Secretly In Love

Serita Jones is married to a wonderful man, and then one night someone breaks into their house and her husband is shot dead. She is also shot, and is taken to the hospital. She doesn’t remember much, but is told her husband has died. Mitchell, a police friend who had an affair with Serita years ago, tells her that her husband Chris committed suicide and that Chris tried to kill her first. Serita refuses to believe it. She is then told Chris had a police record, which Serita again says cannot be true.

It is now a year later and is invited on a trip with a group of friends, all expenses paid,
to Nassau-Paradise Island. Among this group is someone new to Serita. Hunter is a single, good looking man who has had a hard time committing to any one woman. He does not believe in marriage because he's seen how there are no guarantees in any relationship. But when Hunter meets Serita, he is head over heels in love. He soon is thinking that she is the one for him.

Unfortunately, his ex-lover Karrin is also on this trip, a hateful conniving woman who is determined to get Hunter back. Throughout the trip she tries to manipulate him with lies, but Hunter knows her game and wants to spend all his time with Serita.

The story line in SECRETLY IN LOVE was interesting, but this reviewer did not care too much for the writing style. The dialog, as well as the overall writing, was a bit stiff and the characters were too stereotypical and wooden. While the characters didn’t quite appeal, the story line was entertaining, especially that surrounding the manipulative Karrin. She made one evil character, albeit stereotypical, but she helped give this book a rather soap-opera-ish feel. The reader is going to want to know what Karrin is up to, and what she has next on her list of things to do in order to get back the man she knows she can’t have.

Serita Jones is a very wholesome and somewhat naive woman, who lived in an idyllic situation with her husband Chris until he was murdered. She doesn’t know how to handle Hunter and the two of them move slowly at first while they get to know each other better. Karrin’s constant taunts does not dissuade Serita from spending time with Hunter, although she is often confused as to whether Karrin is really Hunter’s current girlfriend, since Serita often sees Karrin in a compromising position with Hunter.

While the bulk of the story is centered on the love story between Hunter and Serita, the unsolved mystery of Serita’s husband’s murder does resurface in the last section of the book, thus bringing resolution to the mystery of Chris’s death. This reviewer felt the story should have kept to one plot, either focus on the romance between Hunter and Serita, or pursue the story line of the murder of Serita’s husband. The subsequent result was a rather uneven book that didn’t know where it was going. This reviewer is marginally recommending SECRETLY IN LOVE for it’s hot and spicy love story and the fun villain that Karrin played in that plot.

November 2006