Review: Secret Desire

Reviewed by Shelly
 

I’m usually excited when I read about new (to me) authors and this was no different. When I read the blurb I immediately thought – oh yeah, this will be some sweet Young and the Restless drama. Well, I didn’t get what I was expecting.

I like twin stories as much as the next person, as there’s usually a bond that binds that most of us don’t understand, but we can still identify. This set of identical twins was the antithesis of that. Mild mannered staff writer by day and writer of erotica at night, Claire Robertson’s parents were killed in a car accident (that’s not a spoiler – it happens way too early to be one) and she’s the twin who’s left with going home to pick up the pieces.

Having left home years earlier, Claire is leery of returning because she still has a lot of feelings left for the boy next door, Dustin Murray. It turns out that Dustin dated her twin sister Fran while they were all still in high school and Claire has not forgiven either of them. Dustin has always regretted the decision he made to date Fran, because he’s always been in love with Claire. He’s determined that once Claire arrives home, she’s not leaving without him.

I’m not sure why, but I never felt vested in either Claire, Dustin or their relationship. Claire just came across as a bit of a whiner and she never seemed willing to stand up to either her sister, or even Dustin for that matte,r for the way they both hurt her with their teenage relationship. Dustin was an average guy who had the potential to be so much more. And of course, because there’s the twin relationship, the dynamic between Fran and Claire was really off and kinda weird, actually – talk about the bad seed -- Fran was a straight up bitch.

This story has so much potential, but I found that I had too many unanswered questions. Claire and Fran’s relationship was so fractured and heartbreaking. Fran’s selfish need for recognition, separate from her sister, came at the price of Claire’s peace which I didn’t understand at all, as no background information was offered from either sister to clue me in. The past relationship between Dustin and Fran wasn’t explained either, which left me really frustrated because I thought that let Fran off the hook. For as many pages that this book had, I was expecting more of a well-rounded story.

Happy Reading Folks!

Rating: C

*ARC provided by author for review 

Click to purchase: Amazon

Secret Desire

by Susan Taylor

Release Date: February 1, 2013

Publisher: Etopia Press