Killing Her Softly by Barb Warner Deane

Title: Killing Her Softly

Author: Barb Warner Deane

Publication Date: September 29, 2017

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Blurb:  Afraid for her life after spending ten years in an abusive marriage, Kate Finelli has to find the courage to get herself out when a surprise inheritance gives her a chance. When she calls the sheriff’s office, she hears the familiar voice Jack, the first man to show her love. Can Kate trust him to help her get away from the long-suffering abuse? She has to hide from her husband to stay alive.

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A former FBI agent, Jack returned to Harper’s Glen at the request of his dying friend, the town sheriff. Jack has been estranged from his family for years because his father never appreciated him as compared to his brothers and because Kate, the girl he fell in love with in high school, married one of those brothers. With strained family ties, Jack doesn’t plan on staying in this small town for long, until a panicked call comes in from Kate. He left when she chose his brother, but must stay to help her now.
 

With the backdrop of a murder investigation and threatening notes, Kate and Jack find each other again. Will the tension within their family keep them apart? Or will their struggle for safety bring them together after all these years?

Review: Killing Her Softly by Barb Warner Deane is a suspenseful, emotional rollercoaster that, all things considered, is really quite a lovely read.  It's not often that a romance novel begins in heart-breaking fashion, but somehow Killing Her Softly makes it work without turning me off the story completely (I mean, I don't read a romance novel to cry tears of sorrow...).  From there the story quickly moves from sadness to a more hopeful undertone, and then quickly dives straight into suspense, frustration, and danger.  

When we meet Kate for the first time we are introduced to a character who doesn't know her own strength.  She's fearful of her abusive husband and can hardly see a way out of her current life.  It was an emotionally charged journey to accompany her through her transformation of becoming a powerful woman who is more than capable of taking her future in her own hands and getting herself where she wants to be.  Every woman wants to be like Kate.  Every woman should be like Kate: courageous, intelligent, and someone who, when everything looks like it's going to shit, believes in herself.

Kate isn't the only one looking to change her future.  Jack arrives back in town still wrecked with grief following the death of his wife and dealing with his complex feelings regarding his troubled relationship with his family and his feelings for his sister-in-law.  It's clear from their first interactions with one another that there are deep-seated feelings that both he and Kate are battling.  I enjoyed getting the chance to watch their relationship with one another develop despite the stressful plot and the twists the author sees fit to through at the reader.

The relationship between these two characters is understandably complicated, which makes the romance that develops between them feel all the more real.  Rather than explosive passion and sweat-inducing sex scenes you will find in the pages of so many of the books I review here Killing Her Softly will introduce you to a gentle, heart-wrenching romance between two characters who have lost so much, but managed to keep one another.

This is a relatively short read, but it packs a wallop between the pages.  Lots of emotion, lots of danger, lots of love.  You can pre-order it now at The Wild Rose Press or Amazon.