UNSPEAKABLE (Deadly Secrets #4) by Elisabeth Naughton-Review, Excerpt and Giveaway
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 20, 2018
All his siblings have moved on from their troubling pasts, but Rusty McClane can’t leave his behind. Not even when his freedom is in jeopardy.
Legal investigator Harper Blake can sense a bad boy. She’s drawn to them—like she is to her mysterious and brooding new client. The police believe that Rusty is involved with the case of a missing underage girl. Harper’s job is to find evidence to defend him. But is her sexy suspect a predator…or something else?
If Rusty is guilty of anything, it’s of stirring something primitive in Harper. The closer they get, the harder it is to believe the worst of him.
But in an underworld filled with sex trafficking, kidnapping, and murder, Harper will need to be cautious about whom she trusts. Because Rusty isn’t the only one with secrets.
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REVIEW:UNSPEAKABLE is the fourth instalment in Elisabeth Naughton’s contemporary, adult DEADLY SECRETS romantic suspense series focusing on the four adopted McClane siblings (Ethan, Alex, Kelsey, Rusty). This is vintner and vigilante Russell ‘Rusty’ McClane, and legal investigator Harper Blake’s story line. UNSPEAKABLE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.
Told from several third person perspectives (Rusty and Harper) UNSPEAKABLE follows vintner Russell ‘Rusty’ McClane, and legal investigator Harper Blake as they cross paths investigating a potential human trafficking ring with possible connections to a number of murdered and missing sex workers and strippers in and around the Portland, Oregon area. When Russell is ID’d as a possible suspect in the disappearance of an underage stripper, former police officer turned legal investigator Harper Blake believes Russell is hiding more than meets the eye. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Harper and Rusty, as our leading couple work together to uncover and reveal the truth.
Rusty McClane has devoted his life to protecting those unable to protect themselves. A past mired in darkness and loss, Rusty specializes in locating the missing and lost- a one man operation determined to avenge for sins of the past. Former police officer Harper Blake has never met a man like Rusty McClane but Harper suspects Rusty is not whom the police report him to be. There is something about our hero that draws Harper like a moth to a flame, a flame that burns hotter with every encounter.
The relationship between Harper and Rusty is one of immediate attraction but Rusty is the Portland PD’s current suspect in a rash of missing under-aged girls, and for all intents and purposes is off limits. Working together Rusty will reveal the truth behind his vigilante tactics, as Harper slowly falls for the man before her eyes. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including all of Rusty’s siblings: Ethan and Samantha (Repressed #1), Alex and Raegan (Gone #2), Kelsey and Hunter (Protected #3), as well as youngest brother Thomas, their parents Hannah and Michael McClane; Harper’s boss Andrew Renwick, detectives Brett Callahan, and Noah Pierce. The requisite evil has many faces, some familiar to both of our leading couple. I am not sure if the author has plans for Thomas-he is a senior in high school, and his story would require an advance of several years in the series.
UNSPEAKABLE is a story of family, betrayal, vengeance and love. The fast paced premise is intriguing and intelligent; the characters are spirited and dynamic; the romance is provocative and edgy. UNSPEAKABLE is an engaging and intense story of mystery wherein two people are pulled together by the seedy underbelly of the human sex trade.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Repressed
Gone
Protected
Unspeakable
Copy supplied by Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
Harper’s warm breath sent tingles all along his neck, but he fought from shivering. Fought from pulling her in closer as well. “Yeah. This party is a cover for it. Only a handful of the richest men here will be escorted down to the auction.”
“It’s somewhere in the back?”
“Supposedly.”
“Sick.”
They were. Rusty glanced around the dimly lit room, checking masked faces for any he recognized. He didn’t see any.
“Do you think she’s being held back there?”
“That’d be my guess. Probably in a lower level.”
“I came in through a lower level. There was a corridor with several locked doors, but I didn’t get a chance to check any.”
For the first time, he realized she’d come in through a side door, not the elevator he had used. “How did you get in here anyway?”
“The tunnels.”
He drew back just enough to look down at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
She shook her head. “A friend at the city got me a blueprint. From there I just had to jimmy a lock into the boiler room.”
“Jimmy a lock,” he muttered, looking over her head. “I don’t know many girls who can do that. And I know even fewer who’d go into those tunnels alone.”
“Well, I’m not a normal girl.”
“No kidding.”
A smug little smile curled the edges of her lips. One he liked too damn much.
They swayed to the music for several more minutes, neither speaking, and neither making any move to pull apart. And damn but she felt good. It’d been so long since he was this close to a woman he was attracted to, he’d nearly forgotten how great it could feel.
“So our plan is to blend in with the crowd back there, sneak off and find the girl, then what? How were you planning to get her out of here?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
She drew back and looked up at him with surprise. “Seriously? That’s how people get caught.”
“I was planning to wing it.”
She laughed and slid in close again. “I don’t know many guys who could wing that. And I know even fewer who would risk their life for someone they don’t even know.”
“Yeah, well. I’m not like most guys.”
She drew back and looked up at him again, only this time there was no surprise in her eyes. Only warmth. A warmth that lit off a host of butterflies in his stomach. “I know. You’re Robin Hood. I’m still not sure how or why, but I am sure if you’d told me that from the start, I wouldn’t have screwed up your plans the other night. I also wouldn’t have been so rude.”
Shock hit him. That she knew who he was. That she was basically apologizing. But it was overridden by a heat that spread all through his body, making him hot, making him crave things he shouldn’t be craving. “You weren’t that bad.”
“Oh please.” She rolled her eyes and pursed her lips in such an adorable way he itched to kiss the sarcastic expression from her face. “You thought I was a crazed man-hater when we met.”
“Well . . . maybe not crazed.”
She laughed and smacked her clutch against his shoulder. “Careful, buddy.”
His lips twisted into a smile—the first full smile he could remember feeling in months—no, years. “Hey, watch it. That kind of stuff’s restricted to the back rooms.”
Her eyes widened just a touch. “Please tell me that is not what’s back there. A little raunchiness I can handle, but the whole BDSM thing is not my scene.”
A laugh tumbled from his lips—something else he hadn’t done in years. “I think you’re safe. BDSM night is on Thursdays.”
She sent him another of those adorable little frowns. “You’d better be joking.”
He was. And damn, but it felt good to have something to joke about.
She sighed and relaxed against him as they swayed a little more, each growing more comfortable against each other. After several bars of the music, she said, “So we find the girl and make for the tunnels.”
“Yeah.” It was as good a plan as any. But he suddenly wasn’t ready to put it into motion. He wanted to stay here, doing just this a little while longer.
“I guess we should probably get on with it, then.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yeah, I guess so.”
Neither made any move to pull away.
“McClane?”
“Rusty.”
“Rusty,” she repeated with a warmth in her voice that told him she liked saying his name. “I was wrong about you. I’m not usually wrong about people, but I’m not above admitting my faults. Whatever happens back there, I just want you to know that I’ve got your back.”
Before topping multiple bestseller lists—including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal—Elisabeth Naughton taught middle school science. A voracious reader, she soon discovered she had a knack for creating stories with a chemistry of their own. The spark turned into a flame, and Naughton now writes full-time. Besides topping bestseller lists, her books have been nominated for some of the industry’s most prestigious awards, such as the RITA® and Golden Heart Awards from Romance Writers of America, the Australian Romance Reader Awards, and the Golden Leaf Award. When not dreaming up new stories, Naughton can be found spending time with her husband and three children in their western Oregon home.
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