Rating: 3.5 / 5

I generally enjoy Sharon Sala's books. They're easy reads that entertain. I did enjoy this one, but not anywhere near as much as some of her other books.

Series Note:
First book in Sala's new "The Searchers" trilogy.

Summary:
Maria Slade grew up with 2 wonderful sisters and a loving father. So it comes as a shock after father dies and the will is read that she finds out her father was not really her father. He took her in and secreted her away at her mother's request as she lay dying by a murderer's hand.

Maria can't believe it. She has no memory of those early years of her life. She's blocked it all out. But now that she knows she's determined to get some answers about what happened to her mother. So she returns to Tulsa, Oklahoma to find out who her mother was and if her murderer was ever caught.

In the process, she meets cop Bodie Scott who is intrigued by her mother's case. And when Maria's life becomes threatened because of her digging, he's determined to protect her and help her find the truth. As the two get to know each other, they can't help falling in love.

Review:
This book gives you pretty much what you expect from a Sharon Sala romance. It's a bit sweet, a little heart wrenching at times, and uplifting at others. The characters are likable, and the story very readable. The suspense is interesting, but not all that in depth (like the type of story you get from the more hardcore romantic suspense writers).

The concept of the series is interesting...three sisters who find out they aren't really who they thought they were after their father dies. Each discovers they come from sketchy backgrounds that leave them wanting answers. It's an intriguing premise. And Sala mostly delivers. The story isn't perfect though.

There were a couple things I wished had been done better.
* the story was way too simplistic and everything moved along way too smoothly. Everything moves in a straight line from point A to B to C, etc. There aren't enough detours and twists and turns to give the suspense plot some meatiness. Everything worked out too easily. There needed to be some more messiness and complication.

* there was something a little off between how the relationship between the sisters is portrayed throughout the book. For 3 sisters who are said to be super close and going through a serious emotional upheaval, they sure don't talk to each other very much.

* and this one bugged me the most. The ending doesn't really give you a solid wrap up. It leaves you wondering about some things. Maria has a life in Montana, a job and all that. But she goes to Tulsa and falls in love with a Tulsa cop. Yet when the story ends, you have no idea what these two plan to do about their separate lives. Is Maria moving or is he? And that drove me nuts. The romantic resolution is rather incomplete when you have no idea how the H/H plan to join their lives.

So those 3 things kept me from loving the book. But I still liked it. Sala rarely writes a book that I don't enjoy on some level or another. I look forward to the rest of this series to find out more about the sisters and the secrets of their pasts.