Swept Aside

I loved this book. Sharon Sala did it again! Great story line and believable characters.

The final book in the Storm Front series is competent and well written if a bit slow. Nick is undercover as a drug pusher. Nick and the 3 thugs he was jailed with escape after the tornado rips the back off the jail. Nick stays with the group to be sure they are arrested and put in jail. They steal a car and leave Bordelaise trying to get to New Orleans. The leader of the group was severely injured during the storm and they want to get him to a hospital. Before they can get to New Orleans, the car runs out of gas and Nick goes hunting for shelter or another car. He arrives at The Vatican, the home owned by Amalie Pope, who has just returned from a teaching position in Texas, where she was shot by an angry student. Suffering from PTSD Amalie looks forward to returning to her childhood home where her beloved Nonna, died after hearing that she had been shot. Nick brings the gang to the house because he thought they could steal the car or ask the owner to call friends in New Orleans to pick them up. I don't know why a seasoned undercover agent would think that way but this is suspense fiction. Nick is noble and Amalie really likes him but realizes that he is with the wrong crowd so he must be as bad as they are. This was a good story and the violence was limited; Nick stood up for Amalie against Lou Drake a sadistic, stupid thug who cares about no one but himself. I really liked Amalie and she really stood up for herself even though she was terrified. While I really enjoyed the whole series, I thought the plot development of this book moved very slowly. I did put this down and pick it up several times but, since I'm a big Sala fan, I had to finish it. My rating would be a 3.5 since I thought it was better than a 3 - I used 4.

ASIDE SWEPT by Sharon Sala is an Romance/Suspense set in modern day Bordelaise, Louisiana. It is well written with depth and details. It is the third in the A Storm Front novel, but can be read as a stand alone. It has betrayal, sacrifice, romance, sweet sensuality, angst,turmoil, survival, redemption and learning to live again.The heroine, Amelie, was a teacher who was shot during graduation by a student while she was trying to save another student, the shooter had already killed several students and the principal. She goes back to Louisiana to recuperate. Her beloved grandmother dies while Amelie is in the hospital. Her grandmother had a massive heart attack due to the news her granddaughter was shot.Amelie, is tormented from the shooting, bewildered, grieving from the lost of her beloved grandmother, and .....held hostage by four escaped prisoners.She is strong willed, determined, smart,trying to hold things together. She is also attracted to one of the prisoners, Nick...but how can this be, she doesn't know who he really is yet. The hero, Nick, is an escaped prisoner, who is also an undercover DEA agent,he is embedded in the group with the three other prisoners, he is also attracted to the lovely Amelie. One of them, the leader, is severely injured. They have all been caught in a tornado, that has just hit Bordelaise. Nick is handsome, strong, passionate, and trying to keep Amelie safe from the other prisoners, especially Lou, who is determined to hurt Amelie. This is a fast paced, page turner suspense with twists and turns from the first page to the last. I would highly recommend, especially if you enjoy suspense, romance, sensuality, and true love. This book was received for review from Net Galley and details can be found at MIRA and My Book Addiction and More.

After the deadly mass murders at the high school graduation in Jasper, Texas where she was the art teacher, Amalie Pope came home to heal. Suffering from PTSD she moves into the Bordelaise, Louisiana home of her recently deceased beloved Nonna. Amalie hopes some R & R will help her regain her equilibrium though she doubts it as she vividly see Pauly Jordon kill four students, two teachers and two parents as well as wounding six others including her. However, instead of a respite, four dangerous males invade her home. They use her as a hostage. She is frightened as she expects even with negotiations she will die. One of the deadly felons Nick Arroyo senses the fears that Amalie displays. He wants to extract her from the scenario, but doing so will blow his cover and place both of them in peril. Amalie feels Nick is different from the others as he seems kind while the remaining threesome are beasts. The undercover DEA agent is her solo hope for survival, but she wavers over trusting him as he came with them. The latest Storm Front romantic suspense (see Torn Apart and Blown Away) is a terrific taut thriller that works because of the quintet inside the house. The three predators especially Lou and the lead couple make for a tense tale as readers wonder how Nick will expedite Amalie from the deadly situation. Harriet Klausner

This book is a very nice follow up to the first two. The first one was nice but weak. The second one was very good as to the suspense aspect, quite creepy in fact. This one had good suspense plus a much more solid romance than the first two. The heroine, Amalie, a survivor of a school shooting, has just returned to Bordelaise, where all three books are set, in time for the tornado which all the books revolve around. She is dealing with PTSD and fragile health. She manages to be a strong woman standing up to the criminals invading her home without being to stupid to live. She is scared and it shows but she tries to keep it under control. She also has human empathy for the most severely injured convict. She doesn't immediately fall for the undercover DEA agent, our hero, Nick. She worries about Stockholm syndrome and begins to not be so afraid of him but she doesn't trust him right away. The suspense plot was believable and the characters seemed real and not just cardboard cutouts of bad guys and good guys. This book stayed pretty focused on the main couple. The use of secondary characters was kept to a minimum and were, all but one, characters we had seen before. The writing was clear and didn't bog down in too much introspection but focused mainly on the action with just enough of their thoughts to explain the actions and help you see the couple falling in love. If you've read the other two books you'll like this one. These books, btw, can really be read in any order without missing anything since they take place concurrently