By: Harriet Schultz
Self-Published - Available at Amazon & Smashwords
Contemporary Romantic Suspense
2.5/3 Heart Review
Book Blurb:
When Will Cameron’s body is discovered in a Boston alley, the only clue to the thirty-four-year-old man’s murder is a pristine Scottish sgian dubh dagger left beside it. His devastated widow, Alexandra, flees Boston to find refuge in the Miami villa of Will’s best friend, Diego Navarro, who has the means, power and temperament to solve the puzzle and to avenge the senseless killing.
Diego, a handsome and wealthy Argentine, is equally determined to win the grieving widow’s heart. The growing attraction to each other becomes hard to resist as Alex and Diego follow leads that take them from Miami to Buenos Aires and Scotland, unraveling the Cameron family’s secrets and the Legacy of the Highlands.
Most of my blog and twitter followers know that I love a good romantic suspense. I love the heightened emotions and truly I love to read about the villain getting his. I'm also a fan of historical fiction and so I was very excited to read this book by Harriet.
Let me start with the parts of the book I thought were done well, the historical research and the suspense. The history included in this book is fascinating and I loved how it was presented. When the story was done, I immediately wanted to look up some of the things Harriet mentioned to see how much was creativity on her part and how much of it was real history. It's really amazing stuff!
I also thought she created a compelling suspense story and the characters she created to move the suspense forward were interesting. She plotted the suspense portion of this story extremely well and it's not only fast paced, but you do keep trying to guess how this can come to a end, especially in light of the historical aspects of the story.
What didn't work for me was the romance. Honestly, this book would have been so much better for me if it was a straight up suspense without the romance included. This might not be true for everyone as the reasons I have for the romance not working might not bother another reader. I can't go into too much detail in order not to let out any spoilers, but I just never bought into the romance situation or time-frame that it occurs in.
Likewise, the heroine is so different seeming between her suspense scenes vs. her romantic scenes it was to follow her story and believe in her romantic actions. It was hard to connect with the heroine since I didn't agree with what was going on romantically, which disappointed me since based on the first few chapters I really wanted to cheer for this character.
Style wise, the story set-up and flow were very well done but there were a few scenes that head-hopping pulled me out of the action sometimes. Mostly though, I was really into the historical story and also the suspense storyline and found that it propelled me along even if I wanted to forget the romantic plot that just didn't jive for me. It seemed almost as if the romance had been added to the story later to fit around the suspense.
Again, this would have made an excellent straight suspense story and the Scottish history alone is fascinating and worth the read. Harriet moves a story along very well and her story was very entertaining. The romance just went into territory I couldn't buy in to so that didn't work, but it might for other readers. If you like Scottish history and suspense I think you'll enjoy this book for those alone!
Happy Reading!
Cheeky Girl Sabrina
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