First to Die

Cris Anson

Publisher:
Cerridwen Press

Release Date:
July 2008

Genres:
Romantic Suspense
Contemporary Romance

ISBN:
eBook
9781419917622

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
Natalie S.

Review Posted:
November 2008

Tamara Hart has been hired by the patriarch of the Sutcliffe family to design and make plans to overhaul a family run golf course.  The odds of the board members accepting her design to rehabilitate land is hit and miss, especially since Simon Sutcliffe, a voting board member, has just now shown up after more than a year away from his family.  Simon’s animosity towards Tamara is expected but the lust in his eyes is not.  Things come to a head when Tamara is asked by her benefactor to show his sons the reason she is being treated as part of the family.   

Simon Sutcliffe is a man bowled under by grief.  Betrayed by his wife months ago with another man, Simon doesn’t care about no longer being married.  He does care, however, about no longer being a father.  His wife’s infidelity didn’t just ruin Simon’s life; her interlude with another man killed his six-month old son in a freak accident.  Simon’s view on women is shady at best and when his father reveals the true reason why Tamara is being included in family dealings is revealed, stunned is too tame of a word to gage his reaction.  

It is family against family with a evil, outside party doing their best to get rid of key players.  The killer now has a new vision of murder, and Tamara is in line as the FIRST TO DIE. 

I became intrigued with FIRST TO DIE after seeing the blurb for Second Best, the book after this one.  I wanted to know what type of family would be so convoluted as to not actually be a family at all and I was introduced to the Sutcliffe family. Talk about dysfunctional.  The eldest twin, Jack, is a raving womanizer who drinks. Simon, the hero of FIRST TO DIE has been hurt so very much. First by his adulterous now ex-wife and then by his father.  He wants to hate Tamara with every ounce of his being but her tenaciousness and underlying sultry demeanor makes him more than interested.   

Tamara has spent almost a lifetime feeling less than adequate.  Then, in the blink of an eye Simon Sutcliffe arrives back from traveling around the globe and everything she thought she wanted is blown out of the window.  Attraction like she has never before experienced is what she feels for Simon and it quickly turns to more.  If she can stay alive long enough, that is. 

FIRST TO DIE is suspenseful and dark at times.  The killer wanting to get rid of Sutcliffe’s is never far from the focus of the story and despite trying to figure out who the bad guy was, I was happily surprised at the end when all was revealed.  FIRST TO DIE is a romantic suspense unlike any I have ever read. I will read it again and again!

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