About the Book

Book: Anchoring You

Author: Robin Patchen

Genre: Christian romantic suspense

Release Date: May 12, 2026

On the glittering waters of the Caribbean, a yacht captain’s fight for survival forces her to rely on a man she swore she’d never trust.

A fiercely independent yacht captain, Kenzie Wright has spent her life disregarding her family’s expectations. She thrives on freedom, charting her own course, and never staying in one place—or with one person—for long. But when a routine voyage thrusts her into the crosshairs of a deadly drug cartel, her carefully crafted agenda is blown apart. Her last hope to save herself and her crew is the partying playboy, Jaz.

DEA informant Jasper Aylett has spent years hunting the cartel leader known only as “the Phantom.” The mission has cost him everything—his family, his reputation, and his chance at redemption. When a beautiful yacht captain gets caught in the Phantom’s web, Jaz risks his life to rescue her. It’s his last chance to secure the information he needs to take his enemy down—and get his life back.

Kenzie is forced into hiding with Jaz, and now two cartels want her dead. With their lives on the line, Kenzie and Jaz must work together to unravel the Phantom’s network before it’s too late. But the closer they get to the truth—and to each other—the more their past wounds and buried fears threaten to tear them apart, leaving them vulnerable to an enemy who won’t stop until they’re both destroyed.

From a USA Today bestselling author… Don’t miss this heart-pounding suspense and swoon-worthy romance as Kenzie and Jasper discover their fight for survival—and for love—can only be won together.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Robin Patchen is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of Christian romantic suspense. She grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, the setting of her Coventry Saga books, and then headed to Boston to earn a journalism degree. Working in marketing, she discovered how much she loathed the nine-to-five ball and chain. After relocating to the Southwest, she started writing her first novel while homeschooling her three children. The novel was dreadful, but her passion for storytelling didn’t wane. Thankfully, as her children grew, so did her writing ability. Now that her kids are adults, she has more time to play with the lives of fictional heroes and heroines, wreaking havoc and working magic to give her characters happy endings. When she’s not writing, she’s editing or reading, proving that most of her life revolves around the twenty-six letters of the alphabet.

More from Robin

Too Far Gone? Writing a Prodigal Hero

When I started writing Anchoring You, I knew the hero was going to be a challenge.

On the surface, Jaz is everything my heroine Kenzie despises: a charming playboy who flits around the Caribbean with a different woman on his arm every week and a drink perpetually in his hand. When he tries to get to know her, she wants nothing to do with him. She’s heard the rumors. She knows exactly what kind of man he is.

Except she doesn’t know the real Jaz. Nobody does.

Underneath the polished persona, Jaz is drowning. A gambling addiction led to crushing debt, which led to a desperate deal with a dangerous man, which led to five years of living undercover as a DEA informant. He’s lost everything that matters—his money, his reputation, his relationship with his brother, Noah, and most painfully, his daughter Charlotte, whom he left with Noah to keep her safe from the criminals who control his life.

Somewhere in the midst of all that, Jaz also lost his faith.

The Prodigal Who Doesn’t Come Home

We all know the parable of the prodigal son. He squanders his inheritance, hits rock bottom, and returns to his father’s open arms.

But what happens when the prodigal believes he’s wandered too far, done too much, burned too many bridges to ever find his way back?

That’s Jaz’s life when we first meet him. He tells Kenzie at one point, “I’m not sure if I left Him or if He left me, but God and I haven’t had a relationship since I was a teenager.”

Jaz isn’t angry at God. He’s not wrestling with doubt. He’s just disconnected. Numb. He made choices that spiraled out of control. People got hurt, and somewhere along the way, he decided that men like him shouldn’t expect grace.

I think a lot of people can identify with Jaz, even if their circumstances aren’t as dramatic as his. It’s not always a crisis of faith that pulls us away from God. Sometimes it’s shame, the quiet belief that we’ve disqualified ourselves. We believe grace is real, just not for us.

A Faith That Doesn’t Preach

Kenzie could have lectured him or quoted Scripture at him. But Kenzie, a strong believer, doesn’t preach. Instead, she lives her faith, acting on what she believes. In one quiet conversation, when Jaz confesses how far he’s fallen, she offers him truth without judgment:

“There’s no such thing as too far, Jasper. Not with God.”

Kenzie’s relationship with God is evident in how she treats people, how she handles fear, how she extends grace to a man the world has written off. Kenzie’s witness begins to crack Jaz’s defenses.

Writing Broken Heroes

I’m drawn to characters who carry weight—who’ve made real mistakes with real consequences, not just minor flaws designed to make them “relatable.” Jaz gambled away half his family’s estate. He slept around. He abandoned his daughter—even if it was to protect her. He spent five years lying to everyone he met.

These aren’t small things. I didn’t want to minimize them or sweep them under the rug in the rush to make him likable.

I believe in redemption. I believe people can change—not by willpower but by the power of God.

Jaz doesn’t have a dramatic conversion moment in the middle of the action. His journey back to faith starts with prayer, the gentle testing of God in moments of crisis.

And God answered, protecting and guiding him through the most difficult time of his life. When it was over, Jaz realized God had been there all along.

That’s the heart of the prodigal story, isn’t it? The father doesn’t chase the son down the road. He doesn’t force him to come home. But when the son finally turns around, the father is already running to meet him.

Jaz spent years believing he’d gone too far. Kenzie helped him see that there is no “too far” for God.

Because if grace only works for people who haven’t messed up too badly, it’s not really grace at all.

Interview with the Author

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your book?

Anchoring You is about a transport captain—a woman who sails yachts from port to port for wealthy clients. I heard about a woman who did that for a living and thought it was fascinating. I learned so many interesting things while researching to write this book. For instance, did you know there’s a trench that separates the Atlantic from the Caribbean? It’s called the Puerto Rico trench, and it’s the deepest point in the Atlantic at over five miles deep. It’s the seventh deepest spot on earth. I wouldn’t have thought, before I started researching, that that would make a difference on the surface of the water, but apparently, the waves are higher and more chaotic over the trench. So of course, that’s where my heroine is when she sees the modern-day pirates approaching.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?

I love hearing from my readers. Many send me encouraging notes about the books. Many are emailing to tell me how cute my grandsons are—I include a photo of one or both of them in every newsletter. Some will ask me to pray for something (which of course I do, every time), or tell me they’re praying for me, which is such a blessing. Sometimes, readers share their own stories. I heard from one this morning after I emailed about a collection of kidnapping novels. She told me she’d been kidnapped when she was a kid in a case of mistaken identity. It’s one of those stories that’s 99% horrifying and 1% Hmm, I could use that…

Do you read the genre you write? Why or why not?

I rarely read Christian romantic suspense anymore. Sometimes, when I read a book in my genre, I find myself nitpicking it to death. More often, though, I’m amazed at the stories and the skills of the writers, and I think…I should give up. I’m not nearly as good as [insert author name here.] Either way, reading other books in exactly my genre isn’t healthy for me. I skim them before I share them with my readers, and check the reviews. But I rarely read one cover to cover.

How did publishing your first book change your writing process?

Even though my first published book was a Christmas novella that sold very few copies, that contract changed how I felt about writing. Before the contract, writing had been a hobby and being a novelist had been a dream. After the contract, I knew this was something I could do for a living—to actually make money. I’d recently put my kids in school after homeschooling them for years, and I needed to do something with my time. My husband assumed I’d earn an income. I just wanted to write. Publishing that book convinced me I could do both. I also realized that if I wanted to sell books and not just write them, I might need to find a different route. I started writing faster, started learning and improving my craft, and started looking into indie publishing. I’ve been publishing my own books since 2014, and I love it.

Is your writing space pristine or organized chaos?

Organized chaos. I have beautiful bookshelves in my office that people can see from the hallway when they come into my house. But my desk is currently covered with one…two…three piles of papers I need to deal with. I leave them on the desk because if I put them away, I’ll never deal with them. However, I’ve perfected the skill of ignoring them, even when they’re right in front of me. I’ll get to those piles…right after I finish this book. (File that under: Lies we tell ourselves.)