Secrets and Shadows

Meg Allison

Publisher:
Samhain Publishing

Release Date:
August 22, 2006

Genres:
Contemporary Romance
Romantic Suspense

ISBN:
eBook
1599980886
Print
9781599982953

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
Jennifer Ray

Review Posted:
June 2008

Sabrina Layne left her family home and her wealthy father years ago to marry a man against her father’s wishes.  Although her husband soon proved to be the con artist and ne’er do well her father had suspected him to be, Sabrina stayed away even after her husband’s betrayal and the subsequent divorce.

Now she has returned home finally, reunited with her father only upon his death, left with the pain of her father’s unrequited love and regrets for a reconciliation whose last opportunity has passed.  But her father’s funeral reunites her with Jason Sinclair, the man who broke her heart when he left without explanation years before after stirring her heart and leaving her love unfulfilled.

Can she reconcile with Jason and find the friendship they once shared?  She knows Jason is keeping secrets from her, and is not sure she can trust him anymore, especially with a string of murders surrounding her, including her own father’s.

Jason knows his life as an undercover CIA agent is too dangerous to include love, but when little Sabrina Layne returns home, all bets are off.

SECRETS AND SHADOWS is a suspenseful tale fraught with romantic tension, mysteries, and the most delightful twist to the end.  I can usually predict the twist to most stories, but I confess to never having seen this one coming!  Although in hindsight, I see there were tiny clues peppering the story, Meg Allison so cleverly distracted me with the romantic tension that I was completely surprised when the twist came.

Meg Allison has a wonderful writing style, and the reader is quickly swept up in her characters’ live, enjoying a complete immersion in the world she has fashioned.  As the story unwound, I was continuously impressed that no scene, no character, no line was superfluous, although they never felt premeditated, instead flowing naturally with the progression of the story.

While categorized as a romance, the suspense was as important to the story as the romance, to the point where the reader forgets they are reading a romantic novel, and is left satisfied with both elements.

I would recommend SECRETS AND SHADOWS to anyone who enjoys suspenseful romance.  I will certainly be looking for more of Allison’s work!

Note:  This review was originally written by Jennifer Ray for another review site.  It is being reposted at Wild on Books.

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