Review: Up Close - Henriette Gyland

How close is too close? Dr Lia Thompson has swapped her native Norfolk for a life in America, but returns to sort out legal matters after her grandmother's death. Unprepared for the viciousness of village gossip, she's vulnerable to insinuations that her grandmother knew something about the recent bomb threats against a nearby army base. Even so the longer she stays, the more she realises this is where she belongs.

Wounded ex-navy man and artist Aidan Morrell has accepted his physical scars, but is still bitter over the army's treatment of his older brother, which had a devastating effect. He expresses himself in his sometimes disturbing paintings and through scuba-diving, and sees Lia with her fear of water as a challenge. The attraction between them is undeniable. Should they dare to let the other get close?

My thoughts:

I kept wondering and wondering, yes this book brought me quite the mystery to solve.

Lia is a doctor who comes to Norfolk to settle her grandmother's estate as her mother refuses too. Yes drama at the beginning. Lia is smart, sensible, but with a few issues from her past.

Norfolk is painted as harsh, those who live there, well live there, they know the land. But it fits well with the story, because something is going on. Someone was watching Lia's grandmother, and did someone kill her? That is the mystery. Because strange things keep on happening while Lia stays there.

There is also a friendship that slowly builds, a friendship that might or might not lead to romance. Aidan has his own issues from the war, and there is secrets he is keeping too. Those I did figure out..after a while. I also liked how their story was built, there was friendship and something that could be more. It was real.

The mystery was good, so many questions and so many different roads to take.

Conclusion:

A good suspense novel, with a hint of romance.

Genre: Women's fiction, suspense, mystery
Pages: 369
Published: Dec 7th 2012 by Choc Lit

US Kindle / UK