✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Skye Warren’s Behind Closed Doors ✍🏻

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

If you’ve read Skye Warren’s Rochester Trilogy, you’ve met Marjorie, the heroine of her newest novella, Behind Closed Doors. Marjorie is the inn owner where Beau and Jane reside after his mansion burns down. In that trilogy, she’s fairly unassuming, although she plays a minor part in the situation between Beau and his past. 

Warren has granted us access to Marjorie’s life in this newest book. Marjorie leads a quiet life, running the inn and crafting scrapbooks for others. Her life is interrupted one night by a new guest, Sam Smith. Exuding darkness, Marjorie should be frightened of him; instead, she is drawn to him. They quickly become entangled, and this short novella clearly shows Warren’s prowess with crafting steamy scenes. In fact, given the brevity of this story form, Sam and Marjorie’s story is insta-love with the complication of her past, adding a bit of suspense to her story. 

In true Skye Warren form, Behind Closed Doors is a fast gobble of romance. She draws you into Marjorie’s existence by her quietude. Due to her past, she lives a solitary existence. For the most part, she’s fine with that until Sam upends it. This novella holds this brilliant metaphor wherein Marjorie, whose past has been erased, creates scrapbooks of others’ experiences. Once you read this story, you understand the profundity of her actions. Warren carefully weaves this truth to the end of the story. 

I struggled a bit with Warren’s style. Much of the book is punctuated with simple sentences that stunt the storytelling flow. Sometimes, this can be impactful for underscoring aspects of a story, but in this form, it felt jarring. I love that Warren takes us back to one of her popular trilogies, but Marjorie’s story feels like a quick addendum instead of anything significant. 

For me, the best part of Behind Closed Doors is Skye Warren’s extended metaphor, one that reminds us of the significance of losing one’s past while needing to find an abundant future. Sam and Marjorie’s journey is difficult, but it finds its home in a happy ending that leaves you satiated.

In love and romance, 

Professor A