Customer Reviews

Nightfall

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is not for the faint of heart. (Yes, I know that's a cliche.) Keep in mind that it's a book about a woman drawn to a man who has been convicted of murder. If you hate that kind of book, this one will make you very uneasy. Even if you like this kind of book, it could still make you uneasy.

I'm a big fan of Gothics. Many Gothics used the plot about the woman who is sucked into a relationship with a man who could be a murderer. Rarely, however, did the authors go beyond the basics of the story, exploiting the simplistic thrill of the plot -- but missing what makes it tick. In the worst of these books, the heroines had no interior life, no logic.

This book is not like that. When this book is over, you'll know why the characters acted as they did. Anne Stuart never takes the easy way out. She explores all the dark corners of this sort of relationship. Why would a woman fall for a guy who could be not just a killer, but a serial killer? And what is HE up to?

Anne M. Marble

Reviewer, All About Romance

Some may find the hero just too dark and brooding, but I liked the unstoppable pull they each felt towards the other. Yes, the hero manipulates her, but remember that the heroine lets him. Why? On a subconscious level, she "knows" him, she trusts him enough to stake her life on it. And he is worth it!

This book is not for everyone...there is a darkness, almost a gothic quality to it. However, when I loaned it to a friend, I received an irate call the next day accusing me of sabotage...she could not stop until she had finished the book and all tasks were forgotten. Ms. Stuart keeps the reader on the edge until the end, but the edge is not soft and romantic. This book is more mainstream suspense than romance. Much as Poe might do, the action is primarily mental, mind games, manipulation, secrets on a variety of levels. One can never be sure of the guilt or innocence of the main character, or the wisdom of the heroine's involvement. This book is to be read page by page, not skimmed. Perhaps my friend had the right idea...this should be read in one sitting for the total effect. Romance remains (I am too much a diehard romantic to be but so enthusiastic about books that don't contains SOME romance), but be warned that this is no bright sunshine of a book. Like its title, the book seems best in the night

There is NO ONE that creates such vivid characters of men with black hearts and even blacker souls, and the woman compelled to love them no matter what. Moonrise is my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE book, but Night Fall comes a close second.

Cassidy is the daughter to a famous tell-all writer father, Sean, who has just made a pack with the devil, a pack that includes 'giving' his daughter to the devil for his own dark purposes. Her ailing father see the chance to have the book of the decade - maybe his last work - to reveal what a court trial did not: what happened to Richard Tiernan's children the night he murdered his wife. Did he kill them as well and hide their bodies?

In order to secure the inside information, he invite Tiernan into his own home while the book is in the works, and Tiernan awaits sentencing that could result in his death for the murders of his wife and children. Manipulated by the powerful father, Cassidy is forced to agree to edit the book, but soon begins to feel that is merely an excuse to put her in the path of Tiernan.

What does he want with her? What dark plans does he have for her? Repulsed by a murderer, Cassidy is slowly drawn against will to the compelling man full of secrets and darkness. What more can he be hiding? Isn't killing his wife and children bad enough? What dark secrets lurk in his soul, and why is Cassidy and his complete control over her so suddenly important?

Stuart delivers a sexy, steamy dark mystery that will keep you biting your nails to the very end. A book that lingers in the mind years after you finish. I literally could not put this one down!!

If there was an award for the very best writer of romantic suspense, Anne Stuart should receive it. Like most of her books, this one is dark and edgy, sensual and romantic. Why does Cass's father bring a killer into their home? Is Richard a killer? And, if he's not; who killed Richard's wife? And, what happened to Richard's children? Richard's motivations, Cass' motivations, and her father's make up the gist of the story. With the suspense of the story alone, you have enough to read, to keep you mesmerized. With the romance, you have the taste of spice, that makes all Ms. Stuart's books so special.

WOW! This is absolutley my favorite Anne Stuart book. It gripped me from the beginning with the dark sexuality and the even darker plot. If you want a light heartwarming romance, this is not the book for you. This is a book fraught with tension, denial, and danger.

Cassidy Roarke has been called by her father, Sean O'Roark, who is, in his own right, a famous author. Never being asked for anything by her father and always feeling like a failure, she jumps at the chance to be there for him and make him proud of her. What she doesn't know is that he has made a pact with a man accused of murdering his wife and two children, one that sacrafices his own daughter to the devil.

Richard Tiernan has his own adjenda and it includes Cassidy Roarke. From the moment he saw the picture of her sitting on Sean's desk, he knows this is the woman that he has been looking for. The challenge is that he has to own Cassidy, body, heart and soul. The tale that follows is intense and extremely dark, but very satisfying to the reader. Richard will captivate you with his cold calculating ways and Cass will break your heart with her dilemnia of falling in love with someone who she knows she can't trust.

The book takes a turn toward the end, but not a surprising one. You will not be dissapointed by this book and you do not want to miss it!

This is not a book for everyone.... But if you enjoy psychological thrills in your romance and don't mind a hero who may or may not be a cold-blooded killer, then this is the book for you. Richard's cat and mouse games with Cassie will have you all confused and as enthralled with him as Cassie is. The fast-paced plot will keep you turning pages long into the night and the ending is--without giving anything away--fitting.

When Cassidy receives the call from her father Sean that he is ill and would like her to visit, she takes his word as a banker would a convicted bank robber's word. She doesn't trust the sitation or the man.

Her father, Sean, is a tabloid-like writer who searches for the most gossip infested stories to untangle and break wide open to the public in books. When he stumbles upon his new pet project, Richard Tiernan, he once again has the writer's lust to ferret out the tale, grit, and details. He will do nearly anything to accomplish his greatest percieved novel. Even take the suspected murderer into his own home and entice his eldest daughter home to unknowingly serve as a temptation for Richard.

Cassidy is unable to explain her attraction to Richard. She is aware of his suspicion of murder and half believes the rumors are true that he has murdered his wife and children and is hiding the bodies of his children where they cannot be found and yet there is something about him that moves her. That challenges her. The mystifies her.

When Cassidy agrees to take on Sean's project of editing Sean's novel and leave her own job behind for a while she plays the cat and mouse game Richard weaves for her and the game seduces her beyond her wildest dreams.

While a dark book with thick suspence and sexual tension that at times can be spine tingling this is a truely insightful look into the dark side of romance, love, and intrigue, murder, death, and trust. This is a must read for the ones who are not afraid to get their hands, imaginations, and eyes a little dirty.

This book made it to my reading list based on two major endorsements - Romantic Times awarded it a Reader's Choice award and then included it in their 200 best since 1980. In many ways it is very deserving for this is hardly run of the mill fare.

Just in the early pages, we have Cassidy's writer father all but sacrificing her to the convicted murderer, Richard Tiernan, in exchange for an exclusive on Tiernan's memoir. Tiernan is an unusual hero - to say the least. Not a confessed murderer but yet one who won't persue a strong defense of his case. And then there are the missing children....

The sexual tension in this book is intense (almost to the point of being hard to believe) and the sex scene are heated and detailed. The end has some good twists and turns - but you'll need to read the book.

As usual, Anne Stuart has come up with a fascinating, complex storyline and a sexy, dark, *bad-boy* hero. The hero (or anti-hero) of "Nightfall", Richard Tiernan, is about as bad as they come, a philandering husband who has been convicted of killing his pregnant wife and is suspected of killing his children and at least one of his former lovers. The heroine, Cassidy Roarke, is thrown into the path of Richard (who is out of prison while his case is being appealed) by her father, an egotistical author who is writing a true-crime book on Richard's case.
The interaction between Cassidy and Richard is deliciously suspenseful from their first meeting (Cassidy is scrounging through the refrigerator, believing herself to be alone in her father's apartment, and suddenly realizes that Richard, the convicted murderer, is in the kitchen with her.) Anne Stuart does a wonderful job of developing Cassidy's growing fascination and interest in the magnetically attractive Richard, despite her concerns that he may be a serial killer and seems to have targeted her for some mysterious scheme of his own.
Why four stars instead of five? The book contains some major holes in the plot logic (in my opinion) which cannot be discussed with spoiling the story, and I had trouble believing that Cassidy had fallen in *love* with Richard at the point in the story where she suddenly blurts it out (*lust*, definitely yes, but not love). Regardless of these flaws, the book is a MUST READ for Anne Stuart fans--dark, complex, suspenseful, with memorable characters and lots of (very) steamy sex!
In summary, this is an excellent romantic suspense (for those who like them dark and edgy), but not as good as "Ritual Sins" (my personal *favorite* Anne Stuart).