Books & Spoons Review: IN HOPE'S SHADOW By Janice Kay Johnson

Where does she belong? 

Now that the "real" daughter of her adoptive parents has returned, Eve Lawson can't help feeling edged out.
It's a familiar isolation she sees all too often in her social work caseload.
And her unstoppable attraction to divorced cop Ben Kemper only complicates things further. 

They're on opposite sides of a murder case, but their connection is still stronger than their doubts and fears.
Eve is too close to the sexy single dad to walk away without a shattered heart.
​It's up to Ben to take a risk of his own and show Eve a family and love that will never let her go: his.

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​Warm and touching story about how sometimes family is made by the heart, not by blood.
I loved both Eve and Ben, they are both complex, seen and experienced more, when it comes to family, than most. They both carry their own scars, their issues, and get a crash course to some hidden ones they were not aware of.
Their dating isn't the most smooth and effortless romance you ever heard of. When I was reading about all the problems and turmoil they run into, I kept thinking this is the perfect guidebook to what not to say, ask, or do when dating! Also Ben's adorable daughter, and his lingering feelings for his ex-wife, cause even more issues.
But the big one comes, when they end up on the opposite sides of a murder case, and then start mirroring the suspects into their own lives, and their relationships.
This is a warm hearted story of a family, and two detectives, trying to find the light and normalcy in life, after their other daughter is found years after being kidnapped as a young kid. How this tragedy affects all of them, what are the consequences of it, and how the daughters find a surprising friendship, and then sisters in each other. 
The family that forms at the end, some tight to each other by blood, but bound together by love and commitment to each other, filled with devotion and fondness for each other. 
I loved this story, it is so easy to relate to the highly likeable characters, to the story of a hard life, and to the range of emotions, Ben and Eve goes through, while trying to find their footing in the world
~ Five Spoons