Shades of Twilight » (Reprint)

Linda Howard is the award-winning author of many New York Times bestsellers, including Drop Dead Gorgeous, Cover of Night, Killing Time, To Die For, Kiss Me While I Sleep, Cry No More, Dying to Please, Open Season, Mr. Perfect, All the Queen’s Men, Now You See Her, Kill and Tell, and Son of the Morning. She lives in Alabama with her husband and two golden retrievers.

Dear listener,

Shades of Twilight is the story of Roanna Davenport, who grows up in a wealthy southern family but never quite fits in. She isn’t pretty or popular, and she has a real talent for saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong moment. She’s in love with a distant cousin, Webb Tallant. But Webb marries their cousin Jessie, the bane of Roanna’s life. When Jessie is found murdered, Webb is blamed for her death, even though there isn’t enough evidence to charge him. Webb leaves town, and Roanna is left to pick up the pieces.

All of her life, Roanna has tried to win the love of her grandmother, of Webb, and of her extended family and every time she’s been slapped down. She’s had enough. Roanna withdraws from the family, and that’s when her grandmother, Lucinda, realizes how very important this misfit is to all of them. Lucinda tries to make amends to Roanna by setting in motion a chain of events that brings Webb back home. But the plan disturbs a killer who is set on vengeance and this time, the whole family seems to be the target.

I hope you enjoy Shades of Twilight.

Sincerely,
Linda Howard

Publishers Weekly

Family, loyalty, love, sex and revenge steam up the pages in this sometimes frustrating but ultimately satisfying romance set in present-day Alabama. Bestselling author Howard (After the Night) portrays orphan Roanna Davenport, born into a wealthy and aristocratic family. An awkward child, headstrong and generally disliked by her haughty relatives, she is championed by her older cousin Webb Tallant, with whom she falls in love. But he marries another cousin, the beautiful, heartless Jessie. When Jessie is murdered, Webb leaves the ancestral home for 10 years until the family's dying matriarch summons him back, reawakening old passions and reopening old wounds. Unnecessary bouts of crude sex between minor characters may put off some readers, and a good shaking seems in order for both Roanna and Webb, as they misinterpret each other's actions to excess. Howard does manage, however, to maintain tension through a twist-filled plot and the emotional involvement of the main characters. (July)