ALWAYS AND FOREVER LOVE

[Nadene Reynolds]

TITLE: ALWAYS AND FOREVER LOVE
AUTHOR: LYNN CRANDALL
AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: http://lynn-crandall.com/
GENRE: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
LENGTH: 196 pages
BUY LINK: AMAZON 

BLURB: 

The presence of a ghost in her life doesn't alarm Lacy Aegar—in fact it makes her happy. Two and a half years ago when her dead husband, Nicholas, reappeared in her life as a full-bodied spirit, she questioned her sanity. But with Nicholas's explanation that things about life are not as she's always believed, she settled into a pleasant routine of working with her sister at their private investigation business and enjoying home life with her now eight-year-old son—with Nicholas never very far away.

Lacey's complacency and sense of stability is sent topsy-turvy when she runs into Jackson Carter, the son of powerful and influential business tycoon William Carter. Typical of the Carter reputation, Jackson's slick, new private investigating business is siphoning off clients from the Aegar sisters' business, creating financial difficulty. It's a recurring nightmare for Lacey, who has already seen damage done by the Carter family, and when she encounters Jackson, she wants nothing to do with him.

But things are not what they seem when it comes to Jackson Carter, either. Unbeknownst to Lacey and her sister, Jackson is fighting a battle to preserve his business, too, and his integrity. For him, it's a fight for his soul, and he enlists Lacey's help because of her unique investigative skills and open heart. When she uncovers a mole in his business, she also discovers that one of his clients' drug trials has been given the green light to go to the next phase based on falsified data. As they work together to save both their businesses, Jackson and Lacey not only face death, they come to grips with their feelings about love and life. With Nicholas's help, Lacey comes to understand that love is always and forever, but in choosing Jackson, she chooses a full life, a life worth living.

REVIEW

I was somewhat at a loss as to what I was going to write in my review after I had completed reading this story.  My feelings on this are rather mixed and I was not sure if I would have been able to really do justice to this story.

 

First of all the first thing that caught my attention was the blurb.  It sounded rather exciting and right up my alley as I absolutely love romantic suspense. As a result I was expecting a fast paced, edge of your seat read. But alas this was not to be. The story started out really slow and it took sometime before it got to the real exciting stuff and even then I was still not blown over.

 

Now what irked me most about this story was Lacey, the female protagonist.  Now she has been in mourning for her husband for more than two years and she was unwilling to let go of him so much so that he was visiting her from the beyond. She was having conversations with him, having meals with him and sleeping with him bearing in mind she was the only one who was seeing him. . Lacey was using this as an excuse to not go out and have a life.  Personally for me I thought that was rather creepy.  Gimme a break, what comfort can a ghost offer to a human being unless it’s the Holy Ghost?

 

Based on this I found the romance between Jackson and Lacey to be a bit contrived. I found it rather strange here she was still pinning for her dead husband and refusing to let go of him but was still able to fall in love with someone else.  (Oh well I guess I needed to remind myself that this is fantasy and not the real world)

 

The redeeming factor of this story in my opinion is the suspense and the mystery element.  This was enough to hold my attention as I was curious to know who was responsible for sabotaging Jackson’s business and if somehow his father was involved.   I also liked the way Jackson stood up to his father and willing to not allow him to run and ultimately ruin his life.

 

 

Overall for me this was an ok read. It was not my favourite but I will still recommend it as I know everyone’s taste is different.

 

N.B this review was originally  posted at  http://satinsheetsromance.blogspot.com/2014/01/nadenes-satin-sheets...