"Good writing and characters with chemistry"

Cari is getting married and her mother is the nightmare Mother-of-the-Bride. While shopping for her wedding dress, Cari begins to get the sense that everything is not as it should be. As she learns more about her fiancé and her family's secrets, her life starts to fall apart and she turns to Jake, a customer of her father's.

FAMILY SECRETS started off well. The writing was good and the characters were promising. Cari and Jake had chemistry, but I found that content issues caused some serious problems for me with this story as explained in the spoiler section below.

Rated Hard R by the publisher.

******** Spoilers ********

I have never thought of myself as particularly concerned about whether the characters discuss and/or use birth control in a story, but the lack of it here was a problem for me. There are consequences and Cari becomes pregnant, at which point she continues to drink alcohol, which really turned me off her character.

Reviewed by Kristine Kelly for Sensual Romance.

Reviewed by Sensual Romance
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted January 28, 2003

Summary

While selecting a wedding dress for her upcoming nuptials, Carissa Evans overhears her mother reveal a shocking family secret. Startled to learn the truth, Cari ends up turning to Jake Hall for comfort, an attractive, older man she barely knows...

Sexual Content: Hard R. Genre: contemporary.