November 25, 2024
Hutton’s high-intensity debut pairs a woman with a history of abuse and the billionaire who’s captivated by her. Artist and shopkeeper Honor Stone loses her last surviving relative when her identical twin, Grace, is murdered. She heads to the morgue to identify Grace’s body—and there unexpectedly collides with a handsome stranger in a tux. Strike Madden, a video game entrepreneur who’s there for reasons he keeps vague, is immediately captivated by Honor. As she tries to unravel the mystery of her sister’s murder, Honor discovers that, unbeknownst to her, Grace took out business loans in both their names, putting the future of Honor’s shop in jeopardy. That’s when Strike swoops in with a plum job offer: creating erotic images for his company’s new game. Honor accepts and their chemistry ignites, but it soon becomes evident that Strike has a dark side. When Grace’s killer starts targeting Honor, Strike will do anything to bring the man down. Hutton’s multilayered characters captivate, particularly Strike, whose drive to deliver justice for Honor will please fans of alpha male heroes. The tone is often heavy, but the thrilling plot keeps the pages turning. It’s solid romantic suspense.
December 15, 2024
When an artist becomes involved with an enigmatic billionaire, she has to decide whether she'll accept his dark side, too. Honor Stone is navigating intense grief over the death of her identical twin, Grace, when she unexpectedly meets charming, mysterious billionaire Strike Madden--in the morgue, of all places. It doesn't matter how handsome he is or how instantaneous the connection between them; Honor's not looking for love, especially since she suspects her sister's boyfriend of being responsible for her death. As the weeks go by, however, Strike is never far from Honor's thoughts, and it turns out the feeling is mutual. When Strike offers Honor a job spearheading a new line of erotic video games, it's because he genuinely believes in her artistic talent--and because he's trying to keep his distance from her, and thinks that making her his employee will surely create some kind of boundary between them. Struggling with an attraction to her new boss isn't the only thing Honor's dealing with. Grace's boyfriend has set his obsessive sights on Honor next, and he clearly doesn't intend to leave her alone. Initially, Honor doesn't want to involve Strike in the situation, but long hours and late nights working side by side gradually clue her into the fact that the billionaire has a dark side of his own--one that's uniquely qualified to handle any threats. This romantic thriller veers into particularly heavy territory over dual timelines, with Honor's stalking in the present day alternating with a thorny and complicated backstory dealing with parental abuse and neglect. These elements result in a much darker romance than some readers may be expecting. Additionally, there are times when Strike's level of wealth and resources are almost too hard to believe as they conveniently remove any potential obstacle for Honor. Considering the too-early resolution of the book's most suspenseful plotline, this feels like a book that should have either leaned into its darkest twist much sooner or not attempted to tread there at all. A scattered romantic thriller that ultimately fizzles out.
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