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After a desperate call from her sister, Rebecca Ellis returns to her hometown of Sedgefield, only to find her sister, Elizabeth, hanging from her bedroom ceiling fan. Convinced that her sister was murdered, even though the coroner ruled it a suicide, Rebecca hounds the sheriff, demanding that he find Elizabeth’s killer. Sheriff Kevin Tester tells her to accept her sister’s death and go home, but Rebecca simply refuses to believe that Elizabeth would take her own life. She starts snooping around, putting her own life in danger.
Mac Holt plans to stay away from the slick, big-city breed that Rebecca—the woman he once loved—has become over the years since she left town. One look at her, though, and he can’t resist her elegant, graceful beauty. But it soon becomes a matter of protecting Rebecca as she stirs up a hornet’s nest of trouble that may or may not be related to her sister’s death.
Once again, I found myself faced with a heroine that I simply could not like. Rebecca is too aggressive and confrontational, making her incredibly annoying at times. Sure, her sister has just died, but that doesn’t excuse her belligerent, high and mighty attitude. So, in the end, I figured that there had to be something wrong with Mac to make him fall in love with her.
Mac, on the other hand, is much more likable. He even puts Rebecca in her place a few times, when her snotty attitude threatens to get them into more trouble than she’s worth (in my opinion, of course). Then, again, I got extremely irritated with him for fighting with the sheriff, just because Rebecca needed to get her hands on some evidence that might prove that Elizabeth didn’t commit suicide. It seemed like an awfully stupid thing to do. After all, assaulting an officer is a serious crime, not to mention a very disreputable thing to do, even if the sheriff might appear to be a bit shady and unlikable himself.
Bad characterization aside, though, the well thought-out plot of Betrayal is entertaining and a bit suspenseful, with enough of a mystery to keep readers hanging in there, just to see what really happened to Elizabeth. If not for that, I would have been tempted to throw Betrayal down in disgust as soon as Rebecca’s inner thoughts spilled onto the page in the first few paragraphs.
If you like pushy, haughty heroines, then this book is for you. But, if not, do yourself a favor and skip Betrayal.
