Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: The Journal of Sanctuary One
SERIES: Sanctuary #6
AUTHOR: R.J. Scott
PUBLISHER: Love Lane Books
LENGTH: 181 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 24, 2012
BLURB:
When a snowstorm stops his friends from joining him at Sanctuary One for Christmas, Jake ends up alone. Sean has only one place to go. The original Sanctuary cabin. Neither man is prepared for the secrets that threaten to destroy Sanctuary.
Jake spends every Christmas at Sanctuary One. With the third anniversary of the day his dad died approaching, he arranges for Kayden, Beckett, and himself to meet at the cabin a few days before Christmas. A snowstorm blocks his friends in NY, and Jake ends up alone.
Sean is being hunted and the only place he can run to is somewhere mentioned in an old journal. The original Sanctuary cabin. It is no longer in official use but it would be a good place to heal and take stock of just what is going on with his life.
Neither man is prepared for being stuck together for an entire week, nor for the culmination of a case that threatens to get them killed.
REVIEW:
While the main issues revolving around the Bullens and the previous story arc were finished in the last book, there were a few loose threads still floating in the wind and this installment of the Sanctuary series has begun wrapping them up nicely. The fact that I got Jake’s story was just a bonus. 😀 Every year since his parents died, Jake spends Christmas up at a cabin that used to be used as Sanctuary One; with a near metric ton of snow being dropped on him resulting in Kayden and Beckett not being able to make it this year, Jake settles in and prepares to spend the holiday alone. Sean has spent more of his life undercover than he would care to admit but everything has finally come together to end one of the longest assignments of his life. Injured and alone, Sean heads to the one place he figures he’ll be safe: a defunct safe house known as Sanctuary One. He expected to have enough time to get himself together before submitting the last of his evidence…he never expected to find Jake. Now stuck together, truths long buried come to the surface and the chance at a relationship between the two men that thought they’d lost their chance may not seem so farfetched after all.
I was really looking forward to reading about Jake because he always seemed so serious and I wondered at the kind of man would appeal to him. What I liked best about this story was that it showed just how complicated matters with the Bullens and the FBI mole really were even as it brought things to a close. The relationship portion of the book wasn’t really a highlight for me this time around because while I adore Jake, I didn’t feel as though the connection between him and Sean was readily apparent. Attraction was easy to see but the deeper feelings were lacking for me, especially since I never got to see their previous interactions while they worked together liaising over the Bullen case. I’m glad they got to clear the air and I love that Jake finally got his happy ending as it were, but much like Dale and Joseph I just didn’t find the declarations of love to be believable when they were given.
Not a great deal of action in this one and no major plot development for the series of the whole but I still liked it and found it to be an enjoyable read. If you’re really determined to just read major storylines for the series you could probably skip this one but I’d still recommend reading it; it was great seeing how things were woven together and it was just a good book besides.
RATING: 
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