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Book Review of In The Night

In The Night
In The Night
Author: Kathryn Smith
Genre: Romance
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 503 more book reviews


In this third installment of the series about the Ryland brothers, we learn about Wynthrope, the second oldest and "spare". He's got an embarrassing and dangerous past that comes back to haunt him when he's wooing the only woman who has ever seen through his caustic demeanor. Moira, his foil, is a widow who had married a friend rather than a lover in order to escape her difficult family.

The couple is well matched, their chemistry is smokin', and you think this is going to be a very sexy novel. Instead it gets bogged down in the tension caused by his lies to her and him hurting her emotionally. The couple is then estranged for a good half of the book with lots of internal dialogue and little interaction between the lovers. It felt like Kathryn Smith really lost her way with this story.

Another disappointment was that compared to the first two books in the series, there is not much heat. There was a great deal of buildup in the beginning, but during that long interlude of separation in the second half of the book, there is no steam, nothing sexy happening at all.

About halfway through, the pacing was too slow and the romantic tension weak (as opposed to emotional angst) and the book felt like it would never end and maybe you didn't care so much anyhow.

I'm not sure I can recommend except that you get to know Brahm a bit better as a setup for the next book.