Series: Coltons of Shadow Creek (Book 7)
When his wife, Tess, died, tech mogul Jeremy Kincaid's perfect world broke apart. Their young son is the light of his life, but Jeremy can't shake suspicions that her death was no accident. Did presumed-dead Livia Colton orchestrate Tess's car accident? Jeremy risks everything by enlisting beautiful PI Adeline Winters to uncover the truth.
Adeline once served as Tess and Jeremy's egg donor and surrogate. Giving up her baby was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do, yet she can't turn down Jeremy's plea for help now. But Adeline and Jeremy must push aside their slow-burning attraction when kidnappers place the ultimate bargaining chip on the table: their son.
This was an okay read, not as good as most of the Colton books. Jeremy and his wife, Tess, had been unable to have children and used a surrogate and egg donor to have their son Jamie. Shortly after his birth, Tess died in a car accident, leaving Jeremy to raise their son alone. However, he is certain that Tess's death was no accident and that the missing-but-presumed-dead Livia Colton is responsible. Try as he might, he can't get law enforcement to investigate, so he goes to a private investigator for answers.
Adeline was a poor college student when she agreed to help Jeremy and Tess by being their surrogate, but giving up the baby was heartbreaking for her. Since then she finished her education and now runs a successful investigation business. She is surprised when Jeremy comes to her for help discovering the truth about Tess's death, but can't turn him down.
I liked Adeline. She is feisty, intelligent, and determined. I liked the way that, although she empathized with Jeremy's wish to believe Tess was murdered, she doesn't allow emotion to affect her investigation. She will only accept hard evidence to convince her. I also felt for her reluctance to spend much time with Jamie. It hurt enough to give him up the first time; getting to know him now and then leaving him again would be even worse.
I had a harder time liking Jeremy. As the book went on, his refusal to believe that the accident was just that, in spite of growing evidence, seemed to be more about his guilty feelings than an actual quest for justice. I also felt that he didn't really consider Adeline's feelings when he insisted that she spend time with Jamie. Again, it was more about his feelings than hers.
There was no doubt that there was an intense attraction between Adeline and Jeremy. I was a little disturbed by the fact that Jeremy had been drawn to Adeline during the pregnancy process while he was married to Tess. That leaned a bit further into infidelity than I was comfortable with. Now that Tess is gone, he's free to pursue the attraction, but there are also guilty feelings from his marriage that cause him to hold back his emotions. Adeline finds it easy to fall for the man who is the father of her baby but fears his interest is only that of providing a new mother for his son. I liked the way that Adeline stood up for her own needs at the end, forcing Jeremy to take an honest look at his own feelings.
The suspense of the story was good. Jeremy's conviction that Tess's accident was murder led him and Adeline to ask questions that gained them some unwanted attention. Adeline and Jeremy uncover some unexpected information about Tess and her past, linking her with Livia Colton, but is it enough for murder? When their investigation starts to get too close for someone's comfort, Jamie is kidnapped to get them to back off. Their race to save him before the kidnapper can carry out his plans is intense and had me on the edge of my seat as I read. The identity of the culprit wasn't too much of a surprise when it came to the final confrontation.
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