Book Review: Ravens In the Rain by Christie and Jeff Santo

Book Synopsis

Ravens In The Rain centers around Pru and Carney, she’s a woman with a past, and he’s a man with no future. Down on luck and down on love, they meet over a game of chance at an off-strip Vegas casino, and Carney wonders if Pru’s sparkle is what he needs to lift him from his darkness. He doesn’t even mind that she swiped a hundred-dollar bill from an old cowboy. It excites him.

While Pru, disillusioned by her sparkle, is now accustomed to the cynical disposition of vagabond life. She’s not looking for a one-night stand; she’s looking for survival and sizing Carney up as a comfortable solution, for the moment. When she finds out who he really is, she’ll ante up for the game of her life.

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My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

RAVENS IN THE RAIN: A Noir Love Story by Christie and Jeff Santo is an intriguing story that is a noir romance. I love noir mysteries and crime stories, but they usually do not end well for the main characters, so I was very interested in reading how a noir romance is imagined. (And of course, I imagined it in black and white.)

In the subgenre of noir romance the protagonists should never fall in love, but they do. They are cynical, disillusioned and/or feel more despair than hope. In the traditional romance novel, the H/h may not believe they belong together, but they work through diversity to end up together. In both, the H/h must end up together to be a romance no matter how light and hopeful or dark and gritty the journey.

Ravens In the Rain pulled me in to the despair and drama of Pru and Carney’s lives. What kept me reading was the constant tension and unanswered questions between these two. When I began to feel as if I had an understanding of either character, the authors would throw in a twist that would change my perspective of the character/characters or their situation. I love the continual speculation between truth and lies and the differing perspectives of each.

Can Pru and Carney’s very different and yet equally unsettling pasts decide the future for these two, or do they break free of their pasts and find their own happiness together?

I recommend this unique genre bending, but not breaking modern day dark romance with fascinating protagonists.

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