Silenced by Danni Pettrey
April 29, 2014
Bethany house Publishers

Jake Knew Something Was Wrong.
But He Never Guessed How Wrong.
A relaxing day of rock climbing takes a disturbing turn when Kayden McKenna’s route brings her face-to-face with a dead climber. Is it a terrible accident or something darker? When the case is handed to overburdened sheriff Landon Grainger, he turns to Jake Westin for help. With Jake’s past now revealed, he’s ready to use his talent for investigation again–but he could never prepare for where the mystery will take him.

Kayden’s climbing expertise soon leads her and Jake to the realization that the death was no accident. And worse, it seems the killer is onto them. When strange things begin happening in Yancey, Jake is terrified that once again his world may put someone he loves in danger. But the truth is far worse than he could ever imagine.

I’ve been waiting for this book in the Alaskan Courage Series since book 2, Shattered. Jake and Kayden’s story felt really ready for it’s own book by the time this published. For the first three books readers were treated to Kayden and Jake’s love/mistrust relationship and finally we see it out in the open -well except neither of them admit it their feelings for the other until the end.

The mystery of Jake’s past was solved in the last book Stranded by Darcy.So how does Kayden react to all this? She quietly, stoically loves him without telling him because she can’t go there emotionally. Jake loves Kayden as well. He loves her with his whole heart, but doesn’t think she could ever love him back. So he stays silent. All the while the two of them are thrown together by the investigation of a dead climber. With Kayden being a climber and Jake reinstated as a cop, they work together to solve the mystery.

I liked this book better than Stranded, which I felt was a little too busy with characters and plot lines. The author returns here with a focus on Kayden and Jake while managing to keep the large McKenna clan a little more in the background throughout. However, as well as Danni Pettrey gets the chemistry between the two main characters right – more than right – it’s great,  we don’t get to see them have the conversations needed to bring their feelings into the open – until the very end where it feels rushed. Parts of this book feel rushed and sometimes tedious, especially when Kayden and Jake question the same characters over and over again while only getting the same answers.

Something funny happens in this book, just as the mystery is solved another ones pops up. It’s unexpected and a little confusing to the reader. Overall I liked this book more for the history of the other three. It stands alone well, but new readers to the series might like to start with Submerged, the first book. As I said I enjoyed this book, but I wanted more from Kayden and Jake than what the reader was given, consdering the build up they’d had over the past three books.

Will I read more from this series? Yes. Will I read other books by this author? Yes

Jess

Jess is a mum of two children and married to the calmest man alive. She loves to bake and go for walks. A writer of contemporary romance, Jess write stories about the heart and where love is worth the journey.