Stephanie
Written on Feb 4, 2020
It's been years, dare I say a solid decade?, since I've picked up a series romance novel. So when I was approached by Harlequin to review a few of their offerings I thought "Why not?" this could be fun! I (probably like most young teens) first dipped my toes into the romance world with series romance and I remembered them as being nothing short of amazing. So I signed up for all three.
The first thing I noted was how different they look. I still have a few physical copies from back in the day in my TBR and these new cover designs look beautiful. They have a simple diamond design in the upper left corner that distinguishes between the lines. I'll be reviewing each of the three books over the next few Fridays.
I decided to start with the Harlequin Intrigue line. I was sent an eARC of Witness Protection Widow by Debra Webb. Intrigues were my favorite of the line up before and I've recently discovered Debra Webb through her Undertaker's Daughter series. Clearly I'm going need to go back and find Winchester, Tennessee books 1 through 4. I had no idea the little town had its own series romance series going!
I really enjoyed this book. I know I probably shouldn't sound so surprised but I was really under the impression that I had "grown out of" these books and that they wouldn't be as good as what I'm reading now. Kind of snobby aren't I? The good news is I think that now that I know they are just as good, I'll be digging into these little gems more often.
Witness Protection Widow was pretty good. I was already a little familiar with some of the cast and Winchester itself which added a nice touch. Ali and Jax were completely new to me. This is definitely a second chance romance but it isn't fluff at all. There were some serious things that happened between the end of their first romance and the time of our story.
I really enjoyed the characters and the concept. It could have easily been on an episode of Law & Order. I loved Ali for her strength and determination. Jax is a total alpha male and therefore thinks he knows all. I'd like to say it was nice to watch him learn that he doesn't but I'd be lying. It was devastating.
The only downside that I had was that the story wasn't as long as I would expect from such a large story. I'm having a hard time explaining this. It was fleshed out and a great story but it moved very quickly. That's great because the story never once got boring but I also didn't really feel like there was time to breath between it all.
Overall, this was a great read and I'll definitely be checking out the first four books in this series to see what I've missed!