Thursday, January 27, 2022

January 27, 2022 - Staff Reviews


A Deeper Fear
By Alison Brennan
Release Date: January 26, 2021
Ebook Available from WV Reads!


3 Stars - A quick but intense short novel from the Lucy Kincaid series that's a bit more drama than action. All Lucy's psychology lessons and experience never covered how to help her own husband overcome PTSD and self doubt after a crisis. Her husband Sean is struggling despite trying to put up a tough front as he facest one of his toughest battles yet, emotionally and within himself. Lots of lovable returning characters pop here as well!

Brennan's romantic suspense series featuring Lucy Kincaid is classic in the genre. While it does suffer from a bit of both outrageousness and repetition, she's an excellent writer with a very sharp style. Here's possibly not her best showcase of talents though. Lucy and Sean's lack of communication has got to bother their die hard fans in this. Lucy's smarter than the approach she's taking with Sean, but her own feelings are clouding her judgement. Sean's reluctance to open up is completely understandable but at the same time, he's clearly not convincing anyone he's okay. He seems less in denial about having issues, more in denial about fixing them.

I was really pleased with the role Lucy's brother Jack got in this as his book was one of my favorites from Brennan. He doesn't treat Lucy or Sean with kid gloves, and he makes it clear they both a being a bit stubborn. But he's also supportive. This couple actually has lot of support. Nearly every characters from Lucy's siblings to Sean's friends get to pop up here for a least a page or two. However, I could have done without the storyline Ellen and Marc's relationship. Brennan doesn't handle fertility issues in the best way, in my opinion, and she manages to work them into her couple storyline quite a bit. I'm not sure if she or someone in her circle has personally dealt with the problem. And obviously everyone, especially women, have to handle those issues in their own way. I just personally don't like to see it used so frequently in character development. It's a sad thing to relate to and unfathomable for those that have not. The suspense takes a while to kick in here. And I'm not sure how enjoyable this would be for readers unfamiliar with series. There are sort of spoilers for other books but nonspecific ones for the most part. It may make for a decent sample for those looking for a new romantic suspense author or girl power mystery series.

(NS)

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