Amanda's Blog

I shall categorize this as romantic mystery since traditionally romantic suspense will involve kickass hero and alot of action. What we had here is a mystery surrounding the hero and heroine past that is slowly unraveling.

From the prologue, the author drew me into the mystery that happened to Blake when she was 4, when both her parents were murdered at their home and she was later brought to her Aunt Shelley. In present day, Blake is now 25, she is an undergraduate law student and still battling the demons that haunt her dreams. We were introduced to this awesome guy, Cole Murphy. His first impression to me was 'awesome boyfriend', but then in an instant it seems like I was thrown by a bucket of cold water to find out that both he and Blake each had their own girlfriend and boyfriend respectively. I just can't bring myself to understand what the heck is going on between this two fella. They look so in love, and I mean with each other!

We are treated with alternate chapters of 'present' and 'past', which usually annoys me because I often felt that talking about the past seems to drag the story. But in this case, I'm actually looking forward to read the 'past' chapters because I need to know how Blake met with her best friends, Aubry (if not because he had a girlfriend, I thought he will play the role as gay pal perfectly), Becky, Greg and Cole (did I already mentioned this guy is awesome)! Mostly is because I want to know how she and Cole end up to be 'whatever' that is going on between them now. I'm devouring the pages as it goes. Withholding information from reader should be a serious crime and the author use this technique perfectly.

Cole, oh what can I say. He is the epitome of perfection. He is charming, caring, loyal, successful and good looking of course. I remember at one time Blake was saying 'I hate that you are good looking. If you are ugly, non of this will happen'. Reading about their past is heartbreaking, but it only makes their reunion much more meaningful. This guy basically will die for Blake, figuratively speaking. I'm in awe that he had been pining for her all these years and love her so damn much. I wonder what kind of love spell did Blake cast on him. The only flaw that I can make out is maybe he is a tad sappy sometimes. But who cares. I don't think anyone will be able to read this without fall for him in an instant.

Blake had never given up on finding out about her parents. When she turned 25 and inherited a piece of land from her late Aunt Shelley, her investigation leads her to an attorney, Mark Lewis. She is convince that he knows about her past more than he let on. When Blake starts receiving letters and phone calls from a mystery party, she is worried about her safety and those people around her. We learned that both Blake's and Cole's past might interlink with each other. This leaves us with a cliffhanger that left me anxious to read the next book, like right now.