My Reading Nook

My life has been so upside down the past two weeks that I totally forgot I had read this book! Not that the book was forgettable at all!

Tempting Evil is about a romance writer living in the wilds of Montana with her Grandfather, sister and niece. Joanna’s husband and son were killed by her sister, Trixie’s husband when he was trying to take Trixie and her daughter away after they came to Joanna’s trying to escape his abusiveness. Trixie harbors a secret about how he was able to find her there that haunts her and has affected her relationship with her sister ever since the murders.

He’s sent to prison at San Quentin and there he’s jailed with another killer, Aaron Dougherty,  who fixates on the lovely Joanna Sutton and when fate intervenes and an earthquake hits the prison, he and two others make their escape. Aaron Dougherty has one goal in mind and that’s to find Joanna and make her his.

Although this book tries with some success to be a thriller, it also crosses the line into romance.

Although four years have passed since their murders, Joanna is still grieving over her husband and son. She has met and fallen in love with Tyler McBride and his son, Jason. Her emotions are at war; she fears that she is betraying the memory of her husband and son by loving others. She has to come to terms with those emotions and memories before her life can go on.

The appearance of Aaron and his sidekick, the ruthless sociopathic Doug Chapman soon make it obvious what choices are the right ones and what has importance in her life.

Tempting Evil is a complex and layered work that will keep you turning the pages until the end. Ms. Brennan does a great job of fleshing out her characters; making them real and faced with emotional issues that are both believable and interesting.

Tempting Evil by Allison Brennan
Published by Ballantine Books 2008
ISBN: 978-0-345-50272-8