Losing Ladd

Ladd Springs #5

by Dianne Venetta

Book #5

Felicity Wilkins might own Ladd Springs but when Jeremiah Ladd struts back into town with retaliation on his mind, she realizes how little her possession means. Not far behind him, Jillian Devane arrives on scene and between the two of them, everything Felicity holds dear is in jeopardy.

Travis Parker knows the players and knows the law. Problem is, Jeremiah and Jillian don't play by the rules and thwart his every effort to bring them to justice. Complicating the situation is the impending trial against Travis' twin brother Troy. Jack Foster continues to pursue his revenge against Troy, aided by his mother, Victoria. It's a battle that threatens to blow up the small town until a secret box of letters discovered in an attic changes everything.

Cal Foster alone understands the valuable find, and uses it to protect his new family from the bloodlust of past quarrels they had nothing to do with. But one explosive evening on hotel property threatens Felicity's entire world, throwing her at odds with Travis, and placing her life in grave danger.

Will Jeremiah and Jillian finally exact their revenge on Hotel Ladd? Will Jack and Victoria prevail in their vendetta? Family feuds pack a powerful punch leaving no one untouched in the grand finale, Losing Ladd...

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2013

About the author

Dianne Venetta is the award-winning author of contemporary romance and cozy mystery novels, including Jennifer's Garden, winner of Best in Romance for 2012 Indie Discovery Awards. When not knee-deep in romance, she contributes gardening advice to various websites and publications and has been featured on GalTime, Huffington Post, Earth Eats (Indiana Public Radio) and Ideal Home Garden among others.

She lives in Central Florida with her husband and two children. When not whacking away at her keyboard you'll find her in their organic garden chasing grasshoppers and plucking hornworms all while drawing wild analogies between kids and plants and men. Definitely men. A girl's gotta have fun, right?

Dianne also enjoys volunteering in school gardens and has begun a children's series chronicling her adventures called Wild Tales & Garden Thrills. It's a crazy existence to be sure, but at the end of the day, if she can inspire someone to stop and smell the roses--or rosemary!--kiss their child and spouse good-night, be kind to a neighbor and Mother Earth, then she's done all right.

Reviews

[Susan Jakusz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Held my interest

This series had it all, love, mystery believable characters. A bargain price too, don't miss this series. Hope to read more from this author

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Losing Ladd is book five in the Ladd series by Dianne Venetta.
Jeremiah Ladd is back and is determined to regain the Ladd property. After all, it was his father’s property until his father gave the land to Felicity. Delaney had control of the land until Felicity is of age. This was to keep her father, Jack from having anything to do with the property. Delaney convinced Felicity to give half of the land to her cousin, Casey who was also Jeremiah’s daughter. Her mother has control until Casey is of age.
Delaney leased part of Felicity’s portion to Nick to build a hotel complex on the property. Nick ran the hotel while Delaney ran the stables. Nick hired Malcolm and Cal to help run the hotel while he traveled to find places for more hotels. Jillian has come to the hotel and Nick and Delaney, Malcolm and Cal are sure she is looking to cause problems. They are more convinced of it when she starts running around with Jack.
A fire breaks out in the stables and Delaney is hurt and unconscious. She is taken to the hospital where ultimately she will undergo surgery. Malcolm and Cal take care of the hotel and insurance problems for the stables. Luckily only one horse was burned but he would be fine. Felicity finds Jack’s lighter at the scene and heads off to confront him. Travis follows her and makes it impossible for her to find out if Jack is involved. She breaks up with Travis over this.
The next morning, Felicity is on her way to the hospital to see Delaney before she goes into surgery. On the way, Jeremiah and two other men try to kidnap her but are thwarted by Travis. Jeremiah shoots Travis. Now Jeremiah is wanted for attempted kidnapping and murder if Travis dies. Felicity sits in the waiting room to hear news of her mother’s surgery and Travis’s surgery. Will they live? Is Jeremiah the arsonist as well? Will Delaney and Travis be OK? What will Felicity do next? Will they find out who the arsonist is?
This book ties up all the loose ends of the series.

[Lourie · Rating 5 out of 5]

*** I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ***

I wasn’t sure if “Losing Ladd” was going to be able to live up to “Ladd Haven” but it absolutely surpassed it. While this series started off nice and simple with a quaint southern community it really built and climaxed with a drama that could rival any day time soap.

If one villain wasn’t enough, this time around all three returned and joined forces. Jillian, Jack and Jeremiah are even more dastardly then before and left no one unscathed. It was intriguing to figure out how each character was going to play off the other and who was responsible for what. Even who was going to survive at times came into question. I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to end until the conclusion which is always a bonus.

Felicity grows up substantially in this book. And even though I like Felicity it was nice to see her be tested as to what she is made of. Actually I loved how all the characters came together to protect each other and what is important to them.

I can say with out a doubt this is the perfect conclusion to the Ladd Series.