Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: Grave Risk - #7 in the Hideaway Series
Author: Hannah Alexander
Publisher: Steeple Hill
ISBN: 0-373-78575-5
Release Date: January 2007
Genre/Sub-genre: Inspirational Romantic Suspense
Year/Setting: Current/Hideaway
Overall Rating: 4.75
Sexual Content Rating: Very Subtle
Language (Profanity) Rating: None
Violent Content Rating: Very Minimal
Hannah's Website:
www.hannahalexander.com
Jill Cooper returned to her home town after graduating from college. She didn’t feel she could really go anywhere else. She had broken up with her fiancée and was hurting not to mention her OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) needed to be controlled. Then there was her younger sister who really needed some guidance with her parents being gone. In spite of all of these reasons, Jill also wanted to return home and to feel the safety of knowing the town and the people around her.
She has her friends and her sister who are dear to her but no one more so than Edith Potts. Edith had been the high school principal for years and had taken Jill under her wing, especially after the girl’s parents had died. Things hadn’t been easy for Jill and Edith encouraged her to go on to nursing school and use her talents, while assuring Jill she would help with Jill’s sister, Noelle, while she was gone. Then when Jill returned home, Edith helped her again to get a job and get on her feet and more importantly to accept her OCD and learn to live with it.
Now things are going well. Jill has found her niche in this little town and is feeling good about herself. Her sister is doing well with a new business she has established, her friends are happy and life was good.
Or at least it was until two major shocks came at her in one day. Jill thought the biggest shock of the day was she let her sister talk her into getting a massage to help out Noelle’s new business. This was way out of her comfort zone. One comforting thing, however, was that Edith was in the next cubicle talking to her and helping her relax. The first big shock came when Edith quit talking and when Jill went to find out why, her rock was in trouble. In spite of immediate medical care, Jill lost her rock that day and shocked her world only to turn around and discover that one of the doctors there to help that day was the fiancée she lost in college.
She is left to deal with a death that she can’t believe was from natural causes and a fiancée she just isn’t ready to see.
The writing team of Dr. Mel and Cheryl Hodde are actually the writers behind Hannah Alexander and consequently Grave Risk. While this book is part of series revolving around Hideaway, I never felt lost or that I had missed anything by not reading these other stories. I do have to admit after reading this one, that I enjoyed their writing style and now want to find those other stories and finish the series.
Jill has had a tough go of things but then who among us has ever had it easy. However, she is a character of remarkable strength to learn to live with OCD and the rises and falls that go along with that not to mention to risk her heart again on love. She has to overcome a lot of internal fears to do so but finds she has more depth than she ever gave herself credit for. I also found the mystery going on surrounding Edith’s death to be very well outlined and yet I found myself surprised at the ending.
Very well done! 
Lori
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