Alanna has been plagued by tragedy. So it should come as no surprise that in the beauty that surrounds Charleston, all is not as it seems. When her husband is killed by a car bomb while their band is on tour in Charleston, Alanna doesn’t know where to turn. Her father-in-law is threatening to take custody of the baby she carries, but the one thing she knows for sure is that she can’t lose the last piece of Liam she has left. Their manager offers her a marriage of convenience to gain her U.S. citizenship and allow her to escape her father-in-law’s control. It seems like the perfect solution . . . but her doubts begin almost as soon as she arrives at Barry’s family home, a decaying mansion surrounded by swamp. To make matters worse, Liam’s best friend survived the car bomb. She’s never really liked Jesse and now she can’t seem to get away from him. When he takes Liam’s place in their band, it’s almost more than she can bear. But then things start happening. Things that could easily cost Alanna her life—or the life of her unborn child. Are they merely coincidences? Or is there something much more sinister at work?
My Thoughts
This story had a bit of everything. It's a contemporary mystery thriller. It wasn't my absolute fave from this author but I still enjoyed the book and it still held enough for me to keep the pages turning and was a solid tension filled read. It was a bit of a darker and creepier story than most of her mysteries and there were things about it that I loved but a few things that left me with a few questions.
The basic story was really interesting to me as we walked through the heartache of what Alanna deals with in the aftermath of the accident and then finding out it was a bomb that killed her husband. Her and her husband's love was sweetly written and it was nice to see marriage positively portrayed even amongst the music industry. The story touches upon struggling with one's faith and anger towards God after a tragedy though I would not really call this an overtly Christian novel and I would have liked to have seen that explored a bit more. I loved the Irish theme woven into it through the main characters. It is mostly set in Charleston, South Carolina but does go back to Ireland a bit. I enjoyed the Irish brogue because it wasn't overly done and didn't leave me googling definitions of words or phrases as other books have done when they use another language. As Alanna's background is unfolded reading of the "travellers" or Irish gypsies was interesting too. I did think some of the story parts were a little rushed and left me with questions and would have like to have seen those fleshed out a bit better and though I guessed parts of the story about 3/4 of the way there was more to the story that kept me going right until the end.
This novel would be enjoyed by those who like a clean psychological thriller.
Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for providing the book free of charge for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.
Linked with Semicolon Saturday Review of Books.
1 comment:
It's been years since I've read Colleen - not because I didn't like her. I did. I just have SO many books stacked up. I think I have one or two of hers in my Kindle app. This does sound a bit darker than what I remember of her, and the books I've read from her are usually more overtly Christian. But Charleston is one of my all-time favorite places, so I might check this one out some time.
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