Title: Cast The Cards
Author: Shyla Colt
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Age Group: Adult (18+)
Rating: 4 stars
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.
Savannah escaped a kidnapping but her best friend Clark—the man she secretly loved—didn’t. Guilt-ridden and changed after the event, she gives up her dream of teaching and earns a spot in the F.B.I as a profiler. When she’s targeted by the very same kidnappers wishing to finish the job, she is armed with her skills, backed by her first love’s twin brother, and forced to revisit her demons when Clark’s ghost appears.
After his twin’s murder, Officer Carey Carr loses more than his brother. Savannah avoids him for a decade. Her return—and her steaming-hot body—stir brand new feelings in Carey. But Clark’s reappearance has Carey battling to control his primal desires around the woman his twin loved.
As Savannah and Carey, with Clark’s help, embark on a cruel game of cat and mouse with the kidnappers, the twins come to an understanding that involves Savannah and more pleasure than the three of them have ever dreamed.
Cast The Cards starts out with Savannah going on a date with her best friend Clark, for who she secretly has feelings. They go to a fair, and decide to take one last stop at the Tunnel of Love, mostly because Savannah wants to. She’s already noticed some weird people hanging around at the fair, but she dismisses it as normal. That is, until she and Clark get kidnapped. They wake up in the trunk of a speeding car and narrowly manage to escape. Except that when Savannah wakes up, Clark is gone, murdered.
Unable to cope with everything that happened, Savannah becomes an FBI agent and moves halfway across the country to escape her past. When she returns to her hometown, she must come face to face with Carey, Clark’s twin brother. Carey has been just as affected by the loss as she has. He tries not to think about it, but the memory haunts him.
Then Clark’s ghost shows up, with an important and urgent message. The people who killed him, want to finish the job. They’re after Savannah. And Clark has come back to protect her, and he’ll need Carey’s help for that. As Carey and Savannah work together to solve the mystery, escape from Clark’s murderers and hopefully bring them to justice, Carey and Savannah mustdeal with their evolving feelings for each other.
I loved Carey’s personality. He was your typical sullen hero with a tormented past. I also liked his interactions with Clark – they were of the typical bickering twins variety, even if Clark was dead. I did think both he and Savannah were a bit too quick to accept the return of Clark’s spirit (why after all these years?) but apart from that, both of their personalities were relatable and believable. I liked Carey more than Savannah, because Savannah could act a little stuck up when she wanted to. I know that was part of her mask to protect herself, but still, I wasn’t a fan of that behavior.
Clark was all right. I thought he was a bit too possessive for a ghost. Rather than hold on to Savannah for dear life, I thought if he really loved her, he should’ve let go.
The plot was rich, detailed and complexer than I thought it would. Romantic suspense novels tend to lack high stakes. Sometimes it’s a murder mystery, sure, but the characters are never truly in danger. This book read more like a mix between suspense and thriller, because Savannah’s life is actually in danger.
For me, this was a fast read I finished in one sitting. It had a nice blend of suspense and romance, and the writing was decent and solid as well. Would love to read more by this author.
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