Title: A Passionate Play The Rabourn Theater Series, Book 1
Author: Jessica Lauryn
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romantic Suspense
Story Setting: New York, the theater scene
Pages: 220
Published by: Siren Publishing
Publication Date: November 28, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B01MRR0CE8

Publisher’s Summary:

In the midst of recovering from a blow to the head, theater actress Alicia Coleman comes to know the man whose home she awoke in and realizes the two of them share a complicated past. A series of dreams prompts her to suspect the most outrageous of possibilities–that the man holding her prisoner may actually be her lover. Surrounding threats cause Alicia to realize that proving her theory true–or not–may be her only chance of keeping her attacker from coming after her a second time. A BookStrand Mainstream Romance

My Thoughts:  This is a story about a young, talented singer, Alicia Coleman, who sings exclusively for Raybourn Theater.  She is driven to reach the top and has succeeded.  Forces around her, people from the theater who have their own agenda and other unbalanced souls, come crashing down on Alicia with a crack on the head, giving her amnesia.

Her agent, and on-again-off-again boyfriend rescues her from the attacker.  Would he have stopped with hitting her over the head and done worse?  Nick Lancaster is a wary guy, he trusts no one at this point.  He more or less abducts Alicia, running off to someplace secluded to protect her.  When he finds she has amnesia, he uses it to his advantage. This must be a guy thing!

Alicia didn’t know who to trust when she becomes conscious. Was Nick the bad guy?  Should she escape or trust him? Why won’t he tell her of her past, not even her name?  As she slowly regains her memories, she only has more questions.

If I had paid more attention to the prologue, I probably would have started weaving pieces of the unfolding story together more quickly.  As it was, it took me a while to figure it all out, which isn’t necessarily bad.  As it was, chapter one is quite the hook.  From its textured writing, the scene of pain and terror felt very real as well as creating a bit of an edge to what transpires.

The tale tells of two people who are terribly attracted to each other, but leery of each other for different reasons.  I enjoyed the complexity of both personalities–their arguments, and bantering in dialog.  As the story unfolds the suspense that the attacker could come calling again, that the situation would end bad put a nice spin on Alicia’s recovery.  Will she regain her memory in time to be able to identify her attacker?

After the storm, comes the sun.  This rocky, suspenseful romance ends in a very satisfying way.

The book was provided to me by the author to read and review.  All opinions and comments are solely my own.