Author – Linda Masemore Pirrung
iUniverse
978-1440140747, April 2009
Right always wins out over wrong in the end
4 out of 5 stars

Linda Masemore Pirrung is the author of several romantic suspense novels including “Cracked Hearts” and “I Will Wait for You”.

“Explosion in Paris” is the newest romantic suspense novel from this author. Angie has been married to Mitch for seven years and of those seven, only the first year was a good one. Mitch has a very controlling personality and subtly forced Angie to resign from her job as a teacher stating that he needed her at home to maintain their home and assist him with his career as an architect. Eventually his actions over the years become those of an abuser, both emotionally and physically. Angie knows she needs to get out but doesn’t have the confidence any more to know that she can make it on her own. That is until a chance meeting with Ross. It started with Ross accidently wandering onto their property from the woods behind their home to a chance meeting at a local restaurant. From that moment on, Angie feels a kinship with Ross and they start spending more time together as friends which eventually turns into more.

During this time Angie thinks that Mitch doesn’t know about her friendship with Ross but she later finds out she is wrong. Mitch has a business trip to Paris and Angie must go along with him. Mitch has other plans for this trip besides business which include killing his wife in a boat explosion. What Mitch doesn’t realize is that Angie wasn’t on the boat when it exploded, that she managed to get off before that happened. The up side to this is that she is able to start a new life in Paris without Mitch, but this also means a life without Ross.

The story continues with her experiences in France, the messages she is sending Ross without him realizing it and how she confronts her past without having to forfeit her future. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story so you will have to read the book for the rest of the details!

When I first started reading this book I wasn’t sure what to expect. At first I didn’t like the storyline because I saw that Mitch was an abuser and that didn’t sit well with me. But as I continued reading I saw that Angie blossomed from her friendship with Ross and that it was most likely that she would have left Mitch if he hadn’t tried to kill her. I was glad to see that Mitch didn’t escape punishment from his actions. There were times when I felt that the descriptive language could have been trimmed back and nothing would have been lost from the story or the imagery that the author created.

Overall I would recommend this book. The description on the back of the book does not do this storyline justice and I think you will be pleasantly surprised at all of the storylines come together. I also found it to be a fairly fast read and it was hard for me to put down because while I guessed what happened next in many places, there were also parts of the story that I didn’t see coming and it surprised and delighted me to read those chapters.

Reviewed for RebeccasReads (6/09)