Her Best Friend's Husband

Redstone Incorporated #8

by Justine Davis

Gabriel Taggert. Former naval officer, man of honor—and her best friend's husband. Cara Thorpe's feelings for the one man she could never have had always been her own shameful secret. And when her best friend disappeared without a trace, she lost them both. Until a postcard arrived, eight years late.…

Receiving an eight-year-old message from her best friend was disturbing enough. Now Cara had to face the man she'd quietly loved for years. Would teaming up with Gabe on a dangerous hunt for the truth jeopardize their own lives…and the chance for a future together?

Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Author biographies are supposed to give you all those statistics, books written, awards won, etc. and I will, I promise...but first let me tell you about this ornery little tomboy (back then, the boys had all the fun...) who was always the one to make up the stories the neighborhood kids would "play". For those who came of age in the computer game era, this is something that was done usually in the backyard, by any number of summer-bored children, with props where appropriate. (Did you know a 55 gallon drum tied to a picnic bench makes a very cool horse?) It wasn't until much later that this tomboy realized two things: A) not everyone made up stories in their heads all the time, and B) in real life, the boys that had already had all the fun now seemed to always be winning.

But I digress. I was born on a farm down in Iowa....well, not quite, but close; Boone, Iowa is in the middle of farm country, but I arrived at a hospital. In a snow storm. Make that a blizzard. My sister tells me she knew my destiny when I was very young, because when I first saw the Disney classic Old Yeller, I was apparently so upset that I promptly went home and rewrote the story. In my version, the dog lived, of course. Should have been a clue.

Possibly in response to that blizzard I was born in, I've been a West Coaster since before I was a year old, and intend to stay that way. I have a history of staying. I started my first full time job right out of school (well, there was a very brief sojourn at a place where they made, among other things, burial vaults, but I prefer not to recall that one...) and stayed for twenty-one years. I've been married to the same wonderful guy for going on two decades now. We lived in our last house for seventeen years. (I won't even mention how many dumpsters we filled moving after that long....)

Readers seem as fascinated by my first career as they are with my writing. My time in law enforcement was many things, exciting, nerve wracking, and irritating, but most importantly never, ever boring. It was fascinating enough that I didn't think about writing seriously for several years. I kept a journal, and wrote long letters, collected quotes, mentally rewrote movies, and still made up those stories in my head, but never dreamed of actually writing for publication. I was having too much fun helping to catch bad guys, and being continually amazed at the situations people get themselves into. And eventually I walked away with a wealth of background and story ideas, and knowing some truly great people who work very hard to keep all of us safe. I'm proud to have been one of them, and I'm very aware that I have had the great good fortune of having had two jobs in my life that I love. Many people don't get even one.

But now that I'm in the delicious position of being able to make a living telling those stories in my head, I promise my readers two things: A) I'm staying--I'll keep writing as long as you keep reading, and B) in my stories, the girl--tomboy or not--always wins!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And now, the official stats:

Justine Dare Davis sold her first book in 1989, and followed that up with the sale of nineteen novels in less than two years. Her first four books were published in 1991, and she saw all reach the finals for either the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award or the Romance Writers of America prestigious RITA Award. She has since won the RITA award four times, along with several Reviewer's Choice awards and three Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times. At the 1998 national conference, Justine was inducted into the RWA Hall of Fame, making her one of a very select group of just eight writers. She also had four titles on the Romantic Times "Top 200 of All Time" list. Her sales now total more than 45, and her books have appeared regularly on best seller lists, including the USA Today list. She has been featured in several local newspapers and nationwide by Associated Press, has appeared on CN

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

So the writing was solid. But I'm having trouble not feeling queasy over the premise. The characters are uncomfortable with the idea that the heroine is in love with her dead best friend's husband. That makes three of us. They come to all kinds of useful realizations about the nature of the previous marriage -- she never understood him, she was selfish, etc. to try to make it OK. But it's still not. I'm still uncomfortable and they still seem uncomfortable by the end of the book also. The dead baby doesn't help. I think writers, in general, are uncomfortable with the idea of the dead first spouse. There's always something that makes it clear that s/he wasn't The One. Why can't spouse 1 be The One AND spouse 2? Why must we always rubbish spouse 1? (All while saying we're not going to because there's no point -- s/he's dead. "Not to speak ill of the dead, but don't you think she was immature / self-absorbed / weak / clingy, etc.?") Remind me never to die. It will turn out that I wasn't really The One.

[Mojca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cara Thorpe fell in love with Gabriel Taggert the moment she met him. Unfortunately then, he was her best friend’s boyfriend, hence untouchable. Later he became her best friend’s husband. And even after Hope Taggert vanished into thin air after six years of marriage, Cara still kept her distance. Gabe was Hope’s after all.

Now, eight years later, Cara has no choice but seek Gabe out. She’s received a message from the grave, a postcard Hope mailed her on the day of her disappearance. And no matter how much she convinces herself what she felt for Gabe was just a crush, the moment she sees him, her feelings resurface, stronger than ever…But neither of the two has time to dwell on their feelings and changes, they have a mystery to solve.


A cute little friends-to-lovers story with a nice side-dish of suspense, but unfortunately I wasn’t convinced by the romance aspect. It just came sort of out of the blue, just like "oh, there you are, we might just get it done and see what happens". Sure, she’s been in love with him since the beginning, but he saw her only as a friend, then she changes her appearance slightly, develops more confidence and he just seems drawn to her. But of course, not because she’s a strange kind of link to his wife, but because he’s never noticed how "deep" she was before.
It seemed too easy and sudden (they haven’t spoken for eight years!), and I just didn’t buy it.

I loved the suspense subplot, though. All the twists and turns, the secrets and red herrings. Nicely-done and superbly written with good pacing.
If only the romance were done a little differently, not so rushed, more subtle, more…something. It just didn’t sound believable, that’s all. Although, I loved Gabe’s confession about not being that "kid with Hope anymore". That if he met them both now, eight years later, he probably wouldn’t be looking at Hope, but at her friend. That was a nice touch, but still it didn’t compensate for everything else that was amiss with this romance.

3 ½ stars

[Phylis Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabriel Tagged is trying to find out what happened to his wife when she disappeared eight years ago.

Her best friend Cara, received a post card from Hope that had been lost in the mail for eight years. It was from a place they knew nothing about. And never knew b that Hope had gone there.

Loved this book and think you will too

[Amy Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good story and I did find it difficult to put this one down.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

SRS #1525 = 4+ stars

[Robyn Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kindle

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed something easy to read that would be a quick story and found that I had this book for many years but hadn't read it. This was a good story so I just sat down and read it all the way through.

I liked Gabriel Taggert and Cara Thorpe as they reunited after Gabe's wife and Cara's best friend had been missing for eight years. Cara received a post card eight years after her friend Hope disappears and goes looking for Gabe thinking he would want to see the post card. That starts them on the path of searching the small town where Hope mailed the post card. The story hooked me from the start so if you like quick reads and Silhouette Books you will enjoy this one.

[Lynn Calvin]

Amazon received

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I was in the mood for.