Review: Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan

Title: Daughter of Deep Silence
Author: Carrie Ryan
Series: Stand-Alone
Genre: Young-Adult Suspense
Release Date: 26 May 2015

I’m the daughter of murdered parents.
I’m the friend of a dead girl.
I’m the lover of my enemy.
And I will have my revenge.

In the wake of the devastating destruction of the luxury yacht Persephone, just three souls remain to tell its story—and two of them are lying. Only Frances Mace knows the terrifying truth, and she’ll stop at nothing to avenge the murders of everyone she held dear. Even if it means taking down the boy she loves and possibly losing herself in the process.

Sharp and incisive, Daughter of Deep Silence by bestselling author Carrie Ryan is a deliciously smart revenge thriller that examines perceptions of identity, love, and the lengths to which one girl is willing to go when she thinks she has nothing to lose.

For a good portion of this book I was on the edge of my seat, absolutely enthralled with Frances' journey and revenge. I was with her one-hundred percent. The people that wronged her deserved to be brought to justice. She had a plan, and she was going to stick to it.

If it had continued in this vein, maybe just for a while longer, I would have given this book a perfect grade. The plan was well thought out, well planned, and beautifully poetic. The suspense - even after I began to get annoyed (which I'll get into later) - was superbly done. I was turning pages, unable to get enough, unable to stop. I had to know how it was going to play out and if Frances was going to get her revenge.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for Frances' plans to break down. I couldn't stand that she was allowing herself to have these feelings for a boy (Grey) that she thought was - at best - complicit by neglect in the death of everyone she loved and held dear. I could understand everything else that she felt and thought, but not this. If some boy, someone was complicit in such a tragic affair as Frances believed Grey to be, there'd be no forgiveness, at least not as quickly as Frances starts making excuses and reasons for him.

Granted, Grey does seem to be nearly as tortured about their whole history as Frances, but the fact of the matter is that his family survived the tragedy and then LIED about it. While Frances lost her parents, her friend, her life on that ship. Nearly isn't close enough for me. And for this boy Frances changes all of her plans, nearly dying, nearly getting others hurt or killed, nearly losing all justice for those responsible.

And in the end that brought down my enjoyment of the book quite a bit. The cliff-hanger/make-up-your-own-resolution ending didn't help much, but it was really the "romance" that was at the heart of my discontent. I agree that it needed to be there. Frances needed to find some reason - beyond her revenge - to actually live, but the way this one unfolded didn't work as well for me.

Grade: B-

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Review: On the Scent by Angela Campbell

Title: On the Scent
Author: Angela Campbell
Series: Psychic Detective, Book 1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: 25 July 2013
Source: Borrowed

Hannah Dawson has a big problem: she’s just become the unexpected owner of a snarky cat, a loveable but not-so-bright dog... and their $10 million fortune!

Which would be awesome if it hadn’t made her the target of every wacko in the metro Atlanta area. Now Hannah and her famous pets need protecting and there’s only one man who can help them...

Enter Zachary Collins: ex-TV star of ‘The Psychic Detective’ and street-wise private investigator – all 6 foot blue-eyed gorgeousness!

Only Zach’s got secrets of his own – not least that he finds his new client irresistibly hot. The more time he spends keeping Hannah out of harm’s way, the more he’s tempted to give in to the attraction... even if it means breaking all his own rules.

On the Scent was a pleasant surprise, a sweet romance between a smart heroine and a capable hero. Things didn't always go exactly as I expected, which was I was very grateful for - especially when the secret trope came up in the story. I was worried it'd be handled one way, but - thankfully - Angela Campbell handled it in a totally believable and perfect way.

Hannah's a completely "average" woman. She's a nurse who likes to help people, and conversely isn't really sure she even likes people anymore. She loves her pets, and trusts her gut even when she's not sure she should. And when extreme circumstances come up, she handles them calmly with brains and guts. She doesn't mind thinking outside the box, but wants all the facts, too. I liked her. Zach did, too, and it's easy to see why.

Zach is a struggling businessman - trying to keep his investigative firm in the black and forget the guilt he feels over some of his past. He's honorable. There's really no other way to put it. He tries to do the right thing, by everyone, no matter what. He takes on more guilt than he actually deserves and really cares about the people he's trying to help.

Put these two together and there was a sweet, comforting romance that budded. It wasn't all lust - though there was plenty of attraction there too - but I felt like Hannah and Zach actually liked each other. They talked and, through their actions, showed the kind of people they were. It's a good basis for a relationship.

There were a lot of good things in this novel, including the realism of how everything was handled. You may think that's a little weird to say when you're dealing with a psychic detective, but everything was handled logically. If someone was doped with ketamine, they acted like it and didn't recover unnaturally quick. Someone gets shot? They can't charge into the fray and save the day, they struggle to remain on their feet. And, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I loved the thoughts of the animals. The sarcasm and dry threats of the cat, along with the happy, not-a-care-in-the-world thoughts of the dog made me smile a more than a few times.

There were a few things that didn't work so well for me, like the secrets and drama surrounding telling them. This didn't used to be one of my hot-button issues, but I think it's become one. I get so tense waiting for the shoe to drop and then the not-talking thing to happen that it can almost ruin the story for me. Luckily, Angela Campbell mostly didn't do that, but because I kept waiting for it to happen it did take some of my enjoyment of the story away. The suspense part of it was also kind of ... tacked on, I guess. I'd say this is a light-suspense romance.

I'm glad I read On the Scent and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Grade: C+

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Review: Forgotten Sins by Rebecca Zanetti

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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Review: Lexicon by Max Barry

Title: Lexicon
Author: Max Barry
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Release Date: 18 June 2013

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics—at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science .Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as “poets”: adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school’s strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school’s most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Parke is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he’s done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry’s most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love—whatever the cost.

As a lover of language - how we use it to not only communicate but change the world around us - this book was immediately interesting to me. Words are important, a sentiment uttered more than once in this book and implied throughout. To put it bluntly, words mean things, and should be chosen with care and respect.

I'm not even quite sure what I was expecting of this book anymore, but it does start out running - and you better be prepared to chase after to keep up. You're thrust right into the action, on a bathroom floor as Wil gets a needle shoved into his eye and questions hammered at him. Then there's shooting and running and all sorts of other things being thrown at you. I will say that the book hardly had a slow moment. There was a 10% section somewhere near the middle that didn't seem to be bursting with fights, but that was it. Otherwise it was non-stop. Unfortunately, this didn't exactly appeal to me. I enjoy some good action, but it's characters that I care about most and here the characters never came alive for me.

Honestly, I find I have trouble even describing them. Instead of the actions of the world shaping them, and their choices, I felt like they were players on a stage with pre-determined events. They moved from one event to the next. It was the events that were important here, not the characters.

The language aspect, which I was really looking forward to, was mostly glossed over, or used as a platform to talk about social media, media bias, and speak about society today in general. I enjoyed these thoughts objectively - I've thought them before; that I make too much of myself available on social media and the internet, enabling companies to compile data about me to better sell to me, or convince me of whatever they want. With targeted advertisements flooding websites, it's not hard to believe some of the things the Poets do or plan. I liked this in the same way I like a good debate though, in person. It's interesting and fascinating - but written down it just becomes a bit dry. And these moments - either clippings from news sources about events in the book, or messages on internet discussion boards, or comments/discussion from readers served only to slow the book down and bog down the action. Interesting, but ultimately it felt redundant, and I felt that time could have been better used elsewhere.

More time spent on explaining what the hell is going on would have been appreciated. The book jumps from character POV to character POV, with barely a word that it's happening. It jumps from timeline to timeline to timeline, we're working with about 4 different and distinct timelines here, and it sometimes took me pages to figure out which timeline I was in. I spent the first 30% of the book with no clue as to any of the basic structure of the world, the motives of any of the characters, or the reason things were happening. When I finally did begin to get an idea, I felt like the book was doling out information like it was a precious commodity. Perhaps that's fitting in a book about the importance of words, but I didn't like feeling like a mark that was being 'compromised' - in case you're wondering, they compromise you and make you do whatever they want.

I think it kind of succeeded though because I did end up finishing the book, despite my wanting to DNF it several times. I almost did the last time at 80% of the way in, when I could barely make myself care how it all turned out. I did though, and I can't really determine if I'm glad or not. After the hell the characters were put through in the book it all tied up a bit too neatly for me.

Perhaps this is a case of this book just not being for me. It's possible that what I was hoping for and what I got were simply on widely separate ends of the spectrum. I can't pretend that I enjoyed this book though. I vacillated between confusion, boredom and irritation too much throughout.

Grade: D-

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Review: Hell on Wheels by Julie Ann Walker

Title: Hell on Wheels
Author: Julie Ann Walker
Series: Black Knights, Book 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: 7 August 2012

He’s the bad boy she’s always wanted...

Nate “Ghost” Weller has loved Ali Morgan nearly half his life. But he’s done something so heinous he’s convinced she’ll never forgive him if she discovers the truth, so he keeps his feelings and his secrets to himself. Then she blows into town with a mother lode of bad guys on her tail and Nate can’t deny she’s in serious trouble. Unfortunately, he’s the only one who can help her.

She’s the good girl he’s kept at arm’s length...

Ali knows Nate as the most solemn, aloof man on the planet. Sadly, he’s also the sexiest. For years she’s avoided him, unable to stomach his dark scowls and brooding silences… especially when she secretly yearns for his touch. Now she must rely on him to save her from the malevolent shadows ghosting her every move. When the bullets explode, so does their passion. But can love really conquer all? Or are some things just too terrible to forgive?

Sexy black-ops operatives on motorcycles – I was sold! And the premise lives up to the promise, absolutely.

Unfortunately my problems have overshadowed the enjoyment I was hoping to get out of this book. The largest one was Nate’s dialect. His mashing of several words together into a single word not on was irritating to read, it was an effort in translation every time it happened – which was at least once a page. I know people talk with dialects, I hear them in my head clearly, but I don’t need every single word typed with the lost ending if the goal is a southern accent. If typed out Scottish brogues irritate you, this is a warning that I found it much more distracting and irritating than that.

The second issue was a few logical fallacies that didn’t work for me. There is a lot of emphasis, throughout the book, put on how super-secret these guys are, and their work for the government is way off the books. They literally live in their compound, which is their cover as a custom motorcycle shop with all the accompanying surveillance and security. But let Ali walk up to the gate and ask to be let in, and she’s shown right in. Not just in the compound but in the building where they start wanding down her luggage – searching for bugs – she sees the computers that any NSA agent would die to have, and there in the corner is a fully equipped Blackhawk helicopter. Yeah, all that doesn’t raise any suspicions what-so-ever that they’re not what they seem.

And that leads me to my final problem. While Ali never truly strays into TSTL – to-stupid-to-live – territory, she comes very close. With all that evidence she still isn’t really sure until someone tells her that they’re black-ops.

One of the things I loved though was how it handled the ‘brother’s best friend’ trope. This is one of my favorite storylines – the friend in love with his best friend’s little sister, warned off, etcetera. This is really where Ali shined for me. She really gave it her all to get Nate to realize that they’re perfect together. While I’m not quite sure how their relationship is going to work in the future with her being a school teacher, and he still being in the Black Knights group, I do believe that they’ll find a way to do it.

Hell on Wheels is the sexy new start of a series, which has a whole host of characters to choose from for subsequent books. It did spend a decent amount of time on setting up future books, and I admit to curiousity on how some of these storylines tie up. If you’re looking for a quick, easy romantic suspense, Hell on Wheels might just hit the spot.


Grade: C-



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Review: Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Title: Sweet Talk
Author: Julie Garwood
Series:
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: 7 August 2012

Attorney and IRS agent Olivia Mackenzie is the kind of tough, wise-cracking, powerful woman fans expect from a Garwood protagonist—but this time she has outdone herself. Olivia is not just any woman, she is every woman; flawed in the familiar ways so many of us are.

On the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naïve and unsuspecting victims, Olivia suddenly finds her own life is in danger after she asks questions of the wrong people. She is accustomed to fighting for the underdog, but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when enough is enough, Olivia calls for reinforcements.

When she meets FBI Agent Grayson Kincaid there is an immediate and obvious attraction, palpable on both sides. Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

This is the first Julie Garwood book I’ve read, even though I have friends that are incredibly loyal fans – especially of her historical romance novels. And Sweet Talk starts out right in the middle of the action. Olivia MacKenzie, innocently, goes for a job interview and ends up assaulted, nearly shot, and in the middle of an FBI investigation. Olivia can’t believe it, she has enough on her mind with trying to get proof of her father’s Ponzi scheme that she doesn’t need the hassle of all this on top of possibly getting cut from her position as an IRS attorney.

If there’s one good thing that comes from this whole fiasco, it’s meeting Grayson Kincaid – and incredibly sexy FBI agent that becomes more determined than ever to protect Olivia from the myriad threats against her. Grayson is nearly a picture perfect hero. He’s kind, rich, sensitive, focused, took on responsibility for his nephew and smart as hell. He even tries to remove himself from the case when he gets involved with Olivia. In fact, he’s a little too perfect, and it doesn’t allow him to have the depth that would really let me get to know him.

Olivia on the other hand is a bundle of personality, and along with her best friends – the four Pips – I really connected with her. Surviving cancer, and a grueling ordeal at a very young age explains a lot about grown-up Olivia’s decisions, thoughts and her determination to see things set right. Sometimes she would seem to rush into some situations without regard to the safety of it, and it nearly resulted in serious consequences. I understood her need for independence, but there comes a point when she just became stubborn – at the expense of her own and others safety.

One of the things I appreciated most about Sweet Talk was the way that Olivia and Grayson’s friendship developed throughout the book. The downside of that was that I never really felt the chemistry of a relationship, or a true desire to have one with each other. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a well-built relationship, just missing an indefinable something that I can’t quite place.

The suspense storyline was pretty straight-foward, with no unseen twists, and the “villains” telegraphed themselves from nearly the first instance. They also tend to be more than a bit cardboard, without any real depth and seeming to do things because they could, and they were bad. I questioned quite a lot of their actions. Underlying that though is the part that kept me turning the pages to get to the resolution – Olivia’s friend, Jane, is back in the hospital. Has the cancer returned? Will she survive? I was very much invested in Olivia and her friends.

All in all, Sweet Talk is a quick, good read. Ms. Garwood's writing beautifully emerges you in the story, and I look forward to trying more by her.


Grade: C

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Review: Edge of Sight by Roxanne St. Claire

Title: Edge of Sight
Author: Roxanne St. Claire
Series: The Guardian Angelinos 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: November 1, 2010

When Samantha Fairchild witnessed a murder as a young girl it changed her life. Now bound for law school at Harvard history repeats itself and Samantha can’t believe it when she sees yet another person killed – with her as the only witness. To make matters worse apparently the killer knows she saw him, and she’s just become his next target.

Desperate for help that the police won’t provide Sam turns to her old friend Vivi Angelino, an investigative reporter, hoping she can get some information and stop cowering in her apartment. But when Vivi recruits her brother, Zach, for protection duty, Samantha isn’t sure what’s worse. The danger to her life, or the danger to her heart because she and Zach share an intense history full of heat and ending in heartbreak.

Zach is a Special Forces vet, scarred and struggling to find his footing out of the military. After disappearing from Sam’s life when he left for war, he never thought to be back in it. But now that circumstances have pushed them together again, Zach’s realized that the one thing he can’t stand is losing her again. Now Sam and Zach have to face the painful past, and the dangerous present in order to have a chance of a future together…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a new romantic suspense novel, and I thought I was burned out on them. I’m glad to say that Roxanne St. Claire proved me wrong. Edge of Sight delivers an action-packed, emotion-filled, hot, reunion romance.

Zach is a truly tortured hero, with scars not only on the inside, but that are visible to the world too. Then there’s the PTSD and survivor’s guilt that he’s living with day in and day out. Floundering, he’s not sure what to do, not sure where to go from here. The one thing he is sure of is that he doesn’t deserve happiness. Or love. Especially not the kind of love Sam offered to him before he left her three years prior.

Sam’s life took a hard left turn, and then a few more, after Zach left. She’s grown and is determined to help those that are left without recourse. But due to one significant mistake she has trouble trusting her instincts. So when things start to heat up again between her and Zach, she’s doesn’t know what to think. Is it just the close proximity that him protecting her is engendering this renewal of emotions? Or is it something more? And how can she ever be sure?

I really loved watching Zach and Sam work towards each other. They both have issues, they both aren’t sure all the time. They question. And then they talk. Which is one of the things I love most about this book. The hero and heroine don’t let themselves, or each other, stew in what could potentially turn into a Big Misunderstanding. No, they take a moment to actually discuss what’s going on with each of them, keeping the lines of communication not only open, but flowing.

The suspense part of Edge of Sight has a lot to do with Vivi wanting to start up her own private investigative and protection agency. She’s trying to talk a lot of her, rather large, family into joining her in this venture. And Samantha’s their first client. The plot moves at a quick pace, never dragging, instead it’s pulling you along down the paths the characters travel as they try to unravel the truth.

This is obviously the first of, probably, a long series. There are already a lot of extra characters that will need their own stories, and I’m sure that they will only continue to come. But the nice thing here is that even though I knew this, it never felt like sequel-bait. The family is an important part to the series and they’re all really well fleshed out so that I simply want to see more of them.

Edge of Sight is a smart, exciting, edge-of-your-seat, sincere love story that will have you rooting for Zach and Sam. And eager to see what Vivi will find for the Guardian Angelinos next.

Grade: B

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Review: Run For Your Life by Andrea Kane

Title: Run For Your Life
Author: Andrea Kane
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: Reissue - 1 October 2010


Victoria Kensington is on her morning run through Central Park when her sister, who's supposed to be in Italy, stumbles into her path. Audrey is wearing a medical gown, obviously sick, and warning her sister about danger. When Victoria goes to get help and returns, her sister is gone - without a trace.

Ignoring all threats, determined to find her sister, and unsure whom to trust, Victoria vows to get answers. Then the only man she's ever loved, Zach, shows up in New York, assigned to investigate the worldwide drug syndicate, their missions leading them to the same place. 

Despite their tangled history, Victoria trusts Zach, so they work together against the clock to find Audrey, and break the deadly drug ring. But the truth may just tear Victoria's family apart. 

As they dig deeper, the electric chemistry between them flares to a fever pitch, and the feelings they thought were in the past just won't stay there. Can Zach and Victoria navigate all the deceit surrounding them, and deal with the emotions that are unwilling to die? 

This book is one of my favorites, and I love to go back and re-read it. Mostly because it just makes me happy.

It’s hard not to like Victoria. She’s a strong, smart, independent woman, who loves unconditionally.

Zach is a brilliant surveillance expert who's a driven, caring, gentleman. As Victoria says, "She'd always marveled at how he could treat her as an equal and yet always make her so acutely aware that she was a woman." His actions prove that over and over again. 

One of my favorite things about this book is that the hero and heroine are evenly matched. Both are strong, intelligent, and they can rely not only on themselves, but also on the other. They match wits, even sometimes disagreeing, and neither is afraid to admit when they're wrong...even aloud.

Also, this is a reunion story done right. They were separated for four years, for perfectly understandable reasons. One of my biggest pet peeves in romance is the “Big Misunderstanding” between the main characters. Fortunately, that doesn’t happen here. There's definitely opportunity for it, but confusion is easily avoided because Zach and Victoria actually talk to one another.

This is another thing I love. Not only do Zach and Victoria talk about what happened four years ago, they talk about everything...the intervening years, their fears, desires, hopes and thoughts. There's no misunderstanding about what each wants. They both have eyes wide open, and make themselves, and each other, face the obstacles in their path so they can find happiness. They, understandably, have some concerns about renewing their relationship, but honest thought and discussion lead them to what they both desire. 

Obviously, what I love most is the characters, their development, and the road to happily-ever-after. I suppose I should mention the suspense part of the novel, as it is intricately tied to Victoria and Zach. I keenly felt Victoria's fear for her sister, and her worry that she wouldn't be able to help or protect her, comes through clearly. Finding out how Zach's case and Victoria's sister is linked, makes for an interesting journey, with a few twists thrown in. There are some aspects of the story that are not entirely “real world” accurate, but I honestly didn’t notice them. You are so caught up in the story, that you just keep turning pages wanting to read more.

This is definitely a favorite of mine, with a strong suspense plot weaving around the characters and providing the motivation for their objectives. By far the best thing in this story is Zach and Victoria’s love. This book is a must read!


Grade: A+

Unfortunately it's not currently available in ebook, however I'm hoping that with the re-release coming up it soon will be.
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