Empty Heart

by Elisabeth Rose

One honeymoon, one vanished husband, one desperate wife—and the cop who is tasked to help her, but can’t seem to keep his thoughts on the job.

Honeymooner Nikki Spenser emerges from the surf at Surfers Paradise and can’t find her husband, her towel, or her clothes on the beach. Carlos has disappeared from her life as suddenly as he entered it.

In despair, Nikki returns to Sydney where she is contacted by Detective Luke Emerson, a reminder from her past she thought never to see again. Luke informs her that the man she married so recklessly in Las Vegas three weeks prior doesn’t exist. Everything she knew about Carlos is a lie, and Nikki realises she knows nothing about her husband—not where he is, not even who he is.

As Nikki and Luke chase down tenuous leads, they soon find themselves plunged into an ever-widening sea of international crime and violence, and Nikki is faced with the hard questions—how much of her love is based on lies, and how much is true?

Genres: Romantic Suspense

203 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

Elisabeth has been an avid reader all her life. She dabbled in writing as a teenager but gave it away to study music which has also been a life long passion and is why musicians are often, but not always, her main characters. She plays clarinet in a community orchestra.

Tai Chi is a part of Elisabeth's life and has been since 1987. She and her husband travel a lot and she also plays tennis on a regular basis for social and exercise enjoyment.

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empty Heart is about a woman who thought she had found the perfect man to love. However, that was not what happened. Nikki Spenser was on her honeymoon when the unexpected thing happened. Nikki's husband disappeared on the beach of Surfers Paradise, and the lead detective was a man from Nikki's past, Detective Luke Emerson, who she never thought she would ever see again. The readers of Empty Heart will continue to follow Nikki and Luke to find out what happens.

Empty Heart is another fantastic book by Elisabeth Rose. I love Elisabeth Rose's books, and I never have any problems engaging with her plots or characters. Empty Heart did not disappoint, and it continued my love affair with her books. I love Elisabeth Rose's portrayal of her characters and how they intertwine throughout this book. Empty Heart is well written and researched by Elisabeth Rose. I like Elisabeth Rose's description of the settings of Empty Heart, which allowed me to imagine being part of the book's plot.

The readers of Empty Heart will learn about the consequences of political corruption on everyone involved. Also, the readers of Empty Heart will learn about aneurism and the results when they burst.

I recommend this book.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

On her honeymoon, she goes for a swim and returns to the beach and finds her husband has vanished and later learns that no one by his name ever existed. Now doesn't that pull you in? It did me. I was excited to read this standalone romantic suspense set in Australia as a woman and a detective set out to learn the truth.

The story opens with Nikki Spenser enjoying her honeymoon with her handsome Spanish husband who she met in San Francisco and three whirlwind weeks later married in Vegas. It becomes a nightmare when Carlos vanishes without a trace and she is forced to return home angry and humiliated that he would leave her like that. Then she learns things aren't quite that simple.

Detective Luke Emerson is not Nikki's favorite person since five years ago when he forced her to upend her life because she witnessed a murder and she isn't thrilled to see him now when he shares information he learned through his police contacts about her husband. Nikki thinks he is overreaching until a mysterious man breaks into her apartment and questions her about Carlos. Luke has secretly loved Nikki and it warms his heart that she now trusts him even if it hurts to know that he will always be regulated to friend status because she loves Carlos and Luke is a much older average guy. No matter what, he has to figure out who is behind the attacks on Nikki and why before they finally succeed in getting her.

This story took a twisting path to the end. It had me from the beginning with her husband's disappearance and then the rest of the story unfolding to explain what's going on. I really enjoyed the strength of the suspense plot though getting the other players beyond Luke and Nikki's perspective did loosen up the tension because having their plotlines and scenes took away the mysterious quality too soon for me. Not that it went stale. No the attacks, chases, and other danger elements kept it strong.

The secondary plot of Luke and Nikki's growing relationship was interesting too. I didn't care for Nikki at first when it came to her time with Luke because she acted like a petulant, ungrateful brat who saw what she wanted to see. But she got over that and started appreciating Luke's finer qualities so that even her hot Spanish lover of a disappearing husband lost his appeal next to a steady, trustworthy guy like Luke. Nikki might have been an adult by her age, but yet this suspenseful adventure was when she finally grew up.

The balance between suspense and romance teeters back and forth with much of the book focused on the suspense. The romance elements are subtle and slowly unfurl until the end. It is sweet and tender though I have no doubt that what happens beyond the final page of this book will become more. I think Nikki's in for a pleasant surprise once she get past the suppressed nature of Luke's emotions and actions.

All in all, this was an engaging story and I enjoyed that it was set in Sydney and included a lush description of the setting. I've read one other book by this author and would definitely pick up more from her. This is definitely for the romantic suspense lovers who like slower developing romance and strong suspense.

My thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Bree T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nikki Spenser is enjoying her honeymoon on the Gold Coast after a whirlwind Vegas marriage. She’s swimming in the surf but when she emerges she can find no trace of her husband whatsoever. She searches the beach, figuring she might’ve become disoriented about their position on the sand and recovers her towel and sarong but of Carlos there is no sign.

After several days on the Gold Coast waiting for him to return to no avail, Nikki returns to her home in Sydney where she is contacted by Detective Luke Emerson, a man from her past. Luke has been keeping tabs on her since she went to Sydney and when she returned with a husband, he did some checking. He tells Nikki that her husband doesn’t exist and that he’s using a pretty flimsy fake ID. Now Nikki realises that everything Carlos told her about himself was a lie….and she has no idea who the man she married really is. Or where he is. Or even if he’s still alive.

Someone visits her work looking for Carlos and Nikki realises that she needs help. She turns again to Luke, realising that the person she has despised might actually be the only person in her life that she can trust.

Empty Heart is a romantic suspense that I was drawn to because it is set in Australia among places I’m very familiar with. Like Nikki and her new husband, my husband and I also honeymooned on the Gold Coast and it’s a place I spent many holidays visiting as a child. The beaches there can get incredibly crowded and it’s not difficult to come out of the water a bit further away from where you went in and have that brief moment of panic where you can’t spot your section of the beach. So I fully understood Nikki’s fear when she came out of the water and realised her husband was gone. Unlike Nikki I always found who I was looking for after that heart-stopping moment but Nikki is left to realise that her husband has definitely disappeared.

All Nikki can do is return to her home in Sydney alone and not long after she is contacted by a man from her past, a police officer. Years ago Nikki witnessed something in her former home of Perth and with Luke’s help she was able to escape to a new life. In the years between then and now, Luke has kept an eye on Nikki and a red flag was raised when Nikki re-entered the country recently with a new husband in tow, especially as Luke was able to establish pretty quickly that her new husband was travelling under a false identity. At first Nikki doesn’t want to hear Luke’s concerns but after a frightening encounter with a man at her place of work, she’s forced to contact him and admit that she just might need help.

The suspense part of this story is quite good and I became really engrossed in figuring out where Nikki’s husband had gone and what his past was and how that was all coming into the story to effect Nikki now, as well as trying to factor in if Nikki’s past had anything to do with the current events. There was plenty of action in the novel and Nikki is attacked in her home. There’s a car chase through the streets of inner Sydney, a kidnapping and meetings with various ‘colourful identities’. It felt like there was always something happening in that part of the story and it kept me interested.

Unfortunately that seemed to mean that something had to suffer and it appears to be the romance. It’s woefully underdeveloped. Nikki begins the book (actually goes through the whole book) married to another man. She’s been married for a very short amount of time and then he disappears so of course she wants to find him although she goes from worried to angry and rightfully so. Then she learns of his past and how that has put danger on her too and honestly for a while I wasn’t even sure where this book was going to go. The blurb talked about Luke so I assumed that her husband was going to be dodgy and she would end up with Luke in the end. Nice, protective strong cop etc. But the thing is, there’s pretty much zero chemistry with Luke and basically nothing happens between them throughout the entire book. Most of it is focused on finding Nikki’s husband and attempting to figure out what sort of mess he’s in and has maybe gotten her in as well. For the first part of her interactions with Luke, she doesn’t even like him. Her reasoning is flimsy and childish and Luke seems to have had lingering feelings for her all these years and I couldn’t even really figure out why. They just didn’t ever seem to be progressing toward anything and Nikki spends a lot of the time torn about what to do about her husband should he resurface. And then the end felt quite abrupt and rushed and I didn’t really understand how Nikki came to the conclusion that she did because nothing throughout the story ever really gave the reader what they needed to see between them. It was disappointing because the other part of the story was so good.

I really enjoyed the story of what had happened to Carlos and how that played out but I found myself wanting more romance, more connection between Luke and Nikki and more decisiveness from her. That part of the story let me down a lot.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid and my family vacationed at the beach, my mama always gave my sister and me a landmark to look for when we were out in the ocean. If we went passed whatever the landmark was, we had to walk back in the direction of our umbrella. One time, I didn't really pay attention to what Mama decided was the landmark and ran into the ocean without a care in the world. Imagine my fear and confusion when I got out of the water and HAD NO IDEA where I was or what the landmark was!! My 8yr old self was justifiably terrified!! My mama is a smart woman. She knew all along that I hadn't paid a BIT of attention to where the landmark was and as such, she was watching me the whole time. I tell you this because in Elisabeth Rose's latest novel, Empty Heart, our heroine experiences that disorientation coming out of the ocean and finds that that is just the beginning of a series of events that lead her to question everything she thought she knew before she got in the ocean.

Nikki Spenser is on her honeymoon when she gets out the ocean looking for her new husband. After hours of looking, she realizes he is nowhere to be found. He isn't on the beach, in their hotel room, in the hotel bar...just gone. With no other leads, she heads home and winds up turning to the one person she wishes she'd never met. In a series of twists and turns, Nikki finds that the man she married doesn't exist, the man who turned her world upside down is the only one she can trust and her life and heart are in more danger than ever.

I love a story that has suspense, action and romance all rolled into one. Empty Heart has all of those elements. The writing is solid and the characters are interesting and relatable. I often get lost (and not in a good way) when there are peripheral characters that play key parts to the story. I usually can't keep up with them. Elisabeth Rose does an awesome job of keeping the secondary characters separate and distinct. Here is my ONLY complaint about this book. The ending felt rushed and a little too tidy. We went from intrigue and action to resolution and HEA in less than 10 pages. I needed more at the end. That said, Empty Heart is a great read and totally worth it. If you love romance with suspense thrown in, Empty Heart is for you!

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley.

[Lauredhel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spent the whole book waiting for the main character to do some protagging. Or any. But no. The racial dynamics of the book also became increasingly uncomfortable, as a parade of swarthy men - Italian, Chinese, unspecified Middle Eastern - sought to do our lily white heroine harm. On a more minor note, irritating, pointless diet/fat talk, as our (also Anglo) hero loses weight in order to be worthy of love. Bleagh.

[Tanya Vought · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good story that has romance, action and supsense all rolled up in the storyline! This book has all of those elements and you'll enjoy the fabulous writing and the characters!

I wish the ending was a bit longer.. but can't complain about anything else.

4 stars.

Recv'd a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.