In Hot Pursuit, by Suzann Ledbetter

I'm so proud of myself. So far this February, most of the books I've read have been books by new-to-me authors that have been in my TBR for ages. It really needed to be done. Some have been great, some haven't, but at least now I know. How about In Hot Pursuit, by Suzann Ledbetter? Good or bad?

After the brutal murder of her husband, police officer Liz Rivas entered the witness protection program to save her young son. Today, twenty years later, she's Jenna MacArthur, shop owner in Pfister, Missouri. Jenna and her son, Sam, a rookie cop, have build new lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody's business. Or at least they think they do.

Then a stranger arrives in Pfister, a men who remembers Liz Rivas. He is Paul Haggerty, a fellow cop from her past. There are memories here, sure. . .and a fierce attraction. But is he a connection to her former life -- or a threat to the life Jenna has sacrificed so much to build?

*sigh* The answer is: not really bad, but to me, unreadable. And damn it, I really, really did want to read this. The story has the potential to be very interesting: the heroine has been in the Witness Protection system for 20 years, and as the book starts, a man has appeared in her town who knows who she is. He doesn't seem to wish her ill (in fact, he seems to be the hero). But what does he want? How will things play out?

Unfortunately, I won't be able to find out, because the writing style is such that after 85 pages, I just can't tolerate to continue reading. In all honesty, I can't say that it's a *bad* writing style. In fact, I'm sure it's the very reason many of Ledbetter's fans like her books. It just didn't work for me. The constant colourful, elaborate (which I'd actually call "tortured") metaphors and other imagery grated.

It's difficult to describe how much they grated. I first put the book aside on page 50, but after a few hours, I went back to it, thinking it couldn't have been as awful as I remembered. Surely I could ignore it and keep reading? Well, no, I couldn't. I closed it again 35 loooooong pages later, this time for good. This book with a wonderfully promising plot ends up being a DNF.