Exposed

Finding Justice, Book #1

By Rhonda Pollero

Author Website: http://www.rhondapollero.com/

 

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer jerjen

Synopsis:

First comes love, then comes fear . . .

After a whirlwind romance, Darby Hayes Grisom married the man of her dreams. Smart, handsome, ambitious-Sean was everything she always thought she wanted. Little did she know that one year later that dream would turn into her worst nightmare. Sean is moody, angry, violent. Violent enough to kill. When Darby realizes she’s pregnant she knows Sean will never let her go.

Attorney Jack Kavanaugh is the only person Darby can trust to help her with her plan to save herself and her baby. But the deeper Jack gets involved in protecting Darby, the deeper the feelings between them become. A complication Darby can’t afford-because her husband is watching their every move and he’ll do anything to get her-and their baby-back. (Goodreads)

 

Review:

When Darby met Sean, she thought that she had met Prince Charming.  He was charming, funny, attractive and attentive.  Until he wasn’t.  Then he became mean, abusive, volatile and  a real pyscho.  He will do anything to keep Darby with him because he wants her money.  When she becomes pregnant, the abuse did not stop, it escalated.  When Darby has the baby, she knows that she has to get away from Sean, any way that she can.  She comes up with an elaborate plan to do just that.  But her plan does not work as well as she thought it would, and she turns to Jack, a lawyer that she picked randomly for help.  Jack realizes that Darby is a woman in trouble and he is willing to help her any way that he can.  The more time they spend together the more they find they are attracted to each other.  But Darby has a lot of baggage and the threat of violence hanging over her head.  Can they work together to take the threat to Darby and her baby away and have their happily ever after?

The characters are well rounded and well developed.  Darby is a smart tough woman and even though she made a mistake marry her husband, she will do anything to correct that mistake. Jack is a sweet caring man who does not like seeing wrongs done to anyone.  And Sean is a vile disgusting person who deserves whatever evil he gets.  They were all strong characters and people you could either care about or despise.

The author is very talented in creating suspense with the written word.  Through most of the book I was afraid to keep swiping the pages.  Afraid because I did not know what would happen next.  But I had to keep swiping the page because I had to know what would happen next.  I thought about this book even when I was not reading it, wondering and worrying about what would happen to Darby and her baby.  I think that is a sign of a really good author when the reader cannot stop thinking about their book.

The author took a very serious social problem and wrote about it in a realistic way.  I think that is why this book stuck with me so long after I read it, it was realistic and it could happen in real life (and does happen in real life).  Some portions of the book (like Darby’s plan to free herself from Sean) were farfetched but most of the book was true to life.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well crafted romantic suspense.  This is the first book in this series and I am looking forward to reading the next book when it is published.