Book Review: Dark Justice by Angela Smith
Media Type: eBook
Title: Dark Justice
Author: Angela Smith
Publisher: Independent
Pages: Paperback; 249
Release Date: September 17, 2019
Source: PUYB/Author
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Content Screening: Violence, descriptive death.
HDB Rating: 4*
Recommended to: Readers who enjoy a good redemption story.
Add it on: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
She’s in love with her sister’s killer…
Lauren has loved Luke since first grade. They planned to marry—until he murdered her sister. The moment he was sentenced to prison, Lauren fled with her secret baby and made a new life. Now she’ll do anything to keep their daughter safe. But her hard won peace shatters when Luke is exonerated, and it sets her on a path of mixed emotions to discover the truth. Letting a killer into their tightly knit family is out of the question. Or is it?
She almost destroys her life by threatening his…
Prison stole his future with Lauren and twelve years of Luke’s life, so the last thing he needs from her is a knife in the back or a gun in his face. Lauren believes he killed her sister, and he has no plans to pick up where they left off. Luke can’t afford to trust her, but he wants nothing more than to convince her he’s worth fighting for.
Their daughter is in danger…
Luke is heartbroken when he learns they had a child together. Now his daughter is in danger. Lauren trusted the wrong person for far too long, but he hopes she’ll now trust him. Luke will risk everything to keep them safe. And Lauren will risk everything if she lets him into her heart.
What a fantastic suspense story. This book is perfectly paced with all the right flashbacks at the right times. We get to know Luke and Lauren through their troubled past and again through their tumultuous future.
Having lost the last 12 years of his life to prison after being wrongly convicted by a corrupt system, all Luke wants to do is live his quiet life back home by the river. Lauren has spent the last 12 years convinced he killed her sister and feeling completely betrayed by the love of her life. When Luke is released, Lauren confronts him with all bad intentions.
There is so much to unpack about their history, I am thankful for the bits and pieces being filled in throughout the story. The love Luke and Lauren once shared had been tainted forever by this horrible crime. Having hid their child from him, Lauren is full of regrets and self doubt. She was a frustrating character at times, but very realistic and I enjoyed her character growth.
Luke’s character is all charm and very redeeming. He was dealt the shittiest hand in life and chose a path of forgiveness and meditation. It was nice to have a story that didn’t gloss over some of the problems of our prison/justice systems. There wasn’t unnecessary violence, but realistic stories about how things happen. You can tell the author is familiar with the situations she’s describing. Luke is the character you want to root for the whole time, and you hope he doesn’t turn out to be the bad guy all along.
While this book isn’t really a who-dun-it, there was plenty of suspense and lots of passion. The mixed emotions Lauren deals with in coming to terms with Luke’s innocence are not left unspoken. There is angst, regret, fear, and eventually love, protection, and fearlessness.
If you’re ready for a roller coaster of emotions, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of this book. My only complaint is that there were some very minor editing issues that were a bit distracting, but otherwise, a fabulous book.
