Lanie's Book Thoughts

Secrets is the second book in the Sapphire Springs series, [book:Dreams|20818679] is the first book. Secrets tells the story of Tia and Cole, whom happen to be Kylie and Devins best friends. To start with, you need to read Dreams in order to understand Secrets because many of the events from that book play a part in this one.

To write this review I need to compare and contrast Secrets and Dreams to get my point across, so please bear with me. ;)

First and foremost, I really enjoyed reading Secrets, I thought the level of writing was about fifty times better than it had been in Dreams. Don't get me wrong, Dreams was a great book, a total five stars for me, but the story in this one was taken to a whole new level. I felt the plot was a lot stronger and there was a lot more mystery and suspense surrounding Tia and her past. The build-up of who Tia really is had me at the edge of my couch, in my head I had an idea, but my guess fell seriously short to reality. Once her past is out and people realize who she is, it was interesting to see the reactions of those closest to her. Of course, the real entertainment comes in the form of a giant ex-special ops guy named Cole, who just happens to be a sexy Native American man. Cole's gritty past is also revealed, which is a real problem for him because of his love for Tia.

Of course, this wouldn't be a Sapphire Springs novel without the Blackthorn family playing a HUGE main role in this book. So for all you fan girls, the brothers do play a big part in this story. Devin and Kylie are a main part of the story to boot. Now lets talk perspectives, because this is a bigger cast than you'd normally see in this type of book. I enjoyed the switching of perspectives, I got both Tia and Cole's point of view, but the bad guys an the agents from the US Gov. as well. Even with this switching of perspectives, which my friends know drive me nuts, this didn't, I was able to easily keep everyone straight. The voice of each character was different, even the descriptions slightly varied from one character to another. Now not to scare everyone off, this isn't like crazy hopping POVs like BDB. This is more subtle and happens every few chapters just for a bit before returning to Tia&Cole. Every scenes does revolve around this couple, the attention isn't swayed, there aren't any silly side stories either. Everything is pertinent and ties together.

What really surprised me the most though is Morgan's ability to write a bad guy that toys with your emotions. In Dreams, I loathed Allen with every fiber of my being. He truly was an evil b@stard, I was glad to see his ending. However, in Secrets the bad guys aren't as black an white because multiple factions of the mob are involved. Your probably like, "oh multiple, must be different families", which it is but it's more than that. You've got the Russians, the Italians and the independents, mix in a couple deranged sociopaths and you've got a full house. Some of these men aren't evil, so you feel or them, while others your just like "Oh, I hope an elephant stomps you out.".

Now for the nitty gritty, aka sex. There is a good amount of sex scenes in this book, all are done quite well. There's not really any gross or hilariously weird descriptions going on, which I can appreciate. The emotions definitely come through, so it's nice your not getting meaningless sex. There placement also make sense, there's not just random sex scenes tossed throughout the book like you'll sometimes find in romance stories.

I would really have to say though that the plot of this story is the most important and major aspect to this book. The emotional build up seems far more important as well, this isn't another smut book with a weak story to mask it. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, so I'd recommend to my friends an anyone 18+.

I received an ARC copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I can also honestly say, the editing on this book was well done.