Review: ‘Love Lies’ by Cynthia St. Aubin
Love Lies
by Cynthia St. AubinSeries: Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery #3
Published by Oliver-Heber Books on October 27, 2020
SubGenres: Paranormal Romance, Romantic Comedy
Format: AudioBook, Paperback
Pages: 321
Narrator: Stella Hunter
Length: 8 Hours And 48 Minutes
Source: Everand, Purchased
Audience: 18+/Adult
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It’s bad enough that the world’s most powerful vampires are following gallery assistant Hanna Harvey like a cloud of undead mosquitos. But finding one of their heads in the trunk of her Mustang? There’s not enough cheese in the world to unsee that. Her stud-muffin alpha werewolf boss, Mark Abernathy suspects that someone stashing vampy bits in Hanna’s immediate vicinity is part of a plot to set-off an inter-species war…with Hanna’s own destiny at its heart.
Getting to the bottom of Hanna’s headless guests will mean fending off the dogged investigation of Detective James Morrison—now suspended from the force and hell-bent on exposing the secrets that could not only destroy Abernathy, but everyone he’s sworn to protect.
Now facing a force older and more sinister than any she’s encountered, the stakes have never been higher for Hanna, who must finally decide to ascend to her rightful place in the pack, or risk losing everything—and everyone—she loves.
Love Lies is the third installment in Cynthia St. Aubin’s Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery. This series has become a favorite of mine, and I can’t get enough of it. It features a fantastic cast of characters, including a heroine who adores her cats and loves eating cheese, an overly protective art gallery owner who is also a werewolf, a nosy cop who is obsessed with the heroine and is determined to take down the art gallery owner, and many other unforgettable characters.
In the third book, Hanna Harvey is dealing with the unsettling situation of someone leaving heads in various places near her. These places include the trunk of her car, the closets at the art gallery where she works, and even her suitcase, where she’s traveling for dinner with her boss, Mark Abernathy. No one knows who is responsible, but they are starting to suspect someone may be attempting to instigate a conflict between the vampires and werewolves. In the meantime, Hanna has to decide if she’ll become the werewolf heir that everyone says she is, all while dealing with two men who are in love with her, although only one admits it right away.
Love Lies was another entertaining and humorous book that was hard to put down. Cynthia’s writing style balances being sharp, witty and fun with some intense moments between the characters, especially when it comes to figuring out who is behind the mysterious appearances of heads around Hanna. I absolutely adore the main character, Hanna Harvey, for her handling life’s challenges. My favorite scene in this book is when she returns home from her trip and finds her apartment in a mess due to someone throwing a party in it. I love how she handled the situation, especially when Morrison, the cop obsessed with her, shows up to question her about what happened at her apartment.
The entire time I was reading this book, I was hoping that Hanna and Mark would finally admit their feelings for one another, especially Mark. They’ve had tension since the first book, and it’s about time these two realize they have chemistry, and not only because Hanna is the werewolf heir. Yes, there is technically a love triangle that is happening in the books, but Hanna only has feelings for one of the guys.
Once again, Cynthia surprised me with the unexpected twists in this book’s ending. I was not prepared for what happened to a certain character, but I’m intrigued by Cynthia’s plans for this character in the next book. I was also surprised by the revelation of the person responsible for everything (or at least helped), even though I had suspected them since their unexpected appearance at the beginning of this book.
As someone who enjoys art, humanities, and world history, reading this series brings me a lot of joy, and I really appreciate how Cynthia incorporates numerous historical and famous figures into the fictional world she developed in this series. Some of them play the villains well.
I’m thrilled to have found this series by Cynthia St. Aubin because it has quickly become a favorite of mine. This book definitely deserves five stars, just like the previous books. After reading the end of Love Lies, I’m more eager than ever to dive into the fourth book in the series.
Single/Dual POV: Single POV (Heroine’s POV)
Standalone or Part of Series: It’s the third book in the Tails from the Alpha Art Gallery series and needs to be read in order.
Would I recommend this book/series? Yes. If you enjoy Paranormal Romantic Comedies that will make you laugh out loud and keep you on the edge of your seat with the mysterious storyline, then you should check out this book/series.
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About Cynthia St. Aubin
USA Today bestselling author Cynthia St. Aubin wrote her first play at age eight and made her brothers perform it for the admission price of gum wrappers. A steal, considering she provided the wrappers in advance. Though her early work debuted to mixed reviews, she never quite gave up on the writing thing, even while earning a mostly useless master's degree in art history and taking her turn as a cube monkey in the corporate warren.
Because the voices in her head kept talking to her, and they discourage drinking at work, she started writing instead. When she's not standing in front of the fridge eating cheese, she's hard at work figuring out which mythological, art historical, or paranormal friends to play with next. She lives in Colorado with the love of her life and three surly cats.
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My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)
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