Still reeling from her broken engagement with Aaron Farsee, Grace Meredes is content to live quietly and hide from the paparazzi. Sheās abruptly yanked back into her fatherās world when she receives a text from a blackmailer. Her family could be ruined unless she meets the blackmailer in Willowdale. The media reported that Grace dumped her fiancĆ© because she didnāt want to deal with his war wounds and PTSD, so no one will believe that he was the one who cancelled the wedding. Unwilling to expose her private life again, Grace contrives a cover story for her visit to Willowdale, along with a fake name, to keep her dadās nosy senatorial staff at bay.
When Aaron sees Grace standing at the counter of his auto shop, he dreads the drama that will surely follow. She claims sheās in town to help with the winter festival, but he has trouble believing her. Despite his skepticism he agrees to help her, since the proceeds benefit the veterans hospital. But he is determined not to do anything that might help her father.
When someone leaves a threatening message along with a knife in Graceās cabin, Aaronās protective instincts kick in. But he canāt save her from a danger she wonāt admit is real. The double threat of the blackmailer and her fatherās buried secrets soon leave Grace without anyone to trust but the man who broke her heart.
Title: | Storm of Ambition |
Author: | Lily Black |
Series: | Willowdale (Book 2) |
Pages: | 250 |
Genre(s): | Contemporary Romantic Suspense |
Trope(s): | Second Chance Romance |
Point of View: | |
Location: | Willowdale, US |
HEA: | āļø |
Release Date: | 7th January, 2020 |
Enjoyable but…
When I first started this book, I actually had to go back just to make sure I wasn’t reading the second part of a dreaded duet. Sheās in love with him – heās in love with her and theyāre engaged. Thatās the end, right? Wrong! This is a complete standalone (although the second in the Willowdale series) and things are about to go wrong for our couple before they (hopefully) go right. Excellent! Canāt have the characters having it too easy, after all!
Weāre into the story and Iām trying to put things together in my head with the blackmailer, Graceās reasoning for coming to find Aaron, for hiding out. My head started to hurt as I tried to understand what was going on. Then I decided that I didnāt really need to know what was going on to enjoy the book, so I just didnāt think too hard about the blackmailerās motives – just content in the fact that Grace was being blackmailed. So that was all fine.
That was, however, a little bit of a theme with this book. Lots and lots of detail. I canāt fault the author for trying to really build the world of the town Willowdale and all the colourful characters that lived there. But with the blackmailer, Grace and Aaronās past, the cast of characters, Graceās dreams of being a dancer, Aaronās PTSD and injury and the winter festivalā¦ it was a lot.
I was still enjoying myself. The writing carried me forward, I was rooting for our characters to get together again – I do love a second-chance love story – and in terms of the the blackmail plot, see above. And then, at 26%, it all came to a screeching halt when a guy from Graceās past turns up. Oh, thatās right, he just happens to be the man that had āpersuadedā her to cheat on Aaron when she and Aaron were a couple. Yuck. Yuck, yuck yuck. What kind of heroine is this? Why do I want her to get her happily ever after? At that point, I was so uninterested in continuing the book AND my face was tripping me whenever I thought about it.
When I finally started the next chapter we get a caveat. āItās okay – they werenāt exclusive at that point and Aaron had slept around a bit, too.ā Okay then. So it was a cheap plot trick that nearly backfired! But still, I want my characters to love each other so much that they donāt even look at another person. Or at the very least, have some loyalty and integrity. Sadly, this was indicative of Grace and Aaronās relationship as a whole. They didnāt have the spark that I wanted them to have – and I felt that both of them, but especially Aaronās, reasoning for not being with the other, were flimsy and easily surmountable if you really wanted to be with someone. Fear not, though – this is still a happily ever after. Phew!
This is a romantic suspense story so we obviously have the blackmailer and the āsuspenseā element of our story along with the romance. It worked because it was a little convoluted, and there was a wide range of characters who could be the blackmailer – so itās a while before you finally get āthe clueā that makes you realise who it is. But kudos to Ms Black for then turning things so I doubted myself! Thereās suspense, true, but thereās not a lot of peril or fear. I wasnāt scared or anxious and Iām the easiest person in the world to scare!
There were a few niggles that irritated me throughout the book. āOff ofā – please just donāt! āTillā instead of āuntilā or ā ātilā is a personal irritant of mine. But the worst is continuity errors – the most glaring of which was that Graceās father gave her the nickname ākittenā which she hated. This ended up being slightly pertinent point in the story, yet the next thing we know, the nickname is āPrincessā. Just annoying.
There was a lot of instances of characters doing shift changes in relation to how they felt about other characters. I suppose itās possible, but it didnāt help with how I felt about how these characters came across. For example, before Grace came to town, Aaron had gone on a few dates with/was seeing someone. At the end of the book heās suddenly saying he always knew she was selfish, childish, and they didnāt have much in common. Similarly, Grace was suspicious of a character being her blackmailer right up to the end. Then, sheās suddenly saying heās become like a father to her. Dizzying 180s!
For those interested, I donāt recall much (if any) swearing/ foul language, and the sex was limited to a one-liner description.
I had a lot to say about this book and feel I can really only award it 3 stars. However, I read it to the end and genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen – both with the blackmailer and with Grace and Aaron. The writing was engaging and, as I mentioned previously, Ms Black has a talent for building detailed worlds and characters that really come to life. I enjoyed my time living in the world of this book and wouldnāt be averse to reaching for another Lily Black romantic suspense novel again in the future.
Lily Black believes in true love, but she is also quite certain that going after it is the scariest thing we’ll ever do. She explores this dynamic in her romantic suspense novels, which are set in the small imaginary town of Willowdale, where people dream big, love deeply, and kick butt if necessary.
Lily has a black belt in Chung Do Kwan Tai Kwon Do, and she has also trained in everything from judo to broadswords. She lives in North Carolina, where she tries to divide her free time between the mountains and the sea. She shares her home with a very patient and loving husband and their teenage daughter.
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