Review: Taking a Chance on a Stranger
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2014
E-Galley provided by author via tour company for review on my blog. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinions presented herein are my own except as noted.I’ve never read anything by Suzanne Johnson, Susannah Sandlin’s alter ego, that I haven’t loved. So I thought it was high time I take a look at Susannah’s writing and see if there’s a different author really living inside Suzanne. Yay, they seem to be mostly the same person and I love them both! ;-)This is an excellent short story that feels similar to, but darker than, Susannah’s alter Suzanne’s Sentinel of New Orleans series. A lot darker. There’s a seething sexual undercurrent inherent in the trope of the lost woman being helped by a strange, seemingly backwards man. At one point Faith mentions feeling as if she’s wandered into something out of “Deliverance.” Usually, if it’s a “Deliverance”-Like location, the man is sinister and doesn’t have the woman’s best interest in mind.Here though that seething undercurrent is not malevolent, it is just sexy; although it feels a little spooky to Faith until she learns a lot of the secrets this family has. The attraction between the love interests is palpable. It’s the attraction that allows a bit quicker pace in the relationship development; that allows the romantic side of taking a chance on a stranger.I like that both Zack’s and Faith’s losses occur off page. I think they would have overpowered the story otherwise.Susannah offers as much character development as a short story can bear. And, it is apparent that she feels deeply about the area.I didn’t find that the author put on a different voice writing under a different name than I am accustomed to. Both Suzanne Johnson and Susannah Sandlin deliver high quality fiction with straight forward plotting, great characters, and lots of -um- tension.I highly recommend this great short story, CHENOIRE.