RITA Award winner, Romantic Suspense. Hidden Falls is exactly as Samantha Parker left it—small, insular, and prone to gossip. Eighteen years have passed since she witnessed her brother’s murder, but she’s still the talk of the town. Until a handsome child psychologist with haunting memories of his own arrives.Dr. Ethan McClane isn’t exactly a newcomer. If it weren’t for his latest case, he’d … his latest case, he’d never set foot back in Hidden Falls. Thankfully, no one seems to recognize him as the troubled teen from years past. Not even Sam, the delightfully sharp and sexy high school chemistry teacher he can’t stop thinking about.
When Sam and Ethan work together to help one of her students, sparks ignite. But Sam’s hazy memories of a long-ago night concern Ethan, and unlocking the repressed images reveals a dark connection between them. As the horrors of the past finally come to light, their relationship isn’t the only thing in danger. A killer will strike again to keep an ugly secret hidden. This time no one will be safe.
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Wow, was this book a roller coaster ride! I sure didn’t see the end coming!
Hidden Falls is exactly as Samantha Parker left it—small, insular, and prone to gossip. Eighteen years have passed since she witnessed her brother’s murder, but she’s still the talk of the town. Until a handsome child psychologist with haunting memories of his own arrives.
Dr. Ethan McClane isn’t exactly a newcomer. If it weren’t for his latest case, he’d never set foot back in Hidden Falls. Thankfully, no one seems to recognize him as the troubled teen from years past. Not even Sam, the delightfully sharp and sexy high school chemistry teacher he can’t stop thinking about.
When Sam and Ethan work together to help one of her students, sparks ignite. But Sam’s hazy memories of a long-ago night concern Ethan, and unlocking the repressed images reveals a dark connection between them. As the horrors of the past finally come to light, their relationship isn’t the only thing in danger. A killer will strike again to keep an ugly secret hidden. This time no one will be safe.
I’ve never read Naughton’s books before and now I’m wondering why. This was a great one to introduce me to her work. My interest was piqued right away and it kept me interested throughout the book. This was a well written and well developed story. The characters were completely flawed which made them realistic and relatable. All questions were answered in the end with no loose ends to keep you wondering.This was such an enjoyable read.
This story was loaded with lots of unexpected twists and turns I didn’t see coming. It pulled me in almost immediately and kept me on pins and needles throughout. Excellent start and one of my absolute favorites of the series!
REPRESSED by Elisabeth Naughton is the first book in her new Deadly Secrets Series. The story takes place in the small town of Hidden Falls, Oregon. The book focuses on the main characters of Samantha Parker and Dr. Ethan McClane. Both are forced to face their childhood demons in this novel filled with mystery, suspense and romance.
As reflected by the book’s name, Sam has repressed memories surrounding the decades-old murder of her brother, Seth. But being back in Hidden Falls threatens to bring those memories back. Remembering the event and who committed the murder could lead to the answers she’s been desperately seeking. But remembering will also threaten the memories Ethan has been trying to forget. If those recollections are not kept in the past, the people who killed Sam’s brother could also seek to kill her and Ethan.
Amidst the mystery, there’s a “combustible heat” brewing between Sam and Ethan. They find themselves drawn to each other and eventually falling in love, which neither wanted or expected. Love doesn’t fix problems, but love can be a catalyst toward healing a brutal past that could lead them both to a brighter future – possibly a future together.
I’ve been reading Naughton’s books for years and was excited to read REPRESSED. As expected, the storyline and characters are presented well. It was a pretty quick read and somewhat predictable, but wasn’t sappy or riddled with clichés and situations that were unbelievable.
I liked both characters, especially Ethan McClane. And neither are perfect, which I found refreshing. For once we have a leading man whose problems and issues are not miraculously fixed by the love of another. This was a welcome change from the rich man/woman who finds a down-and-out companion in need of rescuing. Naughton created characters that fill the reader’s need for a hero/heroin without being the same-old-story. I look forward to reading the next books in this series.
I’m so happy I found this author and so happy I found this series. These are the perfect type of romantic suspense books. Great romance and great suspense. These days the Amazon categories are so blurred, I can’t tell if the book I’m purchasing is really romantic suspense or just suspense. OR I can’t tell if it’s just romance without the suspense. This is my second book by this author and I’m currently reading my third and now I can honestly say that I trust her books are going to be satisfying.
This story pulled me in quickly and if I had to say something negative, it’d be that I had trouble liking and connecting with the main character in the beginning of the story. She came off and a real bit@h in the beginning and I was left wondering why I would want to read her story when she was so snarky and mean. However, things turned around and I’m glad I stuck with it. The pace was really good and the suspense kept me guessing until the end.
So, my advice, stick with it. Samantha and Ethan are worth it. Also, I’m about halfway through the second book in this series, Gone, and I’m absolutely loving it too!!
Samantha Parker never wanted to go back to Hidden Falls, seventeen years after the death of her brother. But she had to. Hidden Falls was small town surrounded by familiar people, old memories and apparently, a deep dark secret involving one of its beloved citizens.
Dr. Ethan McClane, a psychologist, got a new assignment, and that’s acting as the therapist for a juvenile delinquent Thomas Adler. He didn’t realize though that he’d be traveling back to Hidden Falls. Nearly two decades had passed, no one recognized him, but he still couldn’t forget that one night that changed it all for him.
Strange things started to happen right after Samantha got back to Hidden Falls. Her windows were vandalized, her chemistry lab got broken in, a skull was dug not far away from the cabin she’d seen when she was a child, and a number of people fell dead inside her house. And her nightmares seemed to have come back. Nightmares that she never understood.
Repressed really has a very interesting plot. The killings were mystifying. For every suspect I had in mind, each fell down one by one. When I thought I finally knew the killer, in the end, I was proven wrong again, left dumbfounded, shocked at the turn of events. The characters were also outstanding. Samantha didn’t get easily scared, despite the mess she’d been in. And Ethan McClane, he makes me want to go get a shrink and have myself psycho-analyzed. I would love to be adopted by the older McClane, too! The suspects surely got me twisted. That’s how good the story was, and man, did it really got me riled up.
This is my nth book by Elisabeth Naughton, and like always, I am in awe of her stories. Repressed is a mystery/suspense/romance thriller that got me grunting, hyperventilating, cursing and screaming for more. Every chapter promised anxiety, anticipation and blood-curling tension that only Naughton could deliver. Great job, Elisabeth!
3.75 stars—REPRESSED is the first installment in Elisabeth Naughton’s adult, contemporary DEADLY SECRET romantic, suspense series. This is psychologist Dr. Ethan McClane, and high school chemistry teacher Samantha Parker’s story line.
Told from several third person perspectives REPRESSED follows Samantha Parker on her return to her childhood home in Hidden Falls where her mother has died following an lengthy illness. Eighteen years earlier, Samantha had witnessed the murder of her older brother Seth but a recurring nightmare reveals something more sinister was witnessed that night-something Samantha no longer remembers about the ‘cabin in the woods’. Enter Dr. Ethan McClane, a child psychologist and advocate hired to check into a local student, and a man who knows more about Samantha’s past than our heroine is able to remember. What ensues is the building relationship between Ethan and Samantha, and the threats and attacks against our heroine by an unknown source. Samantha begins to believe that the man with whom she is falling in love, may be responsible for a number of the current attacks.
The relationship between Ethan and Samantha is quick to build. Ethan is on assignment in the town he never thought to return. Samantha is the woman who steals his heart and his love but Ethan and Samantha’s paths crossed years before and Samantha is unaware of their past connection. As Ethan prepares for the inevitable fall out of his secreted past, Samantha begins to doubt the man that she loves. The $ex scenes are intimate and intense.
There is a large ensemble cast of characters all centered in and around Hidden Falls. Eighteen years of secrets involving everyone from the sheriff’s department to the local newspaper editor, and someone running for political office adds a series of twist and turns to a story about one woman and her struggle to move forward following the death of her beloved brother.
The world building focuses on secrets and lies, and a past that comes full circle with the return of Samantha Parker and Ethan McClane. The premise is suspenseful with several easily deduced twists and turns; the characters are animated, colorful and an eclectic mix of small town gossips, bullies and power hungry thugs; the romance is captivating and passionate. Elisabeth Naughton’s REPRESSED is an entertaining story of mystery and romance with a little bit of small town mentality thrown into the mix.
Absolutely loved it!!!
After leaving Hidden Falls 18 years earlier, Samantha Parker returns home temporarily to sell her family home. While packing up and getting the house ready to sell she is working at the High School as a chemistry teacher and dealing with some troubled students along with haunting nightmares involving the murder of her brother when she was 10 years old.
Dr. Ethan McClane is temporarily in Hidden Falls, as a favor to a friend, to help one of Sam’s troubled students and is no stranger to this small town. Having bad childhood memories of his own all he wants is to help the student and get out of the town before anyone recognizes him or his own past sucks him back in.
There is an instant chemistry between Sam and Ethan and they decide while he was in town they would explore it. As they grow closer, Ethan’s secrets and Sam’s repressed memories reveal a connection between them that leads back to the tragic night of her brother’s murder that no one could have guessed.
As the past starts to resurface, they realize there are others in the town that wants the past to stay buried and Sam and Ethan to stop digging around. When everything comes out in the open it is not only their relationship in danger, but their very lives. The killer is closer than they thought and no one is safe in the end.