This was a really well written romantic suspense book. The mystery was at the forefront of the book, but the romance was a nice addition to the story. Edie comes home to clear her father's name after he committed suicide 20 years before. Her efforts stir up lots of ugly secrets being kept by the small town. The love interest is the sheriff whose father is right in the middle of all those secrets. Lots of atmosphere. I would like for the characters to have been a little more delineated, but the mystery was well done. Definitely worth the read. ( )

This was a really well written romantic suspense book. The mystery was at the forefront of the book, but the romance was a nice addition to the story. Edie comes home to clear her father's name after he committed suicide 20 years before. Her efforts stir up lots of ugly secrets being kept by the small town. The love interest is the sheriff whose father is right in the middle of all those secrets. Lots of atmosphere. I would like for the characters to have been a little more delineated, but the mystery was well done. Definitely worth the read. ( )

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”
― Confucius

“We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged.”
― Heinrich Heine

Say what you will about the act, I love a tale of revenge. I found this book when I went looking for books with this specific theme and it sounded like it was exactly what I wanted. No other book jumped out at me like this one did. And it's a romantic suspense!

The tone and the story at the start of the book reminded me a lot of the television show Revenge (this book came out a year or two before the show started). I freaking love that show, so I was excited.

Alas, my excitement was short-lived.

Edie Swann showed up in Redbud looking for answers. She had a plan to get those answers and disrupt the lives of the men she believed were responsible for setting her father up twenty years ago, which lead to his suicide and the total destruction of her family. Edie sends the men on her list a little token – a reminder of what happened and notice that she's coming. Unfortunately, there is someone else in Redbud looking for revenge. And she/he is killing off these men one after the other. This was not part of Edie's plan and she gets derailed and panicky quite fast. I would have liked for her to get further into her plan before this started happening. She had barely done anything by this point. Her planning proved to be weak or non-existent and she ended up on the defensive instead of the offensive, lost control of the situation and had it flipped on her. The whole revenge element petered out really quickly.


The Bride isn't impressed either.

Then, of course, there is Holt Drennen. The tiny town's most eligible bachelor police chief. Lucky for me, he's the single father of a five-year-old little girl, Miranda. The trope I was looking for was a bust, but at least the book had another one of my favorites to fall back on. The reason Edie and Miranda bond was simultaneously cute and hilarious. The sparks fly between Holt and Edie right off the bat to the consternation of single women of the town and his mother.

As the truth slowly unwinds, Edie is thrown into the crosshairs. She was already on everyone's radar because she's a black hair, tattooed, Harley-riding woman in a sea of Stepford ladies. It doesn't take long for the town to turn on her and Holt ends up between a rock and a hard place: his career or his woman. He is a nice guy who ends up caught between the people he loves and the need to do his job.

The story really fell apart for me when Edie developed feelings for Holt. Her objective – a quest to get answers twenty years in the making – became unimportant to her. Only 36% in she starts claiming that she made her peace with the past. "What good was the truth now?" What in the hell? She was actually happy that she couldn't find any more information so that she could focus on Holt. While part of her problem had to do with the deaths, it really seemed like the sex was the primary factor in her letting go.


Emily Thorne is judging you, too, Edie.

She only kept going because was caught up in the murder mystery as the obvious, and only, suspect. The end was maddening as the killer basically came out of left field. Which isn't a bad thing per se, but his/her motive had absolutely nothing to do with anything relating to the initial set up of Edie's father or any information she was trying to get. The only thing that saved the climax was what happened with Edie and Miranda though not much happened with the killer. In the end we were only given a giant info dump resolving the true plot of the book. Again I ask, what the hell?

The writing left a lot to be desired as well. There were way too many metaphors, some of which didn't make a lot of sense. I almost gave up reading in the first chapter because it was weighed down with metaphors and writing that was trying too hard to be poetic.

"She inched forward, navigating through stars, those pinpricks of light. And memory.
The stars were out that night, too, long ago when the doorbell clanged and shattered the silence into before and after."

"Then maybe the truth would stumble, tattered and worn, maybe, pale but alive, into the light."

"He left her shaking her head, a round apple of a woman in the core of the mess."

"As if she’d been poured into an industrial mixer and the motor set to an endless on.”

The first sex scene was incredibly awkward for several reasons. The greatest of which, again, was the use of metaphors.

"He reached the core of her, the sting of pleasure raw, ragged, a rocket trip to some other plane, some other universe. A galaxy where there was nothing but the thrust of his body against hers, the undulation of desire, the sweet, sweet kick of the coming explosion."

Thankfully, they were mostly in the first part of the book. The storytelling was somewhat smoother in the second half.

The whole book could have benefited from better editing. There were some spelling mistakes and missing words. There was too much staccato writing. With short sentences. Like this. Making it a choppy read. There was also a scene where the first thing one of the characters notices upon entering the room is the presence of another character but then kept wondering where that person was. I was completely confused.

The book wasn't terrible, and a quick read in the second half, but it wasn't great. I certainly didn't get what I was looking for. I could have dealt with the revenge part of the story being dropped, as disappointing as that was to me, but the killer and his/her motive was a disappointment I couldn't get over. Though I did like the relationship between Edie, Miranda, and Holt. I have to give this a 2.5. ( )

Edie Swan is a rebel with a cause. She is determined to clear her father’s name in the small town of Redbud, Tennesee where he supposedly committed suicide and resulted in driving her mother mad. Little does she know that her inquiries will unravel the threads that hold the town together.

Sheriff Holt Drennen is a loyal father and son and a respected member of Redbud who finds the mysterious Edie a force he cannot resist. But will his attraction hinder his investigation into the strange deaths of Redbuds citizens?

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review ( )

Edie Swann, formerly known as Eden Swanford, is determined to wreak revenge on the men that she thinks are responsible for her father’s death. She returns to the town of her childhood and starts to send out black angels to scare them and make them remember what they’d done. When the men start dying, Edie becomes a suspect, even in her own mind; she fears she has set in motion a much larger plan than she’d ever bargained for. Meanwhile Sheriff Holt Drennen knows Edie is up to something but can’t stop his attraction and simple liking for her. Even though she is the obvious culprit, he believes in her innocence, and he’s willing to fight.

If this is representative of the romantic suspense genre, I definitely want to read more. The mystery in this book was so engaging. The different threads wove between the two main characters, the men who were implicated in the murder of Edie’s father, and even through Holt’s adorable daughter. There were layers and layers to this story and as they were slowly peeled away, the craving for more knowledge just kept on growing. I’m always bad at guessing the murderer, so I can’t guarantee that this isn’t a predictable read for someone else, but to me the plot felt surprisingly tight, exciting, and suspenseful. That isn’t even discussing the romance, which sizzles right off the page. Edie and Holt are not only a very enticing couple but a believable pair. The book doesn’t end in marriage but in a commitment to try out their relationship, which I really appreciated after they’d been through so much.

Edie as a character really got me into the book. She’s a strong woman, but there are forces beyond her control going on here. It’s so easy to feel for her when she’s lost almost everyone in her life, and it’s perfectly understandable that Holt has to build up her trust in him. She’s actually horrified by the fact that the men start dying, even though she thinks they killed her father. Even if she intends to make them a little anxious, she never intended to do any physical harm, just encourage the truth to come out. Her character really starts to come out when she finds her own life in danger. There were also some great family dynamics in this little novel, mostly centered on Holt’s relationship with his parents and his daughter, which made it feel more realistic and well-rounded.

I really enjoyed One Deadly Sin. It appeals to the part of me that loves this kind of exciting suspense. With both a great plot and fantastic characters to care about, there is no way to go wrong with this one. ( )