Hannah G
Such a delightful book! This vintage-y Christmas novella is a reimagining of the original Nutcracker tale and it's simply brimming with old-fashioned 1902 Christmas charm. I instantly liked Mariah and her parents and I warmed up to Cyril pretty quickly. I really wasn't able to predict the storyline with the Danish suitor who's in England to select a bride to take home.
I absolutely loved the deep Christian message throughout the story and how the Lord impacts the lives of all the main characters. I wish this level of Christianity was a more common theme among Christian fiction books.
This is Roseanna at her best and I'm glad I took a chance reading this one.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.
4.5 stars
Wow, what else could they possibly have to deal with next? Vance and Steph are getting hunted through the wilderness, and they're dealing with a crafty perp who holds all the cards. Steph had arrested the guy on minor charges before, and now he's violated parole to come after her. Bounty hunter Vance, Steph's ex-boyfriend and previous police officer partner, arrives just barely in time to get himself stuck right in the middle of the drama of Ferris trying to kill Steph in the wilderness. Now the big Marines veteran is her best hope of getting out of the wilderness alive, so she has to figure out how to forgive him enough to work together.
The two dogs were such a neat addition to the plot and really put a smile on my face more than once.
Uh...well, I REALLY wasn't expecting to have two books in a row that had guillotines as part of the suspense, but at least this one didn't have the caves and orangutan that I just had in [b:The Hairy Arm 22404160 The Hairy Arm Edgar Wallace https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1420145785l/22404160.SX50.jpg 839773]! This was a delightful book to pick as my first read of the new year and I thoroughly enjoyed the read. It was fun seeing how many elements there were from the original fairy tale, and I really wasn't expecting some of the twists.One note, that this books has a higher “spice” level than any of her others that I've read, and I hurried through a couple spots where the guy had his shirt off. I'd say 16+ on the age range as it does have desire/temptation as a repeat theme.I wish I didn't have to wait over a year for the next new book of hers!
Wow, this one got perilous! Almost to a Gothic-level sort, with old manors, secret passages, trap doors, lost caves, and ladies held in a tower. There are several obvious and convincing suspects: so who might the murderer be? Baronet, orangutan, playwright? Or someone else entirely?
Plenty of twists and turns...
I loved Grace but couldn't stand how dense Richard was. He fell for her in such a cute way but it would have been sinful for him to marry another woman when his heart was placed elsewhere, and that was hard to watch him try to do.
Gripes: Aunt Edith planes a nasty role in this one and it felt insulting to her after liking her so much in the first three books; also, I didn't get to find out how much longer she lived and if she got to see her nieces and nephews happy. There was also a serious historical era about “special license” which would have been unaffordable for someone in Richard's place anyway...he should have sought a common license.
This one was my all-round favorite of the series! It's a tender little story and there was a lot of quality attention paid to historical detail. Mercy and Colin make a perfect couple together and it's a good thing she was handy when he went wife-hunting. His gradual fall into love with her was well portrayed and believably done.
Well...the book is probably actually worth about four stars but I'm giving it a big sappy emotional rating because every bit of it was just so perfect. Hands down my favorite of the series and I love both Emma and Jon and want them to be my real life friends. One of the most fun best friends to more stories I've read, and with excellent retelling nods and quotes with Austen's “Emma.”
Fun story about a girl trying to save herself and her sister from their terrible stepfather's plans and of the troubles she finds from it. Of course nothing goes as expected, and when she starts a business giving romantic advice without ever having been in love, interesting things ensue.
Definitely will be continuing this series.
A bit of a miss for me despite the gorgeous cover. It needed another good pass by a skilled editor because the pacing felt wonky and there were misused words, such as how someone “deigned to stay home” which means he was unwilling to but did what he didn't want—and context shows he was doing exactly what he wanted to as head of the house. I felt like I got to know Heather pretty well but Edgar, the hero, is a mystery until right up to the end. The story is a slow pace, which I didn't really mind, but the plot device that created the conflict, her nasty aunt, was one sided and not a complex character.
I'll try another by this author sometime and see if character development and pacing are better!
4.5 stars rounded up...this was definitely my favorite of the series!
Andi was a side character with the paramedic team in the earlier books, but now she's switched to firefighter to try to catch up with her big brothers and their career successes on the rescue and fire teams. She's feeling unnoticed and unappreciated in her family because she was always closer to her dad than her mom, and now he's just a shadow of himself after a wreck causes a TBI.
Jude was her old high school best friend and then almost-boyfriend before tragedy sent him out of her life. He's an ATF agent now and gets a clue that leads back to his old hometown.
There's so much to keep you guessing all through and a lot of clues to sort out, even things that appear small to begin with. I definitely hope Emilie Haney will write more suspense novels.
Another solid installment in this suspense series. There are a few cameos from MCs of the first book, and most of the side characters are the same. This one features the new fire chief Macon and Natalie, one of the town's counselors. Both were interesting and engaging characters. Out of multiple suspects, they get to try to sort out who is really after Natalie and who really wants her hurt. Both have to face their fears from the past to get to the “finish line” of the story.
Definitely a new author to watch.
Grabbed this book to get an E title for a challenge and ended up really loving it! Excellent suspense that kept me flipping pages and guessing if there was any way to have a happy ending. I haven't read a book with a hero who's the liaison between mayor/police/fire before, especially not one who's mostly wheelchair bound, so that was a really unique twist. I liked both leads and loved young Victory whose parents were such losers and wrapped up in all the drama.
This one definitely had an interesting perp...and it took a lot of digging to get there.
I did think it was weird that the character Kelsey was portrayed as having “good control of her diabetes” but is constantly drinking sugared juice, energy drinks, eating gluten free and dairy free–all of which are quick-process foods that will cause exactly the sugar crashes she was having. A bit more study on diabetic diet would have been in order and it pulled me out of the story quite a lot.
Trace is a good character but has been stuck in a grief cycle he doesn't want to face. This is his chance to be forced into facing it in order to solve the case, since he's got old college ties to Kelsey and doesn't want to see her killed by whoever is after her.
I loved the epilogue at the ending, showing how everyone in the series was faring.
This one was a miss for me, though normally I enjoy cold case stories. The last straw of the story plausibility for me was when the MC discharges her service weapon in a civilian residence with a “warning shot” instead of a self defense shot when a possible perp charged her in the space of a single room—and somehow doesn't lose her service weapon, doesn't get benched, and the only repercussion at all is that the suspect threatens to sue her. First of all, anyone could have been on the other side of that wall and been mortally wounded; second, time for giving warning shots prove that there would have been time to pull non-fatal measures such as a taser.
I liked the lead characters for the most part but the emotional development for Charlie seemed to switch very very suddenly from a lifetime of resentment into “everything's hunky dory” and that seemed unlikely.
I meant to give four stars, but I just can't help it. Fifth star added because of emotional reasons.
I love a good amnesia and second chance story and expected to like it based on the synopsis. It was nothing like I expected, much deeper of a story than many, and I think this is one of the most exquisite portrayals of a woman shining as a mother and housewife that I've read in awhile.
I don't want to wait a year for the sequel.
Parts were cute but they were super immature and they had way too much body/potty humor going on including the “hero” mooning the Christmas crew thanks to mandatory Christmas PJs with a fly and a couple mischievous nephews. Supposed to be clean fiction but there's a huge emphasis on body and hot kissing, spending the night together, etc and if they didn't sleep together right away it was “because they didn't want to go too fast” instead of having morals....
Probably not going to be trying others by these authors because high school crushes and “adults” acting like high school kids just isn't my thing.
Easy five stars for my favorites!Caveat: these stories are connected, to other series that is, but it's NOT a hardship because you need to read those five star reads also!Eason's: five starsRead first: [b:Double Take 182093503 Double Take (Lake City Heroes, #1) Lynette Eason https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696370027l/182093503.SY75.jpg 186767034] and [b:Target Acquired 200713046 Target Acquired (Lake City Heroes, #2) Lynette Eason https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1702307705l/200713046.SY75.jpg 205522864]Blackburn's: five starsRead first: [b:Never Fall Again 182092951 Never Fall Again (Gossamer Falls, #1) Lynn H. Blackburn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1696370295l/182092951.SY75.jpg 186766598] (and Eason's if you can because there's an Easter Egg character who shows up)Walters's: 4.5 starsLoved the whole book and will be rereading it!
