Title: Midnight Secrets
Series: Wildefire book 1
Author: Ella Grace
Genre: Romantic Suspense
AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT, THE HEAT BEGINS
On a hot southern night, with a storm on the horizon, a family is shattered. Three beautiful daughters—Savannah, Samantha, and Sabrina Wilde—go on with their lives, each significantly changed, as they bear the memory of the murder-suicide that killed their parents. For years, they have stayed away from Midnight, Alabama. Until Midnight calls them home.
Savannah is the first one back, when a grueling case in Nashville leads the young prosecutor to seek shelter in the quiet of the once grand Wilde mansion. But when she finds letters casting doubt on her family’s dark, shameful past, she realizes that peace in Midnight is a shallow façade and sinister secrets lurk beneath the surface. Zach Tanner, once the town’s bad boy, is now the new police chief and still has a wild hold over her. Zach can feel it, too, but he hurt Savannah once. As teenagers, they broke every rule together. Now it’s his job to keep her safe, even though he isn’t sure who her enemies are—or which ones might be his own.
I discovered that Ella Grace is a pseudonym for established author Christy Reece. Whether writing as Christy or Ella this is a new to me author and I really enjoyed her writing style. She drew me in from the beginning and hooked me by making me fall for the parents and their obvious love for each other (I refuse to believe theirs was a murder-suicide!). Then I fell for the orphaned triplets/sisters who were taken in and by a grandfather whose world now revolves around his son’s children. And Zach ***sighhhh*** he made my heart beat faster and remember all those unrequited high school crushes that were so long ago…
Savannah is the quiet and shyest of the triplets. Focused and ready to head to law school she has a thing for the bad-boy in town, Zach Tanner. Her knight in shining armor comes to her rescue at the senior prom and theirs is a quick and spontaneous romance that is doomed from the beginning. He’s from the wrong side of the tracks and going into the army and she is headed to law school. Jump ahead 10 years and their relationship has not survived the separation. Savannah is back in Midnight for a short time. She needs to close the house up following the death of their beloved grandfather and she needs some time off from her job as an ADA in Nashville. Zach is back in Midnight as the towns chief of police and when the two see each other again the attraction is still there.
This being the first book in the series there is a lot of back story to fill in. The sisters and their relationship with each other, the towns-people and their relationship to the girl’s parents and Zach’s ne’r-do-well mother, Savannah and Zach’s life in the time that they were apart… this made for a story that flowed well and was fast paced. Ella Grace kept me on the edge of my seat: will the murder-suicide of the parents be solved in the first book? What secret is Savannah afraid to share with Zach? What made Zach cut contact with Savannah? And why is Samantha acting so strange?? Ohhh the angst!!!
My biggest complaint is that I have to wait 3 more months for Samantha’s story!! The next installment comes in September and I will be the first in line!
Grade: A
