Review – Inside Story

Inside Story is book three in the author Susan Page Davis’s American Heroes series. This book thrusts Claudia Gillette, who was introduced in Finding Marie, to center stage. Claudia excels in her job as a journalist, traveling the globe for the perfect story. She’s revered in her field and has received many awards and honors, but she’s let her personal life suffer in the process.

All that changes when Claudia visits her sister and meets Bill White, a Navy special ops officer. Attracted to each other, but with schedules that send them in opposite directions, the pair begins a long distance relationship. Until Claudia wrangles an interview with a female member of Bill’s special ops team and joins their training maneuvers in the Philippines.

This is when the action ratchets up and takes the reader on a suspenseful journey. A journey I am not going to detail for you as I don’t want to spoil your chance to discover if Claudia’s trip brings the couple together or tears them apart, or even if they survive the adventure.

Davis pens a very likeable, realistic character in Claudia. She is spunky, independent and at the same time vulnerable. The relationship between Bill and Claudia develops naturally and is full of conflict and tension found in a strong romance novel. The suspense and non-stop action takes center stage when Claudia heads to the Philippines and you are unable to put the book down. And Davis tosses in a few surprises along the way, which makes the read even more enjoyable.

Inside Story is a totally satisfying book that I was sorry to see end. I liked it so much I have placed it on my list of favorite books of 2009. I didn’t have the pleasure of reading the first two books in this series, Frasier Island and Finding Marie, but I will definitely go back and read them now. So learn from my blunder and rush out to buy all three books, start reading Frasier Island, and happily work your way through Inside Story. You’ll be glad you did.