Susan's Review of Unmask Me If You Can by Shana Galen

This masked lord... Lord Jasper, younger son of a duke, suffered horrible burns fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. He wears a mask to hide his face from the stares and screams and finds comfort in the shadows. Jasper is an exceptional bounty hunter, so when a woman summons him to her deathbed and asks him to find her runaway daughter before she passes away, he doesn't refuse. Jasper is close to his quarry when he's knifed by an assailant. Imagine his surprise when he regains consciousness in the arms of the woman he seeks. Except she's not at all what he expected.

Is not the only one with scars. On a remote cliff on the sea, Olivia Carlisle calls her five-year-old son in from an approaching storm. But the little boy is more interested in the man he's found on the trail to their hidden cottage. Olivia fears men and wants nothing more than to leave the injured man where she found him. But his knife wound is severe, and with the approaching storm, she knows leaving him will condemn him to death. As Jasper begins to heal, Olivia acknowledges her attraction to him, even though such emotions terrify her almost as much as returning to London. Jasper must convince her that her only chance at safety is to challenge the man who pursues her. They must travel into the lion's den—he to face his vulnerability and she to face her worst fears.

Unmask Me If You Can is my favorite book in Shana Galen’s Survivor series. It’s an emotional story filled with fabulously written characters, great dialogue, romance and intrigue.

Jasper Grantham was a member of Draven’s dozen, an elite group of men who fought in the Peninsular War. Draven’s troop was given the most dangerous assignments. Jasper was badly burned when he ran back into a burning building to save a member of his troop. He wears a mask to cover the burns. Olivia Carlisle was betrothed to the powerful, violent Duke of Withernsea. Olivia disappeared from her home and society before they were married. Lord Carlisle has hired Jasper to find Olivia because her mother is dying.

Olivia’s son finds an injured Jasper on the path leading to their remote cottage. The couple forms a tenuous bond during a three- day rainstorm. They are attracted to each other but each has a lot of issues to overcome. Shana Galen made an excellent plot choice when she compared Jasper’s visible wounds versus Olivia’s emotional wounds throughout the novel. This decision drew me into the characters and their story and made for an excellent read.

The romance between Jasper and Olivia is fabulously written. Loved that Jasper understood that he could be loved for himself; a loyal, brave loving man. He realizes that his scars don’t define him. They are invisible to those who love him. Olivia learns to trust Jasper and is able to overcome her own fears. Loved the honest dialogue between the couple. Olivia is a survivor but, she falls back into the complacent daughter role when she returns home until Withersea shows his true colors. The last few chapters are suspenseful and kept me guessing. Loved the intrigue threaded throughout the novel and the unmasking of the villains in the story.

Unmask Me If You Can has all the feels—great characters, sizzling romance and suspenseful plot.

And the teaser about Draven was perfectly executed—I can’t wait for the next book in Shana Galen’s Survivor Series!

Reviewed by Susan Gorman

ARC provided by the author

Shana Galen is three-time Rita award nominee and the bestselling author of fast-paced, witty, and adventurous Regency romances. Kirkus says of her books, "The road to happily-ever-after is intense, conflicted, suspenseful and fun," and RT Bookreviews calls her books “lighthearted yet poignant, humorous yet touching." She taught English at the middle and high school level off and on for eleven years. Most of those years were spent working in Houston's inner city. Now she writes full time. She's happily married and has a daughter who is most definitely a romance heroine in the making.

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