Review: Enigma Rose by S.E. Reynolds

Romance, tragedy, and redemption are served up alongside small-town charm in Enigma Rose by S.E. Reynolds. A slow-burning romantic thriller, this is not a standard heartbreak-to-healing love story, and leads readers through an emotional maze before reaching its dramatic end.

Tragedy strikes the mayor of Fairview, sending his seemingly perfect life into a spiral of sorrow and solitary fatherhood. His late wife, Melissa, had been his unwavering rock for years, the woman who had pulled him out of young heartbreak and whose trust fund allowed him to leap from police officer to political powerhouse.

Melissa taught him how to be a man, and how to raise their son, JJ, but before she succumbed to her condition, she shared a dark secret from more than twenty-five years ago, confessing to a lie that changed the direction of Mayor Joshua Steadman’s life completely. This revelation sends him spiraling, but a political rockstar squarely in the public eye doesn’t have time for a breakdown – at least not in front of the cameras.

Eighteen months after the funeral, the mayor’s mournful bachelorhood comes to an end when two very different women suddenly enter his orbit. Virginia is a hard-nosed book editor who is initially defensive around the cheesy politician, but it doesn’t take long for her to ease into his charms. Stacie is a self-described spinster, and the partner at a local law firm, who comes into the mayor’s life quite by accident, but finds herself drawn in by the potential she sees in his tragic charm. Unbeknownst to this semi-sex-crazed mayor, he soon learns how dangerous the middle of a love triangle can be.

As flirtation and lust turn to obsession and violence, this romantic tangle becomes an unpredictable thriller. The drama and tension that drive the second half of this novel, as the mayor edges closer to destruction, turn this story into a modern-day dissection of expectation, desire, and instant gratification. Both women vie for Joshua’s affections, with differing levels of success, and as it becomes clear which he has chosen, the stakes become deadly.

The multiple narrative viewpoints offered by Reynolds give readers a visceral glimpse into the mindset of these characters, disturbing as those internal dialogues may be. At times, the same scene is told from two different perspectives, one after the other, which is both an original and effective literary tool, conveying a relatable tale of loneliness, desperation, and our growing inability to communicate our wants and needs.

There are some scenes that feel redundant, hinting at the same dangerous climax readers can clearly see on the horizon. At other times, the internal monologues of the characters are overly explicit, telling readers precisely what the score is, when a bit more mystery would aid the suspense. On the technical side, the editing is generally quite clean, although there are some small errors, and occasional tense mismatches.

Overall, however, this is an original romantic thriller that will satisfy readers of a wide breadth of genres: romance, thrillers, and character-driven contemporary fiction. Weaving family, grief, power, and sex in a complex dramatic puzzle, Enigma Rose is a uniquely multilayered and entertaining page-turner.