A Kiss in the Dark

Several clichés come to mind when I read this book "Oh, what a tangled web we weave...." and "the Sins of the Father..."- though there is nothing clichéd about the storyline or writing. However, in this case it's the sins of the mother that has been visited upon the daughter with devastating results. Bethany watched her mother run through a half a dozen marriages and countless affairs, the shallow, desperate woman seeing passion as love. Bethany saw the devastation in the wake, when passion burns out and passing love dies. As a child, it left Bethany deeply scared. While her mother, a frustrated actress, jumps at sham love to fill the emptiness in herself, her daughter learned to believe passion only caused pain. It never lasted. Dylan St. Croix, the black sheep of the powerful St. Croix family, gave her passion, and a child that died. Through that pain, Bethany never saw she loved Dylan, only he gave her that same fiery passion that she so mistrusted. Bethany has spent her whole life wanting to be "June Cleaver", just wanting peace and security, believing that is the road to happiness. Dylan did not offer her peace and security, but blazing passion, so she turned away from him and married his very proper cousin, Lance. But something went very wrong. Now, Lance is dead and Bethany accused of killing him. She is found dazed, with Lance's blood on her hands, and her very proper, contained world she fought to build is no more. Dylan stands by Bethany, the woman he has always loved, even though he feels her capable of killing Lance. Dylan knows he will be fighting to save Bethany, but most of all he will be fighting Bethany herself to teach her to trust, that there can be passion with love and it can be lasting. Jenna Mills name on the cover guarantees a genuine super read, with intensely power emotions, vivid characters that make you care, and proves this time and again.

Jenna Mills has written another winner in this fast paced, suspenseful, love story. The characters are complex, with layers of emotions unfolding at just the right pace to keep you turning the pages.

Jenna Mills weaves suspense, complicated characters, and nerve shattering sexual tension into a non-stop page-turner. I stayed up late reading this one!

As impossible as it seems, controlled and iron willed Bethany St. Croix stands accused of a crime of passion. Police find Bethany in her apartment with the blood of her ex-husband on her hands and with her fingerprints on the murder weapon. P.I. Dylan St. Croix heard the call on his scanner, arriving at Bethany's address expecting to find her dead, and not much relieved to realize it was his cousin Lance lying in a pool of blood.Dylan and Lance had always had a complicated relationship. Orphaned and raised by their grandfather, they never achieved the brotherhood their grandfather expected. Worse, they both had come to love the same woman, but it was Dylan's intensity that drove Bethany into his cousin's arms. Tragedy and silence tore them apart, and it will take a miracle to bring them together again. Nevertheless, impossibility promises to yield to new beginnings. Jenna Mills evocative style presents a tale drenched with passion in A KISS IN THE DARK. Lines like, "Don't know why people have to complicate a good divorce with murder" reveal Mills at her scintillating best. Bethany is a difficult heroine to like with her icy control, yet as her tale unfolds her painful past makes it easy to understand her refusal to yield to passion. Conversely, Dylan thrives on passion making him the substance of wild fantasy, proving everything can change with a kiss in the dark. Further, the carefully rendered complexities of the plot move the story along quickly, with enough surprises to keep the reader guessing to the end. Indeed, Mills once again produces an intense, fast-paced and clever tale that appeals to readers who like their romance on the dangerous side. A KISS IN THE DARK comes highly recommended.