Hannah G

Love the moody cover on this one! Strong characters, something amiss with antiques, and someone who's willing to kill for their goals–all solid elements of a gripping suspense read. Definitely enjoyed it!

Mariah and Clint were definitely an interesting couple. She's a blacksmith and he's a chef, trying to make it on the frontier with a gourmet restaurant. She had already caught his eye before the day her family was attacked and her father and brother killed, but when she's brought back to town helpless, he goes into protective mode. I enjoyed seeing the simple farmer/chef transform into a protector. Mariah annoyed me quite often with her extreme stubbornness about doing things while knowing bad dudes were trying to kill her, and putting her friends in danger by that. Otherwise she was a fun character, and a couple of the scenes definitely made me laugh aloud.

Overall, a fun way to spend a couple hours, but not my top favorite of Connealy's books. I'm really looking forward to the next in the series, though, with Nell's story.

Jamie and Gavin have a seriously explosive situation on their hands as Jamie gets welcomed back to town with her car getting attacked. Shootings and bombs galore in this story, as they try to race to stay alive and find out who's determined to put them six feet (or more) under.

Peter could stay with his eastern-Europe country that's being smashed to pieces by the Bolsheviks, or he could cut his losses and build a new life from scratch. He escapes to America to do just that, and uses what valuables he can grab to finance his trip. He begins work on a large American estate as a regular laborer, a forester and groundskeeper. But when strange mishaps begin to take place at the estate, is someone after the owner or has Peter's past come calling?

I'll definitely be reading more of Gibbs's work.

What if you order a mail order bride and get a Cinderella barely out of the ashes?

I liked both main characters but I think I loved Tom's sister best of all. She's undeniably the only reason they ever saw past each other's faults and failures enough to fall in love. The book has a lot of spiritual lessons and reminded me of a Grace Livingston Hill sort of story. It ended a trifle abruptly; after cheering for them all book long, I'd have enjoyed an epilogue to see more of them as a happy couple.

This marriage of convenience story turned out to have a lot more substance than I expected. I planned to read a quickie fun story with some humor, but instead of just that, both characters have really good motivations and vivid backstories. Definitely enjoyed the read.

A solid story, as per Curwood's normal, but instead of being focused on people it's the story of a bear and a dog. I had a hard time with the violence given the subject matter of animals in the wild, but I did enjoy the info about the frontier animal life and I liked the ending.

Just a total comfort read, a sweet Hallmark style romance between neighbors: one being a widowed mom-to-be and the other a single guy next door. A heartwarming story.

Miss for me. Both lead characters got insufferably on my nerves as they made one dumb choice after another and seemed to think themselves entitled to meddle in other people's lives. Nothing bad, just an annoying couple for me.

4.5 stars, rounded up
18+ for content (drugs and human trafficking)

This story switched more to Gio and Morgan's viewpoint, with some serious suspense on Morgan's part in particular. It was really wrenching to see her edge closer and closer to escaping, but for her to feel unworthy and to try to help other girls escape instead of her.

5 stars!
18+ for heavy human trafficking content

This was a fabulous end to a great series, and this book is definitely on the reread-soon list. This is mostly about Morgan and some about Gio; but as she detoxes from the blur of the past decade, she realizes there are a lot of questions about things that happened to her in the meantime. And one of her past lovers isn't giving up so easily, now that she's supposedly out free; he still thinks he owns her.

I really loved the epilogue too, and seeing all the characters again in the future. Beautiful way to tie up the series!

More of Jacq and Dylan's story, with a little more about Gio and Morgan as well. I really enjoyed that the series is actually a true series where the scene doesn't immediately shift away from our first characters but revisits them, working as an engaged couple. It was honestly a nail-biter as Morgan goes through more and more serious abuse at the hands of her captors.

Content: prostitution, SA, rape, drug use, human trafficking: 18+ read

Suspenseful story about a kidnap case and the race to find the girl. I really liked the characters although there were some distracting timeline inconsistencies. There are some very intense situations with human trafficking so it may be best for those over 18.

A cozy-mystery style teen girls' adventure, clean and enjoyable. It might be confusing to understand all the relationships if someone tries to just jump into the series here without reading the first book.

Mia and Lucas are a good pair in this story. I enjoy bounty hunter tales and this one has a second chance romance element too. The key to Mia staying alive will be whether or not they can figure out what her late husband was up to before it's too late. A quick moving suspense.

Whew, what a page turner! A veteran/DEA officer and a school teacher have to solve drug related crimes from their small town, but the bad guys keep getting to the evidence ahead of them! I really enjoyed the fast pace and the characters, though there were several implausibly plotted scenes that keep me from adding another star.

A sweet little story with a lot of charm. Nothing super memorable but I will definitely read more of the series.

Another installment in the farm cozy mystery series. I'm definitely going to keep reading in this cozy mystery series. Aside from murders it's quite clean.

Of course, by all means, if your car breaks down while you're trying to get away from a mob boss—it's absolutely necessary that it's a good looking skilled guy who comes to help fix the car, armed and preferably an old friend, er, old crush.

Fun story in a series I'll continue later.

I really enjoyed the premise of this one, where the woman has served her sentence for a crime she didn't commit and comes back to see if she can clear her name. It was easy to keep flipping pages as the real killers do their best to shut her up forever!

Fascinating old lecture about some of the important early archaeology discoveries from the US and central and southern America. Davis posits that some way of crossing the ocean must have been devised in forgotten history, in order to explain both people groups being present, and Egyptian/Greek-style artifacts.

The only lack is a list of recommendations for further reading...this is a subject that fascinates me and yet it's quite elusive to find out more.

Meh. All four narrators sound precisely alike for the first 2/3 of the book and everyone was just so down and depressed. I saw the big twist coming from the third chapter but at least the writing improved a little after it. Badly edited, with inconsistent punctuation and wrong homonyms. Just an odd little story that did too much telling about “how good this and that was” and not much showing of any sort of joy; even the ending was rushed and half of it happened off page.

1.5 stars
Bummer—didn't read any synopsis going in and had no clue it was going to be so chock full of stupid aristocrats and spiritualism. I'm getting rid of my copy because of on-page ouija board use. The sleuth was uninspiring and only Zizi the least bit likeable. Skimmed the middle.

4.5 stars, rounded up

This book tried to be a bunch of things, and at first it left me reeling a bit! I was so unsure where it was heading. In the end it's basically a steampunk scavenger hunt across Europe, with a dash of romance and suspense and family love. Once I caught my stride and bonded with the characters, I enjoyed it more and more all the way up to the end. Her mom is a bit much but I honestly know a lady who would probably do exactly that sort of thing if dropped in that setting! I have to say, an ermine as a pet is one of the most unusual ones I've encountered in a book (though not in real life!)

The descriptions are excellent, making me feel like I'm right there while reading. It's a brilliant concept and I'm definitely going to be buying Angela Bell's next book because it's a really well done release!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. A favorable review was not required.

Excellent suspense with heists at museums to figure out, involving rare artifacts and crafty villains. I loved Christian and Andi as protagonists and enjoyed the high-stakes story. I'll definitely be rereading this one and can't wait for the next in the series.