Love, truth, and pain lie buried beneath the Sunset at Lake
Crane…
Faced with a blackmailer’s ultimatum, 19-year-old Erynn
O’Neal protects her lover by disappearing from his life. Brokenhearted, she
vanishes—and takes a life-altering secret with her.
Grant Alexander crossed the line when he took former
student, Erynn O’Neal, as his own a mere two months after her high school
graduation. Knowing the truth revealed would shred his career and reputation,
he accepted the risks in exchange for the promise of a lifelong love. A
heartbeat later, Erynn abandoned him without a word.
Years pass as Grant and Erynn lead separate lives–he as a
reclusive author, she as an ambitious reporter. Yet, despite scarred hearts,
true love lost is never forgotten, and Grant devises a way to draw Erynn back
into his sphere of passion. Their aching hearts begin a tentative détente, but
old jealousies flare, devastating truths come to light, and Grant and Erynn
must resurrect and overcome the painful secrets of the past if they’re ever to
love again.
AMAZON US / AMAZON UK / NOOK / KOBO / iBOOKS / ALL ROMANCE
Review:
I had mixed emotions while reading Sunset at Lake Crane... Frustration over the situations Grant and Erynn found themselves in (and put themselves in), sadness over the grief both endured from the time they lost together and what happened during their separation-- lots and lots of feelings.
I like that forbidden and exciting feeling from reading books that have tropes such as this one-- a teacher student romance. Yes, technically they weren't together until after she graduated, but still, the essence of the forbidden is there. In this particular book, the characters are being blackmailed to end their relationship, and throughout the book they are fighting the bitterness from their separation and trying to figure out who their tormentor is. There are ups and many downs the characters encounter throughout Sunset at Lake Crane that become increasingly frustrating for me as I read, but I continued because I just had to know what secret Erynn was holding back and who the heck was blackmailing Grant and Erynn.
Through all the frustrations I felt, I recommenced picking this book up. You wont want to miss all the heated arguments and bedroom scenes between these two!
He stood in front of his desk, tension radiating from the
ri-gidity of his shoulders when he asked in a rough voice, “What’s his name?”
At the change in Grant’s voice, Brewster sat up on his bed and glanced back and
forth between them.
“Avery.”
“You love him?”
She turned to him, hoping he would get the point when she
said, “I do.”
She saw it. The flash of hurt before he masked it. “So it’s
se-rious?”
“We own a home together.”
He shook his head. “That’s not an answer.”
She held her hands up, palms out. “It’s the only one I
have.”
He stalked her, a predatory gleam in his eye. She knew the
look—in the right situation, that look alone could get her half-way to a
mind-shattering orgasm. Something she hadn’t experi-enced since him. Talk about
the wrong time to acknowledge that only he had the power to turn her inside out
with pleasure, almost to the point of pain.
“And what about us?”
Her heart tumbled in her chest. She held eye contact. She
needed him to understand. So that no matter how close he got, no matter what he
did, she would not back down. “There is no us.”
“We kissed,” he whispered. His eyes locked on her mouth. She
struggled to keep still and not squirm under his intense stare.
“You kissed me. There’s a difference.”
“You kissed me back.” He laughed without humor. “There’s
something. At some point, we’ll have to address it.”
She took a deep breath and tried another tactic. “Aren’t you
seeing someone? I mean, you went somewhere Saturday night, a sleepover.”
He smirked at her. “I see someone.”
“So it’s not serious?” The words were out before she thought
about what she had done, and his smile grew. She’d showed an interest. She’d
screwed up, and his smug expression said he was celebrating his victory.
“I don’t do serious.”
His tone invited no argument, but the reporter in her wanted
to know. So did the woman. “Why?”
“I just don’t.”
It was her turn to smirk at him. “Now who’s full of it?”
“Don’t,” he bit out.
“Can’t handle it?”
With surprising speed, he spun toward her. He leaned his
face within inches of hers, the muscle along his jaw jumping. “Can you, Erynn?
Can you handle it?”
“Absolutely.” She stood her ground, leaning toward him with
almost as much aggression as he’d leveled at her.
“I don’t do serious because—” He closed his eyes, and when
he opened them again she saw more agony in those their depths than she thought
possible. “I’ll never give another woman enough of me that she has the power to
gut me when she walks away. Not. Ever. Again.”
Casey Hagen is a debut contemporary romance author releasing her
first book, Falling in Fiji, in October. She writes her stories from the dense,
green wilderness of the Delaware National Forest, Middle of Nowhere,
Pennsylvania. She’s a born and raised Vermont native with Ben & Jerry’s in
her heart and real Vermont maple syrup pumping through her veins.
Over the years, Casey has dabbled in a wide variety of
professions. She worked in the States Attorney’s office, created beautiful
works of art as a florist, slaved to the public in retail, taught preschool
(and potty trained eleven two-year-olds at the same time), and finally, she
owned and operated her own residential cleaning business for over a decade. She
is also the new Vice President of the Penn Jersey Women Writers Guild.
Casey is the proud mother of three girls, two of which are
successful college students…yay! She resides with her youngest daughter,
husband, and two cats. Her days are spent in her new office that she proudly
admits they would need dynamite to blast her out of! When she’s not working she
can be found chasing after her youngest with a camera (much to her youngest
daughter’s embarrassment) or on the golf course with her real life hero!
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