Michelle Grogan

Forbidden love is not only the tale of romance, but mystery and suspense. As you’re rooting for love, you’re pulled into the mystery of who is this man using her to bring the two mob groups down – and who will survive if his plan succeeds? The story goes above ‘just a romance’ and holds many aspects of a good page-turner.

Grogan pulls off the connection between Jessica and her forbidden love well, giving you enough to feel the love between them without muddling the page with extra words. Maximum impact – minimal fluff. It brought me back to my, ahem, younger years, when passion could be as strong as a raging fire, and my stubbornness to pursue it was a force to be reckoned with.

Grogan slips you into familiar feelings we have felt before; passion, love, fear, and strength. She does this by not only creating scenes we can relate to, but characters we enjoy. She has done well at showing us characters true to real life; from the detectives trying to bring them to justice, to Jessica’s love – a man we come to root for, yet never forgetting that at the end of the day, this man is a killer for the mob. I love the conflicting emotions this novel stirs up. Yet they’re not so conflicting that it makes it jarring to read, unbelievable, or disrupting the connection with the characters. It actually makes you connect with them on a deeper level.

This is a romance at heart, but not the traditional romance where the flawless hero swoops in, with perfect hair and stunning features and saves the day. I truthfully don’t like that kind of romance. And the conflict, mystery, and suspense is the cherry on top. The plot pace and development was spot on. There were no lulls where I got bored or my mind started to wander. The pace picked up at just the right moment, and slowed down in the same manner. At no point did I feel something could have been more developed, or too much attention was paid to something that should have just been 'skimmed over'. The shifts between scenes and character perspective was smooth, I never felt yanked out of one scene and hurled into another.

The ending was well thought out, believable, fitting to the characters, and as a reader – the way I felt the story should end. There were no dangling loose ends or let downs in plot. I would gladly add Grogan to my list of authors to keep an eye on for new works. Overall this was an enjoyable read for me, touching on all my favorite genres in one book. You really can’t ask for more than that!

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