Book Two of Jennifer Harlow's Iris Ballard thriller series. It picks up a couple months after the events of the first book, Iris has achieved some fame and fortune and even hopefully a spot as a consultant for CNN. She's even signed a book deal to tell her story but before she can settle back down at home and start writing her book she gets a frantic call from her Mother saying her brother is missing. The past internal problems Iris faced in Beautiful Maids All in a Row for the most part have been handled, she no longer drinks and has stopped abusing prescription drugs, but she still dealing with the death of her husband especially now that she is looking at Luke as someone who is more than a friend. Now she's dealing with a whole new/not so new batch of internal and external conflict in the form of her mother. Then there is the whole issue with her brother being suckered in by a con artist and his cult.
Mathias Morning and his New Morning Movement say all the right things the cater to the people who are at their weakest, recovering addicts who want someone else to blame for their decisions. After his fiancee miscarried, Iris' twin Billy was at his weakest and after he cleaned out their joint bank account and disappeared Iris knew nothing good was going ot come of it especailly the deeper she dug. While this is the main storyline of the book Iris family drama almost overshadows it, it does play a big part her interaction with her brother and mother and their past histories and in turn how Mathias is able to manipulate them because of it. Luke is seriously Iris' rock, he is there when she needs him and reminds her of her self worth and he just awesome.
Overall, this was a really good read. The internal conflict is even more important to the story than with the first one the family dynamics and all the past drama finally comes out with some revelations and closure. I really enjoyed how the story played out, it was a slow build up but a good one.
