BOOK REVIEW:
Hidden in Plain View
Like
most readers I have a never-ending TBR pile. Sometimes I ignore said pile and
grab books at the library, but I just so happened to be rummaging around my
bookshelf when I found two inspirational romances I bought a couple years ago. I
hadn’t read either, and it seemed pretty strange that I would go out of my way
to buy and then just let sit around for 2 years. Really bad habit…
Anyways
I picked up one of these books, and it only made me feel more like a heel when
I finished reading Hidden in Plain View.
Such
a good book just lying there waiting for me to pick it up all these years. *sigh*
It’s a crime really.
This
is sorta my second suspense for 2015—check out my first here—BUT this is my
first romantic suspense. Or my first inspirational romantic suspense (because,
you know, I have that other book to read). Diana Burke’s Hidden in Plain View is set on an Amish plain, and it was a first
for me reading about the Amish and I learned a lot of words and some customs
this group practices.
Other
than that, of course, there was a really great spark between heroine Sarah
Lapp, the Amish widow and hero Samuel “Sam” King, the shunned Amish-turned
Englisch/English cop. There’s a amnesia hook and our heroine is pregnant as
well as the target of a madman’s wrath.
The
tension—oh boy! What I love about sweet romances is the sexual tension that
never quite gets its itch scratched on the paper… I mean I figure that when the
couple goes and gets married and are expecting (or have children) at the end of
the prologue that they ARE having sex. Birds and the Bees 101, yet I love that
I don’t have to read about it. It just makes it all the more tantalizing.
There
is also the forbidden romance element keeping Sam/Samuel and Sarah apart. She’s
Amish and he’s English, and Sam knows he can’t return to the Amish life—and Sarah
doesn’t know what the English life can offer her just yet when all she knows is
that her killer is an English man from the English world.
Heads
up on the suspense factor, the first 50 or so pages are just
wham-bam-thank-you-dead-men action. Seriously. I was gritting my teeth at the
book when the antagonist was basically running the show and taking no prisoners.
And that anger is pretty much my investment in the story, so I tip my
proverbial hat off to Ms. Burke for pissing me off (in a good way)!
Also
there was a perfect balance of romance and suspense and the author accomplished
this by never allowing the reader (me!) to forget that I was reading a mix of
both. Sure there was downtime for Sarah and Sam to talk and, umm, share their
first kiss, still how much downtime could they possibly have had knowing there
was a dangerous and destructive maniac running loose around the plain and in
the midst of the peaceful Amish community.
If
you’re up to trying a blend of sweet romance and deadly suspense/crime, pick up
Hidden in Plain View.
My
verdict:
✮✮✮✮✮
(5
stars)
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