REVIEW: Forgotten Sins by Rebecca Zanetti

JaneB- ReviewsParanormal / Soldier3 Comments

Dear Ms. Zanetti:

I’ve come across Zanetti books several times and they always look like something that would be interesting to me, but for a variety of reasons I’ve not actually picked up one to read. One day, Forever sent all four books in the Sin Brother series and I figured, what the heck!

The prologue sets up the not quite paranormal aspect of the storyline. Some secret organization is creating and raising genetically enhanced soldiers. The four Sin brothers are boys that were raised together in a compound and taught to kill at an early age. They are a family because, as Shane tells a younger Jory, they live together.

Shane is the first in the series. He is an amnesiac victim who wakes up in a hospital bed, his body showing the signs of a serious fight. Josie Dean, Shane’s wife, is contacted and  brought to the hospital to identify him. Two years ago Shane walked away from his marriage and his wife but had refused to sign the divorce papers. Since that time, Josie has been living in emotional limbo but recently has looked to move on. Seeing Shane again brings up a torrent of emotions that she’d hoped were dead.

The police discharge Shane into her care and Josie agrees, thinking that she’ll get him to sign the divorce papers and maybe find the answers to as to why he disappeared two years ago and never contacted her again.

This story is heavier on plot and lighter on the actual falling in love part. We don’t get how Shane and Josie found love either in the present day or in flashbacks. All that is really revealed is that they had a whirlwind romance,  that they married and the marriage lasted for very brief time. The strength of their feelings for each other are evident on each page, but the journey to how they got there that was never fully revealed to us.

I kept waiting for that moment throughout the book that showed me why these two different people fell in love and why Shane, in particular, went against his training and mission and married Josie. His brothers seriously disapprove of this move and of Josie. In order for the story to work, the reader has to accept (without seeing) that Josie and Shane fell madly in love and that Shane had to have her against all odds. But then later abandoned her.

Josie is an accountant vying for a promotion. She has taken over accounts from a coworker who had fallen ill and four of the accounts appear to have discrepancies. As the story unfolds, it appears that Josie may be the target of danger instead or, or maybe it addition to, Shane. A number of the reviews I read of this book labeled Josie as whiny or lackluster. While she could have taken a stronger stance, I think there reason she appeared weak was because we didn’t understand the depth and strength of her love and thus her easy capitulation to Shane was frustrating.

Now that Shane is back, he is determined to keep Josie. He doesn’t know why he left her (at least at first) but instantly realizes he must keep her. His over the top protectiveness is curious juxtaposed against his two year abandonment…although admittedly during that two years we learn he hadn’t completely abandoned her. For some Shane’s actions are going to bleed into the creepy side but I like Behind Closed Doors where the hero is essentially a paid stalker so obviously my judgment is skewed.

In some ways, this book did remind me of the Lisa Marie Rice / Shannon McKenna books. Over the top, uber possessive hero seeks to claim the one woman that soothes his inner beast. It’s the werewolf/vampire story without the shapeshifting and the blood drinking.

The fast paced plot and the mysteries drive this story. At the end there are quite a few questions that are left unanswered. The overarching plot that connects the series was intriguing enough that after I read the first book I needed to read the next three. And I went on to my own three of them despite having a paper. I’ve given the book a B- because I was hooked at the end, but in retrospect, the backstory of the romance needed more attention.

Best regards,

Jane

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Jane

Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

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