“A rocky, suspenseful romance that ends in a very satisfying way.” – BookTalk With EileenOn the heels of a major performance, theater actress Alicia Coleman is attacked in an alleyway. She is struck over the head with a pistol and the blow causes her to lose her memory. Injured and afraid, Alicia struggles to remember the details of her life. The only person who appears to know who she is, is the … who she is, is the man she fears may also be her attacker.
In the midst of several attempts to escape, Alicia comes to know the man whose home she awoke in and realizes the two of them share a complicated past. Though Nick refuses to tell her much beyond her first name, a series of dreams in which he and she are sharing a lot more than the second story of a secluded mansion cause Alicia to suspect the most outrageous of possibilities, that the man holding her prisoner may actually be her lover. Proving her theory true may be her only chance of keeping her attacker from coming after her a second time.
A Passionate Play is the first book in the Rabourn Theater Series. It can be read as a standalone.
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What a ride! From the first page, Jessica Lauryn captured my attention and had me rooting for both Alicia and Nick. The storytelling was original, with past tragedy woven in with the present. This is the first book I’ve read of Mrs. Lauryn’s, but it certainly won’t be the last!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
A Passionate Play kept me rooting for musical theater actress Alicia Coleman. The story is layered and rich. I love Ms. Lauryn’s writing style, and at times it brought to mind the tales of Daphne du Maurier.
We are given a peek into the behind the scenes lives of those involved in bringing entertainment to us. Throughout the telling, there is an underlining thread of how decisions affect not only the character who made it but the repercussions to those around them.
I enjoyed the characters. They weren’t perfect, which I rather liked. It was delightful to see Alicia fall in love again with a man she can’t remember, but who loves her. She is strong, determined, and witty. Fearless yet vulnerable. Though she is a victim, she doesn’t give up and fights for not only her memories but her heart.
Nicholas certainly has issues, and I didn’t really agree with his methods for protecting his girlfriend, but this kept me arguing with the book. Can you tell I was engaged? I don’t often argue with the characters when I’m reading.
Twists and turns, a snarky heroine and smart writing draw you along while keeping you guessing whodunit. These things all together create a recipe for some of my favorite books. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Lauryn.
I have read many romance novels in my time but this is my first time reading a Romantic Suspense genre. This book was the first book I read from Jessica Lauryn. My first impression of this book when I started it was that Ms. Lauryn took the subject of the theatre and turned into something magical. The characters were extremely lifelike. This story took me through a journey of the onstage performance and what the actor’s life behind the curtain of the theater was like. Everything seemed simple but it was not as the story showed me what the main character, Alicia Coleman was truly like when she had lost her memory. Her feelings for Nick Lancaster at first when I first read about him in the first part of the book, are not simply love or hate, she showed confusion quiet vividly, I might say. It was apparent that Nick and Alicia have a very complex relationship. At times, their conversations made me laugh, made me feel angry that Alicia didn’t understand that Nick meant to protect her.
At other times, Nick’s way of caring for Alicia made me happy because it was clear that he loved her and he just had a hard time admitting it. It was fun to see in my mind the scenes that Ms Lauryn so vividly paints with her words. The Bear Scene was the most fun for me to read and it was really clear in my head as if I could see the bear charging at me as I try to escape the bear. The emotion of fear and terror was clearly portrayed. Also, the scenes with the attacker was quite emotional and scary, yes, scary. But this a part of a good author’s job to portray emotion and scenes as if they were happening to the reader right then.
As an author, myself, I learned a lot from the way Jessica Lauryn wrote her descriptions. Her description in every paragraph was different. It was like an adventure to me to read this book. Every turn of a page made me want to read more of it and I ended up reading two-three chapters in one day. I was so intrigued by this first book that I purchased Book 2: An Amorous Dance even before I finished this book. I could not wait to start Book 2 in this series. Honestly, I was so entranced by Jessica Lauryn’s talent in pulling me into her world that I want to read more of her books and follow her example in developing my own writing in a way that will pull my future readers into my books.
Jessica Lauryn is my new favorite author and I hope to read all of her books. She is my inspiration for writing books that people love. It is a great honor for me to know her and how truly beautiful she is on the inside and out. My favorite author and I I am starting to read An Amorous Dance right away. I hope to follow her career as she writes more because she is my inspiration.
After reading A Passionate Play, I believe that there might be a great story behind it which is why I wanted to ask Jessica Lauryn for an interview. She will be talking about the story of how she wrote this book and her inspiration in writing in my next blog post. Writing series of books tends to be freeing at some point because you can address your characters from all sides and I believe that this comes much easier to Jessica Lauryn right now. But I do plan to use that example as well. She is also the reason why I feel that writing a series of books is something that I want to do.
Writing a series to me is like living with the same people for a long time and getting to know them well enough. A series is something that means that you can not leave the characters. It gives you more room to explore your characters and I believe that it is a good choice for authors like Jessica Lauryn and myself. I believe that it is a good thing for an author to love their characters a lot because then the readers will love them too.