To start off Romance Week here at Adventures in Literature, I’m sharing my review of Sunset Thunder by Shannyn Leah. I came across this book when I was perusing through the free books available for Kindle on Amazon. I added this and kept being drawn back to it by the gorgeous cover. So here we go!
Title: Sunset Thunder
Author: Shannyn Leah
Release: December 15th, 2015
Publisher: Carlex Ruby Press
Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Shannyn Leah – Author
Synopsis:
Violet Caliendo escorts couples into the illusion of “happily ever after” as wedding coordinator at Willow Valley’s five-star Caliendo Resort. But Violet doesn’t believe in love or “happily ever after” anymore. She’s guarded herself from love so deeply since her divorce that some even call her the “Ice Queen.” When she has to plan her ex-husband’s wedding, even her Ice Queen persona takes a hit.
With her emotions in high gear, she takes out her frustrations by having sex with her ex’s best man, Ryder Carlex. Ryder is a playboy type and Violet figures it’s a simple one-time fling. But Ryder actually is attracted to Violet in a way he’s never known before. Neither of them ever imagines that the sparks between them will ignite a fire hotter than anything they’ve ever encountered – slowly breaking down both their walls.
Will Violet be able to let go of her past and embrace a possible future with Ryder? Will Ryder let Violet into his own deep, dark secrets? Or will their trust issues forever doom them both from achieving their own “happily ever after”?
My Review:
What I loved most about this story, besides the amazing steamy romance, was that it dealt with very sensitive family dynamics. We all have pasts that we’re not proud of and some of us have been through uglier experiences than others. These experiences tend to influence how we enter into and develop relationships with those around us. Sometimes, allowing ourselves to find love after having been irreparabley damaged, is a lot more difficult than we want it to be.
Violet and Ryder are faced with these obstacles from start to finish. What appears to be a chance encounter between a woman and her ex-husband’s best friend, turns into a storybook love that no one saw coming. Except maybe some of them did.
While trying to sort out their feelings for one another, they are continuously pressured by their dark and twisted pasts that keep interfering and not allowing them to open up to one another so that they can overcome the obstacles and allow themselves to be happy.
Filled with quirky and loving characters such as Violet’s adorable two children – Parker and Sophia – who bring a whole new complication to the relationship. Trying to build a new relationship with children involved always requires delicate measures and Violet and Ryder are adorable as they work to tip-toe through the new introduction to her children’s lives.
We also have the ex-husband, Joel, who you will love to hate with his crass attitude and harsh treatment of everyone around him. As other readers have voiced, his complete character change at the end of story was surprising and a nice way to close it all out, but I would never have expected someone as vile as him to up and change overnight.
All in all I have this a 4 out of 5 stars. I love the chemistry between the main characters, their attraction was wild and hot, and the underlying story of all the characters created an amazing and worthwhile story for any fan of romance to enjoy.
About the Author:
Contemporary romance author Shannyn Leah loves olives, lip gloss and reading (and writing) romance novels. Her love of words started at an early age and soon grew until, during her teenage years, she’d started writing her own novels. When her mom pushed to finally publish some of the stories, she quickly amassed two complete romance series (By The Lake and Caliendo Resort series) and, in 2016, released her first Fantasy Romance entitled The Gatekeepers (Part One of the Winters Rising series).
When she’s not writing contemporary romance books into the early hours of the morning, Shannyn can be found antiquing with her two favorite people, her momma and sister, in their picturesque London, Ontario hometown.
Shannyn would love to get to know her readers as you get to know her (just don’t send her any carrots!)
To be notified when new books, exclusive excerpts and contests are released, join her mailing list here: http://www.shannynleah.com/contact.php
For extras, check out Shannyn’s webpage here: www.shannynleah.com
If you enjoy Shannyn’s books, please join her Facebook page here to share the love: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shanny…
And if you would like to contact Shannyn directly, email her at Shannynleah@gmail.com
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