Last Rites

Last Rites is the 2nd book in The Secrets and Shadows Series! As of Sep 2023, there are only 2 books in this series, but a 3rd is due out in Feb 2024.

Book Details

Last Rites was published in July 2023.

This is a full-length novel with 463 pages.

This book is classified as a small town & rural fiction novel, a suspense story, and a romantic suspense novel.

I would call this one more a small town story as this book is more about the community of Jubilee as opposed to the two main characters.

So, yes, the story is about Aaron Pope and Dani Owens.

But it’s also about a small boy who gets shot.

It’s also about solving a decades long mystery that has been left undone within the Pope family!

And it’s this part of the story that links all the others.

You’ll find a couple of sexy scenes but with very little details in them.

Book Summary

This story starts with Shirley Pope Wallace being beaten by her good-for-nothing husband. Her son, Aaron, who’s also a cop, finds her and it’s the beginning of their story.

After being judged and found guilty of nothing but bearing Clyde Wallace’s name, the family decides to change their name back to Shirley’s maiden name of Pope and move home to Jubilee, Kentucky.

Shirley has four sons: Aaron, a police officer; Sean, an IT tech; Wiley, just graduated from the police academy, and Brendan (B.J.), a senior in high school.

I’m thinking that this series will be about these boys as book 3 is about Sean!!

This family is welcomed with open arms and finally have a chance to heal and build lives of their own.

Sadly, Aaron was married before, but his first wife couldn’t handle the stigma of being married to a man who was connected to a criminal, so she divorced him before he moved.

And while Aaron was a cop in Arkansas, he’s hesitant to join the department in Jubilee because he doesn’t was to be judged because of who his father was.

But he tried anyway and joins the Jubilee PD. And it’s the beginning of his story.

And this is where he meets Dani Owens. Dani has moved to Jubilee to be an elementary school teacher but also to move away from a terrifying stalker that fixated on her.

So while she’s reluctant to get involved again, when she sees a man drop a gun she knows that she needs to. She also sees him drop something, which turns out to be a really old journal, she knows she needs to turn it in.

The story is also about Dani and her finally feeling safe after this terrifying stalker comes looking for her again. And Aaron steps in to not only protect her but also get the guy!

And of course, while he’s helping her, their feeling develop and eventually fall in love. So while this story is about Aaron and Dani, it’s also about righting a wrong that happens to a small boy, and finding their long lost grandmother who has been missing for decades.

It’s about how everything is connected, our current lives, our pasts and our futures.

Conclusion

I found this story to be a feel-good story! Just a wonderful story about family and community and helping your family even those that have gone before!

It’s the type of story that you can read again and again. I certainly have since I bought it!

I’m excited to read the rest of this series as it comes out! And yes, I wish authors would write as fast as I read. Okay, so I might have read this entire book within 24 hours of it being released!!

It’s definitely worth reading.