Title: Forgotten Sins
Author: Rebecca Zanetti
Series: Sin Brothers, Book 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: 2 July 2013
His Secrets Can Destroy Her
From the moment Josie laid eyes on sexy, mysterious Shane Dean, she was in love. Their desire ignited a passionate affair, and within weeks, Shane had slipped a ring on her finger. It seemed her every fantasy was coming true . . . until her new husband disappeared without a trace. Now, two years and one broken heart later, Josie is shocked by the hospital call: Shane has been found . . . at a crime scene with no memory of how he got there.
Her Love Can Save Him
Shane can't remember the blue-eyed angel at his bedside—or who he even is—but he knows something isn't right. His hearing is razor sharp, his physical strength incredible, and the urge to protect Josie overwhelming. For powerful enemies are hunting him, and Josie is the key to discovering why. As Shane struggles to unravel his past, dangerous new truths come to light. Can he protect the only woman he's ever loved? And can Josie trust a man she thought she knew—one who carries such a deadly secret?
I'm always a bit leery when authors choose to combine romance, suspense and paranormal elements into a single novel - all three plots generally require a lot more time and attention to detail than they tend to end up getting. In Forgotten Sins that both is, and isn't, the case. All three elements tend to suffer a bit from lack of attention.
I love me some reunited lovers - it's one of my favorite story-tropes, so I was excited to know that Josie and Shane were in love before he disappeared for two years. I wanted to know why he'd disappeared, and how they were going to make it work. Unfortunately the further we delved into the truth, the less sure I was they were going to be able to make things work.
Josie could have been a great heroine. She's strong, has a will of iron, and is able to take care of herself. She isn't afraid to go toe-to-toe with Shane, willing him to see that she's not as weak and vulnerable as he thinks she is. Unfortunately, even though I can understand her not quite trusting Shane, her dithering between wanting him and not got on my nerves. It's not the fact that she was taking her time to decide what was right for her, it's more the tone and the way she thinks about these things - which I recognize makes it really hard to truly criticize.
Shane irritated me too, not so much in the present because he was determined to not let Josie go again. He recognized that he loved her, and she deserved the best, and he was sure he would give her everything. But his past actions - which I won't spoil here - were never satisfactorily dealt with. When the truth did come out the whole thing was just sort of shrugged off and things moved on.
As the suspense storyline and the paranormal aspects are tied up together - essentially Shane and his brothers are super-soldiers - I was disappointed in both for pretty much the same reason. The 'villain' was cartoonish and I kept expecting them (the villain and his minions) to start twirling their black mustaches and breaking into evil laughs. By the time the doctor showed up I was rolling my eyes at the over-the-top evilness of the character.
However, all that being said, the writing was good and I'm totally interested in these brothers - and their mission. They've got high stakes, which are heightened near the end of the book, and can't fail. I want to see what happens with them, and how they resolve this situation.
I'll be picking up the second book in this series to see if it works better for me than this one did.
Grade: C
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