Secret Seduction by Susan Napier (HP 2135)

Reviewed by ellysoar on August 21st, 2008, 10:35pm

by Susan Napier

Format: Print Books

Series: Harlequin Presents

Nina Dowling isn't a fan of thunderstorms, but when she sees a tree branch crash land on a stranger's head she braves the storm to get him to safety. Unfortunately they are on Shearwater Island (too small for even a private practise doctor!) and rescue helicopters are sure to be grounded in the storm, even if Nina did have a phone. Fortunately, Ryan Flint seems to just have a mild concussion – well that and not even being able to remember his first name. Fortunately, Nina's landlord's dog Zorro is able to fetch a neighboring psychiatrist to dispense some advice and stitches. Nina has a form of amnesia herself, being unable to remember a certain 2 year period following the death of her grandmother and before she appeared on the island – and little does she know Ryan is faking his amnesia as he's actually her husband finally able to track her down after she fled with his money 9 months earlier.

I really wish Susan Napier's editor had suggested she add a prologue as there is some excellent foreshadowing and unexplained emotional tension here that really works better on the second and subsequent readings once you know what's really happened in Nina's past. [On first read this was one of my least favorite (maybe even the least favorite) of Susan Napier's books (I even gave it away to a friends of the library sale the first time!) but really it has some amazing emotional depth and never fails to make me cry.] For example, having that backstory makes a revelation of this otherwise baffling passage when Nina first sees Ryan: "There was nothing familiar about him. Nothing at all. The contraction in Nina's chest increased, her breath squeezing painfully through her lungs as she was stricken by a nameless terror." - I guess there must be many readers out there sharper than me or more into gothic sorts of situations for whom maybe this really does work better without that glimpse of a prologue I would recommend, but not me.

Anyway, all that aside, the amnesia issues (not a favorite plot of mine) are well handled with Ryan eventually admitting to faking (he's told the doctor) and Nina having dissociative amnesia from the pain of the past rather than any head injury she might've sustained when she fell on the ferry coming to the island (she avoided seeing a doctor – maybe because she always knew it wasn't real). Ryan's emotional bond to Nina and the trauma he's been put through is vividly emphasized throughout the book, and despite fearing the worst when Nina ran off with his money, theirs has been a fully monogamous marriage. One thing I like in particular about this book, once you get the whole story, is that you sort of realize Nina and Ryan's story could've been written as just another one of those lovers get pregnant and married but does he really love her and will she admit she loves him truly sorts of things, but it wasn't and it's much more powerful this way.