The night was always Abby Whitman’s enemy. As a young girl she walked in her sleep, and one night, she started a fire that scarred her sister for life and left Abby with unbearable guilt . . . and a loneliness that echoes within her. Now Abby has begun blacking out again-with apparently fatal results. A car accident has killed the son of a prominent family. Even though the evidence seems to exonerate her, Abby is plagued by doubts-and soon by mysterious threats. Psychiatrist Dr. Jason Coble is intrigued by Abby and offers to help her explore the dark recesses of her mind. Through this terrifying journey, Jason’s interest turns to passion, and he yearns to give her the love she craves. But first, Abby must trust him-and shed light on secrets that will rock this Southern town and reveal a danger that threatens them both.

Sleep No More – Susan Crandall
January 4, 2010
Romantic Suspense
Paperback, 400 pages
Forever

Abby lives a very quiet, lonely life. She has friends and a great job, but when night comes, terror engulfs her. When she was young, she had problems with sleepwalking, so extreme, that one night she knocked over a gas light as she was sleepwalking and burned her house down, injuring and scarring her sister. After many years with a psychologist, her sleepwalking has subsided, but her guilt has never left her.

Recently, her mom passed away and her father has been showing signs of Alzheimer’s, and the shock and trauma of that has triggered her sleepwalking again. One night, after a chance meeting with Dr. Jason Coble, a local psychiatrist in town, she enjoys an impromptu dinner with him and then leaves to go home. The next time she wakes up, the unspeakable has happened. She is covered in glass, her car is in a marsh, and there is a nineteen year old dead off of a motorcycle. She is overridden with guilt and anguish that she “slept drove” and killed a young man.

However, not all is as it seems. Someone called 9-1-1 from the marsh, and it wasn’t Abby nor the dead teenager. Someone had been at the scene, but no one knows why. Jason starts to take the lead in Abby’s life, to give her reassurance and build up her confidence. He sees a very broken, woman living in complete denial. Jason himself leads a busy wife with an alcoholic ex-wife, a seven year old daughter with her, and a 17 yr old stepson that is definitely entering his rebellious years. As Jason spends more time with Abby, Bryce becomes more irate that his family will never be as one again. Threats start to escalate towards Abby, and her attraction to Jason also starts to move forward.

Sleep No More is a romantic suspense that really turned out of have a great mystery. There are many people involved and nothing is really how it seems until the very end. The threats towards Abby start small and escalate until things get out of control at the end, yet everything is all tied together.

My biggest problem with the book is Abby. She is just not my kind heroine. She has led a very emotionally difficult life. She burned down the family historical estate as a young girl, and her sister will live with the scars for the rest of her life. Besides getting guilt from her, Abby’s mother recently passed away and her father is showing the first signs of dementia, yet, Abby is the perfect person. By that I mean, yes she lives in denial and she is broken on the inside, but she has the perfect demeanor and at least the perfect exterior. She doesn’t have a bad bone in her body, always saying and doing the exact right things. Very reminscent of Marie-Terese in JR Ward’s Covet in that she is so meek, and boring. I can see Jason attracted to her emotions because of his profession, but I had a hard time buying into him being attracted to her as a whole.

I very much enjoyed Jason and his struggles with his ex-wife and their children. Susan Crandall does a great job with Jason balancing that part of his life with his new feelings for Abby. He really has to go through a lot of stress dealing with his alcoholic ex-wife and worrying about Abby and what harm may come to her. Bryce, Jason’s seventeen year old stepson also plays an important role in this book. His anger and aggression seem quite real and I think his actions portray that of a confused teenager.

The actual romance scenes in Sleep No More are light, but the suspense carries the story quite well.

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars

Recent Reviews:
Closetwriter – 4/5
Dear Author: – C+
Flight into Fantasy – C+
Goodreads

Susan Crandall’s website.