Lifting Shadows

New Beginnings #7

by Mandie Tepe

UNSPEAKABLE TRAGEDY CHANGED THE COURSE OF HER LIFE FOREVER . . .
Tangie Killion had to grow up fast. Her childhood might not have been considered normal, but it was a happy one for the most part. After losing her mother to murder when she was just eighteen, she found herself with the responsibility of raising her younger brother and sister. Her dreams sidelined, she stepped up to do what she had to do. If only she could get justice for her mother, maybe she and her family could step out of the shadows that hovered over them. The case had gone cold and everyone outside the family seemed to have forgotten about her mother . . . until someone unexpected entered her life to help shine the light back into it.

HIS ONLY HOPE OF COMING OUT FROM HIS OWN SHADOWS
RESTS ON HELPING FAMILIES FIND THEIR LIGHT AS WELL . . .
Quinn Cullen—U.S. Army vet who has served in Afghanistan—suffered from PTSD. He was doing his best to get a handle on it. Moving to a small community near his hometown to take a position as a cold case detective on the local police force seemed a good way to get on with his life. He finds himself drawn to the murder victim’s daughter in his first case assignment. Can he chase her shadows away by helping to solve the mystery of her mother’s death?

THEY BOTH WERE IMMERSED IN THE SHADOWS, BUT WITH HELP FROM ONE ANOTHER, THEY HOPED TO STEP OUT OF THEM AND INTO THE LIGHT.

458 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 17, 2014

Reviews

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am at 84% here and not sure whether to dnf at this point.

Dont get me wrong, this is a fun read with some lovely writing, but since the 75% mark the story has started to waffle. It needs to come to an end .. not go on and on and on interminably about people who have only just made an appearance in the story! I KNOW how its going to end - so please, end it.

Seriously though, there is a lot to recommend about this book. A decent cop, a woman who for once seems believable, some lovely moments in the story, a good 'mystery' element to the whole thing and no insta-lurve or random sex thrown in as a sop to readers who seem to think that no romance novel is complete without sex at the 50% mark ;)

I LIKE Quinn. He's solid, sensible, kind. He sticks to his code of conduct and he doesnt come across as an alpharse. Tangie is sensible and fun, and the growing relationship is written with real thought and understanding and I have enjoyed reading so far.

A couple of niggles: (Spoilers ahead)
The charity who give Tangie a new car? Really? They give her a top of the range Ford edge SUV with 'all the bells and whistles'? If I was a donor to a charity that wasted my money like that I sure as hell wouldn't give them any more. A car is a car. Four wheels. It's there to get you from one place to another. She doesn't NEED a 'top of the range' car. She probably can't afford to RUN one - how much would a new set of tyres cost? A full tank of fuel? WHY give her one that's only going to cost her more later on? She would now doubt been just as happy with a cheap, second-hand, reliable replacement for the one that was destroyed. It made no sense to me at all.

Quinn get shot twice. One bullet grazes his shoulder. The other 'went all the way through the same shoulder, but luckily it hadn't hit bone or anything that would make it a more complicated wound.'
Sorry - do some research on being shot in the shoulder: Writers no doubt target the shoulder for nonlethal bullet wounds on the assumption that it contains no vital organs. In reality, however, it can be a dangerous place to get shot. The shoulder contains the subclavian artery, which feeds the brachial artery (the main artery of the arm), as well as the brachial plexus, the large nerve bundle that controls arm function. There are bones, muscles, nerves, arteries.... He would have bled like a stuck pig at least and why did he have to endure the agony of having it irrigated? Anaesthetic anyone??

There were random moments where I wondered if this was an 'Inspirational' romance with the somewhat awkward inclusion of Christians and how Tangie had watched some Christians praying and then ithe introduction of Karl, Peter and Ross who were ministers from Cynthiana Christian Church and who (as far as I could tell) made no further appearance in the story. It had no purpose really and just seemed like padding.

The last thing that irked me was the way the motorcycle gang held a gathering at Lilah's grave to celebrate her life- FIVE YEARS after her murder. I found that pretty creepy actually. They didnt care enough about her when she was murdered to hold a gathering then? If Id been Tangie, I'd have told them where to stuff their 'self-gratificating' celebration. ;)

Anyway, here I am at 84% and still reading waffle about Sly (who has no purpose in this story and is intensely irritating) and Tangie's boss and various other characters who have only just appeared and I think I may just call it quits.

A good story with a decent mystery and some great tension. Nice writing (when it doesnt waffle) good characters (the children are 'children' not precocious brats) and enough angst to make up for the draggy ending.

Formatting is good apart from the lack of a Table of Contents.

I am really torn about what to rate this. A dnf is usually a straight 1 star from me but this had the potential to be a cracking good read. I'm giving it 2.5 stars, but rounding it down to 2 because it dragged so much towards the end I suspect the author was deliberately padding the story for KU. :(