Suddenly One Summer

May 11, 2009
Freethy (Silent Run
) launches the Angel's Bay paranormal romance series with this atmospheric but slow-moving and formulaic tale. Angel's Bay, Calif., swirls with secrets, hidden identities, regrets and belief in angels. Reporter Reid Tanner arrives to discredit a video of angel sightings, but gets distracted by newcomer Jenna Davies's determination to avoid publicity after she rescues a suicidal pregnant girl. Meanwhile, mysterious symbols appearing on a cliff, invisible assisting hands and flashbacks to previous lives suggest that the town's legendary guardian angels are real. Numerous secondary characters (perhaps aimed at future books) crowd Jenna and Reid, and Freethy's nicely descriptive prose wraps them in a pleasant quilt of intrigue, despite their lack of chemistry.