Vivian Winslow was born and raised in Southern California. Before becoming a writer, she made a career out of moving around the world every couple of years thanks to her husband’s job. She currently lives in New York City with her husband and two elementary school age children, and is grateful to finally have a place to call home for more than two years. New York is the perfect city to indulge her love of shopping, the arts and especially food. If she’s not at home writing or running around the city with her kids, you’ll most likely find her indulging in pizza on the Lower East Side or having a cocktail at her favorite bar in Alphabet City. That said, she’s still a California girl at heart and would gladly trade in her heels for a pair of flip-flops to catch a sunset on the beach.
Carla’s Review:
*I was given a copy of this book as a gift from Stephanie’s Book Reports in
exchange for an honest review.
5 stars or Black Dahlia by Vivian Winslow! This is the second book in The
Dahlia Trilogy of The Gilded Flower Series, and it is a great read!
When Dahlia loses her husband in a surfing accident, she falls into a deep
depression. Her friends and family are very concerned about her because
she doesn’t seem to be dealing with her grief. After much begging and
convincing, Dahlia agrees to go on a trip to India with her sister Lily and
close friend Vi. After a couple weeks of “beach” therapy, Dahlia shows no
signs of digging herself out of her depression,
One day, Lily and Vi decide to go island hopping. They ask Dahlia to go
with them, but of course she declines. She is happy to finally be left
alone. After a huge misunderstanding, she meets the handsome and sexy
Kai. While chasing Kai through the woods, Dahlia becomes injured, and Kai
takes her to see the local medicine woman. Among the villagers, the woman
is known as being somewhat of a fortune teller. In a language that Dahlia
can not translate, she listens while the woman speaks to Kai about her.
When Lily and Vi both have to return home, Dahlia chooses to stay for the
entirety of their scheduled vacation time. During this time. she and Kai
develop a friendship that quickly turns into a sexual relationship as
well. When it is finally time for Dahlia to leave, she has Kai take her to
see the medicine woman one more time. The predictions that she shares with
Kai are vague and foreboding. When she returns home, a secret is revealed
that turns Dahlia’s life upside down. The book ends when the secret is
revealed, so the reader is left with quite a cliffhanger.
Over all, I really enjoyed this book! The story line was interesting and
unfolded at the perfect pace. I fell in love with Dahlia, and I can’t wait
to read more of her story in books to come.
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