Sweeter Than Sin by Shiloh Walker

 CAN’T FORGET THE PAIN

It took years for Adam to stop drowning his regrets in alcohol, and running the local bar doesn’t make it any easier—especially not when everyone he knows gathers there to discuss the shocking allegations that have shattered his hometown. When another murder rocks sleepy Madison to its core, it becomes chillingly clear that even more vicious wounds are waiting to be exposed.

WON’T RESIST THE PLEASURE

Nothing is sacred anymore, and no one is safe, least of all the mystery woman who shows up in town out of the blue, looking like every fantasy Adam’s ever had. She may have her own dangerous secrets, but she can’t ignore the urgent heat between them any more than he can. As a killer’s quest for vengeance explodes into violence, Adam is tempted to lose himself in the delicious promise of her body—until he realizes he’ll risk anything if she’ll give him her heart…in Sweeter than Sin by Shiloh Walker.

While I enjoy reading romantic suspense, I don’t read a lot of it because it tends to be difficult to find authors who can achieve the right combination of romance, action, suspense and sex in the way that appeals to me. I am not the kind of reader who tries to figure out “who done it” before the reveal. I enjoy following the evidence, seeing where it leads, and being surprised as the facts come to light; I don’t enjoy it when an author leaves so many clues or the story is so predictable that I’d have to have had a lobotomy not to figure it out. Thankfully Ms. Walker’s Secrets & Shadows series gives me everything I enjoy about romantic suspense and does so without the need for a frontal lobotomy. That said, I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I had my suspicions about Caine and I was right. But that is the only question I had from Deeper Than Need that I got an answer to, and while Sweeter Than Sin does answer a few of the questions raised in book one it raises so many more.

I started this book knowing it was going to be Adam’s story. I was fascinated by Adam in book one and was looking forward to it. However, once I started reading and realized the identity of the mystery woman (as she’s referred to in the blurb), I was blown away. Sweeter Than Sin quickly shifted from a book I was looking forward to, to one that I knew was going to interfere with my sleep for the night. Sure enough it did. Apparently I read until I passed out and when I woke up a 4am with my Kindle on the bed beside me, I picked it back up and proceeded to devour the rest of it.

As there is an underlying storyline to the series, I won’t discuss more than is in the blurb (no spoilers here folks). Madison is rocked yet again with another murder. But murder is not the town’s only sin about to be revealed. While I had my suspicions after reading Deeper Than Need, it turned out to be so much worse than I expected and shocked does not even begin to cover my reaction. Ms. Walker does an excellent job of infusing the book with Adam’s budding romance and it turns out that he is just as hot as Preach was in the first book. My goodness that man knows his way around a woman. Sweeter Than Sin is a brilliant addition to the series – answering some questions brought up in book one, while posing a whole new set of questions. Already I am chomping at the bit for the next book in the series.

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