Dark Corners: A True Heroes Novel by A. M. Madden

Dark Corners was a captivating read. I couldn’t put it down. It started out as a rather standard story as a wealthy woman, Maygen, literally bumps into a super sexy guy and spills coffee all over herself. He’s charming and they end up seeing each other. The hero, David Cavello, is the rather mysterious brother in Madden’s previous book, Glass Ceilings, who had worked to protect his younger sister from the threat from a former lover who is in the mob. We find that David is tormented by PTSD from his time serving in Iraq. Maygen has a rather ill-defined job working for a prominent dress designer. I never could figure out exactly what her job was. She’s the daughter of a prominent PR agent who is super overprotective of Maygen. She rejects his protection and insists on making her own way.

For the first half of the book, we’re just riding along as the romance slowly develops between David and Maygen. David has some unspoken reason why he doesn’t want to take the relationship deeper even though he is really attracted to Maygen and finds that being with her helps reduce his PTSD symptoms.

Then suddenly, halfway through the book, there is a surprise plot development that I hadn’t seen coming, though looking back, I could see how she had provided clues for the surprise. Then the story revolves around whether Maygen can forgive David underlaid with a suspense plot.

The book kept me interested all the way through. The sexual attraction is hot, but it did seem that, after they finally consummated their relationship, there were way too many sex scenes. After a while, I just wanted the plot to go forward and find out what was going to happen. THe suspense part of the plot was introduced too quickly and then resolved too quickly. I thought the author could have done more with that part of the plot. I am finding more and more romantic suspense novels where there is a somewhat suspenseful build-up and then it gets resolved in a few pages more quickly than most of the sex scenes.

I had read the previous book, Glass Ceilings, but hadn’t remembered the details. There were quite a few references to that book and I had to go back and read my review of that book to remember what had happened. I enjoyed that book also so I recommend reading both of them.

I received an ARC of this book, from the publisher, via NetGallery, in exchange for a fair and honest review