Tangled Lies by Anne Stuart

ISBN: 9780373200016
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: March 2009
256 pgs



Rachel Chandler has not seen her brother, Emmett, for fifteen years. Not after he appeared to be involved with a radical group of protesters and that the bomb had accidentally killed several people, including his girlfriend. And for these fifteen years, no one seemed to have heard of him but deep in Rachel's heart she knew he is very much alive since she always receive a package on her birthday every year from him. But she could never guess where he is because every year the package is post marked from a different country.

However, that does not stop Rachel from finding her brother so she decided to look for him in Hawaii since he was last heard to be in that place. Despite her fear of flying, she gritted her teeth and went through her ordeal, but with the help of a little diversion from a friendly priest who first struck a conversation with her.

Just as she is anxious and thrilled to meet Emmett again, she is somewhat intrigued by the man because he does not seem to be the same Emmett whom she has grown up with. He appeared to be tougher and meaner, but Rachel thought this has got to do with the missing years that had torn them apart from each other. And another thing that troubled Rachel is, Emmett seemed to be giving her the warm and cold treatments at times and she fears he is not the real Emmett but an impostor who is out to get the trust which was left for the real Emmett after their parents had passed away when they were younger.

On the other hand, "Emmett" definitely has an agenda in mind but he does not expect the man's sister would be there to complicate things for him. Yet everytime he wanted to push her away, the deeper he find himself entangled in the web of lies and he is not sure if he should keep her with him or just send her away.

Tangled Lies is one of Anne Stuart's older works and I am very glad that this book is reissued as part of Harlequin's 60th Anniversary celebration. Being a fan of Anne Stuart and having read several of her novels, I am always in awe of her ability of creating a dark hero whom I am sure most readers would not consider one to be due to his 'extraordinary' position, be it a hitman or a cult leader (just to name a few) but yet she managed to tempt us into liking the hero and send us a few surprises along the reading journey. Tangled Lies is one of them and I loved it that there are enough sizzling romance and suspense that had me enthralled from the beginning till the end.

I also want to thank Alice and Julia for reading this book together with me. It was a blast reading with you both (as usual) and thank you for waiting on me at one time when I was behind my reading schedule. I am definitely looking forward to more of our joint-reading sessions in the near future.