Review: A suspenseful read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 29, 2012
"A gust blew across the field and lifted a strand of hair across her face. He grabbed the opportunity before she could react and brushed the silky strands back, trailing his fingers along her smooth jaw line."Dear Nicole,Honestly, I admire your courage and your strength, and you're a good mom too. Having said that, I'm very glad that you never lost hope. Ultimately, it's what keeps you alive and then there's Luka too. Luka is four-years old now, and you have to keep going on for your little guy. You were sixteen when the bad guys kidnapped you. For eight years you were in a very dark and scary place. Gorgon Novokoff raped you and you had to act as a sex slave. He even gave you another name: Katrina. You've learned to respond to the Russian name pretty quickly or you'd suffer the consequences. As a matter of fact Gorgon is a very evil and violent man, and I can't imagine what terrible deeds you had to overcome while being held captive. Rest assured you have my sympathy, and I really believe that you deserve your HEA with Will. It's understandable that you're missing your family so much--your mom, dad, and your siblings. You're clinging to your memories and you're afraid that Gorgon could kill them. I get it that you want to protect them. But time was running out. Somehow you had to leave Gorgon before your son would be infected by his father's evilness.Enter US Marshall William Haus."You're a strong woman, Nicole," Will said behind her.Will is utterly determined to shut down Novokoff's child trafficking ring. He is offering you a deal. Hence, you believed that Will would be your best bet to get away from the Novokoff family. Indeed. Despite his initial hang-ups, Will helped you to set up your new life. He took you and your little boy into protective custody. Gorgon's father, however, offered a very high reward to anyone who would bring Luka and you back to him. It's a difficult task for Will to keep you and Luka safe. While he's busy doing his job, it's inevitable that you're feeling attracted to each other. Somehow you fell hard for Will. Your romance evolved slowly yet steadily. Frankly, it was cute to see you and Will together. Your love scene was very playful and sweet. I enjoyed it. Furthermore, I loved to see Will interact with Luka. He liked "Uncle" Will a lot. Luka even worshipped the ground on which he stood. And you wished that Will would be Luka's father.Tell your creator that I really liked your story. I appreciate Autumn's engrossing writing style and she sure does entertain her readers. Without a doubt the plot was interesting and I got a kick out of the suspense part. I can't remember anymore when I read my last romantic suspense novel. Therefore, I'm glad I gave your story a go. A lot of the characters are very likable and well-drawn. Additionally, I think some of the secondary characters were set up for future stories. At least I can see some potential here and I hope that we will see more of Chase Hunter and Aden Nash.Nicole, I truly wish you a life full of love and laughter. You deserve it.Take care.BabaWhat I disliked:I wanted to read an epilogue. Hence, the ending felt too rushed for my liking.In all honesty there are just too much grammar/spelling issues and there are missing words as well. It was a bit distracting at times. Admittedly, English is not my mother tongue, and I'm clueless about English punctuation since I've never learned how to apply the rules. However, I think my English is good enough to recognize grammar and spelling problems. Even though I can get past such issues, I seriously doubt that every native English speaker will react so kindly. The bottom line is that I strongly believe that the story could have benefited from better editing.Here are a few examples:Nicole instead of Nicelle, closest instead of closet, winced instead of winched, etc.And the first time I met Will he had blue eyes, however, when I was halfway through the book his eye color changed to grey."Like many men, his blue eyes trailed over her, except his scrutiny held not a hint of lust. Loathing laid in their coolness."She'd doubled checked her windows... How about: She'd double-checked her windows...She slid out from under comforter. How about: She slid out from under the comforter.There's a boy named Tory and then his name changed to Tony."Get the boy right of here." How about: "Get the boy right out of here."I was given a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Autumn! I appreciate it.********************UPDATE / AUTHOR'S E-MAILThank you so much for the great review! I made the corrections you noted. However, I can not find a reference to grey eyes or Nicelle. If you can point them out by page number, line, or %, I'd appreciate it greatly. Next time I will hire a different copy-editor.I don't know if I should respond to you on GR that the corrections have been made.  It would be wrong of me to ask you to remove that portion of the review,  since they have been corrected, I guess.  If you have an opinion on how I should handle, please let me know.Again, thank you so much for the wonderful review.  AJps: Chase will have his adventure next, and you will see more of Will and Nicole.  ;>)[...]Seized By Darkness on sale now.His Witness To Evil on Amazon