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Love You To Death – Shannon K. Butcher
Forever,
September 29, 2009
ISBN-13: 978-0446510295
ISBN-10: 0446510297
Reviewed by Mary
September 2009
Guilt is a powerful, strong and debilitating controller in everyone’s life at some point forcing undue negative influence. It pushes you to do things you normally would be uncomfortable with, forces us to be very critical of our actions and second guess ourselves for the choices we make. Guilt is the state of mind controlling Elise McBride as well as Trent Brady in the purest form of self-doubt for a prior decision made coming back to haunt them. These two separate and distinctive people have reasons for allowing the guilt of actions they have taken to motivate them to move in directions they never thought they could but feel they must. These actions performed individually become a uniting force when Elise and Trent are joined proving that together nothing can control you even guilt when you have someone fighting your battles with you.
Elise’s sister Ashley is a young, artistic woman who mysteriously has gone missing and this action forces Elise to come to Haven, IL with the single minded purpose of finding her. Elise has no idea what has happened or why she can’t find Ashley but it doesn’t matter because Elise should have been taking care of her instead of globetrotting the world as a freelance journalist. Elise feels responsible for her sister even though Ashley is 21 years old and capable of caring for herself and in fact wants to be independent.
Trent Brady is the “hot lawn guy” Ashley always talks to Elise about and a retired police officer. This was by his own choice and Trent has been helping Ashley out with odd jobs and errands to keep her safe from her forgetful self and now he is going to help Elise find Ashley. Trent is not prepared when you have feelings that are stronger than any other you ever experienced regardless of any risk that might come with it including potentially having your heart broken. Elise is consuming his thoughts and soon sharing his bed and while there is some comfort involved more of it is pure passion for a woman that is as soft as she is strong.
When Elise and Trent hunt for Ashley the bodies of young mutilated woman keep showing up and the search becomes frantic as more time keeps passing and the trail is running cold. It is finally deemed that that a serial killer is on the loose and this psycho has been abducting and killing women for a long time. Trent brings all of his prior police knowledge and expertise into play when it turns out the serial killer has a psychotic epiphany and now has his sights set on capturing an even bigger fish – Elise. Trent absolutely needs to be on the top of his game because Ashley’s abductor is one step ahead of them and Trent’s feelings for Elise are complexly out of his control and nothing can stop him from securing her love. Trent will get under control and not let anything bad to either sister because somehow during the hunt for the madman Trent realizes that Elise has done something he did not think possible, bring him back to life and make him want to join the human race again.
This book scared me from beginning to end and I know that was Ms. Butcher’s intent so to that end she produced a home run with the results. The serial killer was so realistic I reached a point that every light in the house had to be on and the doors locked because the scariest part of fiction is the reality that these people are out there living supposedly normal lives. The main characters were so amazing because Elise and Trent are both trying to get through the muck that makes up your life and move on to a place where they feel comfortable in their decisions and when it turns out that they could find peace in one another you just sigh with relief that this is the way it turns out. I have always enjoyed every book by Shannon K. Butcher but this one in particular will stand out because every character was true to their form and redemption of the soul always cleanses the guilt of decisions we feel were mistakes. Good job as always Shannon – keep writing these wonderful books and scaring me!
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