Chelsea Pierce is headed to a cabin she believes belonged to her husband Stephen, who has recently died, as a way to commemorate his passing. But the other passenger in the helicopter she's travelling in pulls a gun and the helicopter crashes!
As it turns out, Stephen is really Adam Parish, and he faked his death in order to keep Chelsea safe. He was in the witness protection program after testifying against a drug and child sex trafficker. The passenger who caused the helicopter to crash was an assassin on his way to take out Adam. Adam sees the crash from his cabin, and rescues Chelsea. However, when Chelsea comes to, she has amnesia! She can't remember anything about her life, including Adam, or the fact she's pregnant.
The two must go on the run, because Adam's attempt at faking his death hasn't worked, and people are still after him. Adam suspects it's the work of Devin Holton, the man he testified against. However, there's a hint of mystery behind the murder of Adam's mother many years ago. Could that somehow be playing into matters?
A great read, but as can be typical in this category, the thriller/suspense element is better handled than the romance. The amnesia angle didn't quite work, paired as it was with the second chance love story. Chelsea can't remember anything, including her own family, but can remember how to expertly fire a gun to get her and Adam out of a tricky situation? Didn't really ring true with me! I didn't get any sense of angst from Chelsea about not being able to remember anything. That should have been a high stakes element of the story, but she mostly just shrugs her shoulders and thinks, "I hope my memory comes back soon." There's also a lack of tension over the fact Adam repeatedly declares his love to Chelsea, and she must square this with the fact he lied to her and faked his death. I wanted more discussion of this. Chelsea just kind of gets over it.
But it was an exciting story. Adam and Chelsea are initially chased by whoever wants Adam dead, before they realise they need to fight back, and instead take a proactive stance and head back to the site of where all the trouble started to find out who really wants Adam dead. It made sure the action and suspense was steady from start to finish. It was also an obvious but nice metaphor for facing your past, which is what Chelsea needs to do in regards to her amnesia and trusting Adam again, and what Adam needs to do so he can stop spending his life on the run.
This felt like a real book, rather than something churned out for the Intrigue line, which is what a lot of them feel like. It would be interesting to see what Alice Sharpe could come up with if she wrote a full-length novel outside of category romance!