Review: The Bride Wore White by Amanda Quick

 

The Bride Wore White (Burning Cove #7) by Amanda Quick

Publication Date: May 2nd 2023 by Berkley Books

Pages: 320

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Prudence Ryland makes her living interpreting dreams for her clients, but pressure from a rich, determined client has her making plans to leave town and pursue other avenues of employment. However, a bad session with a client has her packing up sooner than she planned and moving to Southern California under a different identity. Thing go from bad to worse when she’s drugged and kidnapped, waking up in the hotel room of a dead man, wearing a wedding dress drenched in his blood. Who could be behind this obvious ploy to set her up to take the fall for a murder she didn’t commit?  She manages to escape unnoticed but knows she must seek help before her situation escalates further.

Prudence reaches out to Luther Pell, a man with a reputation for fixing problems, for help. Luther and his associate Jack Wingate take on her case and arrange for Prudence to stay with Jack as his personal “psychic dream consultant” and splash it all over the gossip channels to lure the killer out. Jack Wingate believes most in the psychic business to be frauds and con artists, but something about Prudence intrigues him. Jack rubs Prudence the wrong way and so their pairing has some fun verbal sparring, with sparks of attraction flying between them.

The story is set in the fictional town of Burning Cove, California, a beautiful coastal retreat for the rich and famous back in the days of glamorous, old Hollywood. It’s a magical time period to be immersed in and Ms. Quick captures it beautifully.

The Bride Wore White was an entertaining historical mystery containing a bit of a paranormal aspect and a dash of romance.  Action, thrills, and a bit of danger kept me turning the pages to see how it all worked out! This is the seventh installment in the Burning Cove mystery series, but it’s not necessary to read the previous books to enjoy this one. Each has its own mystery and couple it focuses on.

4 Stars

Book Description:

A psychic desperate to escape her destiny—and a killer—finds her future in the coastal town of Burning Cove in New York Times bestselling author Amanda Quick’s latest novel.

Being Madame Ariadne, Psychic Dream Consultant, wasn’t Prudence Ryland’s ideal gig, but it paid well which was reason enough to do the work—until she realizes that her latest client intends to kill her. But Prudence, a master at reinvention, finds a new job and home as far away as possible and is finally able to relax—which turns out to be a big mistake. Letting her guard down means being kidnapped and drugged and waking up in a bloodstained wedding dress in the honeymoon suite next to a dead man. With the press outside the hotel, waiting with their cameras and police sirens in the distance, it’s obvious she’s being framed for the man’s murder. Prudence knows who is responsible, but will anyone believe her?

It doesn’t seem likely that rumored crime boss Luther Pell or his associate, Jack Wingate, believe her seemingly outrageous claims of being a target of a ruthless vendetta. In fact, Prudence is convinced that the mysterious Mr. Wingate believes her to be a fraud at best, and at worst: a murderer. And Jack Wingate does seem to be someone intimately familiar with violence, if going by his scarred face and grim expression. So no one is more shocked than Prudence when Jack says he’ll help her. Of course, his ideas for helping her involve using her as the bait for a killer, but Prudence feels oddly safe with Jack protecting her. But who will protect Prudence from her growing fascination with this enigma of a man?

Photo Credit: Marc von Borstel

About the author:

Amanda Quick is a pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, the author, under various pen names, of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print. She is also the author of the Ladies of Lantern Street novels and the Arcane Society series. Learn more online at www.jayneannkrentz.com.