Synopsis:

The ghost of la Llorona is said to haunt the riverbanks, always searching for her drowned child. She also haunts high school teacher Johanna Rios, whose own mother believed so deeply in the legend she tried to drown her daughters. And now the ghost has become real, a young woman murdered, and the safe world Jo created is falling apart.

Since returning home from his last tour of duty to become a school principal, Ray Vargas has fought his attraction for his employee, the sensual woman who’d once been the girl next door. But the Llorona Killer will not stop until he claims his final victim—Johanna—and Ray will do anything to protect the woman he’s come to love.

With a serial killer out to prove the curse is real, will Ray and Johanna’s future be drowned in the ghostly waters of the past? Or will the power of their love give them the strength to stop a killer…and heal their wounded hearts?

Review:

I love Melissa’s Dressmaker cozy series and thought it would be fun to read a romantic suspense by her to see how the writing styles differed.  While getting the information to write this review, I noticed that this is actually the second book in a series and the first is called Sacrifice of Passion.  Who knew?!  Not me, that’s for sure!  The two books are about two brothers, Vic and Ray, who while have other jobs also own a bar together.  Ray and Johanna knew each other as kids and I think Ray had a thing for her back then. I started reading the book and it took me just a little to get into it ONLY because I am so used to her lighter Dressmaker series that I had to turn that style of writing off in my brain.  I was able to do that and WOW what a book!  I liked how the book centered around a curse that Johanna truly believed in (even wrote her Master’s thesis on it) and that maybe it really wasn’t a curse, unless you let it control your life.  The characters were laid out nicely and I had some suspicions about some of them and turns out I was partially correct!  (That RARELY happens!)

Anyway, this is definitely a romantic suspense book….lots of action, some romance (but not too much) and characters that you might even feel a connection with on some level.  If you like romantic suspense then I think you will enjoy this book, and probably even Sacrifice of Passion!  We give it 4 1/2 paws up.

About the Author:

Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, gave up teaching middle and high school kids in Northern California to write full-time amidst horses and Longhorns in North Texas. She fantasizes about spending summers writing in quaint, cozy locales, has a love/hate relationship with yoga and chocolate, is devoted to her family, and can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be living the life of her dreams.

She is the founder of Books on the House, the co-founder of The Naked Hero, and is the author of the Lola Cruz Mystery series with St. Martin’s Minotaur and Entangled Publishing, and A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series with NAL. She also has two romantic suspense novels, and is the co-author of The Tricked-out Toolbox, all to be released in 2012/2013.

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