Review: Ring of Lies by Rachel Lynne

Ring of Lies by Rachel Lynne

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Rating: 2

Blurb

Jewel of the Night Series

A café owner and an ex-cop must unravel the mystery surrounding a hot blue diamond in order to stop a cold blooded killer.

After a childhood lived on the road with a free-spirited aunt, all café owner Ivy Michaels wants is a normal and uneventful life, but when her aunt is found floating in the Savannah River, Ivy inherits an heirloom blue diamond and a killer bent on keeping the past buried.

Dom Riordan is an ex-cop obsessed with finding his mother's killer. A chance meeting, and a glimpse of evidence he's been seeking, convinces him that Ivy Michaels is the key to solving the crime. Dom devises a plan to date Ivy and ferret out the truth but he didn't count on losing his heart. As a ruthless killer closes in on Ivy, Dom will risk everything to keep her safe.


Claudette's Review

Ivy Michaels meets handsome security expert and ex cop Dominic Riordan right after her Aunt Fey is murdered. It’s a very intense time for Ivy because she is also opening her restaurant and her aunt was all the family she had. But she does have her best friend Tina who also works in her restaurant and her Godfather, James Brogan who’s always been there for her; and made her dream of owning her own restaurant a reality.
Dominic Riordan can’t get over the fact that the woman he’s attracted to is Senator James Brogan’s mistress. Not just because she’s almost young enough to be Brogan’s granddaughter but because she’s wearing a diamond that he last saw on his mother’s finger the night she was murdered. Dom hates Brogan and knows that he’s dishonest but so far Brogan’s used his political power to avoid investigation. He knows that Brogan is involved with his mother’s unsolved murder, and both the diamond and Ivy Michaels are the means to finally prove it.

As Dominic starts getting emotionally involved with Ivy, she becomes less and less, the means to an end and something much more important. Ivy is no fool, her aunt had a succession of boyfriends and Ivy is not the kind of woman to be accepting about being used or be happy in a relationship that’s based on deceit.

Though Dominic starts off intending to use Ivy he’s soon caught in his own trap, torn between solving his mother’s murder, making Brogan pay and praying that Ivy will be understanding of his actions and believe that he truly loves her. Dominic is a likable character who does something stupid. To his mind he rationalizes his actions, likening it to working undercover. If Ivy was Brogan’s mistress then she must be as dishonest as he is. Then he gets to know Ivy and finds that the honesty and openness he sees in her isn’t an act. James Brogan has never allowed Ivy to see beyond his charming generous persona. It’s the same persona he shows daily as a politician. But once Dominic comes into her life, he represents a safe haven because soon her life is threatened. But with the secrets and lies between them and her hurt and anger, she doesn’t know if she should trust him.

In this enjoyable romantic thriller, Ivy reacts in a very believable way when she finds out that Dominic is investigating her godfather. She doesn’t cry, then fall into Dominic’s arms and say ‘all is forgiven’. And the fact that Ivy is slow to believe Brogan’s duplicity is really more about the fact that has never shown her his true face and not because she’s naïve.

This is a well written thriller, a perfect piece of escapism!

3 Tea Cups!