Another Virtue Falls winner.
Jacob Denisov has shut himself away in his Virtue Falls home, waiting for the day he finds the courage to kill himself, until his neighbor drives her car through his house, forcing him into the light and into solving the mystery of "Mad Maddie."
After suffering through horrific events in Korea, former Military Police veteran Jacob is haunted by his experience and has secluded himself from everything and everyone in his life, sitting in the dark, not eating or drinking—until the day his neighbor drives her Subaru through the front of his house. Maddie Hewitson has endured her own trauma, having survived the massacre of her roommates in college and then, more recently, the murder of her fiance. Everyone in the neighborhood thinks she’s crazy, and her penchant for calling the police for no reason doesn’t help. Jacob’s first reaction to his demolished home is to retreat, frustrated to have to deal with people. But as workers start repairs, he is drawn out of his isolation, slowly getting to know his neighbors and becoming intrigued by bright, sexy Maddie, who's drawing him out of his shell and forcing him to face his emotional wounds. Except when she seems completely wigged out by her own. Something isn’t right in Maddie’s world, but the more he peeks into it, the more dangerous their neighborhood becomes, and the clock is ticking on Jacob’s figuring out whether Maddie is the villain or the victim. Romantic suspense favorite Dodd (Obsession Falls, 2015, etc.) heads back to Virtue Falls for another smart, dramatic mystery that will keep readers flipping pages until the very end, with unexpected twists, psychological tension, and emotional depth. The traumatic back stories of the main characters set up a trail of believable misdirection and heart-stirring romance, while secondary characters add dimension and continuity to the vivid and entertaining world of this compelling series.
Another Virtue Falls winner.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-02845-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
For Coulter's sizable following (The Heiress Bride, etc. etc.): a blast-off for a new Regency trilogy involving romance and a trace of mystery. Josephina, dubbed "Duchess" at an early age because of her cool aloofness—the result of learning, at the age of nine, that she's a bastard—is the by-blow of the Earl of Chase and a lovely mother ensconced in a nearby cottage. Duchess is raised in Chase Park and, after the deaths of her mother and the Earl, spirits herself off with a huge servant named Badger to the cottage, where she supports herself in a mysterious fashion. Meanwhile, the new Earl, Marcus Wyndham, learns—to his horror—that Duchess's father, who married her mother at last, has left all to his daughter, who now has the problem of restoring the inheritance and pride to handsome Marcus. The answer, of course, is to trick him into marriage—and bed. While this venerable and favorite feature of the romantic novel—spouse-seduction—is oozing on, a group of cousins troop in from the Colonies, including vigorous widower Trevor, who, like others in the family, is intrigued by rumors of a buried treasure on the premises. Before that's discovered, though, there'll be some near-fatal attempts on the Duchess's life and an escape from a murderer—who's bound to resurface in future volumes. Coulter seems to have hit a popular vein between the more elegant Regency romances (with period diction) of, say, Patricia Veryan, and the squashiest of the paperback palpitators. A quick circulator.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-399-13878-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
A pleasant read with no major surprises, the novel profits from the author’s skill at illuminating the most profound (and...
An unexpected patrimony leads a young woman to love and family in this first installment of a new series by the beloved Regency romance author.
An orphanage in Bath has been Anna Snow's home since she was left there as a toddler by a shadowy figure. She is largely content with living and working there as a schoolteacher now, partly supported by an unknown benefactor’s stipend. Like her fellow orphans, though, she has always weaved stories of her origins, and the best one—wealth and status—suddenly comes true when she finds out that she is the daughter of the recently deceased Earl of Riverdale, born during a secret early marriage. Yet Anna, who learns that her name is Anastasia Westcott, longs most for familial affection, which seems impossible to gain from her newly discovered half siblings, who have been suddenly disinherited. Balogh (Unforgiven, 2016, etc.) specializes in romance novels that both accept the essential solitude of the human condition and offer love as a stalwart companion; here, Anna has Avery Archer, the Duke of Netherby, to help her in this balancing act. Netherby is an unusual romance hero in that he is a man of beauty with a physical stature that evokes Asian martial artists rather than the anachronistically muscled men often found in the subgenre. Anna is initially wary of his aura of refined nonchalance but finds him to be a true friend as she struggles to learn her aristocratic duties and searches for allies in her new role. Netherby is taken aback by his own attraction to the woman he had pegged as a rube but whose simplicity and dignity slowly amplify her loveliness in his eyes.
A pleasant read with no major surprises, the novel profits from the author’s skill at illuminating the most profound (and burdensome) of human desires—to love and be loved.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-451-47779-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Signet
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
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