Veena’s review of Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Contemporary Romance published by William Morrow 26 Aug 14

Ms. Phillips has been a long-time favorite author. This story, unfortunately, did not suck me in and enthrall me from the get-go, but, like Theo, the story grew on me and totally changed my opinion about it by the end. The one constant that captured my imagination from the beginning is Annie’s puppets. I like how the author uses conversations between Annie and her various puppets and later between Theo and the puppets as a great way to carry the story forward and give us insights into what each one is thinking and feeling.

Annie has run far and wide and successfully managed to stay away for almost seventeen years before being forced to make her way back to this tiny island in Maine. Her homecoming is not exactly the best, considering that the wind and snow are making visibility almost nonexistent, causing her to run into a snow bank and then forcing her to make the rest of her journey on foot, inadequately covered for the weather. Plus, what’s with the ghostly apparition whom she sees riding a horse at breakneck speed and almost runs her over? Clearly it’s not a ghost and even more clearly the rider is not at all welcoming, evidenced by the fact that he doesn’t stop to offer any help. Cold and freezing, Annie lugs her suitcases carrying her precious puppets, who are worth their weight and more in gold to her, only to find her cottage cold and unwelcoming. Isn’t that just the icing on a very cold welcome. But clearly as the story continues, we’ll see that Annie is made of stern stuff and she’s not going to let her disappointing welcome get her down for long.

Perhaps it’s the cold of a Maine island in winter that the author describes or the startling bizarre welcome that Annie experiences at the big house the next morning and her memories of the past that took me so long to warm up to the story. However, I soon became intrigued and enmeshed in the various elements of the story: Annie’s vulnerability in her old attraction to Theo, which did not end well in their teens; her gratitude to Jaycie that leads her to help her out, despite her own fears and dislikes; and, best of all, the little girl Livia who is dealing silently with her own traumas.

Between the puppets and various threatening incidents and doing Jaycie’s housekeeping job and trying to stay one step ahead of her attraction to Theo, Annie’s days and nights are pretty full. For those of you who love mysteries, there is one here to solve as well. Someone is targeting Annie and trying to scare her away with some of the incidents being downright scary and life threatening. I would love to hear how many readers have been able to figure out who the perpetrator of these criminal acts is before the answers are presented in the story.

One of the strongest parts of the book is how Theo starts off as a sinister, suspicious character and gradually morphs into something different, especially as the lines of his past begin to get filled in. Even though she doesn’t utter a single word of dialogue, the other character who just totally sucks me into her story is Livia. Her trauma and her beliefs play such a pivotal role in the story and in helping Annie find herself.

From a beginning that is mixed at best, I am almost surprised that I enjoyed it overall. Perhaps it is not as powerful and moving as some of Ms. Phillip’s other stories, but it is still pretty damn good.

Grade: B

Summary:

Deepest winter.
An isolated island off the coast of Maine.
A man. A woman.
Puppets. (Yes, puppets . . .)
And . . .
A mysterious house looming over the sea . . .

He’s a reclusive writer whose imagination creates chilling horror novels. She’s a down-on-her-luck actress reduced to staging kids’ puppet shows. He knows a dozen ways to kill his characters with his bare hands. She knows a dozen ways to kill an audience with laughs. But she’s not laughing now.

Annie Hewitt has arrived on Peregrine Island in the middle of a snowstorm and at the end of her resources. She’s broke, dispirited, but not quite ready to give up. Her red suitcases hold the puppets she uses to make her living: sensible Dilly, spunky Scamp, and Leo, the baddest of bad guys. Her puppets, the romantic novels she loves, and a little bit of courage are all she has left.

Annie couldn’t be more ill prepared for what she finds when she reaches Moonraker Cottage or for the man who dwells in Harp House, the mysterious mansion that hovers above the cottage. When she was a teenager, he betrayed her in a way she can never forget or forgive. Now they’re trapped together on a frozen island along with a lonely widow, a mute little girl, and townspeople who don’t know how to mind their own business.

Is he the villain she remembers, or has he changed? Her head says no. Her heart says yes.

It’s going to be a long, hot winter.

Read an excerpt.