On our typical Friday night date night, my fiancee and I went to dinner, Best Buy for a movie for him, and Barnes and Noble for a few new reads for me. With the belly continually bulging, I went for a few (more) books on pregnancy and new babies, but also had to cave to my desires of some good ole' fashioned escape fiction, after recently finishing a couple historical non-fiction finds. I opted for True Confessions for the same reason I opt for any other escape fiction: The cover was pretty in pinks and yellows, and when looking for a retreat, aesthetics sells.
I read the book in about a day and a half. I loved the premise, cliche as it was, a small town shaken up by the arrival of the big city's Hope Spencer, a writer cloaked in mystery, who keeps running into the small town's Sheriff, Dylan Taber, also cloaked in his own mystery. And thrown in the mix, the house she's rented was once home to the old Sheriff, who committed suicide inside the house under mysterious circumstances. The book had potential.
Now, let me clarify something. While I say I needed "escape fiction", I don't necessarily mean I'm a sucker for the "throbbing members" or "supple breasts" repeated over and over in romantic novels. I like a little bit of romance, but am more interested in the twists and turns the story takes. True Confessions had all the mystery, lies, and S&M secrets to lead one to think it was going that direction, but about halfway through the novel, I could see that was not the case. There was a lot of the above mentioned verbiage that had me rolling my eyes, and skimming the pages until it was over. I know this is a great appealing quality in a romance to some, but not this gal. I was really hoping to see how the story with the old Sheriff would develop, what her research would uncover, but it turned out to be a very shallow sub-story thrown in the mix. No development, much like the characters.
All in all, it was a quick, fun read, which I guess is what I was looking for, but still left me wanting a little something more. Until I can find that perfect escape novel, I'll return for now to my Dr. Oz book on parenting, hoping it leaves me with a better feeling than Gibson's novel.
