Marilyn Rondeau

Smashwords book reviews by Marilyn Rondeau

  • Guarding Suzannah on Jan. 24, 2011

    GUARDING SUZANNAH is relatively simple story. Suzannah Phelps is a high powered defense attorney who practically never loses a case. It opens with Detective John Quigley (Quigg) watching her tear to shreds the latest police officer’s case on the stand. He isn’t sure why he’s there except that he has been totally mesmerized by the Ice Princess since seeing her a couple of years prior. He knew she was completely out of his league, highly intelligent, daughter of a judge, and wealthy beyond anything a simple detective’s salary could provide. For some reason Quigg followed her and when he came up behind her after retrieving her dropped bag he couldn’t help but notice the stark terror in her eyes. After a few testy words she left, and Quigg decided to follow her and watched as she threw something in a dumpster. Fishing it out he discovered a dead bouquet of flowers. It was enough to rattle his cage and he couldn’t let it go. Later he discovered she was being stalked but would not involve the police as she knew that the brotherhood (of cops) would not be sympathetic to her plight, in fact they might even be the culprit. *** Did I say relatively simple? Holy cow - this was an AMAZING read! The twists and turns of this romantic suspense novel had me tied up in knots and hating to put this book aside to sleep! The ending was a super sized TWIST I did not see coming as Ms. Wilson threw in a plethora of red herrings that had me saying ‘aha’ only to later have me shaking my head wondering again - ‘okay we’ve eliminated this one now who could our villain possibly be?’ One of the things I also found unique was the setting of New Brunswick and the detailed picture of their court system (robes, etc.) and of how the daily life in New Brunswick differed from the USA. Very interesting. Naturally, Suzannah and John do fall in love, but even that relationship had more bumps and grinds then a Six Flags roller coaster ride! Although I have to say that the inclusion of John’s dog, Bandy added a lot of humor and zip to the explosive sensual chemistry between the leads which was extremely well done and not crass or sexist. As to the Suspense portion - and I admit to loving Romantic Suspense - I would have to give this author an A+ for both ingenuity, pacing, and overall excitement. I have long been a fan of the work of award winning author Linda Howard and the other great suspense authors, and I have to say that Norah Wilson’s GUARDING SUZANNAH sits right up there with the best of them. For me I must recommend this book highly and urge all lovers of well-written Romantic Suspense to definitely give this author a look - see. I am sure you won’t be disappointed. Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com