Review – Endless Night by Maureen Miller

Publisher: Carina Press
Publish Date: April 13th
How I got this book: NetGalley

A woman hiding from her identity. A man trying to find his.
After witnessing a murder, Megan Summers ran until she reached the remote coastal village of Victory Cove. She has a new name, but she knows it’ s only a matter of time before the murderer catches up with her.

Jake Grogan has come to town to unravel the mystery of his heritage. Instead of finding his grandmother at Wakefield House, he discovers an attractive stranger who will do anything to get him off her doorstep. Trapped by a storm, he’ s forced to stay the night with Megan—a woman who keeps a handgun under her bed and closes herself off from the outside world.

Jake tries to dig deeper into his past, but he’ s distracted by his fear for Megan’ s safety and his growing feelings for her. Danger is drawing near and he’ ll do anything to keep her safe. Will it be enough to help them survive the endless night?
*Blurb from Goodreads*

This review is difficult for me to write. I wanted to like this book, I really did. Romantic Suspense has quickly become one of my favorite genres within the past six months, and some of my favorite reads from 2010 and 2011 are suspense books. When I saw this one up for review from Carina Press, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it, but was disappointed with the results.

Megan is on the run and hiding from her former boss and the man she watched pull the trigger on another man. She rented a house in a small town, far off the beaten path in an attempt to stay hidden. When Jake comes knocking looking for answers about his birth mother and family, Megan finds herself in a precarious situation; not knowing if she should trust him, but being seriously attracted to the handsome stranger.

After some tense and awkward situations, the two reach an understand and even start to form the bonds of friendship. When a large storm hits the area and the two are trapped in Megan’s house together, the excitement of danger and their building passion ignite into a bigger storm than either expected.

I really enjoyed the premise of the book, and think the story could have been amazing, but there were some things I just couldn’t get past. The characters really didn’t work for me. I felt that although Megan was so strong to live through what she did, she didn’t really come alive for me throughout the story. Jake was even harder to relate to. I got his need to find out about his family, but he never once struck me as the heroic type that he was portrayed as in the story.

The biggest turn off for me was the actual writing of the book. Everything was so incredibly descriptive that it somewhat bogged down the story. When I have to really concentrate on the prose, try to figure out what the metaphors really mean, it takes away the enjoyment of the story for me.

I almost put this book down plenty of times,  but the suspense plot was something that I just didn’t want to miss, couldn’t give up on without finding out WHY Megan was a witness to a murder. So, I found myself skimming through the last half of the book, just to get the full picture. In the end, the suspense subplot didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, mainly because the crime that lead to the murders wasn’t something that I’d ever heard of before, or can imagine actually happening.

All in all, I just found that this did not work for me. I give Endless Night a D-