This was the second Tami Hoag book I read. The first was a Silhouette romance novel (one of my mom's...I was home for the weekend and needed something fluffy to keep me busy). It was called Mismatch. And it's a logical progression from that to Dark Paradise.

I really enjoyed the book. First off, any heroine who listens to Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter is okay by me. And Marilee Jennings proves to be quite the gutsy chick. Here's a heroine I can identify with!

Marilee was a court reporter until several days before the novel starts. She has chucked it all, and is now traveling from California to visit her friend Lucy (also a former court reporter) who moved to Montana after inheriting some money.

Things don't quite go as planned. She arrives at Lucy's beautiful country home to find her friend missing, and obnoxious cowboy J.D. Rafferty there tending to the stock. The chemistry is powerful and immediate. They hate each other. But isn't that the way a great story goes? 500 pages of "how are they finally going to get together?"

J.D had a history with Lucy. She was an outsider, but they had a fling. And now he can't work past the opinion that "Mary Lee" (he can't quite the pronunciation right) is another outsider--- set on taking his land and changing his family's way of life.

Marilee's mission becomes clear to her. When she finds out that Lucy was shot by a hunter (who mistook her for an elk...shah right!), she is determined to find out the details. And those details convince her that something very DEFINITELY stinks in New Eden, Montana.

Hoag's way of weaving a story is wonderfully vivid. You can really picture Big Sky Country, and you can visualize the interesting and eccentric characters that inhabit New Eden: J.D's brother Will who has a weakness for gambling and pretty ladies; Will's wife Sam who only wants to be loved; Nora the sassy diner waitress; Clyde, the recalcitrant mule; Kevin and Drew, the cultured gays who run the town's Mystic Moose lodge; Miller Daggrepont ("Shamu in cowboy boots"), the lawyer who provides her friend's ashes stored in a Mr. Peanut tin; and doubting sheriff Dan Quinn, among others.

Most of all, the twisted villains: (no..I'm not giving anything away-- you get dual perspectives throughout the book that signal their wrongdoing before Marilee knows it) Evan Bryce, disgustingly rich newcomer, and his twisted cousin, Sharon Russell.

Eventually, the story leads to a fantastic climax, and Marilee and J.D are united. But there is a little twist in between.

Check out this wonderful transition for Tami Hoag from straight romances to more of a Mary Higgins Clark vein. This is meaty stuff. An easy and page-turning read.


Recommended: Yes