Customer Reviews

Secret Sins

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

 

 

In December 1969, a little girl was found after a horrible car crash killing her parents. Assuming she is the daughter of the dead parents, a police officer brings her home to be adopted by his son. Now twenty-six years later, the little girl finds out she isn't who she thinks she is.

When Jessica's ex-husband brings a document to her showing she isn't the daughter of the couple she thought she was. Together, Jessica and her ex-husband Dan learn the secrets to Jessica's past and find love again.

I thought this book was great. Romance, suspense, twists and turns. This is a definite read.

Get in some easy-to-fix, non-demanding food, unplug theclocks, the TV, the computer, the doorbell, even. Oh, yeah -- and grab a big box of tissues, then settle down to read this scintillating, sexy, sassy, suspenseful up-to-the minute novel. Just who is Jessica Marie Pazmany, anyhow? The person who grew up wearing that name is now 30, and knows that she was adopted as a child. Could that be why someone is trying to kill her? From a winter evening in Cleveland to a State Travel Office in Colorado, a very exclusive hospital in North Carolina, and Washington DC, with a stop in 1969 Long Island, you'll be swept along with Jessica, who may instead really be Liliana. With the help of her former husband Dan, who after all, brought her the papers that had been hidden in her adoptive parent's attic, Jess/Lili sets out to discover her own identity. Which of them is the target? Told in engrossing and parallel chunks of narrative, t! wo additional interwoven stories evolve; the woman, Constance, who for 26 years has lived in that hospital waiting to not be 'mad' anymore , and Supreme Court Justice Nominee Victor Rodier, who planned every last detail on his march to the Court. You'll enjoy this satisfying, fast-paced sizzler. Then you can ponder the real mystery here. Why isn't this author on the NYT list? Beats me.

This was a great book, up until the ending. I couldn't put it down and read it in four hours. Cresswell always delivers the reader the right amount of suspense with romance mixed in.

Jessica was found hiding under a car when she was four years old after an accident that left several people dead, including the people that were believed to be her parents. A policeman on the scene found the little girl, and believing that she was now an orphan, took her home where she was eventually adopted by his son and daughter in law.

Twenty six years later she learns the devistating news that the person she thought she was for all those years was dead seven months before the accident. With the help of her ex husband, she works to unravel the truth of her real identity. While looking for the truth, her and her ex husband, Dan, try to come to terms why their marriage didn't work out and if they can make it work once more.

I was very satisfied reading this book, but I felt a major let down when I read the last page and found that the book ended how it did. I felt that the author should have gone into more depth about Constance and Ed, and Constance's return to the world. Cresswell makes the reader root for Constance, and then leaves you feeling bereft at the end of the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book, but I most likely won't pick it up again.

Denver tourist-bureau coordinator gets new info about her birth parents & her ex-husband offers his help. Her investigation re: her birth parents puts her life in danger & links her to the shoo-in for the new Supreme Court justice position. She & Hero also use their time together to hash out their old issues & determine if they have a future together.

This was a good romantic suspense. The suspense part was engrossing & overall writing was emotionally-involving. It made for a quick read.

What I found unique about the romance piece was that the book starts with the main characters' divorced from each other primarily because Hero cheated on her to end their marriage. It was an in-your-face introduction to what a jerk Hero was to heroine. Things looked up after that. I liked that Hero readily admitted his huge part of the blame of their marriage failure. He didn't make excuses. He accepted, admitted, & genuinely apologized for the wrongs he did to her. He was ready to accept her unforgiveness. He tried to show her how he's changed by the progress he's made of his life (i.e., found his passion, worked hard on his career, financially stable, caring for her). His change from an irresponsible, immature, & cheating husband to hardworking, serious,& caring one was believable. He showed it to heroine through the time he spent helping her find her birth parents. He didn't have to ever see her again but he chose to be there for her. I liked that Hero didn't shy away about pointing out her part of their marriage failure but he did this without deflecting the enormity of his blame for their r/s going wrong. It helped heroine see her part in it. I appreciated that both characters didn't let their pride or denial get in the way of confronting their r/s issues.
Their lack of emotional game-playing confirmed that both Hero & heroine have matured in the 3 years since they divorced. I'm convinced their marriage the 2nd time around will last.

My only problem with the book is the breaching of doctor-patient boundaries by the psychiatrist of heroine's mother. It's a huge breach, especially with hints of some romance b/w the 2, yet it was treated lightly. In real life, this could mean a lawsuit & the loss of the psychiatrist's license.

Recommended.

Jessica was married to Dan for two years. They have been divorced for three years now and he approaches her at a job related party with some information. Jess doesn't want to speak to Dan after his betrayal of her and their marriage vows. She had supported them all through their brief two year marriage while he tried to get into the acting field. He didn't seem to care that he wasn't making any money to help pay for the bills. Jessica describes him as being a "lousy husband, his self-absorbed indifference to her needs bordering on cruelty. And that was before he started cheating on her." The papers that Dan bring basically state that Jessica isn't really Jessica and she needs to find out who she is and the secret behind it.
The mystery of this book is well written. The characters involved in the mystery, at least Jessica's real father, are very evil. The way he manipulates things and people to see to his own ends. The reader is left rooting for him to meet with a bad end and the good guys to come out on top. Perhaps the story should have just involved that because I couldn't buy the romance between the two main characters.
I couldn't understand how Jessica's adoptive family could be so "protective" of her and yet they send out her ex-philandering-husband to deliver the news to her not once but a couple of times. Did they think that wouldn't hurt her? The final straw that ended their marriage was when he strolled into their apartment and announced "with seeming casualness that he'd spend the night having sex with Shanna Ryan. Great, glorious, hot sex, the sort that Jess hadn't given him in months." (It had actually been 8 weeks and Jess makes it sound like it was Dan's decision on that too.) Dan wants to heal some of the wounds from their marriage because he believes that they had hurt each other so badly. I'm not sure that she hurt him that badly. He says she was too loyal. That she would never had given up on him even though it was killing her to stay with him and that is why he committed adultery. Apparently he felt it was better to hurt the one he loved rather than saying it wasn't working? He thinks that he would never find the guts to pull himself up with her always hovering around offering enough support to hold at least his head up. He makes it sound like a lot of the problems lie at her door.
She contemplates her part in the failure of their marriage after the blast. Dan shows up to see her and they have the requisite make-up stuff. And then they talk some. They claimed they loved each other so much and that he really wasn't ready to be married. The man is 35. Don't you think she would have seen some of these things before they got married; Dan's whole drive to be an actor, wouldn't he have had some sort of part in all those years before their marriage? Couldn't he have grown and still not betrayed her the way he did? How can she put that behind her like that? It was one thing that he has the fling but to come home and say that to her and then expect her to forget it and get back with him. Dan thinks that she should change who she is and has been for 30 years but ignore what he had said to her three years ago about her abilities in bed. That was just amazing! For three years she has lived with what he told her. How does she know this didn't affect her decision on not marrying Tim at the beginning of the book? I think the book would have been better if she had settled things with Dan but went back to marry Tim instead. There really didn't seem to be any love between Jessica and Dan but I liked the whole mystery of her identity so it was a three star read. Now if the book could have been rewritten where Dan didn't get back with Jessica then I would give it a five star!

I strongly suggest you not read this book if infidelities in a "romance-mystery" novels bother you ( I wasn't aware of this until I got the book). If you're unable to fully appreciate a great story for this reason, then I suggest you pass on this.

However, because this author is truly talented, I feel she deserves 4 stars regardless of the irritating plot device, and this coming from someone who read this book being mostly annoyed.

This is a love story about a divorced couple, who come together after 3 years apart to find the heroines true identity. This is the mystery part of the story, the best part of the book.... who really is Jessica, and who were her real parents and how/why did she end up in the car that killed the couple who were in the car with her....

And the love story: They were married for 2 years, and within those 2 years, the heroine supported them while the hero dreamed of being an actor, lost auditions, spent the rent money SHE made so he could buy a plane tickets behind her back so he could fly to LA to audition...In a word, he was a failure, incompetent jerk, who was unfaithful, which all led to the heroine divorcing him. Heroine was Ms Perfect, emotions always hidden... this made the hero feel more of a failure...

The bad:
Once a cheater always a cheater, and cheaters who justify their behaviors and tries to spread their mistakes and bad judgments are the worst kinds. A woman who takes back a cheater, is setting herself up for more pain. I know in the real world things aren't this black and white but do I want to sit around reading about this in a romance novel? No. And if the author tries to use this device in a romance novel, I wish they would at least make the hero's grovel some. In this book, the reasoning was mind boggling...the heroine forgiving him, just like that....then jumping into the sack...just like that...then HEA...just like that was too pact...

All in all, the book was good, the mystery was complex, and beautifully written. I just wish the book had a different heroine/hero. Heroine with a backbone, a hero who truly was one...I think I would've given this book 5 stars.

This was the third book I've read from Jasmine Cresswell and once again I was not disappointed. It's romance, intrigue, suspense all wrapped into one. If you haven't read any of her other books, definitely pick this one up and then pick up her other books (The Conspiracy, The Refuge, etc.), you won't be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down. All the characters were great, but I really liked Constance and Dr. Powell. You will not regret buying this one