Publisher: YLVA Publishing
Preserving death.
Noa is once successful painter who has had to deal with the loss of the people who were closest to her. She has shut herself off from truly living. Numbing herself with alcohol and forcing herself to sleep on hard floors. Her agent, Marcus, begins receiving concerning messages addressed to Noa. Partially afraid for Noa but mostly anxious about keeping her exhibitions going without issue, he sends Noa to a friend’s house in a remote area. He convinces her that she needs to get a change of scenery that will help spark her creativity. In Woodbridge, Noa meets Paige, a local nurse.
I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this story. Noa’s brother is presumed dead as he has been missing for 30 years., but when messages referring to his disappearance surface, the questions begin to add up. It felt a little bit like a whodunit and found I was guessing as to who might have been involved IF there was someone involved.
Upon meeting Noa, Paige is persistent to spend time with her. The attraction is burning hot but they also find that they have a lot of commonality between them. I’m sure most of you will enjoy the many explicit scenes more than I did as I prefer a nice and sexy fade to black. I also like a slower burn than this book afforded. They were quite full-on quickly.
There were some characters that didn’t add much to the story. I didn’t understand the purpose of Paige’s co-worker always butting into her business. I felt like it was leading up to something, but then nothing ever came. She just no longer existed at some point. And why was Paige always trying to brush her off? Seemed to me like she could have used her as a good sounding board. And Paige had a brother that leaves a dog at her house sometimes and exchanged a handful of works with Noa one morning. I expected some kind of conflict that never happened there, too.
Overall, this book had a deeper feel to it with Noa’s ongoing struggle with her losses. It kept me entertained and I certainly did not predict the outcome.
I recommend this to people who like to read mysteries, romance, art, estranged family, booze, tea, beans on toast.