Shattered by Anne Beck follows the story of Tessa Miller, a deputy US marshal with a troubled past, which has managed to bleed into her present. Tessa is distant and keeps a wall up at all times, only following orders from herself now that she had to take a leave of absence from work due to injury from a recent altercation. She flees back to her hometown in Oregon where her family still resides. It has been ten years since her last visit, despite her discomfort Tessa knows to move forward she must face the past once more. Perhaps facing her past demons will help her get over her current ones. While rediscovering herself, she finds herself lost in something she could never have imagined with someone she did not expect.

Shattered is an impassioned romantic thriller with a mysterious atmosphere that permeates this entire story. This was certainly a page-turner as author Anne Beck certainly knows how to end a chapter and leave readers wanting more. This is a character driven story that moves at a very fast pace, at times leaving me wanting to explore scenes and people just a bit more with more showing and less telling.

I was all set for a romance novel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find an intriguing mystery at the heart of this romance novel, and one that is as alluring as Logan is. Logan is tall dark and handsome, and the novel plays up the trope of the seductive romantic counterpart with entertaining effect. Both of these characters are intriguing and feel grounded, if not always relatable. What I really enjoyed was how emotive the characters were and how the writing really made their emotions palpable.

Shattered is a rousing romance novel that consistently delivers emotional suspense in every chapter and in some creative ways that kept me glued to the pages.

Pages: 200 | ASIN: B0794R3W7B