Author: Melinda Leigh
Genre: Romantic suspense, mystery
Published on: December 4, 2012 by Montlake Romance
When a terrible accident abruptly ends her riding career, Rachel Parker returns to Pennsylvania to rebuild her family’s horse farm. But her welcome home is anything but warm. Her sister’s abusive husband and a violent vandal threaten Rachel’s new business and her life. Someone is systematically trying to destroy her. Someone who knows private things about her. Someone who’s been watching her. Now Rachel must face the fact that the sins of her carefully hidden past have returned to haunt her…
Police Chief Mike O’Connell never had trouble drawing the line between his personal life and his job—until he met Rachel Parker. Mike’s investigation uncovers a shocking number of secrets and suspects. But the stalker’s escalating violence convinces him he doesn’t have much time to sort through it all. Whoever is watching Rachel wants her dead. Mike and Rachel race to untangle a web of deceit and lies that stretches two decades into the past—before her stalker strikes again.
Can the same formula work as well as it did the first time? She Can Run was a romantic suspense featuring a strong-willed woman who came under the protection of a righteous alpha male. I enjoyed the book, so that compelled me to continue the series. She Can Tell takes place in the same setting as its predecessor. The events start a few months from where She Can Run left off. There’s a new protagonist, Rachel Parker. She’s a professional horse racer who got forced out of retirement after a ghastly accident a while back. Now, Rachel’s come to Westbury, Pennsylvania to take care of her grandfather’s ranch.
Unlike Elizabeth Baker, Rachel isn’t an only child. She has a younger sister, Sarah. The latter never left Westbury. She married her high school sweetheart, Troy Mitchell. Unfortunately, their love story has taken a sad turn. Troy’s become an abusive husband, and he hits her in his latest attack. Sarah calls her sister, who rushes to her aid. Soon after this, the second protagonist and love interest is introduced. He’s Mike O’Connell (another guy with an O’ name in the same small town?), the chief of police.
Mike is a considerably large guy, which helps in his line of work. He’s also a good person, with values not unlike Steve Rogers’s. This means he really dislikes lowlives such as Troy and Will Martin (a notorious Westbury creep). When Mike first meets Rachel, he’s attracted but doesn’t realize it or come to terms with it until later. He’s also really protective of her. This is because Troy has been vandalizing Rachel’s ranch for a while now. The guy wants Rachel to run back to where she came from.
I found Rachel to be a more fearless woman than Elizabeth. Not that the latter was a pushover, not at all. Rachel just has a certain...steel. She’s not someone you can pick on without her defending herself with head held high. It was satisfying when Rachel put Martin in his place, for instance. As for Rachel’s stalker, he keeps taking bigger risks with her. Rachel’s neither fazed nor afraid. It helps that she has such an intimidating chief of police regularly stopping by her house.
The main antagonist is a cunning, relentless guy. His identity is kept secret for almost the whole book. This guy wants Rachel to get the hell out of Westbury for some reason. It appears that Rachel witnessed something when she was a little girl. She doesn’t remember this, but the bad guy hasn’t forgotten. He doesn’t want what happened that night to be exposed. Rachel stands her ground, so the bad guy eventually switches his efforts to try to kill her instead of scaring her out of the town.
She Can Tell is an entertaining second entry in this romantic suspense series. It has new protagonists but keeps characters from the previous installment around. I like when that happens in a book series, especially when you liked the characters. She Can is not my favorite series of the type, but it’s still really good. The author knows how to keep you guessing what’s going on and who’s the bad guy. The final confrontation was more thrilling than the one in She Can Run. This was a really enjoyable read, all in all. I am certainly going to continue with this series.
My rating: ★★★★
4 stars - Definitely enjoyed it!
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