Book Review - Secrets On Lake Drive

Those of you who have been following me for a while, may remember that I hosted fabulous new author, Tina Martin as a guest blogger a few weeks ago - Her topic was 'How to Write a Great Romance Novel' and now I am happy to be able to say that Tina can be considered an expert on the subject as part of my review of Secrets on Lake Drive.


From the Publisher:

Monica and Sean clash at a parent-teacher conference when Monica accuses Sean of being too occupied with making money and chasing women to take a real interest in his son’s life. But Sean is no pushover. He knows how to hold his own and deal with Monica, but after the incident at school, he’s also come to realize that he can use Monica’s devotion to his advantage. He propositions her to move into his home to babysit five-year old Roman for the three months of summer break, offering her a substantial amount of money, hoping that she’ll accept. But is babysitting the only reason he’s so anxious to get her into his mansion?


Monica accepts his offer against her better judgment, knowing the rumors of Sean and his womanizing ways. She tells herself that she’s doing this for Roman – that she can avoid her new, sexy, summer boss – his chiseled chest, pretty green eyes and charm that just won’t quit. But after only a few weeks, Monica finds it a struggle to keep her eyes off of Sean. Can she handle staying focused on her babysitting gig for three months without being swept off of her feet by Milwaukee’s finest? Or is Sean’s game too much for the young, conservative teacher to handle?


Having been heartbroken in the past, Monica is reluctant to play this dangerous game with a confirmed heartbreaker. But it’s what she doesn’t know about Sean that she should be concerned about. Sean knows her well – too well, and it’s those secrets that have the potential to make her love him or hate him.


My Review:


  As a first novel, this book contains a complete package - romance, suspense, drama, comedy and emotion. The characters are well developed and continue to grow and develop in the story as you find out more and more of their history and thought process.   Monica, particularly, grows and learns about herself and learns to manage pain and heartbreak, work on building the kind of relationships that she wants.  The struggles she endures throughout the book bring her character more understanding and the reader a chance to reflect and empathize with the character... I especially like the fact that Monica learns that she doesn't need to settle and that she can take control of her own destiny - an important lesson to reinforce for many women.


I originally had this book as part of my Summer Reads line up, but the tour got moved, so I can now heartily endorse this book as a great 'Fall Read' and recommend that you check out Secrets on Lake Drive.


About the author:

Tina Martin was born in Ahoskie, North Carolina and developed a love for writing in high school. She pursued creative writing courses in college and in 2007, self-published her first poetry book, Love Like Yours. She now uses her prolific style of writing to pen fiction novels, the latest being, Secrets On Lake Drive (Xpress Yourself Publishing) available now online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

You can read more about Tina at her website:www.tinamartinbooks.com.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Pump Up Your Book for the purpose of completing this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.