A Dark Love
Grade : B

Caroline is the only one who knows that her husband, a well respected psychoanalyst to the elite, is actually a psychopath. In fear for her life, she eventually flees, running off to a small town in Colorado. Under the name of Alice Stevens, she gets a job as a live-in housekeeper for an older woman and quickly befriends Ken Kincaid. Though she doesn’t want to interact with anyone, for fear of her husband discovering her, Ken doesn’t let her be anonymous. A growing attraction brings them together, but over Caroline’s head hangs the ever-present threat that her husband will find her – and when he does, she knows he’ll kill her.

There were a number of things I liked about this book. I thought the author did a wonderful job characterizing Caroline’s husband. We spend a fair amount of time in his head, which really serves to show his pathology and mental state. He wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill-abusive-husband that occasionally shows up in romance novels with little explanation of their brutality. The author also did a good job in showing us how Caroline came to love such a man. It’s easy enough for us to say we’d never allow something like that to happen, but through flashbacks we can see the slippery slope Caroline slid down.

I also liked the side characters in this book. Though occasionally they were a bit on the stock-character side, they served an important role, by proving the point that Caroline wasn’t alone. A number of side characters – neighbors, friends, and police officers – aren’t fooled by her husband’s façade (or, for that matter, Caroline’s), and it is their suspicion and concern that give Caroline the possibility to truly escape.

I do wish we had seen more in Ken’s point of view. Narration head-jumps a bit, though not to the extent that it becomes annoying or confusing. But we only see Ken’s POV a few times throughout the book; however, the author also does a lot of “showing” (as opposed to “telling”) which I enjoyed.

Disregarding the rather graphic scenes detailing Caroline’s abuse, the rest of the story has a lot of elements of a low-key small-town romance, which created a nice balance to the suspense. Ken and Caroline had a quiet but undeniable chemistry that in most other circumstances I would call sweet. I really enjoyed the story, and think other romantic suspense lovers will, too.

Reviewed by Jane Granville
Grade : B

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : October 13, 2009

Publication Date: 2009

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