Tracy’s review of Shh…Mine (This. Is. Not. Over) by Shannon Dianne
When Danielle Rouge was sixteen years old, fate sent her the love of her life … and the poor dear hadn’t a clue. Now, twelve years later, she finds herself on the outside of the hotel room that her husband, Jon, and his mistress are currently occupying. More insulted than devastated (after all, who wouldn’t want Danielle Rouge?), she runs away, if a grown woman can run away, and happens upon Malcolm Blair. Hmm … isn’t he that attorney The Boston Globe keeps raving about? Gorgeous, wealthy and available. Goodbye, Jon.
Malcolm Blair’s the smirking type, the politically connected type, the tap-your-phone-to-find-out-what-you’re-up-to type. He’s assisted fate in its quest to woo Danielle back to him and he believes he’s done a brilliant job. That is, until someone begins stalking Danielle, threatening to drive away the one woman he’s ever truly longed for. But no worries; he’ll fix this. After all, that’s what he does. He fixes things, no matter who has to suffer. He. Will. Fix. This.
Jon knows that Malcolm Blair is a Boston heavy hitter who is hell-bent on stealing his wife away from him. Those mysterious flowers Danielle receives on the first day of spring, those unsigned birthday cards she’s gotten for the past twelve years, all are from Malcolm Blair. The political powerhouse was aiming to seduce another man’s wife. Jon can prove it. He can prove it, win Danielle back and destroy Malcolm all at the same time. Just watch him.
When Danielle and Malcolm were in high school they met. Now Danielle didn’t realize who she was having conversations with as he was always behind her and it was night time, but it was Malcolm. He was sweet and after she had mentioned cherry blossoms in one conversation he sent her some…and kept sending them to her for the next 12 years.
Danielle went off to college and then got married to a man named Jon. Danielle really thinks Jon is and idiot but she loves him in her own pretentious kind of way. She wanted to marry a black man (she’s black as well) so she put up with a lot of his foibles throughout the years. When Jon decides he wants a divorce, however, Danielle is shocked and completely unhappy. Not that she wants Jon but what will all of her friends say when she gets a divorce after only 2 years of marriage? And they have a son together!
Malcolm has dated woman after woman over the years but he’s never been able to get his mind off Danielle who everyone called Red in high school (she’s has red hair). He knows she’s married but when he hears that she’s getting a divorce he gets his sister-in-law, who is friends with Danielle, to help get them in the same location so that he can finally make his move. Danielle is enjoying Malcolm’s company but when she finds out that Malcolm is her secret admirer it makes the circle complete.
Danielle and Malcolm can’t get enough of each other but it seems that someone else can’t get enough of Danielle. Not only does her ex-husband now want her back in a big way but she’s picked up a stalker along the way and she thinks she knows exactly who it is. Malcolm’s pretty sure that he knows who’s behind it all and he also has Danielle’s ex figured out. Hopefully he can keep her and everyone else safe while the mess is cleaned up.
Wow – what a tangled yet good book! The story was very readable and went by very quickly. I got sucked into everyone’s lives and just wanted more. The story was told in 1st person POV from the different characters. The author (on her Goodreads blog) said this about the writing style, “It’s Confessional Stream of Thought. This style aims to cut out the mundane, day-to-day fluff. It goes right into the character’s mind, at the ‘confessional’ moments or the most important moments of that person’s life. Much like a journal entry, the Catholic practice of Confession, and even therapy sessions.” I have to say that sometimes I found this a bit annoying and other times I was laughing my ass off as the side comments the characters were making.
Now, I didn’t particularly care for Danielle when the book first started. High school was fine but after she got married and the divorce part of it came about she was just a pretentious bitch. She was more worried about what everyone else would think and her actions annoyed the hell out of me. As the book went on she got better and after she met Malcolm she seemed to calm down and not worry so much about “image.”
Malcolm was a great guy. I honestly don’t think we got enough of his point of view and because of this I didn’t get to know him as well as I got to know Danielle and Jon. I felt like he genuinely liked Danielle. He didn’t know her that well as they’d been separated over the years but he made a point of going to any lectures or presentations that she gave over the years. He was mad for Danielle and that showed in the way he cared for her on a daily basis. I definitely want Malcolm and Danielle to be together when it comes down to it and I hope that happens in book two.
Jon was a bit of an enigma. We get Danielle’s POV on Jon, as well as her mother’s and that gave a bit of a peek into his life. He also talks to Danielle about what he wanted out of the marriage and from what he said I didn’t like him all that much. I got the feeling that while he loved PARTS of Danielle he didn’t appreciate her for who she was and when he decided he wanted her back it felt to me to be more of a I-don’t-want-her-but-I-don’t-want-anyone-else-to-have-her-either type thing. The fact that he spied on her to the extent he did, and he did spy, just creeped me out.
Overall I liked the book a lot. It was very different from other books I’ve read lately and while there’s a romance involved in the book I wouldn’t call this a romance. From the author it appears that book 2 is actually a continuation of book one but she published them separately for her own reasons. I recommend this book and chances are, if you read it, you’ll be as ready to read book two when it comes out as I am.
Rating: 4 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place
This title is self-published. You can buy it here in e-format. This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
