After her father dies in a boating incident, innkeeper Daniela Dunn
must travel from Northern California’s Sinner’s Grove back to Verona,
Italy and her childhood home, an estate called the Panther’s Lair. It’s a
mansion full of frightful memories and deeply buried secrets, where
appearances are deceiving and the price of honesty is death. As Dani is
drawn further into her family’s intrigues, she has an unlikely ally in
handsome Marin County investigator Gabriele de la Torre. He says he’s
come along to support her, but his actions prove he has his own hidden
agenda.
Gabe de la Torre needs to settle old family debts before starting
fresh with the woman he feels could be The One. But once Dani finds out
whom he’s beholden to, all bets could be off. When a mystery woman
reveals that Dani’s father may have been murdered, the stakes rise
dramatically and Gabe realizes they’re now players in a dangerous game.
Protecting Dani becomes his top priority, even as she strives to figure
out whom she can trust: her relatives, Gabe, or even herself.
***
The Lair is a fantastic journey over seas that blends the heart and
mind into a mystery that starts from page one. Be aware that its
emotional and sensitive content for those with topic issues. The Lair is
intense and kept even my wary suspicions wandering into the night.
Poor Dani in all her confusion stumbles from one moment to the next
not really being a part of but going through the motions until she hits
her upright position button and all the lights in her mental house go
on. You know that saying about how the engine is running but there's no
one behind the wheel? That's Dani. Except we get flashes of these
moments where she kind of clicks and something goes on and suddenly shes
trying to piece together this great big void and a murder.
Gabe is an interesting character playing off Dani that was quite
surprising for me because as active as he was I felt he more or less
stood back to allow a certain space to grow before approaching it. He
chose his moments carefully while the strings around them were getting
pulled and sending them both on their course.
Dani and Gabe once they open to one another are passionate, strong
willed and quite a great thing to behold. I was not expecting the twist
at the ending and that's difficult to do.
There are so many secrets that the story kept me going all the way to
the end. I really enjoyed reading The Lair and I feel that AB has done a
marvelous job creating an exciting book for us suspenseful romance
fans.
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