Customer Reviews

Shadows of Yesterday

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I love Sandra Brown's early books. No, they don't require a lot of thought, they stay on the story line without twists or melodrama, the heros are likeable, the romance is hot, the story line is original, and they are a quick enjoyable evening or afternoon read.
In this story we have Leigh Branson, a young pregnant widow who, eight months ago, had lost her husband Greg-a narcotics agent shot on a raid. Leigh insists never again will she fall for a guy who works such a risky job. Leigh goes into labour while driving and pulls over on the highway. Meet Chad Dillon, our handsome hero who pulls his truck over to the side to help deliver the baby. But Chad too has a dangerous job. And so the story rolls as attraction and love win the day. Fun read.

It started out very exciting of course with a woman alone on a road giving birth. It dragged a little after that, but certainly picked right back up.

I really enjoyed the love story between the two main characters. I thought it was believable to a certain extent. I mean don't all of us single Mom's dream of meeting a gorgeous man who just happens to be completely loaded and move into his enormous house and drive his Ferarri???

There are times you want to have to think and figure things out when reading and then there are times you want to just sit back and enjoy a sweet romance. This is one of the books. I really enjoyed it. Leigh is a widow, pregnant, and traveling by herself when she goes into labor. Unable to go any further, she pulls over on the side of the road wondering what was going to happen next. Chad headed back to town after being on his day off from work & mechanicing on his airplane sees a woman in a car pulled over on the side of the road. He realizes she is in need when he approaches the car and sees her having contractions behind the steering wheel. He takes over from there to move her to the back of the truck and helps deliver Sarah, the baby girl. Love at first sight. After getting Leigh and Sarah to the hospital, Chad delivers a dozen roses to her room, sees that her parents are called to come, says goodbye with a fast by strong kiss- only to show up on her doorstep 4 months later to see how mother and baby are doing and to see if he can capture their hearts. Boy, do sparks start to fly! Both characters are extremely likable. Sweet, sweet story!

When a book this bad bears Sandra Brown's name, my first thought is, "Wow. Talk about multi-tasking! Writing a novel while having a phone conversation and working a crossword puzzle must have been hard."
My second thought is "Naptime!"

The opening chapter shows promise: a young widow goes into labor on an abandoned desert highwsay and is rescued by a handsome stranger.

The fact that he has a tough time repressing thoughts of sexual desire for a woman who's in labor is a teensy bit wierd, but maybe that's just me.

More intriguing is the question of why Leigh is driving alone, in this isolated environment, so near her due date, in the era before cell phones. What is she running from? What dark secret will her rescuer discover?

Relax. She's not running from anything. She's returning home from a wedding shower, alone, in the desert, with no way to contact anyone in an emergency, eight-and-one-half months into her first pregnancy. Oops! Now she's in labor.

If Leigh has a dark secret, it's that she's about as sharp as a pound of wet leather.*

Hunky widower Chad delivers Leigh's baby in the back of his pickup truck. After that, the plot is as exhausted as the mom. What happens during the remaining 95% of the book is...

(CAUTION: SPOILER)






...nothing.

That's right, pretty much nothing happens. The sole source of tension is Leigh's reluctance to commit to a man who has a dangerous job. Why he would want a commitment from a woman like Leigh remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the romance genre.

My best guess is that Leigh is the only woman Chad knows who lactates on the second date.

If that's not what has him so obsessed that he puts up with Leigh's passive-aggressive whining, I can't even hazard a guess. Aside from her breasts, which must be truly spectacular, Leigh's other memorable traits are a blank space where her sense of humor should be, and an inability to hear tragic revelations from Chad's past without throwing a temper fit because he didn't tell her sooner. She's the person for whom they invented the phrase, "It's all about me."

About halfway through "Shadows of Yesterday," I accepted that the plot twist I was hoping for wasn't likely to happen. If this plot developed a single wrinkle, Leigh would iron it.

So why did I stick around until the end? I blame Hurricane Wilma.

Reading by flashlight stops being fun after the first few nights of a power outage. So before Wilma arrived, I stocked up on Walkman batteries and books on CD. "Shadows of Yesterday" was the one I started on day 8 of a 10-day power outage. I'd have listened to the unabridged description of grass growing.

FYI, if you enjoy audio books during long car trips or extended power outages, there are some great selections in romantic suspense by Sandra Brown, Linda Howard and Karen Robards. The actor who reads Brown's "White Hot," Victor Slezak, adds a substantial amount of heat to an already sizzling novel.

I can promise you won't fall asleep listening to "White Hot," "Chill Factor" or the less substantial but still enjoyable "Demon Rumm." For insomnia, stick with "Shadows of Yesterday." If nothing else, you can use the CDs as coasters.

*Quoted courtesy of Foghorn Leghorn.

The beginning of the novel was interesting--a stranded woman on a side of a Texas country road giving birth to a baby with only the help of a stranger who happens to be rather cute, and she never sees him again... until some time later. I felt that toward the end (20 bucks says you can guess), the storyline started to get a little sappy, but hey, after awhile you start to expect that in romances.

A good book for a quick romantic escape if the reader isn't looking for something too deep, nor true to real life. Yes, Chad wasn't upfront with Leigh about his wealth and his line of work, but it's understandable that he was being gentle and going slow with this new love and didn't want to scare her off. And Leigh was too skittish and could have avoided a lot of conflict with open communication rather than stewing anger and running away, but again, it's understandable considering her personal history. Despite these flaws, they were still quite likeable characters, and the reader is drawn into an emotional connection with them. I found myself wishing they were my friends, and cheering them on, hoping they'd find a way to work out their differences and make a life together.

SHADOWS of Yesterday,
Can best be define as a very,favorful READ!
Perfect for those days when you ONLY want
a short,sweet & sassy taste of Romance on your tongue. Mmmm...nice!

This book is so well written that you find yourself in love with the very handsome, wonderful chad dillon. I hated to see the book end. A basic plot and basic story line but a heart tugging escape, for sure.

I prefer Sandra Brown's romantic-suspenses over the straight romance. But now and then I choose a romance for a light read. I really enjoyed the characters and the story in this book. They were interesting and believable.

Previously, Adams Fall was my favorite by Sandra Brown. I've read all the negative comments about Shadows of Yesterday, but for me, it has been a joy. The humor, love, hot sex--, so many many human interest pages. Family living and loving. I do audio. This will be a definite relisten. The voiceovers are wonderful--Chad is an absolute 'dream'.

It may be an 'oldie' but it's a 'goodie'.