Review: Kellen’s Hope by Danie Marie

Slow start, but excellent finish

Kellen Carmichael finds she’s pregnant to her ex-boyfriend, the guy she broke up with over his insistence on drinking and partying. He does the honourable Christian thing and marries her, but dies shortly after the wedding leaving Kellen alone, and estranged from both her family and her new in-laws.

While I was intrigued enough by the premise to agree to review Kellen’s Hope, once I began reading I felt it took a while to get going. However, the plot really picks up pace after Danny dies, as Kellen makes the unpleasant discovery that she has a stalker. It’s just anonymous telephone calls at first, but things soon start to escalate, with incidents at home and at her workplace, the local hospital. She’s also being pursued by one of Danny’s friends: while at first she appreciates the fact someone is watching out for her, she’s not ready for another relationship. Not even with the handsome doctor her friends at work try and set her up with …

The writing was solid but not spectacular. There were some editing and proofreading issues (one line looked as though random words had been inserted in, as it made no sense at all), and I didn’t think medical professionals still used the term “manic depression” any more. However, these were minor glitches which didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the story.

Once I got into Kellen’s Hope it was hard to put down, with an excellent mixture of external suspense with the stalker, and internal tension as Kellen has to consider her future as a solo parent. The supporting characters were excellent (well, Dr Dreamy might have been a little too perfect …) and I totally want to know Kellen’s secret baked yam recipe. A good solid romantic suspense read.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.