The Lair
The Lair: A Sinner's Grove Novel by A.B. Michaels
After her playboy father dies in a racing boat mishap, innkeeper Daniela Dunn must travel from Northern California back to Verona, Italy and her childhood home, an estate called the Panther’s Lair. To say she’s reluctant to go is an understatement. In fact, she’s petrified. The mansion she grew up in holds terrifying memories and deeply buried secrets. It’s a place where appearances are deceiving and the price of honesty could be death.
Complicating matters is the fact that her flirtatious friend, Detective Gabe de la Torre, is tagging along—without being asked. “I don’t need a babysitter,” she complains, and is even more upset when she learns Gabe has his own secret reason for following her to Italy. As Dani is drawn into her family’s intrigues, Gabe proves he’s much more than a friend, however. He’s a sworn protector who may lose his own life in the process of saving hers.
Gabe de la Torre needs to settle old family debts before starting fresh with the woman he feels could be The One. But when a mystery woman reveals that Dani’s father may have been murdered, the stakes rise dramatically and Gabe realizes they’re now players in a treacherous game. Keeping Dani safe becomes his top priority, even as Dani strives to figure out whom she can trust: her relatives, Gabe, or even herself.
My Review:
The Lair really resonated with me for the fact that things with your family always have a way at coming around on you. Once you find you're more involved than you anticipated or expected there's a whole under layer of secrets and information that you're left with that wind up changing your whole view on the people you are surrounded by and related to. I really enjoyed the fact that Michaels created so many levels of complication and intrigue because it only adds to the personality and emotion dynamic of Gabe and Dani as she struggles to uncover all the hidden truths including a few about Gabe and herself.
The Lair is a fantastic journey over seas that blends the heart and mind into a mystery that starts from page one. Be aware that its emotional and sensitive content for those with topic issues. The Lair is intense and kept even my wary suspicions wandering into the night.
Poor Dani in all her confusion stumbles from one moment to the next not really being a part of but going through the motions until she hits her upright position button and all the lights in her mental house go on. You know that saying about how the engine is running but there's no one behind the wheel? That's Dani. Except we get flashes of these moments where she kind of clicks and something goes on and suddenly shes trying to piece together this great big complicated mess.
Gabe is an interesting character playing off Dani that was quite surprising for me because as active as he was I felt he more or less stood back to allow a certain space to grow before approaching it. He chose his moments carefully while the strings around them were getting pulled sending them both on their course.
Dani and Gabe once they open to one another are passionate, strong willed and quite a great thing to behold.
I do have to admit that I was not expecting the twist at the ending and that's difficult to do.
There are so many secrets that the story kept me going all the way to the end. I really enjoyed reading The Lair and I feel that AB has done a marvelous job creating an exciting book for us suspenseful romance fans.
The Lair is written very well, I love the attention to detail, I loved that even with a large cast each of them stood out as individuals. Michaels has written an exciting story that I enjoyed from beginning to end. I look forward to reading more of this authors work in the very near future.
My Rating:
5 Stars
Reviewed By: Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews
http://kkmalott.booklikes.com/
Note: I received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
Click here to read an excerpt from The Lair
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