4.5
  • Under the Stars by Tia Louise
4.5
Under the Stars
Bright Lights Duet Part 2
Tia Louise
Romantic Suspense
TLM Productions LLC
January 22, 2018
300

All around us was darkness and night…

I’m not a hero. I’m a survivor.
I had one way out, and I took it.
Now all I want is peace,
A place to pick up the pieces and start over.

But she wants justice.
Names on a list, faces in the crowd.
I vowed to help her, but it’s taking us back to the demons.
Until he appeared.

I thought he died in the fight.
I was wrong.
He’s here.
Stronger, more powerful… Sexier.

And dangerous.

The boy I loved is now the one man we have to fear most.
When he tried to save me, he had no power.
Now everything has changed, and he’ll never stop until I’m his.

Love is a verb.

I have been on pins and needles since finishing Under the Lights and Sundown. Reading both Part I of the duet and the novella left me experiencing a potent combination of anxiety and anticipation. Mark and Lara’s story was one full of such depth, heartbreak and love, fear and hope. And I don’t think I was fully prepared for the highs and the lows Under the Stars brought. I actually had to put the book down a few times, in order to reset from the intensity of the storyline. Tia Louise uses such strong language and imagery that you become so involved in the characters and plot that the darkness starts to creep into your own psyche.

One chance encounter on a train in Canada, and months go by until the two lovers are reunited, solely because of Mark’s will to make it so. As long as he lives, you get the feeling that he will never be content, and he will NEVER rest until Lara is by his side, forever. But Lara is still tethered to Molly, obligated by promises from the past, chained together by shared tragedy and experience, she refuses to let her go. So despite the profound love she has for Mark, she feels that she has no choice but to leave him to help Molly accomplish the only thing she seems to be living for any more. Namely revenge. Served ice cold.

But not only is Lara Mark’s reason for being, she’s also carrying his child. So he will go to the ends of the earth to find her again. And along the way, the side characters who both created the darkness, and those who helped hold it at bay, once again take their places in this tale of vengeance, adversity, shadow and light, and the love that makes the journey all worthwhile.