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No Perfect Safe Haven
I’ll Call You Mine follows a woman fleeing San Francisco and a stalker for the quiet life of her small Midwestern hometown, who finds herself falling for her new coworker while her stalker’s threats escalate. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Honestly, the television show Criminal Minds was instrumental. That, with a curiosity around psychology and true crime, and a fascination with the way phrases considered romantic can also be rather threatening. For example, “I’ll always find you” or “we belong together.” Many people dream of hearing these words – but only from the right person. Coming from someone we don’t know or don’t feel the same about, the words take on a very different and sinister meaning.
Enderlin feels comforting and claustrophobic at the same time, offering protection, but also scrutiny and exposure. Why was it important that the town never become a perfect “safe haven”?
For me, it was important to show that there is no perfect safe haven. Even ‘home’ has its flaws, although we may not remember it that way once we leave. Katie thought she could outrun her troubles, perhaps looking to go back to a simpler time when she was taken care of by others: her parents, her brother, the community. But I wanted Katie to find her own strength and to build the life she wanted rather than trying to find it.
The book repeatedly shows how stalking changes ordinary behavior: how Katie reads rooms, measures people, and notices small details. Did you do research into the psychological aftermath of stalking and harassment?
Yes, I did do research! I wanted to not only learn the effects of being stalked, but also find the ways in which victims learned to manage the lasting impact and to find joy in life. I watched quite a few true crime shows that focused on stalking cases in which the victim was able to add context. Hearing them recall how they felt and how it affected not only their lives but the lives of those around them helped a lot. The story of singer/songwriter Coles Whalen was really eye-opening and exceptionally informative on several fronts.
Can you tell us more about what’s in store for the town of Enderlin and the direction of the second book?
Through the series Enderlin Calling, the town is the thing that connects all the stories, although not all of the stories take place there. Book 2 has Katie’s best friend, Charlotte, as she goes to Texas to save the family horse ranch. She finds sabotage – and her old flame – and has to figure out how to navigate both without losing everything. Book 3 is in the works and follows one of Katie’s coworkers away from Enderlin and back again. Book 4 will center around Katie’s brother, Nick, but it is still nothing more than a dream at this point.
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For Ben, life in Enderlin is quiet and peaceful, his biggest concern, the ex-fiancée who keeps turning up like a bad penny. That is, until he literally bumps into a curvy brunette with stunning blue eyes and something to prove. Parker is a complication he doesn’t want or need; so why can’t he get her out of his head?
Katie settles into her new life, reconnecting with family and friends and falling for Ben’s easy charm a little more every day. But her attempt to escape seems to have made the stalker bolder, and his love letters quickly escalate to threats she can’t ignore.
When the mounting danger crosses the point of no return, Katie is left shocked, terrified – and utterly alone. But she knows one thing for certain; if she wants to get back to Ben and everyone she loves, she’s in for the fight of her life.
I’ll Call You Mine
I’ll Call You Mine by Sharon L. Clark is a romantic suspense novel about Katie Parker, who flees San Francisco for her Iowa hometown after a stalker turns her life into a private siege. Back in Enderlin, she tries to rebuild: reconnecting with her brother Nick, starting over professionally, and sparring her way into a combustible romance with Ben Collins. But the threats follow her home, turning small-town comfort into something more watchful and claustrophobic.
I enjoyed how the book lets romance and danger breathe in the same room without letting either one fully domesticate the other. Katie’s fear feels persistent rather than decorative; it changes where she stands, how she reads faces, how she measures a room. That gives the love story with Ben a sharper edge. Their chemistry is flirtatious, exasperating, sometimes almost too heated for office hours, but it works because Katie is not simply being “rescued.” She is trying, messily and stubbornly, to reclaim her own life.
What surprised me most was the warmth around the suspense. Enderlin could have been painted as pure refuge, but Clark makes it more interesting: safe places can still have shadows, and familiar people can become unsettling when seen from the wrong angle. I also liked the texture of the supporting cast, especially Nick, whose protective humor keeps the story from sinking into dread. The banter runs broad, but the book’s best moments have a nimble push-pull: a joke lands, a threat intrudes, and suddenly the air tastes metallic again.
I would recommend this to readers of romantic suspense, stalker thrillers, and small-town romance, especially those who like danger wrapped around a high-chemistry love story. Fans of Nora Roberts’s romantic suspense or Karen Rose’s blend of menace and emotional intensity will find familiar pleasures here, though Clark leans more into small-town heat and bantering attraction. This is a tense, tender romance about learning that home is not the absence of danger, but the place where you stop facing it alone.
Pages: 294 | ASIN : B0DND3Q3MY
