Ani's Book Abyss

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Review: And One Last Thing...

And One Last Thing...

by Molly Harper

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 4.0 Stars

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this story. Contemporary Romance usually isn't my preferred genre and are typically fluff that (when written well) can give me little heartwarming nudges and smiles every so often. I read them mainly because I do like romances and I like them even more with a healthy dose of tasteful humor and a great set of characters to create those rare, less than mundane tellings--this is especially since a lot of Contemporaries that I've picked up tend to have the same formula.

And One Last Thing..., however, is probably more Chick Lit with emotional development focused solely on our main female character than it is a Romance. This was something I hadn't been expecting and something that made the story more inspiring than giddily heartwarming. Cute and breezy, oh so witty, and very well written, this book turned out quite entertaining--and caught me finishing it in one full sitting since I couldn't stop reading.

Lacey Terwilliger (soon to be Lacey Vernon) finds out that her husband is cheating on her because of a misdirected floral delivery that was supposed to go to her husband's receptionist, addressed to "Bumblebee" from "The Stinger" (insert your snortling euphemisms here). In fact, she drives out to her husbands accounting firm to confront, only to witness the two going at it in plain sight, for all the world to see.

And apparently, instead of lying down and taking it quietly like many of her community's First Estate wives seem to think she should be doing, she exacts revenge in the form of a very cleverly written newsletter sent via e-mail to all friends, family friends, and family members (which in turn gets shared with the whole world via YouTube, newspaper, and other forms of media).

And after that simple click of a button, Lacey's world begins to untangle in extremely public and ugly ways. Her husband and his mistress are suing her for slander and defamation of character, her mother-in-law is outraged that she is ruining their family and their reputation, news vans are parked outside her parents' home, people are either getting a nice snicker at her situation, or in disgust that she couldn't just take the adultery quietly, her mother (though supportive) is frustrated that she acted so rashly... her own father won't even speak to her anymore (very un-supportive).

It's like the messed up life of the Upper Echelons of society and according to Lacey's mother-in-law Wynnie, Lacey should have just let her husband Mike get away with the cheating so long as he came home each night (which is a moot point since he rarely came home, and when he was home, he was always on the phone). According to Wynnie, a cheating husband will typically feel so guilty that he'll readily spend money on his spouse to make up for cheating on her (which is also a moot point, we find out later on, because anything Mike bought for Lacey that could be construed as a sweet gift, he'd also bought something similar and better for his mistress). According to Wynnie, this is simply standard for men because they know which girls to bring home and marry and which girls they can only keep on the side to play around with... like her own husband who has his own string (not just one, but multiple) of girls.

But hey, at least he makes up for it by buying her splendid gifts out of guilt. Right?

(Imagine an eye-rolling gif here, because I saw one in my head every time Singletree's First Estate wives opened their mouths. But don't worry, there's more eye-rolling to come.)

The publicity begins to hamper at Lacey's chances of getting out of this divorce and settling the defamation suit. In some twisted, yet sadly realistic way, Lacey's meltdown has been interpreted by society as her becoming a vindictive bitch out to ruin her husband despite the fact that he was the one who couldn't keep his pants on around other women. Mike is turning out the sympathetic points in this mess. So her lawyer suggests that she goes away for a while and lay low. As long as she doesn't speak to anyone or make anymore noise than her newsletter already made, then she won't be the one who comes off as the insane, scorned woman out for vengeance; we want her to present the public with a hurt, angry wife who was blindsided from learning that her husband was unfaithful.

You know... because people are weird like that and need proof that the cheating husband is scum and didn't have plausible reasons to cheat on his wife... as if that makes sense.

So off to her old Gammy's cabin she goes to hide out... and in a way to also heal as she revels in how her marriage fell apart, how her life has been out of her control, and how she truly wants to live out the rest of her life.

Oh yes, then we have the romantic interest, Lefty Monroe, a.k.a. Francis Bernard Monroe. He's a crime novelist with a lot of titles under his name as well as an ex-police officer. He's renting the cabin next door to Lacey's grandmother's cabin for his own brand of peace and quiet while he writes his next big seller. He also doesn't give the best first impression when he automatically assumes that Lacey's appearance in the cabin next door is like every typical Romance novel story line. Basically, he's created a very imaginative scenario where she's a recent divorcee who (despite having done nothing to draw his attention) is caught in every possible cliched romantic plot to lure him into being the next Mr. Right in her life. Fortunately, she puts him in his place pretty quickly (even if she had to do it in her birthday suit after a skinny dip in wherein he thought she was trying to drown herself), and Monroe starts to grow on her (and the reader too, cause I stopped having problems with him after he became nicer).

And One Last Thing... was extremely enjoyable and very, very well written. There were a lot of incredibly humorous quips and random nonsensical dialogue that, in a round about way, managed to make sense and elicit a nice chuckle from me. Molly Harper gives Lacey a very relatable voice and a wide range of emotional and mental development that she gradually grows into as the story progresses. From a pampered modestly rich girl who was always coddled by her mother and her brother, to a naive housewife who learns that her husband is cheating on her... she concludes the book with style, learning to be more independent, less reliant on others, and finds her niche in life.

While her newsletter DID unnecessarily air out dirty family laundry to the public, she recognizes that it was a stupid move on her part caused by pent up anger. Of course, it was spontaneous and a clever form of revenge, if anything, so it's hard to be exasperated with her for it.

This book was very much a Lacey-centric novel that really touched lightly upon the romance. While it held a decently portrayed friendship-to-romance love story between Lacey and Monroe, it was more about Lacey's growth than anything. That's not to say that the relationship between her and Monroe wasn't sweet, adorable, and laden with hot chemistry--the development to love seemed a bit abrupt in light of what Lacey's going through, but we don't dwell on the romance long enough for it to matter. The two of them made a very good couple, if only because they truly seem naturally comfortable around each other. But romance wasn't the main basis of this story, and for that, I feel it worked out very well.

Character-wise, there were a lot of good side characters with colorful personalities, rich with potential: Emmett, Lacey's gay older brother who likes to get her drunk and then give her a makeover while she's too inebriated to notice anything; Sam Shackleton, Lacey's divorce attorney who looks like she's twelve, is a nicknamed "The Shark" for reasons, and slowly becomes a friend in Lacey's deteriorating world; Maya, CEO of a card company called "Season's Gratings" specializing in greeting cards that call out other people's undesired behavior in snarky, cleverly worded "Hallmark"-like quotes... and then some.

And one last thing...

I always seem to find little gems like these when I least expect to find them, so, once again, I'm extremely pleasantly, and giddily happy that I found this book so enjoyable. And very, very entertaining. While the story was written well and the characters great, there are, of course those few nagging things that fell slightly short. The conclusion, like the rest of the book, was quite inspiring, but it also felt like it fizzled into a conclusion rather than going out with a bang. Don't get me wrong, it was a good way to end the book, but it still felt like it was missing something.

Otherwise, And One Last Thing... is thus far one of the better Contemporaries I've read (probably because I read far less of these than I read other genres).

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in February 2015.

Thoughts: Out of Her League

Out of Her League

by Kaylea Cross
Book 1 of Suspense series

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Christa Bailey is one cut away from making the Olympic softball team when threats from an obsessed fan jeopardize her dream and her safety. Forced to put her life on hold until the risk is eliminated, she reluctantly turns to ERT officer Rayne Hutchinson for help, praying the police catch her stalker before she is cut from the team or does something stupid… like fall in love with her unattainable protector. But Christa’s stalker is something far more sinister than either of them could have imagined. With her life at stake, can Rayne keep Christa safe from this patient predator?

Out of Her League is a standard, formulaic romance with a little bit of action, a fairly solid story direction and plot, but a lot more meandering and use of tropes and cliches than I typically prefer in my Romantic Suspense readings.

Christa is the typical girl-next-door Mary Sue type who is probably the most pessimistic and cynical heroine I've encountered in a while. She really IS the whole Mary Sue package from being beautiful without realizing it, from putting herself down when comparing herself with others on a regular basis, from feeling like she doesn't deserve the man of her dreams because she believes she's plain and not fascinating enough to hold a man's attention... But she's also kind-hearted, self-less, physically fit, a fighter, and idealistic... I could go on.

She even stupidly walks herself into danger a few times despite knowing better, which I suppose that gives the book a chance to play out a damsel-in-distress scenario at least twice.

Rayne is also the typical alpha male, all broody and laced with testosterone and a hint of good ol' boy in his heart--I DO appreciate that he's such a good, respectful man. But that's really it for him. However, I DID like the details of his hostage rescue scenes even if things got a little intense.

The two of them would make perfect angel babies together, to be honest, and it almost rankles.

But they are good people. And the rest of the characters are good people. And there are good interactions and good relationships and good everything.

It was just that they were all SO boring and so typical that I started drifting and wondering when we'd get to the action.

On top of the random tangential side anecdotes that just kind of pop out of nowhere, and you've got a fairly monotonous story telling that takes a very, very long time to get from Point A to Point B, when the book could have probably been a hundred pages shorter in length.

For a standard Romantic Suspense story involving a crazy, creepy stalker slash serial rapist and killer, and a bodyguard device, I had a lot of trouble getting into this book. We keep detouring away from the main conflict and touching on it every other scene.

And the romance took a very long detour as well, dragged out to the point that it made me start screaming for someone to get laid soon. It's not like I NEED sex in my fiction to be happy about the romance, but these two spent so much time tip-toeing around their own sexual frustrations that I was surprised no one ended up imploding from all the tension.

But being that it is the first Kaylea Cross book I've read and being that I DID find a way to like the characters despite no one really standing out... I'm quite interested in reading the next book to see where it goes. It might just be the Romantic Suspense bias in me, but considering there wasn't anything that outright pissed me off in this book, I'd love to give the next book a chance to woo me before I write it off. After all, I've come across enough rocky 1st books to realize that you have to give the series a chance to take off if there's even a small flame of interest still gathering.

Because in the end, this book wasn't terrible and I DID like the people and the premise. It's just unfortunate that there was a high percentage of schmaltz, a whole check list of romantic devices strewn about, and a lot of deliberate symbolic scenes, actions, and dialogues that all felt fairly unnatural.

And also, there's a soft spot in my heart for Rayne being the utmost perfect, considerate lover a woman could ever have--and also, an endearing grin may have graced my lips during his little Spiderman stunt, climbing the rose vines one-handed to sneak into his girlfriend's guest bedroom during his and Christa's visit to his mother's home. It was kind of cute since they ARE both consenting adults, but trying to respect his mother's ideals of being traditional and proper and whatnot.

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in December 2015.

Thoughts: The Surgeon

The Surgeon

by Tess Gerritsen
Book 1 of Rizzoli & Isles

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 3.0 Stars

This is probably one of those books that I would have liked to just read and then move on without really analyzing it. Maybe give it a generic 3 Star rating. If asked, I’d say it was a good read--intriguing, well-written, brainstormed to a ‘T’. It certainly DOES have a great sense of appeal, because even now I’ve put the next book on my hold request list at the library and am anticipating the moment when it becomes available.

But I probably wouldn’t have given thought to writing any kind of drawn out review for it--even now I’m putting thoughts down only because that darn Reading Assignment Challenge requests a short review or a post about my opinions. And when I start typing, I tend to get carried away, even if I half-ass a review.

Was it a memorable book? Maybe. I can certainly recall the gruesome events and the many textbook form info dumps throughout the book--the medical terms, the police jargon, and so on. The characters weren’t the most likable, but they stood out somehow. The atmosphere was gritty, almost too real to be comfortable with considering the subject matter of the book.

There were certainly some things that didn’t sit well with me--for instance, the animosity between the only two women in the entire book for all the wrong reasons. Too many times do I read books or watch movies or television series where there is immense girl-on-girl hate for the petty things such as the way one woman looks or acts. So it chafes a bit whenever I see it in books, especially when it’s used to emphasize one woman’s strength versus another woman’s weakness in each other’s eyes--as if two women cannot be completely different in personality and behavior without hating on each other.

And amidst all of that, there was still a bit of detachment in the way the story was told. Which is why, even though I’m interested in continuing the rest of the series, to see what happens to Jane Rizzoli as the books continue, it’s not like this series is a foremost favorite on my list. At least not yet--there have been various firsts in a series that I don’t immediately warm up to, and so there’s no telling whether or not this will be one.

As far as the story goes:
Several brutal murders occur in Boston, all bearing the same details from killings in Savannah two years prior. Dr. Catherine Cordell is the only survivor of the Savannah slayings, having killed her attacker before he could finish her off. It quickly becomes apparent that the present-day Boston murders are tied to Catherine Cordell and the monster she knows she shot and killed two years ago; a man who preyed on vulnerable women, who raped and then murdered them, cutting them open and taking a souvenir for his sick, twisted pleasures.

So if the man who was responsible for the killings in Savannah is dead, how is it possible for a copycat murderer to know the same gory details of those killings, re-enacting them with the same intimate detail? And why is he so fixated on Catherine Cordell, practically announcing his intentions by leaving her little messages, challenging the Boston PD, stalking her as the ultimate prize in his twisted game?

Some Thoughts:
This book was really more about the murder investigation and introducing the world of the Boston PD within the Rizzoli & Isles series; it was more about establishing a setting and an atmosphere, about establishing the on-paper character relationships and the police politics within the scope of this series, than it was about the characters. While we do see a lot of character interaction and a lot of character insight, I couldn’t help but feel that the small glimpses we get to see about the detectives, Thomas Moore and Jane Rizzoli, about Dr. Catherine Cordell, just all felt like passing thoughts amidst the bigger picture of the crime thriller.

I’m drawn to characters and character interactions. And, as I said, despite there being plenty of it, The Surgeon doesn’t really dwell long on any of the characters--at least not long enough for the reader to build some sort of relatedness or rapport with them. Instead, I merely picked up a passing interest in knowing how life goes for Jane Rizzoli after this book and how she will continue to deal among her career in a male-dominated field.

But that’s pretty much it.

The crime thriller was intriguing enough to draw me in, even if not in that “desperate need to finish reading this book” sort of way. It was well-written and well-thought out. At some times, I wonder if maybe it was too detailed and too in-depth. It’s great that the author does her research and lends legitimacy to her writing, what with the medical terms and textbook definitions and glossary level explanations. But to be totally honest, sometimes you can get a little carried away trying to bring about that sense of realness that it takes away from the story.

I don’t need to know what every medical term means if it doesn’t lend significance to the story. I don’t need every piece of police and medical jargon spelled out for me. Some lesser known terms, maybe; but a lot of the textbook explanations given could have been done without.

Which is why, in the end, despite how well written the book is and despite how much I enjoyed it, my main take-away from The Surgeon hadn’t been how well written the book was, or how readily you get pulled into the crime thriller. It wasn’t the detailed cruelty of the killings, or the sadness of the tragic happenings, or even Jane Rizzoli’s introduction into being accepted as a police detective by her peers (hopefully). My main take away was how much I’d been hammered with vocabulary and a detached definition of all the jargon thrown around. My main take away was how detached everything felt from any feeling--like everything was just being recited from a report of some sort, like a newspaper clipping or some such thing.

Aside from a passing interest, I really DON’T feel much about this book. Again, I will continue reading the series for a while and see where it takes me from there.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in September 2015.

Thoughts: Shadow Game

Shadow Game

by Christine Feehan
Book 1 of GhostWalkers series

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 2.5 Stars

This review has been slightly edited and polished before this re-posting.

-- SPOILER ALERT --

**Some of the thoughts in this review may give away certain twist points of the book.**

The story concept was what had gotten my attention in the first place--that, and I’d seen a lot of praise for Christine Feehan via reviews in the reading community. Unfortunately, what seemed to work for everyone else in Ms. Feehan’s books didn’t seem to work well for me in Shadow Game; which is a sore disappointment because I was looking forward to diving into this long-running paranormal series about a psychically enhanced elite of Military Special Forces.

I figured there would be a lot of potential and a lot of good stories you could dabble with using that premise.

Unfortunately, my biggest take away from Shadow Game was how Lily Whitney and Ryland Miller are so meant to be that we need to be subject to flowery prose and tacky dialogue for 80% of the book, and also how Lily has very “generous breasts” (what does that even mean?)--there are repetitive conversations about their romance and how much they love each other and all the detail about how they're lusting after each other.

The following things are apparently true about this romance (and this entire book), on repeat:

"The ground moved" when Lily and Ryland met for the first time--at least something otherworldly and solely "meant to be" happened. Never mind that Lily is the scientist looking in and Ryland was being caged like an animal. I might have rolled my eyes.
Lily and Ryland cannot stop thinking about each other for 24 hour of each and every day because it was love at first sight and they were "meant to be together." I might have snorted in exasperation.
Lily and Ryland just know that they were "meant to be together forever" at first sight. Again, I might have rolled my eyes a little bit.
The lust is thick with this couple--Lily and Ryland cannot stop thinking about what it would be like to get down and dirty with each other... y'know, even though Lily is supposedly an innocent virgin and has never thought about anything other than her scientific research in her entire life. Cue standard category romance cliché... with an eye roll, maybe.
Lily has very feminine curves. And she has very generous breasts.
Did I mention that Lily Whitney has very "generous breasts?"
Because I'm pretty sure that we haven't quite established twenty times that Lily has very generous breasts.
Since she so adamantly believes that she's got a plain-looking body that no man could ever love. But she still admits to her generous breasts.

You know, it’s enough to mention it once--that Lily Whitney has a bit of a cynical complex and is extremely modest about her looks despite the fact that she admits to having more feminine curves (wide hips and big boobs), even if she doesn’t look like a supermodel. I can handle her being humble about her own physical appearance and being cynical about men falling for her--this is par for romances anyway.

But I don’t need to be reminded time and time again that she has very “generous breasts.” These same two words just keep popping up: when she’s putting her clothes on, when she’s examining her own body, when she’s doing the horizontal with Captain Miller, when she’s sleeping in the nude, when she’s covering her body with a lab coat, when Ryland is feeling her up… Apparently it’s extremely important to the author that her readers know and understand that Lily has very “generous breasts”.

At least a different description for big boobs would have been appreciated. Maybe.

Shadow Game was all about the romance and the sex. The entire psychic military forces and unethical human experimentation conflict got overshadowed. And the writing style was very much “Tell” instead of “Show.” I felt like the author wanted us to understand exactly what point she was trying to hammer home about her characters and it was a little annoying.

Anyway…

The Story:
Dr. Peter Whitney has been conducting experiments on volunteer military personnel to create an elite force of silent fighting machines, the strongest group of soldiers anyone has ever seen. Captain Ryland Miller, in an effort to help with this research that is supposed to help their country, volunteeers himself and some of his men to enhance psychic abilities that they may already naturally have.

But even before Dr. Whitney dies, Captain Miller notices that something strange and much more sinister is happening with the experiment and his men. At least three of the soldiers have died as a probable side effect of the experiments, and no matter what Ryland says, no one is doing anything to help them.

Lily Whitney is brought onboard the project by her father, but not long afterward, telepathically witnesses her father’s murder. Before he dies, Peter Whitney warns her to be careful--that someone is messing around with his project, that the soldier’s lives are in danger, and that she needs to “find the others” and undo what he did that was wrong.

Not long after that, Lily discovers that she had been part of a similar project her father conducted years ago, as a child bought by him who showed signs of natural psychic ability. And along with her, there were several other little girls who had also been a part of Dr. Whitney’s experiments to enhance psychic abilities. And now these girls are scattered throughout the country because Peter Whitney couldn’t deal with the terrible consequences of his careless experiments.

So basically Lily must help the soldiers learn how to use their abilities and shield against excess noise and she must find the other girls and help them as well.

Some of My Thoughts:
As I stated, the premise to this book was an intriguing one. And when I found out about the other girls and the psychic enhancements Lily had been a part of when she was a child, I got a little excited. It would be interesting to read about our military men, also dubbed the GhostWalkers, go in search of the rest of the girls while fighting crime or going on military missions. I was thinking, “Ooh, there are others out there, like Lily, with psychic enchancements who had been trained as a child.”

That sounds even more interesting than a simple psi-ops story with military men being the psychically enchanced GhostWalkers. It doesn’t hurt to add some girl power to these stories.

But if the rest of the books are going to be anything like Shadow Game... I don’t know how much disappointment I can take. I kept waiting for the book to start bringing up other plot points and connecting all the dots, but Shadow Game was determined to be all about the “Lily Whitney and Ryland Miller” romance that moves mountains and shatters ground and has mind-blowing sex.

And the romance wasn’t even all that inspiring. They meet, they develop instalove that will live on forever and ever, all time eternal. And that is all.

And Lily is the typical innocent virgin who has never been with a man before and is a Mother Theresa type. Ryland Miller is the typical alpha that I hate reading about (yes, there are alpha males I like reading about and Captain Miller does not meet the requirements). For one thing, he comes off as kind of an asshole; he likes to manhandle, he likes to get possessive and territorial, and the next time a man tells a woman to quit her day job because she’s a woman can meet my fist, even if it IS for her safety and even if she CAN live off of the inheritance her father left for her.

On top of that, I think he might have a problem with listening to what people say, because he gets all angry and upset listening to Lily go on about her father’s experiments before he even actually hears what she’s trying to tell him. He jumps to conclusions too quickly and really just needs to take a chill pill and calm the fuck down.

The most exciting parts of the book were when the group starts planning their escape from the research lab facilities and whenever there was talk about Peter Whitney’s experiments.. I was hopeful that things would start getting relevant and exciting when something other than romance and sex happened… but then Lily and Ryland get together again and we continue the romance route from there.

And every few random scenes we’d bring up the experiments or the conspiracies or something else that was non-romance related. But those are sparse and far and few and ultimately veer back into the romance anyway.

If there was a bit more tactful humor and more likable characters, maybe I’d be more inclined to get into the next book, just to see if things pick up a little bit better. A first book in a series is sometimes a little shaky; maybe the author is testing new ground and hasn’t gotten her ideas solidly built yet.

But the characters were merely “meh” and so I made the decision to set this series aside and come back to it some other time.

Final Thoughts: With an excellently intriguing idea, I had really hoped for more from this book than simply a romance based on a paranormal premise. GhostWalkers has a lot of potential for some really great story lines, being a long-running series and all. And with eleven installments, I’m sure it managed to find some footing somewhere and I’m sure there are plenty of people who are in love with the series.

Unfortunately, while the book wasn't completely terrible, I’m just not sure it’s the right book for me. I can only wonder about the rest of the series and whether or not it could be right for me some other time.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in March 2015.

Brief Thoughts: Silent Night

Silent Night

by C.J. Kyle

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 3.0 Stars

For a debut novel, Silent Night was a fairly enjoyable read. The introduction was strong and the murder mystery had a rather promising start. I've got my quibbles here and there, but for the most part, I found the story decently executed with enough of an entertainment factor to keep me interested.

There were points where I found some of the progression tedious, but for the most part, the book was quite enjoyable.

The Story in Brief:
Blood is found in the snow, but there is no body. A young teenager is reported missing, but he's got a record for being a troublemaker. And then a body is found, carved up and displayed for all to see, staged with a Bible, a Crucifix, and a Rosary. Having returned to the small town of Christmas, Tennessee to get away from the gruesome crimes such as these when he used to work in Chicago, Police Chief Tucker Ambrose realizes that something sinister has come to the peaceful little town.

Miranda Harley has tracked a serial killer to Christmas, Tennessee with every intention of finding the evidence she needs to put the true killer behind bars. Her own little brother has been falsely accused and convicted, but no one will believe her. And now the killer is striking again, picking up where he'd left off and time is running out.

My Thoughts:
Again, I apologize for my lackluster summary above. But to be totally honest, the mystery itself was fairly predictable and a little lackluster itself. It had a good premise and all, but I feel like something more could have been done to bring on the suspense and the thrill. We know who the killer is from the beginning of the book and even the slight twist in events nearing the end felt kind of weak and trying to misdirect our investigative muscles.

For the most part, the book felt kind of mundane and unbalanced, but at least the narrative and the progression were quite smooth. But for a book titled Silent Night, the atmosphere wasn't as dark and gory as I'd been expecting; especially after that very first scene's bloody and gory murder.

The characters were fairly standard for a romantic suspense, and I can't help but to note that Miranda could have been less of a damsel; the entire entourage of characters around her handled her with such delicate kid gloves that I thought she would break at the slightest blow of a wind. Even when everyone was angry at her for her deceptions or her interference with the investigations, they were still treating her like she was too fragile to be rough with.

The romance was also a little lackluster, but I DO appreciate that our characters had time to become attracted to one another, get to know each other, and THEN start developing feelings for each other. I'm not even sure there was instalust in this relationship; sexy times didn't even start surfacing until a little over halfway through the book.

Though the obligatory semi-"Pretty Woman" scene made me cringe just a little bit. We're in the middle of a murder investigation and we decide that our hero would buy the damsel something pretty to wear for a dinner night? I don't know how I feel about that; especially when the guy automatically assumes that his date would be alright wearing something that shows lots of cleavage and a slit "up to here", in the dead of snowy winter.

Nonetheless, Silent Night was a decent debut for C.J. Kyle and I will continue to keep an eye out for more books written by this author.

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in July 2015.

Another Library Check Out and a First Impression

And my library holds pinged once more with a new e-read recommendation I placed last week being fulfilled rather quickly. And now I'm rearranging my reading list again. I had been planning to read Magonia until I could get my hands on Kylie Brant's newest Mindhunters book, Secrets of the Dead, available for purchase on Kindle today.

But I checked out Silent Night first and started reading it first and now I can't decide whether I want to start reading Secrets of the Dead before finishing Silent Night, because: Kylie Brant! Or if I want to just finish Silent Night first before starting Secrets of the Dead just to stay on track.

Problem is, I want to read BOTH books.

Ani's First World Bookish Problems #6: I cannot read multiple books simultaneously.

... or can I?

I DO have multiple books being read concurrently, but it's not like I really CAN read two different books at the exact same time. I will typically read one book if I can't read the other book at any given moment. Or I will start one book and then get bored and then start another book, then come back to that book later.

Anyway... I suppose I'll just do a book draw or throw some die and let fate decide what I do. Or something like that.

Silent Night is pretty intriguing so far, and I've only just read the prologue. I guess I hadn't really been expecting something so gory or bloody within the first few pages, but something bloody and gory happened, so there we go. I know how I'm always complaining about how some books start slow and a lot of murders don't happen until halfway into the book... Well, I'm not complaining this time.

I just hadn't expected the murder to be so detailed to start with.

Lots of good reviews have praised this debut book by C.J. Kyle as highly enjoyable, suspenseful, intriguing, and written well, so I have high hopes.

This update was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in June 2015.

Brief Thoughts: Deadly Lies

Deadly Lies
by Cynthia Eden
Book 3 of Deadly series

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 4.0 Stars

Just as suspenseful, thrilling, and romantically heated as Cynthia Eden's first two Deadly books, Deadly Lies was very much intense and un-put-down-able. I believe that I had picked it up thinking to just read a few chapters to get started... then I ended up a lot further than expected.

Once again, another Cynthia Eden book that hooks you from the start, with likable characters and an intriguing criminal mystery. The dark tone of the story helps too. And once again, the focus is really more on the Romance and the steamy sex than was really necessary. However, I flew through this book so quickly that I didn't even really take note when or if the romance scenes felt inappropriately placed--at least not until I finished the book and thought about it.

The Story in Brief:
Samantha Kennedy was introduced in the first Deadly book, Deadly Fear and suffered a tragic, deathly torture at the hands of the killer called "Watchman". Using her fear of water against her, the twisted killer would drown her and then resuscitate her just to turn around and drown her again--it was an endless cycle of hell for Sam until she was finally rescued by her fellow SSD agents.

Unfortunately, Sam has not been able to recover from this incident. She's worried that she never will and that her SSD boss will see through her anxiety and that everyone will think that she is incapable of continuing to do her job. In order to forget, Sam chooses to lose herself in no-strings passion. Which is how she meets Max Ridgeway.

At present, the SSD is investigating a string of serial kidnappings--young college boys from well-to-do families are being taken. And the stakes are starting to become higher when two of the most recent kidnapping victims get sent back to their families in pieces.

The next kidnapping victim turns out to be Max's younger step-brother, Quinlan Malone. And on top of that, the SSD have learned that the game is changing for these kidnappers--their patterns are changing and their crimes are escalating.

Overall Thoughts:
As per usual, there are Romance elements spread throughout the story at some of the most inopportune spots. Sam will be in the middle of investigating a lead, but then she'd run into Max and the two get sucked into their whirlwind passion of lust and sex. And then the reader is left wondering, "Wait, what about that lead you were in the middle of following? What about the kidnapping case? What about the victims and the murders?"

And then almost immediately--after a quick scene of fast, steamy sex--we get right back on track: another victim gets kidnapped, calls are made, and Samantha slips into the Malone household, undetected even though the kidnappers specifically specify that there are to be NO COPS INVOLVED or else Quinlan will die.

I think why I liked this last Deadly book more than the previous two had to do with two things:

1st) I've come to like the world and the characters, because even the supporting characters have mysterious pasts and lives of their own to pique my curiosity;
2nd) Sam and Max's relationship was strewn with angsty emotions of a good kind of feel that I can't describe, because both of them are damaged individuals fighting their own demons alone until they meet each other. Sometimes I hate these tropes... sometimes, I guess depending on the characters and the focus of the story line, they work for me.

It probably also helped that we've known Sam since the beginning and have watched her struggle through her terror with the promise of finally being able to let go and move on with her life now.

Final Thoughts:
Deadly Lies is fast-paced and exciting, and as I had already mentioned, you just didn't have time to dwell on the disconnects between Romance elements and Suspense elements, because both aspects are written very well, even if their continuity is a little bit stunted. As in the first two books, it was hard for me to reconcile the case investigations suddenly taking a turn into steamy sex being had and then back again.

But, honestly, did that really bother me at all? No. Not really.

Again, if it's one thing that Cynthia Eden does quite well it's Romantic Suspense. And despite the fact that this is the last book in the Deadly series (as of present, because who knows what will happen in the future) I really WOULD love to continue following the FBI team of Serial Services Division agents. There are still so many more stories to tell (Kim Daniels and Jon Ramirez are stellar side characters who need their own books) so will happily welcome a continuation of this series if it ever happens.

This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in April 2015.

Brief Thoughts: Deadly Heat

Deadly Heat

by Cynthia Eden
Book 2 of Deadly series

~ Goodreads ~

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Deadly Heat was quite an intense read.

The Story:
Lora Spade puts in a plea for help from the FBI's Serial Services Division (SSD) to look into recent fires she believes is being set by a serial arsonist. The link between each fire are the victims that the arsonist traps to be burned to death in their own homes or in abandoned buildings.

In comes Kenton Lake who's first meeting with Lora involves a fire and being punched upside the head. An informant who was meeting Kenton is trapped in a burning building, and the FBI agent's first instinct is to go find him and pull him out. Instead, Lora is the one who clocks Kenton when he gets difficult, and then drags him to safety, away from the burning building.

Meanwhile, it seems that the arsonist/killer has set his sights on Lora as part of his sick and twisted fire games.

Some Brief Thoughts:
Deadly Heat was definitely more romance than it was crime thriller.

Despite the fact that the focus was more skewed towards the romance, the suspense of crime thriller didn't disappoint. But there's just something about the way both books (Deadly Fear and Deadly Heat) were presented that falls short somewhere and I'm not quite sure I can put my finger on it.

There were times when it seemed inappropriate for the romance to be front and center in certain scenes; however, the story would then refocus on the serial arson investigation and level itself out. To be honest, I've found that Cynthia Eden does excellent work with romance and erotica (even if some of the details got a little bit... too much). And the suspense part of the genre balances out quite well, too.

Still... those times when the investigation should be what's important needed to focus less on the romance and the lusting. It's like the main characters are always horny, 24/7.

I suspect this is just standard for a Romantic Suspense with a side of Erotica that is much heavier in the Romance than it is the Suspense.

Final Thoughts:
That being said, Cynthia Eden is quickly becoming one of the few romantic suspense authors who automatically pique my interest. Deadly Heat (as well as Deadly Fear) is a very enjoyable book that hooks you right in from the beginning.

It also doesn't hurt that we've got a great set of characters to hold the story up. Lora being a kickass firefighter who saves the day multiple times throughout the book is a plus.

It was also nice to see Monica (from Deadly Fear) as a prominent agent in the investigation. Luke's and Samantha's (also introduced in Deadly Fear) belated appearances were also welcome. There's also potential at hand for Lora's gaggle of brothers to have their own stories expanded upon--that would be interesting to follow.

On a side note, there were a few instances of typos that stood out, but not enough to detract me from enjoying the book completely.