Hannah G

A delightful story about a rogue sheriff who is plotting to murder the marshal who would stop his crimes, and the marshal who arrives in town in disguise to figure out who his would-be killers are after an anonymous telegram tips him off. Turns out the rogue's own daughter is ready to help stop him from the planned murder—the man's single, attractive daughter, naturally. Plenty of sparks start to fly while Hawk tries to figure out the bad guys before they figure out his own cover. I loved both the suspense and the romance.

Madison and Tucker made a great couple and I enjoyed seeing her character's faith thread and how it resolved. It was sad about her sister's death but I enjoyed seeing the true culprit discovered and stopped. Darlene Turner is becoming one of my most reliable LIS authors lately...

Gave it six chapters and it was just so dull. No spark of interest. Then enter spiritualism as a “fad” (which it was, but it's creepy at best and I have Issues with having demon summoning on page) and I'm done. Not worth my time on an overcrowded TBR.

I've liked Mimi Matthews before but this one's not for me.

Luke and Cassidy are the stars of this ranch-based drama. The Mississippi setting makes the ranch unique and I quite enjoyed the lead characters in this one. Definitely a fun hour and change of reading time!

2.5 stars

A bit too much “too stupid to live” angle, alongside a complete lack of copy editing which left some sentences completely unreadable (although calling the guy's brothers his “bothers” did earn a laugh), cheapened what enjoyment I got out of trying to figure out the mystery.

This was a very interesting story featuring a young woman who's been out to the Yukon at the turn of the century and would love to be able to be free of the horrible things that happened to her there; she is sure the stain of it will follow her the rest of her life.

I loved getting to know her and her work as a camera girl at the Expo held on the University grounds in 1909. It was a good reason to bring all the players in the story together and have them in one spot for the purposes of the story. I loved Isaac for sure, how steadfast he is after so long, and yet so humble about it too. Sure, he oversteps a couple times; he apologizes as soon as he realizes it and doesn't try to do the same problem twice.

I loved Otis and Pearl, the camera shop owners, so much, and also enjoyed to know the camera girls too. Looks like Eleanor gets the next book, but I'm also hoping to know what happens to Mary and Bertha.

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

The whole premise didn't work for me. Someone's after our MC and they think it's for her flash drive? Why not give the flash drive to the police right away, make a big deal about it publicly, and let the perp know the info is out of her hands? The entire premise hinges on keeping the MC safe. Then the police repeatedly fail to stop the bad guy, who somehow K-9 officers can't see sneaking up behind them (er, what's the dog's nose for?) and so on.

Also a question about Aubrey's past was abruptly brought up and then just dropped like it never happened.

I wanted to get Isaac's story but this book barely went into who he was at all since the whole thing was focused on Aubrey's drama.

Oh well. Triple fail—choppy writing, unbelievable plot, and a “romance” without much chemistry or bonding.

A solid story that may or may not have me coming back for the next in the series. I didn't read the first but the description on this one caught my eye, and I decided to try it out. Mostly it was solid, and I enjoyed the interaction between the characters and their families, but at the same time I could see some of the twists coming because they were overly noticeably disguised, and it was a real stretch to take the bad guy's big secret location as any sort of real secret...I've watched plenty of “unknown squatter” type stories but I'd have thought at least one of the law enforcement folks in the story would have taken a good look! Still, I liked the lead characters a lot better than the leads in the previous series.

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

Yes, this book was published yesterday, and yes, I bought it just this morning. I wolfed it down within the space of about three hours! It's very atmospheric and intense, and we really have no clue what a happy ending might look like for Aleida. Just how much loss is she going to have to wade through before the end? Not only is Aleida's child ripped away from her; she also loses others...she and Hugh actually lose a whole string of friends and family, and not all from the war, either. By about the 1/3 mark, it's clear there is a murderer among them somewhere.

I loved the mystery thread and also how much detail we got about Hugh's and Aleida's job and friend circles. It feels so authentic to get that much of a glimpse of daily life. The book also features a strong Christian thread with a distinct lesson to learn.

Sleep? What sleep? I pulled up this file to try a chapter or two at 11:30 pm and turned out the lights at 2:30 am on a Monday morning! I literally couldn't put it down until I couldn't see the screen anymore!

Carina doesn't even know her dad has her carefully shielded from their past. When he realized he couldn't solve the murders of her mother and brother, he put her in his truck and they vanished. She was just a child back then and life has been peaceful in their new Kentucky home—until now. She's followed her dreams and opened her own business despite having moved past so much personal loss, including her boyfriend's kid brother, whose death drove the two of them apart. But Brady's just left the military now, and it looks like he's going to be her only hope to catch the diabolical stalker who's after her now.

I loved the super-twisty mystery angle and the clues Carina and Brady try to assemble together as they attempt to figure out who's after them before he switches to a kill game. As a veteran mystery reader, I counted only two clues that pointed directly to the real killer, with everything else being clear only in retrospect. It was so tense watching the stalker toy with them while he waged his campaign of terror, especially when he started killing people close to them. Eek!

I really can't wait for the second book, as I liked both of those characters in this one.

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

1 star for “did not like.”

I'm trying to clear my shelves and this was one I've tried to get into before without much success. I knew when I picked it up that it was a long shot for me as I'm not much into old Hollywood, but it was a freebie, so I grabbed it.

I'm even less into old Hollywood than I was when I picked it up, so in this case it's probably me, not the book. The choppy descriptions of things, people, actions in the writing aren't my style either, as it makes it have a wooden, thumpy feel.

Content: smoking, profanity

A light, fun story following a girl who's never fallen in love and is tasked with writing a romance novel. Of course there's a good looking single guy in the other half of her vacation duplex. I found this one rather predictable but fun anyway. Hunter's novels are the quintessential “beach read” sort of books, a bit of a ride through the middle but with a happy ending sure to come. I grab them in between heavier reads for a bit of something sweet.

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

3.5 stars

After finishing the Team Hope series, I went hunting for Conner's story and found it here. I'd previously tried to read it and abandoned it about 15% in because it was too confusing. It was short (262 pages) and I felt like Conner and Liza's personalities were somewhat obscured in this effort. I got a stronger picture of his nature in the three Team Hope books but clearly a lot has happened since then, and I'd like to have seen more than a series of candid bits over a few days in time to get the updated picture of where his mind was. He's known as the preacher in his group but he only has a couple minutes of talk of any depth on-page, very different from his past in Team Hope, where he drops nearly as much preaching as Jim Micah does. I miss the showing of that aspect of his nature, and it made me wonder if he was less bold than he had been.

Liza is mostly reacting through the story, and again, I felt like I knew her better from Mona's book than from her own. It's pretty much only about two things: living through the SAR mission, and the relationship with Connor. I wanted more Liza aspects than just those two things.

Otherwise, except for all the heavy descriptive kissing (eww tonguing) I did like seeing quick updates from so many other people. Pete and Jess from Montana Rescue; Derek, Ivy, Raina from Christiansens; a glimpse of Deep Haven; and a few other folks. It was just kinda bum to see all of them but not get a more drawn out savory ending showing what Connor and Liza did next.

Nice classic suspense with some really fun relationships along the way. I loved how badly Masterson wanted to work beyond who he'd been in the past and become a dedicated man of God. Dannette was a great leading lady with her tenacity and her dog handling skills.

3.5 stars, rounded up

This survival story wasn't as much of a suspense as the rest of the series because it's man against nature and the search for the terrorist almost felt comedic at times, leaving the story with a sense of imbalance. Also, I'd have much preferred a longer epilogue showing what happened to them next, given that it's the end of the series.

A late-Victorian novel about a young couple—a captain and a second daughter—who meet and fall in love. But both are penniless and both have conspiring relatives who intend to see them wedded to others...so of course the love story is bent on tragedy. Can it ever come out right?

Some days I'm just in the mood for a good old Victorian melodrama, and this one was exactly the right sort to keep me flipping pages.

A solid installment in the K-9 series. The hero was mentioned in the last book as having been on loan back to the Marshals for this case, and it's set just two weeks after the events from the last book. I really liked both MCs and the folks after her just didn't want to give up. There was very little progress on the question of Mara's guilt or innocence, but a couple new developments cropped up.

I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the outdoors scenes since it made me feel like I was really getting a glimpse into what they were seeing. I think I'd move into that one lodge with the great view, if I had half a chance. :)

4.5 stars rounded up

I have such a weakness for married-second-chance stories and this one checked all the boxes for me. Danger, attraction, surprise baby on the way, and a psycho on the loose ready to blow everyone up. Of course that's a winning combo—right? Well, as long as a happy ending is on the table!

I decided to quit waiting to get a copy of the middle books of this series (I've only read the first) and grabbed this one for a comfort read. Lucas and Kate's story is a quick-moving witness protection/guardian/K-9/amnesia story and as usual Lynette Eason knocks it out of the park on all the tropes. The breaking up of her amnesia and recovering of clues is sprinkled in between action sequences as the would-be killers stalk her to try to prevent her ever remembering what happened during her car wreck, and especially to keep her from getting back her dead best friend's baby girl, who she is legal guardian for. It's up to Lucas and his dog, with a little help from her emotional support dog too, to keep her alive and catch the bad guys.

It's billed and marketed as a cozy mystery. Cute cover, B&B setting, sister relationship. The crime happens and then the mystery gets going for good–at such a pace that I was flipping pages quite quickly. However, the language kept getting worse and worse until there were four letter bombs several times near the ending, and the profanity never lets up. (Even the preacher lady, who “hates cursing,” takes pleasure in bandying about the more minor cuss of “hell.”)

As far as crime solving, the procedural part from Hannah is pretty decent, but more than once the police pop out with a convenient fact that there's no way they could have known. For example, a man is put through a chipper and pulverized, but he's positively identified in less than 24 hours. No way can a small town police force get a DNA result that fast. Also the police repeatedly blab confidential case knowledge to several other characters.

Overall, it would have been a fairly solid story if I'd been expecting a hard-boiled mystery. As it was, the over the top language and the gory turn the murders took was not what I expected as a cozy mystery reader and I won't be continuing this series.

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

A fun little story set in a 4,000-acre family Christmas tree farm. Jaxon is the quintessential absent-minded professor, and Jaylyn a capable and outgoing CEO of the family company. I got very annoyed at Jaxon for his big mistake of thinking himself less-than but I did end up (mostly) forgiving him.

Sweet contemporary and a series I'll be continuing.

Best thing about the book is the cover. I was looking for an E title for a challenge and came across this cute cover, deciding to try it out. Ugh. What a disaster of editing and of “manners.” The characters are hung up on imaginary social misdemeanors while at the same time committing nearly every misdemeanor in the social book of the early 1800s. They bicker like gutter children and the earl acts like he wasn't trained his whole life to be an earl. Oh, and the obligatory anachronistic “it's beneath the dignity of the poor to sentence them for stealing food.” Oh bother.

Hopefully the author decides to get a proper education on Regency life at some point (at least I assume it's supposed to be Regency as no year is stated and yet the War of 1812 doesn't appear to have taken place yet?), and invests in a better editor for her works.

Such a fun Christmas short story, even though I'm reading it about a month late for Christmas. It was fun how the character names were often taken from the Biblical Christmas story, and I loved how clever the Texas versions of the 12 days of Christmas lyrics were interpreted.

Classic Susan May from back before her writing switched from “suspense with a side of romance” to “high heat romance with a side of suspense.” As a suspense reader, this is my favored balance. I really wasn't sure how she'd make the two work through their past with so much baggage there, but she managed to make it fairly believable as they slowly edge closer back to each other while trying to save her daughter. He was pretty dumb take his friend's side instead of hers, honestly! I loved the race to save her daughter even though I didn't agree with all the decisions she made and wanted to holler at her to make different ones.

Rounding up for the characters, even though several plot elements are just too much of a stretch of belief. I loved the good thriller aspect of it, though I'd have liked to know it was part of a series before starting. Definitely going to be looking for more stories from this Homeland task force group of characters.