA mole that outed her and ended her career. Of course, the mole wants her dead. The "dead" man just wants her as much as he ever did...

Black Jack - Both h/h are part of the Elite Ops team. Until someone tries to kill her. Suddenly, she's returned to the family she knew in her past life, but she's still a target. But now, there are Elite Ops execs who think she knows too much to live so they want her dead, too.

In addition to the Tempting SEALs and Elite Ops series, you might like Lora Leigh's Breeds series. You get paranormal romantic suspense with lots and lots of sex ('cause that's what happens with mating heat). The older books (published by Ellora's Cave) are great but have long WL queues. The MMPBs published by Berkley are easier to get. Fortunately, LL does a good job with back story so you won't be totally confused if you start with the newer books or need to skip a book.

The Breeds are not shape-shifters. They are genetically altered people who were bred to be killers. Their DNA is part human, part lion, tiger, wolf, coyote, or jaguar.

1. Tempting the Beast
2. The Man Within
3. Elizabeth's Wolf
4. Kiss of Heat
5. Soul Deep
6. The Breed Next Door (Hot Spell anthology w/stories by Shiloh Walker, Emma Holly, Meljean Brooks)
7. Megan's Mark (1st of the MMPB books published by Berkley)
8. Harmony's Way
9. Tanner's Scheme
10. Wolfe's Hope (Primal Heat anthology w/stories by Sherri L. King, Lori O'Clare, Jaci Burton)
11. Jacob's Faith
12. Aiden's Charity
13. In a Wolf's Embrace (Beyond the Dark anthology w/stories by Angela Knight, Emma Holly, Diane Whiteside)
14. Dawn's Awakening
15. A Jaguar's Kiss (Shifter anthology w/stories by Angela Knight, Alyssa Day, Virginia Kantra)
16. Mercury's War
17. Christmas Heat (The Magical Christmas Cat anthology w/stories by Linda Winstead Jones, Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh)
18. Coyote's Mate
19. Bengal's Heart
20. A Christmas Kiss (Hot for the Holidays anthology w/stories by Angela Knight, Anya Bast, Allyson James)
21. Lion's Heat

Skip the anthologized stories if you like. LL does a good job with back story so you won't be totally confused if you start with the newer books or need to skip a book.

Colleen

Some good suggestions..I would add Tara Janzen and Alison Kent

I've been checking my library and they have a few of the authors mentioned, but not a whole series. Can most of these books be stand alone or are they better read in order?

Colleen, thanks for the list:) I do have some of Lora Leigh's Breeds books. Haven't gotten to them yet.

I would read Leslie Parrish's Black Cat series in order. But right now there are only three in the series. Shannon's are related, but don't have to be read in order. Past characters are only mentioned in passing. Pamla Clare's I Team series I would read in order because the women are such close friends. But if you read them out of order you won't be lost, you can just tell that the other friends have romances. Susan Crandall's are stand alones. Laura's books are wrote in two books and they read best in order. I just finished Heather Webber's truly, madly and it was fantastic first book of these series. (It is in a cozy format. ) You might want to give it a check. You might also enjoy Brenda Novak's books, hers comes in trilogies and they shoudl be read in order. The Stillwater trilogy is my fav of hers and Clay's story is my most fav of those three. Ok, I will stop now, this is abviously one of my genres as well. :-)  

LOL Keri! Thanks for letting me know;)

I really like Catherine Coulter.  The Maze and Riptide are both excellent, imo, at bringing romance and suspense/thriller together.  :)  Especially The Maze! :)

I don't usually read suspense, but being a Brockmann fan got me started on someone that I like alot.  Catherine Mann.  Early works are categories-silhouette desire mostly.  Then she branched out into longer traditional suspense.  Her Wingman Warriors series is a favorite.  Haven't tried her new series-Defender, Hotshot, etc.-they are on my shelf -but so are hundreds of others and I keep getting distracted.....

Catherine is an airforce wife as well-so I like the "been there, done that" perspective. 

All of Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters.

Cindy Gerard's Bodyguards and her Black Ops series.

Most of Linda Howard, Sandra Brown, Iris Johansen, Kay Hooper and Tami Hoag are suspense. 

Christina Dodd's Darkness series.

Catherine Coulter's FBI Series.

Joann Ross High Risk series.

Marliss Melton Seals Series.

Stella Cameron Bayou Series.

I've been checking my library and they have a few of the authors mentioned, but not a whole series. Can most of these books be stand alone or are they better read in order?

Some should be read in order because the author carries over plots and  characters.  Lora Leigh's Tempting Seals is one that should be read in order.  Same for Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooters. 

OK - very helpful:) Got a bunch of books at the FOTL but I couldn't remember which authors would be better and I have a few in some series, but I didn't take a list! Know they'll still have them in the back (I volunteer) so gotta go in tomorrow! I'm so used to the paranormal romance covers that I just look at them and know what I got and what may be WL'd here... Need to take a list!!

Looks like there are a lot of romantic suspense available here... Who is highly WL'd? Should just check it out through browser:)

yes....read in order....I was in the mood for military romantic suspense so grabbed a Suzanne Brockmann off my "read nest" pile......only this morning I found out it was #5 instead of #3! oops. Well now I have the excuse to read 3 and 4 quickly so I can get back to 5! I only read the prologue and first chapter, but they were good.

I second the opinions on LL's Elite Ops and S.E.A.L.s series.....they were hot! But the earlier ones were definitely better, IMO.

I am in the midst of Alison Kent's SG-5 series, and can't recommend it enough:

The Smithson Group (SG-5) series

    1.) The Bane Affair

    2-3.) In Danger (Shaughnessey/Samms)

    4-5.) Deep Trouble (Beach/McKenzie)    

    6.) Larger Than Life

    7.) Deep Breath

    8.) Beyond a Shadow

    9.) The Perfect Stranger

    10.) No Limits

    11.) With Extreme Pleasure

Books 2-5 can all be found as individual novellas, but In Danger and Deep Trouble are just easier to find, and their WLs are extremely short. :)

ETA: Oh, and ditto on Shannon McKenna, too! She's one of my all-time faves, and all of her books have been keepers for me. 

Anne-you are in for a treat then.  Books 3 and 4 are by far my favorite in that series-in fact they are the only ones I kept when I cleaned out my stash earlier in the year.  Over the Edge-Stan and Terry; Out of Control-Kenny and Van-plus the most delicious secondary couple Molly and Jones....Ok, Molly's cool but Jones is delicious. 

And yes, read the TS's in order-Brockmann's story arcs cover several books....

Oh, Jan, you are so right, I just read the prologue and chapter 1 of book 3 Over the Edge and am dying to keep reading!  Gotta hurry and get some work done so I can go back to it!!!

I second Kate's suggestion. 

You should try Linda Howards ( Mr Perfect, Dream man, All the Queen's Men, to name a few).  Sandra Brown has some good ones too, Crush,  Mirror Image, Slow Heat in Heaven,  Ricochet or Breath of Scandal just to name a few of her hits.

I like Karen Rose, Linda Howard, Sharon Sala, Dinah McCall, Karen Robards, Hunter Morgan, Linda Castillo, and Andrea Kane. I enjoy the suspenses that hold you by the seat of your pants and you don't know who the killer is until the end.

I am not that fond of murder mysteries....I love the military romantic suspense though.