~REVIEW of Justine Davis' LEFT AT THE ALTAR~

 

.5

 

Opening Line:“Hospitals. He’d sworn once that he would never set foot in on again.”

Sean Holt was left (you guessed it) standing at the altar. Without so much as a backwards glance Aurora Sheridan (Rory) broke his heart and spirit without ever bothering to explain why. Instead a week later she just up and married another man and left town for good.

                      

Sean had once thought that losing his leg and a promising athletic career would be the worst pain he’d ever have to face. He was wrong. It took a year long binge of self pity and then another four years of hard work to get himself back together after Rory but he’s finally in a good place now, having started a successful business he’s matured and gained back his self confidence. Although he’s never been able to let go of the pain and bitterness he feels towards the only woman he’s ever wanted.

Now with the death of her wealthy father Rory’s back in town; sporting a serious black eye, an abusive, brute of a husband and a ton of regret for the hurt she caused and the mess she’s made of her life. With her fathers passing Rory’s husband has become violent and his true agenda has come to light, leaving her nowhere to turn except to Sean. But if she wants his help she’s got some serious explaining to do. Will he even listen to her reasons for leaving let alone give them another chance?

This was a pretty good, standard Harlequin read; the love scenes are few but certainly spicy enough, theres angst a-plenty, and while the middle part dragged a bit for me as our couple hunted down a locket, jewellery box and key the ending was romantic and very suspenseful.

You can also tell that Davis has done her research here when it comes to prosthetics and living a physically challenged lifestyle however, while I appreciated our hero being an amputee I almost felt like it was talked about or used as a reason ‘why’ for everything too much. The reason why Rory left him, the reason why her father didn’t want her to marry him. Why he could/couldn’t defend himself or walk in sand. It was just mentioned in one way or another, every single page while Davis still maintained that Sean was a whole man and more then just his leg. In contradiction by mentioning it every page she wouldn’t let us forget about it. Maybe that was the point, IDK?

Written in 93/94, this is a great older Harlequin series (despite the now lame covers) with a real penchant for the tortured hero. Do yourself a favour though and read it in order. I randomly picked up book#3 The Morningside Of Dawn and then fell so in love with its sublime wounded hero Dar Cordell (sigh) that I’ve been on the hunt ever since to find the rest of the series. Cheers people.

1-Stevie's Chase

2-Left At The Altar

3-Morning Side Of Dawn