Ashley Dawn: Shadows from the Past

From Amazon

 By Kelly Bridgewater

“…It is the price you pay for choosing to be a cop. Your brother’s life…”

Those words haunt her dreams, and her waking moments. LAPD officer, Aurora Kavvan cannot rest until she finds her brothers killer. Digging into the past always brings back unpleasant things: memories, guilt…the hit man. Now she is in a race against time to find the murderer before he finds her.

“Kill her. I don’t care how, and I don’t care where, but I want her dead now!”

Someone was trying to kill his dead partner’s sister. FBI agent, Jordan Reiley will stop at nothing to protect the woman he loves. Even if it means going against her wishes; putting himself between her and the man who murdered her brother.

Will God keep them alive long enough for them to find the truth?

My Thoughts:

I have read tons of romantic suspense novels, and I have a pretty good idea of how the mechanics of a novel works, especially in this genre. Ashley Dawn is a new author who I have never heard of, but the synopsis for her story Shadows from The Past sounded interesting and right up my alley, so I signed up for a copy. Not what I was expecting.

First, I do adore the cover for this book. Whoever Dawn hired to do the cover did a fabulous job. It fit the synopsis perfectly and gave a wonderful feel to the upcoming novel. This helped cement my choice to read the novel.

Setting is important to grounding the reader to the characters and the surrounding world. If I can't visualize where the characters are, then I have a hard time following the story. Dawn would mention that the characters were in an apartment or a safe house, which happened to be Jordan's house, but she really didn't spend a lot of time showing me what I was looking at. So my imagination had to make up a house and fill in the blanks.

The characters make or break a novel. In this case, they actually break the novel. I had no sympathy for the heroine or the multiple other characters. They appeared to be stick figures running around on the page. She tried to make Aurora, Rory, Roar, or Roarie (whatever nickname she tried to use) a deep wounded character, but she spent way too much time processing things. I believe I had more time listening to her internal dialogue than watching her actually speak to the other characters. Needs to be dialed back a lot. Like Rachel Hauck says, "Tell the story between the quotes." I think Dawn needs to spend some time editing a lot of the internal dialogue.

The plot. The story begins with a nightmare, which I didn't know is a nightmare until Aurora wakes up. Then I'm thrown into a lot more internal dialogue before any more action. Then Dawn would have something happen to the partners or the person Aurora happens to be with. They always end up in the hospital, and Aurora is apologizing for the incident. The story did not have much hair raising tension either. It felt very slow (maybe because of all the internal dialogue), then the ending to catch the person who wanted Aurora dead is also anti-climatic. I gasped in shock how simple the ending was. Been done before. Not surprising. Also, there is A LOT of head hopping in the same chapter. The story goes from Aurora's perspective to Jordan's to Joe's to Alex's to the bad guys all in one chapter. Confused me a couple of times. Not supposed to do that.

Overall, Shadows from the Past by Ashley Dawn is a first draft of a beginning writer. I think she needs to spend some time focusing on the mechanics of writing a novel and then return to this novel. With more practice, she probably would be able to make the tension stronger, the ending different and better, and the dialogue much better for the readers to endure.

I received a complimentary copy of Shadows from the Past by Ashley Dawn through Celebrate Lit Tours, but the opinions stated are my own. 

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Where to connect with Ashley Dawn:

Facebook

Website 

Twitter

Author's Bio:

From Amazon

Ashley Dawn was born and raised in rural Arkansas where she developed her love for writing while helping in her parent's office. She graduated with an accounting degree from the University of Central Arkansas but is currently working as a legal assistant.
Ashley has been writing professionally for the past twelve years and has three published books. Her Shadows Series include Shadows From The Past, Shadows of Suspicion, Shadows of Pain, and Shadows of Deception. She is currently working on multiple projects including the fifth in her ‘Shadows’ series entitled “Shadows in Black and White” and also a standalone suspense titled ‘One of Their Own’. She and her family make their home in Texas.

Christy Barritt: Dust and Obey *GIVEAWAY*

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

When Gabby St. Claire’s ex-fiancé, Riley Thomas, asks for her help in investigating a possible murder at a couples’ retreat, she knows she should say no. She knows she should run far, far away from the danger of both being around Riley and the crime. 

But her nosy instincts and determination take precedent over her logic. At the retreat center she feels like she’s stepped into the pages of a creepy gothic novel: an isolated island that’s often foggy, an old lodge with a dark history, and a small pool of suspects who each have either motive, means, or opportunity for murder. When another life is threatened, the risk intensifies. 

Gabby and Riley must work together to find the killer. In the process, they have to confront demons from their past and deal with their present relationship. If they don’t learn to trust each other, they could both end up as fodder for the supposedly cursed island’s folklore. 

My Thoughts:

If you have read any of the Squeaky Clean series, then you know that you can’t put down them down. Christy Barritt has a way of grabbing you and not letting go. Right from the first page, I was thrown into the action, and the tension escalated from there. I was held captive as I flipped the pages waiting to see what troubles would find Gabby and Riley next. As Dust and Obey progressed, I started to fall more in love with Gabby and Riley, begging for their happily-ever after. Dust and Obey is the tenth book, well actually the eleventh, and I have loved every single one of them. You don’t have to read them in order. They are stand alone books because of the mystery hidden in the pages, but it helps to have some of the background played out in the past books to understand the emotions occurring between the different characters.

As a longtime fan of the Squeaky Clean series, I have seen the dilemmas and struggles that Gabby and Riley’s relationship has undergone. This book also brings more trouble to their relationship, but there is a happy ending for me.

I, personally, enjoy how Barritt captures Gabby’s train of thoughts and allows me to follow her emotional journey with her. This is Barritt’s greatest strength in her writing. I really feel like I am right there with Gabby as she decides between Riley and her forever peace.

As Barritt writes about sixty-four percent into Dust and Obey, “Murky history, dead bodies, and secret passages. What more could you want?” This sums up the conflict pouring off the pages of her latest mystery book. I truly loved Dust and Obey and recommend it to her fans, new and familiar, with all her books.

I received a complimentary copy of Dust and Obey from Christy Barritt and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Purchase Dust and Obey

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I have two copies of Christy Barritt’s Love Inspired Books, The Last Target and High-Stakes Holiday Reunion to give away. Enter at the Rafflecopter below!

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Christy Barritt: Random Acts of Deceit

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Description (From Amazon):

“Break up with Chase Dexter, or I’ll kill him.” Holly Anna Paladin never expected such a gut-wrenching ultimatum. But the man threatening her makes it clear he’s dead serious. With home invasions, hidden cameras, and bombs threats, Holly must make some serious choices. Whatever Holly decides, the consequences will either break her heart or break her soul. She tries to match wits with the masked man, but he’s always a step ahead of her. The more she fights, the deeper she’s drawn into the perilous situation. Dealing with the ultimatum, her sister’s wedding problems, and riots that have broken out in the city, Holly’s nearly at her breaking point. She must discover the identity of this mystery man before someone she loves dies. But the deceit is threatening to pull her under . . . six feet under.

My Thoughts:

Random Acts of Deceit is the second book in the Holly Anna Paladin’s series. The first book is entitled Random Acts of Murder. I enjoyed following Holly around in the first book. It wasn’t’ the first time fans of Holly met her; she actually made an appearance in one of Barritt’s other book, Mucky Streak. Barritt does a good job at creating action that grips the hard-core mystery fans with realistic characters, and a formulaic who done it mystery.

The writing is spot on. The dialogue hustles the action along while deepening the story with the prose showing the internal struggles and thoughts of Holly. All of Christy Barritt’s books, besides the Love Inspired Suspense books, are written in the first person point of view, so I develop quite a relationship with each character as the series progress. The dialogue and prose make me feel like I’m listening to a close friend who is spilling their deepest, darkest secrets. One problem I did have was that all of Barritt’s first-person characters are starting to sound like the same person. Yes, they have different personalities and are solving different crimes, but for some reason, in this book, Holly didn’t sound any different than Gabby St. Clair from her Squeaky Clean Mysteries. Not that this affecting my enjoyment of the book. I really liked the mystery.

The pace of the novel is just right for a cozy mystery. There is incident after incident, all threatening Holly and giving her no choice but no comply with the Shadow Man, as Holly nicknamed the man who is ruining her life.  

I really enjoy returning to familiar characters like Holly and Chase. That is what is so great about Barritt’s writing, besides her ability to create a new page-turning mystery with every book, I really like following the same characters around and watch their lives change and grow. In Random Acts of Deceit, Holly has moved in with her mother and has a good relationship with Chase. Holly is strong, loves her family, and is willing to follow her heart, even when others tell her not to. On the other hand, Chase, her boyfriend, is a good detective who wears his heart on his sleeve for Holly. He isn’t afraid to get to the bottom of a case or his relationship with Holly. I think Barritt’s greatest character strength is creating heroes I truly enjoy.

The conflict stems from threats from Shadow Man and how he affects Holly’s life. He sneaks into her mother’s house on a number of different occasions, demanding Holly to do things that cause her to struggle internally. To be relevant for today, Barritt includes the riots that have happened in the news to occur in the small town where Holly lives and works. While the external conflict affects her outwardly, the romantic tension the Shadow Man makes her create between her and Chase rips her apart. Holly really likes Chase, but in order to save everyone in her family, including Chase, she must do what the Shadow Man requested.

This is an original and unpredictable cozy mystery that I couldn’t wait to turn the pages to find out who the bad guy was. There is no questionable content, so anyone could read Barritt’s books. Fans of Barritt’s other books will really enjoy returning to familiar characters in a familiar setting. I couldn’t figure out who the bad guy was. She threw me for a loop.

Always thrilling, Christy Barritt does it again with Random Acts of Deceit. The mystery is thrown in with incident after incident for Holly’s life. I enjoy returning to recognizable characters in a well-known setting. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series or any book that Christy Barritt writes.

I received a complimentary copy of Random Acts of Deceit from Christy Barritt and the opinions stated are all my own. 

My Rating:  4 out of 5 stars (Very Good)

  

Heather Day Gilbert: Trial by Twelve

By Kelly Bridgewater

Back Cover Copy:

From Amazon

Tess Spencer loves her low-key job at the Crystal Mountain Spa, which allows her plenty of down-time with her one-year old daughter and lawyer husband, Thomas. But when a pool installation turns up eight skeletons in the spa's back yard, Tess becomes entangled in a sleuthing job destined to go awry.

As the investigation gets underway, someone dumps a fresh body near the excavated burial site, confirming unspeakable fears. A serial killer has returned to Buckneck, West Virginia...a skilled hunter with a unique taste in prey.

When Tess agrees to help the cunning Detective Tucker gather clues from the inside, she discovers the posh spa hides more than dead bodies. Even as she sifts through layers of deceit, Tess realizes too late that the killer's sights have zeroed in on her.

My Review:

I have to admit; the genre and the cover of Trial by Twelve drew me into Heather Day Gilbert’s newest book. I liked how simple the cover was because it wasn’t overcrowded and filled my mind with preconceived notions of what the characters looked like.

When reading a mystery or romantic suspense novel, I liked to be swept up in the action immediately. Unfortunately, in Gilbert’s newest novel, Trial by Twelve, I didn’t feel the spine tingling anxiety as the heroine and narrator, Tess, runs for her life. The opening chapter has a lot of backstory and ended with an inciting incident that sparked my interest immediately. But the rest of the story centers on Tess’s home life and not much with the mystery. The plot dragged in the middle, pushing me to do other things besides read. There are some moments of conflict: an arrow pierced the side of Tess’s house with a note attached or her license plate or Charlotte, her friend, gets knocked out, but not Tess. Because of others are getting hurt, not Tess, I never worried for Tess’s safety. The story does pick up near the end as Tess comes closer to discovering who the villain is. Plus, the ending felt really rushed to me. One minute, Tess is in trouble for her life and then she is being rushed to safety. Again, I had no fear of Tess not getting out alive.

While there is no budding relationship to qualify as a romantic story, the plot does involve Tess and her husband, Thomas. The marriage between Tess and Thomas appears perfect. He is supportive of her working at a hot spot for a serial killer while he worked long hours at the law firm. The story is told in first person point of view, so I understood Tess’s struggles and fears. Tess is a strong heroine who has overcome many struggles in her past and loves being accepted into her husband’s family. She is a woman who can be admired for her ability to rise above her past.

Gilbert does have a command on keeping the prose and dialogue even. The conversations between the characters were spot on. I felt like I was listening in on their discussions. While the dialogue sparked my attention, the setting is vaguely described. Gilbert would tell me that Tess and Thomas lived in the little cottage behind his parent’s big house, but she never visually showed me what the houses looked like, allowing my imagination to picture whatever I wanted. Not that it was a bad thing, but I didn’t feel anchored to the setting.

Another qualm that confused my reading was the journal entries at the beginning of each chapter. For the longest time, I saw no connection between them and the chapter. When Tess does discover the physical copies of the journal that, as a reader, I have been reading since the beginning, I wondered why I couldn’t discover the contents of the writings along with Tess.

Trial by Twelve is an original, yet totally predictable mystery with barely any mention of God. Fans of mysteries, whether religious or not, would enjoy this book. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants a cozy mystery like Lorena McCourtney mixed in with the overarching family dynamics of Karen Kingsbury. There is no questionable content to flinch or run from.

Overall, Heather Day Gilbert’s Trial by Twelve is a cozy mystery overpowered by the family dynamics of Tess’s and Thomas’s day-to-day occurrences.

I received a complimentary copy of Trial by Twelve from Heather Day Gilbert and the opinions stated are all my own.  

My Rating:  3.5 out of 5 stars

  

Christy Barritt: Gone By Dark

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

Charity White can’t forget the horrific crime that happened ten years ago when she and her best friend, Andrea, spontaneously cut through the woods on their way home from high school. In the middle of their trek, a man abducted Andrea, who hasn’t been seen since.

Since that fateful day, Charity has tried to outrun the memories and guilt of that one hasty decision. What if she and her friend hadn’t taken that shortcut? Why wasn’t Charity taken instead of Andrea? And why weren’t the police ever able to track down the bad guy?

When Charity receives a mysterious letter that promises answers, she decides to face her worst nightmare. She returns home to North Carolina in search of closure and a touch of the peace that has eluded her for the past decade. With the help of her new neighbor, Police Officer Joshua Haven, Charity begins to track down mysterious clues. They soon discover that they must work together or both of them will be swallowed by the looming darkness.

My Thoughts:

I’m a huge Christy Barritt fan. Even though, currently, she is self-published and writes for Amazon’s Publishing company and for Love Inspired Suspense, I have read every single one of her books. I have reviewed most of them. When I found out late in 2014 that she was writing another book in her Carolina Moon series, I was excited. Anything Barritt writes captures my attention and doesn’t let go. Gone By Dark fits the bill.

I really enjoyed spending time with Joshua Haven and Charity White. While I believe majority of mysteries feature a strong hero and heroine, Barritt does a good job at creating strong, yet flawed characters who grip the heart. Joshua Haven, the hero, is a cop who moves to Herford, North Carolina. I enjoy how Barritt created Haven as the type of hero who would give up his life for someone he loved. Haven made me smile. As for Charity White, the heroine, she had an undeniable fear of failure, but a person with character and substance to the extent where she spent her adult life helping people. The transformation of Charity from the character she was in the beginning till the end is remarkable and admirable.

Barritt’s writing captures my attention from the first chapter. One of Barritt’s strength is her dialogue. She uses the correct language to distinguish between each individual character while using the prose to allow me to understand Charity’s fear, struggles, and thoughts as she deals with her missing friend, Andrea. The action begins in the prologue with the kidnapping of Andrea, and then the story unfolds, quite rapidly, clue by clue, drawing me in as I tried to solve the mystery. Barritt does a good job at capturing the small town feel, and I could feel the sweltering heat of the August sun while traipsing through the thickness of the trees where light breaks through. I felt like I was in North Carolina.

Typical to a romantic mystery, Barritt entwines the romantic and external tensions. The romantic tension begins with the first encounter between Joshua and Charity and lingers at every prospect of an encounter. It develops nice and slow as the couple spends more time together. On the opposite hand, the external tension keeps drawing tighter and tighter as the couple come close to solving the mystery. I didn’t figure out who the bad guy was.

Gone by Dark is an original and unpredictable mystery with no questionable content. It fits the amount of violence of a cozy mystery. Nothing too drastic or shock-worthy. Any age group could read this book. I enjoy a mystery that has the characters questioning their faith, and Barritt’s book is no exception. Her spiritual elements are not preachy. In Gone By Dark, Charity moves in with a mature believer who questions and places doubt in Charity’s mind. Not forceful. Normal for a conversation.

Christy Barritt does a good job at creating a tightly-woven action mystery that draws me in and keeps me glued to the page. Gone By Dark is another Barritt mystery where I finished the book in one day. I will definitely keep recommending her book to other fans of mysteries.

I received a complimentary copy of Gone by Dark by Christy Barritt and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating:  5 out of 5 stars 

H. L. Wegley: Triple Threat

By Kelly Bridgewater

Back Cover Copy: 

From Amazon

Brilliant, beautiful, twenty-one year-old Katie Brandt, PhD candidate and woman of faith, detects a deadly conspiracy. Suspecting it's only the tip of an iceberg, she dives in, pulling fellow grad student, Joshua West, with her into a high-risk investigation of a cyber-terrorist plot. Damaged as a child by the foster-care system, Katie takes huge risks to win acceptance and love. But when she risks the life of Josh, an agnostic who isn't prepared to die, she fears her mistake might have eternal consequences. And that would break Katie's heart, a heart rapidly falling for Josh. If Katie and Josh survive the investigation, can they span the chasm of divergent worldviews that separates them? How can they awaken a dozing nation to a three-pronged danger that threatens its very existence? Triple Threat, a conspiracy you might read in tomorrow's paper...but pray you never will.

My Thoughts:

I was drawn to Triple Threat by H. L. Wegley because I’m an avid reader of suspense, mystery, and thrillers. The synopsis on the back cover grabbed my attention and sparked my curiosity. I wanted to know if Katie and Josh would actually stop the terrorist threat to America and if their love would sparkle. Wegley, definitely, understood what fans of a thriller would want because the story was non-stop with action, but my expectations for the plot were not met.

Wegley’s writing had serious issues that made the story confusing to follow. More than a couple of times, the chapter would start in Josh or Katie’s perspective, then all of sudden, the opposing character’s perspective would jump in. Not for long, but for a paragraph or two. Katie talked in technical jargon, which lost me on a number of occasions, allowing me to skip over lines and move forward. On the other hand, Wegley does have a good command at writing dialogue. With Katie’s personality, I could imagine her talking the way she did and her reactions to situations were spot on. There was a good mixture of dialogue and prose; neither commanded all the reader’s attention. To satisfy readers of thrillers, Wegley drops the readers into the action on the second page and keeps escalating the tension as the story unfolds.  There were hints of original life, but they were skimmed over and not given much attention, allowing the reader to step back and take a breather.  

The setting is important when trying to anchor the readers to the story, but Wegley did mention the name of a town, a beach, and the Seattle Center, but other than those telling items, I really had not been anchored in Katie and Josh’s surroundings. Sometimes I forgot where the story took place.

The hero, Josh, and the heroine, Katie, could have been better written. I struggled with empathizing with the character of Katie as a person, who described for half a page this horrific past life, but as a reader, who has not read any of Wegley’s previous books, I wanted more information about her past. Katie, as a character, does not change at all. She’s a static character who tries to convince Josh to change for her. Katie is a genius and liked to flaunt it to the authorities, using her connections in the FBI and the local police force to break the law repeatedly. Wegley did not allow the police to hold her responsible for her actions. Just like Katie, Josh broke the law a number of times, but because he knew Katie, he got off free too. As for the secondary characters of the mom, dad, granddad, and the twins, I wished Wegley would have shown them more. It would have been nice to have another point of view character to deepen the characters of Katie and Josh. They were just passing through the background without a lot of depth. After reading the synopsis for the previous books, I realized the mom and dad’s story was already told. It would have been stronger to flush out these characters, so they didn’t appear two dimensional running around behind the frontal characters.

 The tension was two-fold, internal and external. With the internal or the romantic tension between Josh and Katie, it was much too rushed for my taste. In the beginning, Kate needs someone to drive her to stop a terror attack on the Seattle Center in fifteen minutes. Josh enters. While zooming through the streets of town, Josh does not get pulled over, stops at any red lights, or conveniently hits no other cars. The story builds quite rapidly from there. The entire story takes place in three weeks with Josh and Katie’s emotions developing quickly ending with Josh and Katie married. Their whirlwind romance had me shaking my head and doubting their new-found love. In contrast, the external tension is created by the terrorist wanting to demolish America. It is a non-stop ride with no breaks along the way. Nothing really stood in their way from accomplishing their goals, but Josh and Katie were shot at and chased a number of times. I had no fear they wouldn’t reach their final goals.

Triple Threat is a predictable thriller about a terrorist threat on American soil. It could have been ripped from today’s headlines, like Wegley wrote on the front of the story, but it was pretty predictable how the story would end. No questionable content, so the story will appeal to male and female readers of a mature age who enjoy chasing the bad guys. As for the spiritual aspect, it did seem kind of preachy to the readers and convenient that Josh threw away all his old ways of thinking after listening to Katie preach at him a number of times. I would have liked to seen the spiritual elements woven into the seam of the story more seamlessly.

Triple Threat was an exciting ride of a thriller that dragged the readers in and did not let go, but the romance was unrealistic and filled with moments of religious preaching while the secondary characters’ backstory left something to be desired. 

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars 

Monica Eldridge: Dancing in the Rain

By Kelly Bridgewater

From Amazon

Back Cover Copy:

After the unfortunate death of her father, Bella Westbrook leaves home against her will to support her mother and crippled sister. Bella soon finds herself awestruck with the magnificence of Biltmore Estate, a castle nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Darby Pierson, a forestry scholar at Biltmore Forest School, learns that his position as class president may be in jeopardy because of his limp. Once he discovers Bella's desire to see the handicapped recover, he meets her faithfully on the terrace for therapy.

More than just a healing takes place. Bella finds the walls of heart breaking down and Darby's uneven gait is now smooth, but the rain has just begun. Darby's dream becomes reality when he is offered a position as a forester in Pennsylvania.

Is their love for one another strong enough to withstand the storm they face? Will they dance in the rain in the midst of their storm?

My Thoughts:

Who wouldn’t be interested in a book that takes place in the elaborate Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina? The estate is gorgeous and massive. I could not wait to dive into a historical romance that took place in the coveted Blue Ridge Mountains while roaming this beautiful home. This is a first book by debut author, Monica Eldridge. After reading the book, the story left something to be desired.

The writing and research that went into the story sometimes left me scratching my head. The writing is tight, powerful, and grammatically sound with a great balance between dialogue, internal monologues, and prose. But the pace is too quick for my taste because some scenes should have taken more time to explore and develop. For example, Bella’s mother was drunk and not moving nor cleaning her house in one chapter, then a couple of chapters later, she was cooking and cleaning and attending church. Eldridge does not show how this transition happened. I would have liked to see Bella torn between leaving her sister with her mother in such an awful state and feeling bad about returning to her job. But Bella never gave her sister and her mother another thought until she encounters them again. Plus, the interactions between the staff and the Vanderbilts were too casual for me. I do not believe that Mrs. Vanderbilt would be sharing her inter-most thoughts with the servant’s matrons, Ms. King.

As for the setting, the story takes place in the elaborate Biltmore Estate, but the only description we have is of the massive stairwell and the chandelier before Bella is taken to her room. The readers are not anchored in the story. I did not feel like I was actually in such an elegant house.   

One of the major issues I have is the characters’ development. One of Eldridge’s strengths is achieving deep point of view by allowing the readers to understand the characters’ internal struggles, thoughts, and emotions. But the characters externally were not developed enough. I wanted to learn more about what makes Bella and Darby tick. It was vague and left unsaid. Bella has a wall around her heart because her father died, but the moment she runs into Darby in a post office, she can not stop thinking about him. Bella allowed the “walls” around her heart to fall instantly. The characters left me begging for more information to empathize with their journeys and struggles. 

The conflict and romantic tension should have been taken to a deeper level. The only real tension is between Sophia and Bella, and for the longest time, the readers did not even know why. When the readers find out why, the reasoning is unrealistic and unbelievable. On the other hand, the romance between Bella and Darby is too rushed for the genre. Neither the characters nor the plot advanced and grew.  The romance and tension left a bad taste in my mouth, begging for a moment of rain to parch my thirst. 

Dancing in the Rain is a historical novel with spiritual elements woven into the plot and no questionable content, which makes the story readable for any age group. This story is not original and completely predictable. I knew Darby and Bella would end up together. Their romance is rushed with no real trauma. Every one loved Darby and Bella so there was no real fear they would not end up together. This story is easy for me to put down. The development of the characters and the plot left something to be desired.

Overall, Monica Eldridge’s Dancing in the Rain needs more attention to the development of her character’s journey’s while conflicting with the outward dilemmas that take place in the lackluster plot. While Eldridge does a great job at allowing her readers to feel the character’s plight, the storyline needs to be more complex with better description to anchor the readers. 

I received a complimentary copy of Dancing in the Rain and the opinions stated are my own.

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars