Destiny can bring people together. And their pasts can tear them apart.Nick is focused on his career and ready to take on his future. Melissa is doing what she loves a million miles away from her past. And then their worlds collide. Their past lives are about to intersect in a way they never imagined.Will their love survive the darkness they thought was forever banished, or will that darkness … forever banished, or will that darkness follow them home and destroy everything they hold dear?
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Please note…..this can be read as a stand-a-lone as the author fills in the back story, but I strongly recommend reading the other books. The author gives a ton of information on the other characters that is only entertaining if you are familiar with the characters.
I absolutely enjoyed having the male give the main point of view throughout the whole story!! An uncommon and thoroughly appreciated change! The author did a fantastic job creating characters that had depth and substance. They were likable and entertaining. The story lines were suspenseful. In fact, I couldn’t decide if I could trust Melissa or not. No matter how much I liked her, there was still an element that made me question her history and where her loyalties stood. It kept me from putting the book down, because I HAD to find out!!
There were a couple of times I became confused and had to go back and reread parts of the story thinking I missed something. But I found if I hung in there, it was explained later. The author likes to keep things suspenseful and only gives you bits of information at a time, making you work the puzzle yourself.
Some plot parts were given great detail and then dropped entirely. There were also parts of the story that made perfect sense at the time, but looking back after the story was completed, they don’t make sense and raised more questions. However, they were small and inconsequential, not effecting the overall larger plot of the story. If you’re a reader who doesn’t get hung up on the little details, you are good to go.
Over all, it was a suspenseful and entertaining read. The characters were fun and very likable. I was pulled into the story and engaged. There were some wonderfully steamy scenes as well.
I read an ARC of this story. My honest and fair review is voluntary.
Home is such a fabulous conclusion to the Portentous Destiny Series. I’ve fallen in love with each and every story in this series and Home is no different. I love Nick so much in this one and super excited that he finally gets his chance at love with Melissa. Nick is smart and close to his family. Melissa has this way about her that draws you in. You’ll love her sense adventure and love for dolphins. When you finally learn Melissa’s story and the tie in to the rest of the series your heart will go out to her. The bond between Melissa and Nick is amazing. You feel the chemistry from the beginning and seriously once you read this you’ll know why I love these two. This whole series has been a ride worth taking. What I’ve loved most about it is even with the darkness of human trafficking you still have this shining light filled with family and love. This book and series are filled with strong men and women who love hard and are stronger then one would expect from the outside. S.E. Rose nailed not only Home but the entire Portentous Destiny Series. I couldn’t put this down.
Title: Home
Series: Portentous Destiny Series, #5
Author: S. E. Rose
Genre: Mystery Suspense Romance
Pages: 250
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Mandy
Espionage, faked deaths, human trafficking, Secret double agents and slick James bond moves the book world has never seen with just enough romance thrown in to keep you hanging on by a thread.
S.E. Rose has continued the story of the Portentous Destiny series in Home book 5 in the series. With much bad things going on in the world today S.E. Rose has written a very well written book with romance and danger at every turn to keep you hooked that you can’t tell which way is up or down. I for one was enraptured with this book.
When Nick Stevenson finds himself a new job that he where he is finally able to showcase his skills as engineering. When he happens to land on an island the woman of his dreams appears but could also be short lived by a past that he once thought dead and gone has resurfaced. Now his family needs him more than ever, can his new found love survive the threat or will his forever be forsaken?
Melissa Burke a marine biologist specializing in Dolphins meets the man of her dreams, but is soon thrown into a whirl wind that she was hoping to never repeat again. Mel is looking for home where ever that is but it will soon be found in the one man she is desperate for in her soul, or will he be torn away all because of a past that has come back with a vengeance?
Nick is a young engineer, starting his dream job just a few years out of college with a work trip to the Azores his first week. He meets Melissa at dinner one night, a marine biologist there studying dolphins. They end up having a whirlwind romance, that continues long distance once he returns to the US.
Complicating matters, however, is an old enemy from his family’s past who escaped from prison and now Nick and his entire family are in danger. This plot line seems to be the main one of the book. Being an exorbitantly wealthy family, though, all the family members are able to drop everything and go to various homes around the eastern seaboard.
What I liked: It was entertaining for the most part. Some parts were really good – Nick and Melissa, Nick and Lily’s relationship, the meaning of the title.
What I didn’t like: I don’t expect these types of books to be actually realistic, but there is a limit to my suspension of disbelief. In what I suppose is a summary of the first 4 books in this series (I haven’t read them), Nick gives us (the reader) a rundown of what has happened in his family since the death of his father several years ago:
“My mom, who became an author, after my dad died in a car accident nearly twelve years ago now, met her current husband, Jack, when she went to Scotland almost four years ago. Jack, as it turned out, was involved in some crazy spy stuff, and my mom got wrapped up in it and nearly killed by some crazy Russian crime boss, Alexei. My sister, Lily, who was almost sold into the sex slave trade because of this, took some time off to travel in South America. That’s where she and Zoe met Lance and Cody. Lily ended up spending time in our birth city and found out our biological father had been involved in human trafficking and had actually worked with this crazy Russian dude. Cody, who was also working in the same city, ended up working with another man who had taken over the Russian guy’s slave trade after my mom killed him in Scotland. I know, this shit is crazy and complicated.
Anyhow, poor Zoe and Cody got sucked in because the crazy Middle Eastern dude, Mohammed, who was working with Cody tried to get a USB drive back that Cody apparently had by accident. Who the hell leaves info on a USB drive anymore? Well, this guy did, and he chased them all the way to China trying to get it back. Zoe nearly got killed, and Cody ended up killing Mohammed. Then, just when we thought our family had finished with this crazy international crime shit, my uncle Jesse got sucked in last year. He had the info from the USB drive because he is crazy awesome with computer software and was helping to decode the encryption on it. Mohammed’s brother, Saeed , tried to get it back and almost killed my uncle and his now wife , Vanessa, AKA the famous singer. Vanessa killed Saeed and the rest is family history. And that’s my family and our messed-up crazy few years. As it turns out , my stepdad, Jack, is actually a consultant of some type for the FBI or CIA or Interpol; honestly, I’m not really sure, and I don’t think I want to know.”
Yeah. All that coincidence. And there’s more involving Melissa, too, but that could be a spoiler so I’ll leave that out. So much of this book is implausible. It almost reads like a movie, but not a good movie. More like one you watch on Netflix one day and then scratch your head wondering why.
Also, the prologue. In some books, the prologue is wonderful. In this case, however, it gives away too much. The events that happen could have been exciting if we didn’t know it was going to happen. Instead, the actual event in the book was a bit of a letdown because the prologue made it seem like more than it was.
Overall: It’s okay, but not great.