Publication Date: 02/24/2015
Publisher: Harlequin
Imprint: HQN Books
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 384
ISBN-10: 0373779607
ISBN-13: 978-0373779604
(Received for an honest review from HQN Books)
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indiebound, itunes
Marta Perry on the WEB: website, blog, facebook, goodreads
Excerpt from Where Secrets Sleep, courtesy of
Synopsis:
In small town Laurel Ridge, not everything is as simple as it appears
After a terrible betrayal, Allison Standish flees Philadelphia for the small Amish village of Laurel Ridge to claim an unexpected inheritance. Allison intends to sell the mansion housing various shops on Main Street—until she meets Nick Whiting, a single father and tenant of Blackburn House, who challenges everything she believes about her estranged grandmother and the Amish community.
Strange stipulations in her grandmother's will soon bring distant relatives and seething townsfolk to Allison's door. As anonymous threats escalate, Nick grows protective of Allison, and she finds herself falling for the handsome carpenter… But then she discovers her grandmother's death may not have been accidental, and someone wants Allison gone.
Thoughts:
When most readers think about Amish fiction inevitably Marta Perry's name will come up. Perry brings readers a story of romance and murder in her romantic suspense novel, Where Secrets Sleep. Set in Amish country where Perry grew up, this book has an authenticity and simplicity about it that will draw readers in. Perry is one of the best in the Amish romance sub-genre and it's easy to see why with this latest book about a young woman, who inherits more than just an old house from an estranged grandmother. A great tale of love and betrayal.
Marta Perry is an author that I have read a few novels from and they all center around the Amish community and lifestyle. I appreciate Perry's close attention to detail where the Amish are considered. I think it is often hard for an author to stay true to the Amish beliefs and practices while created a riveting story. Perry does it with style! She has a way of writing that captures the beauty of the Amish life, while still showing it's underbelly. I like that and this particular book really showed the authors versatility with this kind of writing.
Allison Standish has inherited a stately old home in Lancaster County that now houses several local shops. The catch is, she has to run it with a profit for a year before it becomes completely hers. She's a newcomer coming into a close knit community that has both Englisher and Amish people. She doesn't really understand all of what she is getting herself into and I loved watched her character adapt and start to peel back the layers of the community. She meets a local carpenter who has a shop in the house and eventually starts to fall for him. This is a great story of both love and mystery.
The romantic parts of the book were well written and very clean. Along the lines of writers like Debbie Macomber and Sherryl Woods, Perry writes her romances with such a heartwarming undertone that is hard not to fall in love with her characters. Allison was an outsider in a very different world from what she was used to and Nick was a single dad, trying to make his way in the world. They made a great couple and loved his protective instincts where she was concerned, very endearing.
The suspense aspects of the story were a little harder for me to take hold of. Allison is left the house from an grandmother she never knew and eventually after Allison starts to have accidents of her own, it appears that the grandmother may have been murdered. I liked the way Perry set up the mystery aspects of the story but it took a little too long to resolve. The romance between Nick and Allison was much more entertaining than the suspense part of the novel, though I will say that I was completely in the dark as to who had caused all of this until the end.
Bottom Line:
The romance in this one really took center stage. The suspenseful aspects of the story were also well written, but did not hold my interest like Nick and Allison's love story did. They were all intertwined of course but I think this one leaned a little heavier on the romance. I love Perry's take on the Amish and thought she did a great job with that as usual. This is the first book in a new series and I think romantic suspense readers will like it a lot.
Where Secrets Sleep is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.
I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!
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