Christina Dodd
Secrets of Bella Terra
Signet (Penguin), August 2, 2011, $7.99
Dark, brooding, and sexy, Rafe Di Luca has returned to Bella Terra for one reason: to find out who attacked his beloved grandmother… and why. Owner of one of the world’s leading security firms, he has his prime suspect: the beautiful Brooke Petersson, manager of Bella Terra. Years ago, he and Brooke shared a powerful passion before he walked out of her life. She swore the affair was over forever, yet they find themselves drawn into an erotic web neither can escape. Now Rafe must decide if he should trust the desire Brooke ignites in him—or if seduction is her revenge…
I love a good thriller, but sometimes I find that books labeled “romantic suspense” have too little emotional payoff. It’s a hard balance to achieve—too many thrills and chills don’t leave time and space for a couple’s relationship to evolve, but too little suspense makes for a watered-down mystery.
Christina Dodd’s Secrets of Bella Terra, the first in her new Scarlet Deceptions series, delivers both emotion and a tantalizing taste of intrigue. It’s more mystery than suspense, but there’s enough action to keep you reading and it packs a much more satisfying emotional punch than many more “thrilling” books.
“How do you stand it?” Her voice rasped as if the tears waited just beyond reach. “How do you bear the memories of people you’ve seen die? Of people who are rotting in their graves? Do you see them every time you close your eyes?”
“Sometimes I see them. The people I’ve killed.” He stroked her hip and her thigh, not sexually, but tenderly, reassuring her that she was not alone. “More often, I see my friends who have died at my side. They haunt me. Sometimes in my mind, I hear the whisper of their voices. Sometimes at night, I can’t sleep for recalling the good times…and the bad. Sometimes in a flash I see my friends as they were in death—and you know the kind of deaths I mean. I told you once.”
[…]
He continued to kneel, continued to speak. “The nightmares come and go, but they never completely vanish. Still, I ask myself—would I want them to? Would I want to be so inured to ugly death that I no longer shudder in fear and unwilling sympathy? I’ve met people who no longer notice death, who no longer grieve their friends and their families, and to reach that place they live in the lowest circles of hell.” In a slow, deep, familiar voice, Rafe was informing her of matters she had never comprehended. “Thank God for the nightmares, Brooke, and know that tomorrow you’ll feel the sunshine on your skin.”
The nice thing about the mystery in this book/series is that Dodd takes you away from the paramilitary groups, the serial killers and the police departments you usually find in romantic suspense novels and serves it up in the kind of setting you might expect from a straight contemporary romance. So if you’re looking for a solid mystery with a heaping helping of romance, check out Christina Dodd’s Secrets of Bella Terra…but don’t expect to have all the answers at the end. She leaves plenty for the next two books!
Laura K Curtis lives in Westchester, NY, with her husband and 3 dogs, who’ve taught her how easily love can co-exist with the desire to kill. She blogs at Women of Mystery and maintains an online store at TorchSongs GlassWorks. She can also be found on Twitter and poking her nose into all sorts of trouble in various spots around the web.
