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Shades of Twilight
Shades of Twilight
Author: Linda Howard
Roanna Davenport grows up in a wealthy southern family but never quite fits in. She isn't pretty or popular, and she has a real talent for saying the wrong thing at precisely the wrong moment. She's in love with a distant cousin, Webb Tallant. But Webb marries their cousin Jessie, the bane of Roanna's life. When Jessie is found murde...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780671019716
ISBN-10: 0671019716
Publication Date: 7/1996
Pages: 373
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 271

3.9 stars, based on 271 ratings
Publisher: Pocket Star
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Anything LH writes has depth of character that grabs the heart. The orphaned Roanna will draw you into her heartbreak from the minute you begin reading. I have reread this book twice in several years.
MELNELYNN avatar reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 669 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Howard does a tour de force bringing together this dysfunctional family with such strongly drawn characters. With a seamless Mutli-POV (point of view) she brings them all into vivid life for the reader, making this a pleasure to read.
Roanna was a gawky ugly duckling when she came to live with her wealthy grandmother in the sprawling mansion in Alabama. Left orphan at the early age, she feels so alone. Her beautiful, older cousin Jessie does not welcome her. Her grandmother makes it clear she is doing her family duty, and little else. So while the mansion was straight out of Gone With The Wind, Roanna was so very alone in the big house. Except for her distant cousin Webb. He showed a gentleness that won Roanna's admiration and silent love.

Roanna is constantly criticized by her grandmother, never doing anything to earn her approval, a startling contracts to the loving parents who adored her unconditionally. This mental abuse of her young spirit is only amplified by her grandmothers utter adoration of her perfect cousin Jessie. Even when Jessie was less than perfect her grandmother excused or covered for her. Roanna was forced to stand silently by as Webb and Jessie are paired into the "perfect couple", and there was little she could do, but watch as Webb married the wild, and greedy Jessie, always feeling at the back of her mind Webb deserved better. They seemed the faerytale couple, destined to rule the Davenport fortune, until the night Jessie was found dead, and everyone blamed Webb.

With everyone, but Roanna believes he killed Jessie, Webb leaves for Arizona. Now years later, a grown up Roanna has come to bring Webb home. Ten years has passed. Webb is no longer the caring gentle man Roanna loved. He is bitter, hardened. Despite his revulsion for his so-called families betrayal, Webb is convinced by Roanna it's time to come home, take up the reins of Davenport power and finally put Jessie's death to rest.

Webb comes back for two reasons - Roanna and to find out who really killed Jessie. Only a killer does not want his secret revealed and is willing to kill again to protect himself from exposure. It's a home with vividly drawn characters, all with their share of dark secrets. Howard, gives you that sultry, itchy Southern charm, a cover for a multitude of sins and passions simmering just under the surface. Roanna is a poignant character that strikes the cord in any woman who has felt less than perfect growing up. And by the same token, Webb is the knight in shining armour, dreams for a young girl to worship.

Howard uses the Mutlio-POV(point of view) so let the reader really experience these vividly created people in a way enforced "Stepford Writing" (Single POV) just cannot flesh out. It's simply Howard and the genre at it's best.
reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 809 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Murder & romance. Great read.
mew156 avatar reviewed Shades of Twilight on
Helpful Score: 2
i am just starting to get/read Linda Howard's work and so far i've loved everything, but when i read the back of Shades of Twilight i was worried that i wouldn't enjoy it because of some themes in it (cousins marrying, one cousin dies and the other steps in kind of thing)...well i was completely wrong and i loved this book!

loved seeing the characters grow up and could empathize with them. the miscommunication issues that are annoying in some books felt justified in Shades of Twilight because you understood why the characters acted the way they did.

great read and i will continue my journey through all of Ms. Howard's books.
reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 148 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
The ID of the murder was a surprise....which make this book definately worth reading.....not for young readers...mature audiences only.
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reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 32 more book reviews
I love anything Linda Howard writes even if the back cover doesn't sound like something I would normally read. She's one of the few authors that I will buy in hardback and she's on my keeper bookshelf for life.
This is a really good suspense story with good balance between romance and suspense.
Boydsbooks avatar reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 12 more book reviews
Another grand slam by Linda Howard. I gobbled this book up in record time (one day) quite a page turner. This book had every single aspect that you could possibly imagine in a novel. Love, mystery, suspense, romance, corruption, deceit...this one has it all. The only draw back of this book is that the entire story line is very incestuous and at one point sickening; but my emotional connection to Roanna was so strong throughout this entire novel that it kept me hanging on and turning page after page to find out how it was going to end. Excellent, excellent book; although this one may not be for everyone.
reviewed Shades of Twilight on + 496 more book reviews
I have never read her before, interesting story, but not my really my sort of book.

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Roanna Davennport (Primary Character)
Webb (Primary Character)
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