Review: All That's Hidden (Sugar Shack #2) by Susan Golden

Title: All That’s Hidden

         Sugar Shack Series 2

Author: Susan Golden

Release Date: August 12, 2019

Published By: Susan M. Golden

Category: Contemporary – Romance – Comedy

Type: Digital – Paperback

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Susan Golden Website

Blurb: 

Pet sitter turned entrepreneur, Jennifer Albright thinks she has it all: an expanding business, a new, blissful marriage to a very sexy husband, a dog named Rupert that people frequently think is a bear, and a parrot named Sugar that Jennifer’s pretty sure is psychic. But her idyllic life begins to unravel when a series of creepy incidents threatens to sabotage the launch of her doggie day care center, and the discovery of a hidden treasure thrusts her into the world of federal agents and international thievery. The chaos soon spills over onto her home life and Jennifer reluctantly begins to suspect that her seemingly perfect, unbelievably supportive husband is hiding something from her. There’s just so much that doesn’t add up.

Tech-mogul Ryan has found the love of his life in his adorable new bride, Jennifer. But trouble seems to follow her like a basset hound. When one strange twist of events offers Ryan an opportunity he feels he can’t pass up, he unknowingly launches himself down the road of suspicion and mistrust. But he’s got this covered. She doesn’t suspect a thing.

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Favorite Lines:

It’s nice when someone can see past the outside to your hidden qualities. Not every secret is a bad thing and not everything hidden is dark.  ~  Jennifer

Excerpt:

          Eight months ago, I married the most handsome, sweetest guy in the world. Didn’t hurt he was...okay say it...rich. That didn’t really matter. I would have fallen in love with him anyway, but rich was a nice bonus. Ryan can make me tingle all over with just a look. And despite how different we were in so many ways, we clicked from the moment we met. I looked at the gorgeous house in front of me and wondered what I had done to deserve the blessings I had in my life. 
          I pushed open the front door and was practically bowled over by Rupert. Rupert is a Newfoundland of the canine persuasion. He is big and furry and frequently mistaken for a bear by those meeting him for the first time. He thinks he’s a lap dog, has no concept of personal space and, even though he looks like he could eat you for breakfast, he’s a big baby. I love him to death. Rupert was Ryan’s dog before we met and it was Rupert that brought us together. Every time he practically flattens me at the front door, I recall the first time that happened.  
          I was handing out flyers for my pet-sitting service. Rupert laid me out in the grass of Ryan’s front lawn and when I regained my senses, I was staring at dancing blue eyes and a chiseled bare chest. I was knocked senseless for a second time.  
          As it turned out, Ryan needed a dog-sitter IMMEDIATELY. He was leaving for a business trip, his maid had just torn out of the driveway to handle a family emergency and Rupert could not, would not, be left alone in the house. Back then, he howled and carried on ceaselessly unless he had company. My arrival was more than serendipitous. I think it was Fate. Fate has not always been good to me, but she was smiling broadly on that day. I was hoping she felt as kindly today as well. 
          Rupert happily followed me into the house, ran over to retrieve his ball and began to gently nudge my hand with his nose, a sign he wanted to play. I was greeted with “Lucy, I’m home” and then the first strains of the Hawaii 5-O theme song. Those came from Sugar, the pet cockatoo I brought to our little family.  
          Sugar likes to watch television and has a remarkable capacity to reproduce what he hears. He does a fire engine siren that will make you think the guys are going to come crashing into your living room. The ability to mimic is not all that surprising in a cockatoo. What makes Sugar so special is his ability to pull out selections from his repertoire that fit so well with the situation. I have no idea how he does it. So, I get the Lucy reference. I think he likes the catchy 5-O theme song. Or maybe he’s hinting he wants a vacation in Hawaii. Yeah, Sugar, me too.  
          When Sugar came to live at Ryan’s, we discovered that Rupert no longer needed a person at home to keep him company. Rupert just happily laid under Sugar’s perch listening to the TV while getting covered in shreds from the cardboard Sugar loves to tear to pieces. It’s an odd relationship, but one that seems to suit them both.  
          “Okay, Rupert, we need to go to work. Sugar, you stay here for now. You can come once we get set up.”  
          Rupert bounded to the door and waited, prancing like a racehorse in the starting gate. Our departure was serenaded with the “Heigh Ho” dwarfs’work song from Snow White. Sugar has a particular fondness for Disney. 

Highlight:

          Darren finished drilling and John started chiseling away the mortar. The mortar came away fairly easily and we were all soon looking at a neatly chiseled rectangle stopped up with a cement block. It was a moment of acute anticipation. I hoped this wasn’t going to be a giant letdown.  
          The boys started nudging the block from its place. They pried forward first one side and then the other, moving the block about a half-inch at a time. The suspense was building and I had to admit this was pretty exciting. Finally, Ryan hefted the block to the floor, leaving a large hole in the wall. There was nothing directly in front of the hole. They had purposely chosen the spot for that reason. Unfortunately, that meant the first look behind the wall revealed nothing.  
          Ryan shined the flashlight off to either side and then up and down. The pipes blocked a lot of the view, but there were definitely things behind the wall. Everything we could see appeared to be wrapped in some kind of cloth. 
          “Well, I guess we aren’t going to blow up. But let’s take it easy. We still don’t know what this stuff is. And we need to be careful we don’t bring these top blocks down on us by removing too much supporting structure. Let’s pull this next block out and see if we can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with,” instructed Ryan. 
          The next block was a bit stubborn, but once they removed the mortar, it could be pulled out easily. Sure enough, on the other side of a pipe that had blocked our view from the first hole, was a smallish cloth bag secured at the top with a dainty braided cord. The cloth was beige cotton. It had no markings. We all looked at it for a minute. It was impossible to discern the bag’s contents.  
          “Here goes,” breathed Ryan as he reached out to grasp the bag by its top and bottom. “It’s pretty light and whatever is in it is hard,” Ryan said tentatively.  
          He turned away from the wall with the bag in his hands and looked around. The closest spot to inspect the contents was one of the grooming tables, which was at least twenty feet away. Ryan seemed reluctant to move too much with the bag. 
          “They roll, babe. Let me get one,” I volunteered. 
          When the table was in place in front of Ryan, he gingerly placed the bag on the table. We all looked at it for a while.  
          “Geronimo,” Ryan said as he untied the cord and pulled the bag down off its contents. 
          “Oh my,” I whispered. “It’s beautiful.”   
          Inside the bag was a vase about twelve inches high. It was made of lustrous porcelain and had a detailed design in colors so vivid they looked like they were lighted. 
          “It looks Chinese,” Lily commented.  
          “Import-export, huh?”John recalled. “Let’s see what else is stashed in there. Careful, this stuff could be quite valuable. No one would go to this trouble for knock offs.”
          By the early morning hours, we’d dismantled the section of the wall housing the mystery items and the bounty of items extracted from the hiding place was spread out on the two grooming tables, the front desk, and towels laid on the floor. Lily was busy taking photos of the loot with my cell phone.  
          To the best of my ability to identify the items, I was making an inventory list. The items all looked Chinese in origin. There were ceramics, jade pieces of sculpture and jewelry, elaborately embroidered clothing and what I assumed was a suit of armor. It was all gorgeous. There were no drugs as far as we could tell, but Darren identified a delicate white ceramic pipe as an opium pipe. There was a small amount of residue in the bowl. “Wow, that dog has some nose,” Darren said with admiration. 
          “What are we going to do with this stuff, Ry?” I wanted to know. 
          “Let’s put it all back in the bags it was wrapped in. Then we’ll load it into your SUV. I’m not sure I want it at the house. I’ll take it to the office. We can lock it up better there.”
          “Should we call the police?” I wanted to know. I looked at John and then at Darren. 
          “I’d like to wait till I hear back on this Kim guy before we plan our next move,” John chimed in. 
          “There’s nothing illegal about tearing down a wall and finding stuff. I don’t see any problem in moving it for safe keeping,” added Darren. 
          “All right,” said Ryan. “That’s the plan as of now. It’s getting pretty late and all us pirates have to go to work tomorrow.”
          We loaded up the SUV and Ryan headed off. I drove Ryan’s car home. Darren left with Lily to take her home. 
          “What happened to Lily? Allergies, my ass,” John said as I was locking up. 
          I smiled and was relieved to know John was not as easily deceived as he had appeared earlier.  
          “I’m sorry, I can’t say right now. Maybe Ryan can explain it tomorrow. Thanks for all your help tonight.”
          “Hmmm. I’ll let it go for now. I don’t like seeing her that upset. You good to go home by yourself? You need me to follow you?”
          “No, thanks. It must be exhausting being such a white knight,” I teased. 
          “Yeah, I get tuckered out now and again, but the fair damsels are always so grateful.”

Review: 

Jennifer is a bit of an odd duck. Feeling much more comfortable with the 4-legged variety of companions, her husband has now encouraged her to expand her business to a building in which she will provide daycare services for furry friends as well as training and pet-friendly bakery items. Newly married and a bit unsure about her new business venture, Jennifer had reached her quota of unfamiliar. Top her worries about her life changes with suspicious happenings in her new building, which quickly morphs into a crazy dangerous situation involving stolen items of historic and intrinsic value, then throw both Ryan’s security firm, the FBI and DHS into the mix and you have one helluva a hot mess going on. Jennifer doesn’t necessarily handle everything well and when Ryan seems to be acting a bit suspicious, she suddenly worries he’s having an affair. But maybe it’s all in her mind and those pesky insecurities are once again rearing their ugly heads due to all of the stress she is suddenly under. Either way, there’s a whole lot of crazy going on and it isn’t necessarily all the good kind.

Ryan is one hundred percent devoted to his new bride; the love of his life. Sure, things are never boring with her around as she seems to regularly attract odd happenings, but together they can handle anything. When a letter shows up that puts their marriage on a bit of a shaky foundation, Ryan is sure he knows what he wants to do to make it up to Jen and give her the surprise of her life. Confident she suspects nothing, he sets forth to carry out his plans with a bit of assistance. However, Jen's old insecurities set him reeling backward and suddenly he’s not sure if he even has a marriage left. Pair that with the dangerous situation they find themselves in regarding hidden stolen items and a deal they must complete to get the FBI out of their lives, and Ryan suddenly isn’t feeling as confident as he usually is. But deep down he knows that if they can weather this storm, they will come out on the other end stronger than ever. He’s just got to convince Jen to trust him and not give in to those old uncertainties perched on her shoulder.

This book was so freaking cute. Initially, it was a bit slow, but I attribute that to the fact that I have not read the first book in the Sugar Shack series. Had I read in order, I would have likely already been invested in these characters and jumped right back in. In fact, I am sure I would have given how much I adore them now. Packed full of adorable oddities, endearing characters, and tons of snark, I was in reader heaven my entire time within this book. I only wish I had read the first book in the series prior. With as fantastic as this book was, I can only assume the introduction to the series was just as fabulous. In the first book, Jennifer and Ryan meet and get together. There is enough information provided, including a flashback or two, to fully understand the basics of what occurred previously to keep the reader on track in the second story. Cut to the next installment and our couple is now newlyweds with Jennifer embarking on a new business venture and Ryan’s full support. In fact, he seems to believe in her more than she believes in herself. And so the Sugar Shack series, Jennifer’s nickname, is a series that follows our main couple through life's ups and downs. And they have quite a few ups and downs in this installment alone.

Rounding out the adorable couple are the wonderful secondary characters and the amazing animals they love. Rupert was Ryan’s dog initially and is the one responsible for getting Ryan and Jen together in the first place. Sugar, the “freaky little bird”, is a parrot that seems to have the ability to discern things about other people. For example, Ryan has a head of security whom no one knows much about as far as his past, yet Sugar is able to identify John’s past. The scene is actually quite comical and one of the best in the book. In fact, several scenes involving the parrot darn near steal the book. The humor and snark are on point and help to keep this story light-heated and witty despite the underlying seriousness of what is actually occurring; from the FBI/DHS aspect to Ryan and Jen’s marriage seemingly on the rocks. Ryan’s security team members are quite entertaining as are the staff that Jennifer hires for the doggy daycare. Each has their own skillset which comes in handy as the seriousness of Jen’s predicament comes to light. A few of the guys are almost like guardian angels with their secretive pasts and tendencies to blend in with the shadows when necessary – even coming to Lily’s rescue when an unwanted visitor shows up, threatening her well-being. I also enjoyed the banter/animosity between Ryan and the FBI as well as DHS’s response to their interactions.

While the majority of this book takes place from Jennifer’s perspective, there were a few chapters that provided Ryan’s point of view, allowing a better understanding of where each of our main characters was coming from. What I disliked the most was Jennifer’s insecurities. From what I gather, this was an issue in the previous book and I suppose with so many added stressors, old habits can easily re-manifest. However, she didn’t really believe in herself and didn’t trust that the passion she and Ryan shared was real. Ryan very clearly loves her to distraction and would do anything for her, so her distrust of his intentions was sad and disheartening. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with these engaging and whimsical characters. While a bit odd and quirky, they were people I would love to know and would definitely hang out with in real life. I also very much want to read the first book in the series, as well as any other books that are added in the future. If you are a fan of romantic comedies with a ridiculously hot couple, mysterious and sexy former special-ops turned personal security and/or dog trainer guys, psychic parrots, bear dogs, and a few cagy aspects adding an element of suspense in the mix, then you are in the right place. Fill your next reading session with this unforgettable cast of remarkable characters found only in the Sugar Shack series.

Kindle version provided by Xpresso Book Tours/Author in exchange for an honest review.