BEAUTIFUL GIRL - Shiloh Walker
La Grande Mort
Samhain Publishing - www.samhainpublishing.com
ISBN: 1-59998-873-9
February 2008
Erotic Contemporary Romance
Rating: Red Hot!

Prescott, Tennessee – Present Day

After twelve years away, Deliah Prescott has come home. Deliah recently started an email correspondence with her former best friend, Manda, who wants Del to come back for their high school reunion even though Del didn’t graduate. Del is very different from Deliah -- the perfect rich girl who had everything handed to her on a silver platter. But then one summer, everything changed. Del’s innocence was stolen by someone she should have been able to trust above all others. Instead, she ran away and suffered in ways no one should. Del has overcome everything from drug abuse to attempted suicide. She is the ultimate survivor. Even though Del is scared to death, she has come back to Prescott as a form of therapy and possibly to regain her soul.

Everyone in town assumes Del went to a fancy bordering school up north to finish her high school years and never looked back. How wrong they all are. Del was known as the pampered princess of Pike County and was the one true love of Blake Mitchell. Mitchell has also been through hell and back. Blake recovered from Hodgkin’s disease, lost all his hair, and has become the deputy sheriff. A small piece of himself died when his Dee Dee (Blake’s nickname for Del) went missing, and now that she has come back, he wants answers. But he is in for quite a shock because the Dee he knew is no longer there. A woman who goes by the name of Del in is in town and her eyes are so empty. Blake notices all the signs of abuse and needs to know who harmed his precious love.

Del has never gotten over Blake, but she feels she is so damaged that she doesn’t deserve love, especially from the one man who can give it to her and so much more. Blake will not give up, and when he finds out about Del’s past and everything she has gone through, he will move heaven and earth to bring her happiness and to make those around her who were the cause of her suffering pay, preferably very slowly and painfully.

Del is Blake’s BEAUTIFUL GIRL, the one woman that completes him. If there is one hero you must read about this year, his name is Blake Mitchell. His character is so unbelievable, due to his understanding and undying devotion toward Del. Some other authors would have made Blake bitter towards a woman like Del, but Blake is written in a very intelligent way and captures the reader’s heart quickly. Shiloh Walker has written one incredible man, and it will be hard for any other hero written this year to compete with him.

Then there is poor Deliah. Her story is so heart wrenching there are simply no words to explain what she has gone through. I found myself holding back tears of disgust and horror as she told Blake about that one summer when innocence was taken away from her because of a disturbing individual.

Shiloh Walker has written a very difficult story, and the tragedies that have struck Blake and Del may be a bit over the top, but the conclusion I came to is that horrible things happen to good people. When these things happen, they must be overcome. When Del is able to forgive and welcome Blake back into her life and her body, the healing has begun. There are also very amoral characters that include William and Louisa. Louisa’s thoughts and actions to get what she wants are beyond sickening. But there are also some very well rounded characters that bring some nice flavor to the story, such as Del’s friend Manda, and former bad boy and lawyer Sam Beaumont who has quite a shocking truth to reveal.

BEAUTIFUL GIRL packs quite a punch, and I can say that this author and this story is one of the best I have read so far this year. Shiloh Walker is making a name for herself, and she has raised the bar with BEAUTIFUL GIRL. I urge you to read this story, but don’t blame me if you break down in tears. Del is a true survivor and a heroine in every sense of the word, and because of that, BEAUTIFUL GIRL deserves the La Grande Mort award.

Kate Garrabrant