Valley of Shadows

When Candace West hired me to design a book cover and format her book Lane Steen for print, I found myself browsing through the story while I worked. Soon, I forgot about formatting and read. Historical Romance is not my favorite genre, but the characters drew me in. Candace’s characters are some of the most complex I’ve seen from a debut author.

Fast forward to Valley of Shadows. I had wanted to read the sequel to Lane Steen but was waiting patiently for its release. One day I got a call from Kathy Cretsinger of Mantle Rock Publishing. She said, “I need you to do something for me.” I knew it was serious by her tone, and I knew she wouldn’t ask me for help unless she really needed it, because she knows how busy I usually am. “I need you to edit a book,” she continued. That book (lucky me!) was Valley of Shadows.

This was a line edit. The content editor had already done her thing and the revisions had been implemented. It was an easy edit because Candace’s writing is pretty clean. Like with Lane Steen, I lost myself in the characters and the story and had to read the book first before I could do the edit.

The story is set in the Arkansas Ozarks. I live in the “foothills of the Ozarks,” meaning the range starts near our community. It’s not the setting that makes this book great, although Candace does an excellent job of describing the setting. It’s the characters and the story. The conflict starts in the very first scene and doesn’t let up.

Historical Romance isn’t typically a genre that earns the “couldn’t put it down” phrase in a review like suspense often does, but I seriously had to keep reading this book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.