Low Pressure #BookReview

Sandra Brown | pub: Sept. 2012 | 469 pp

Summary: Bellamy Lyston Price was only 12 years old when her older sister Susan was killed on a stormy Memorial Day. Bellamy’s fear of storms is a legacy of the tornado that destroyed the crime scene as well as her memory of one vital fact that still eludes her…

Now, 18 years later, Bellamy has written a novel based on Susan’s murder. It’s her first book, and it’s an instant sensation. But because the novel is based on the most traumatic event of her life, she’s published it under a pseudonym to protect herself and her family.

But when a sleazy reporter for a tabloid newspaper discovers that the book is based on a real crime, Bellamy’s identity – and dark family secrets — are exposed. Suddenly, she finds herself embroiled in a personal conflict and at the mercy of her sister’s killer, who for almost two decades has gotten away with murder…and will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

My Review: I am not a Sandra Brown fangirl, but, we all have our naughty pleasure’s and Brown is certainly one of mine. Close enough to a throwback of my moms old Danielle Steele books on her nightstand that I can tolerate. Brown, and Steele for that matter, typically follow a strict and successful formula: Crime, damsel in distress (wither she likes it or not), good guy with dark tendencies, obligated to help her if only due to proximity of before mentioned distress, and a cop/agent sidekick on the trail of the killer on her trail. Good guy w/bad tendencies gets the girl. That it – that’s the story.

And so be it with Low Pressure. The crime of question actually happened 20 years ago at a company picnic in small town Texas. Bellamy, our lady in distress, is the younger sister of the murdered girl, Susan. Bellamy was a child at the time of the murder, and in awe of her older, glamorous, mouthy sister Susan. Bellamy remembers very little of the picnic, except maybe some key elements that got the wrong man convicted. Bellamy has yet to reconcile her feelings about her sisters murder and decides to write a book about it to help. This of course angers everyone involved, and maybe everyone in their small town as shes dredging up old feelings and rivals.

At the time, Susan was a loose cannon and likely the 70’s version of a hot girl – cute girl, fast for boys, disrespectful to her parents and mean to her younger sister and homosexual step brother. Most everyone was a suspect in her murder, then boyfriend Denton Carter, the step dad, every man at the party…even Bellamy was questioned. Denton, or Dent, is our good guy with dark tendencies. He’s been triggered by Bellamy’s retelling of the story and wants nothing to do with her. Unfortunately, (proximity) he sees the danger she doesn’t and has to save her. 🙄 (I mean, sometimes you gotta let a hero do hero shit🤷🏾‍♀️) Anyway, Dent doesn’t want to be considered a suspect again.

Pros: I mean, its Sandra Brown. The plot is maybe thin as dust and repetitive, but who cares? The sexual tension between Bellamy and Dent builds nicely and is gratifying. The slow burn lives up to the title but, wait for it, you’ll be happy you did! This one will twist and turn right up to the big reveal in the last chapters giving you that rollercoaster ride feeling we love from Brown books.

Cons: Listen, don’t come here expecting more than what you’re gonna get. I told you the formula, if you arent down – move around this one. I liked Dent our male savior – I was less impressed with Bellamy. I found her immature, dense and dependent even though she didn’t seem to think so. Its also a bit cringy the way Susan is described after death. I get it but, geesh.

Overall, this is a story about who killed the hot girl one summer in a small town. Sometimes young girls get caught in plots bigger than them messing around with powerful men and because we’re so inner focused and unaware of our mortality, we don’t see it coming. RIP Susan and every young girl like her. Good read and great opening to my #Romantics era. More to come! Stay Blessed, S.