Hannah G
2.5 stars
I had trouble getting into the story and keeping straight the plethora of characters. It felt like I was constantly being distracted from one thing to see what another character was doing “Here, look over here” style, and that made it hard to stay focused. Also, the length is too short for the scope of the crime, which resulted in too much telling and not the amount of showing I prefer; so the tale stayed a bit distant and formulaic.
I loved the big twist near the end and would have liked a little more time to see that relationship developed rather than just “they are working through it” and dismissed out of hand.
I'll still read the next in the series to see if it's a little better balanced in terms of pacing and number of characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required. This review is based off a finished paperback copy I own.
Random book I picked up, read a little of, and decided I had to know the rest of the story. I found the characters had a surprising amount of depth for a straight-up romance story and I appreciated the character growth arcs through the book. I especially liked her mom's surprise role in the story and how the hero had such a solid family behind him. The story is mostly set in Wyoming and the small-town provides some fun scenes.
Content: everything off-page except some kissing scenes; the guy's sleeping-around past is referred to and their former affair
This story was a miss for me. I liked the setup in the first half but the second half was just too much of a stretch to believe. Law enforcement seriously doesn't know a bit about checking for trackers when someone's been mysteriously tracked cross country? Doesn't think someone's in danger on the ranch if she just got found at a secret off grid fishing cabin? The story style didn't flow well either past the halfway mark, feeling choppy and more about telling than showing. I liked others in the series better than this one.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.
Nice and twisty when it comes to clues for this one! From a rescue mission after a plane crash, to a massive series of twists at the end, this one sure kept me flipping pages. Part of it's survival while getting away from the plane crash, with the woods full of bad guys, and then things switch to a whole other sort of survival once they get back to civilization and have just a few days to unravel a crime tangle that's been many years in the making. Good guys and bad guys alike can't be trusted to keep to their respective sides–and how does this all tie in to Kelly's last job as an undercover officer in Chicago?
Definitely kept me guessing and I'll someday go back and reread to see how many clues I missed by assuming good guys were good.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.
In the author's note at the front, he says he is sorry the book is still in print, as it is an early effort he viewed as heavily flawed. I'm inclined to agree.
Overall, the characters are strong but the plot arc is imbalanced, going along in fits and starts and including things that don't make a lot of sense while skipping over things I wanted to know more about. Most of the scenes are depressing and I was glad to get to the end of the book.
Wow, that was absolutely un-put-downable! I (ahem) stayed up to 3 am listening to the audio to solve the puzzle and make sure everything was going to end the way I wanted it to end. I wasn't expecting the western story because I didn't read the synopsis before starting, and the rest of the series was set on the coast, but I really loved how the setting made the characters really come alive. It was great to see Logan as a Christian and Emmy letting herself fall for him now that he is. Really well done and satisfying story.
Like book two, this is a contemporary romance with about four chapters of moderate danger at the 85% mark. I was really disappointed that it wasn't suspense like book 1 was. If there are any more books in the series, I probably won't continue them unless I'm specifically in the mood for straight modern romance, which isn't generally my thing.
I mostly liked the characters but the pacing was off and the ending was very abrupt. The horse Galahad was probably my favorite thing in the story.
4.5 stars
Wow, another tense thriller from Maggie Black! I loved these strong characters, Justin and Violet, and how despite Justin's having been a true jerk to Violet before, she still treated him nicely and didn't resent him or hold deep bitterness for what he'd done. And Justin knows he's done wrong to her but is slowly realizing that he was the one who mishandled his life and left him feeling ready to run from another commitment.
But there isn't much time for hanky panky as a murderous group of thugs is closing in on them for daring to hunt for Justin's kidnapped nephew. There were tons of twists but each one seemed reasonable and didn't leave me mystified, just puzzled in a good way as to how it would all come together.
I loved how they managed to figure out the ending challenges, just as everything seemed to be completely hopeless. That was not a twist I saw coming nor a tactic I expected them to use.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free reading copy. A favorable review was not required.
Not sure why this was billed as romantic suspense when there were about two chapters tops of suspense. Maybe at a stretch it might be a cozy mystery but there aren't many clues. It's solidly a contemporary romance story and I wish it had been billed as such instead of me hoping for a thriller along the caliber of the previous book in the series, which really was an honest to goodness nail biter.
I did enjoy the story although straight romance isn't my preference, and the ending was too abrupt to savor much.
4.5 stars
Well, the series is over–sigh. I am not done with wanting to read about the valley on the desert. I'm quite sure they are very tired of murder and mayhem around there and they want a break, but I just don't think I'm ready for them to get one.
Jude and Felicia are a fun couple despite their angst. After everything they went through in the last book, they've got to be ready to rest, but no, they get family drama from Felicia's bio relatives first! I loved little Gracie and huge dog Stretch also.
Total feel-good suspense story! Secret rooms, hidden history, lost spouse, hurricane coming...with a dash of spies and secrets. I definitely want the hard copy of this one! Need to be able to reread at leisure, of course...
Cole made a great hero, a Navy vet who's come home to an empty life after his wife's death, and he heads out to his vacation home restoration project to get back to living his life. But once there he finds more questions than answers, with a weird neighbor and a designing woman showing up .
I loved Anna's character too, of how she's been on the run for so many years and just wants to have a normal quiet life. She's stuck on the island with killers closing in and the only ally she had was killed a few days back. She's got no one in her court...
Such a fun thriller with danger at every turn, smart criminals, and plenty of people to suspect.
What a fun suspense concept! I really loved the unusual plot and the suspense over whether the man chasing her was the supposedly dead man or not. Were we to trust the clues or the heroine's testimony? Neat twist of tropes and paired with a hero and heroine both dealing with the strain of having come from less than perfect families themselves and how that affects who they are as adults.
Another good installment in the series with a serial killer and the two town matriarchs determined to cause trouble for everyone else in town on top of the murders. In this one, high school sweethearts are thrown back together by her brother's death and by planning for the town's best-mother pageant. There's a dash of Romeo and Juliet to their story as they were carefully broken up by their mothers' lies to each other, but now they realize perhaps they didn't have a real reason to quit trusting each other in the past. But how can they make it all work out with the way life has been going in Loomis this spring?
Explosive start to a series with a child being the witness of a murder, and her mother missing. The romance is between the FBI agent and the local child psychologist/counselor, who previously had worked cases with him in New Orleans before a particularly difficult one affected them both.
They solve one murder and the murderer gets killed. Still can't find the missing mother (which is apparently not going to be solved until the last book of the series.)
I enjoyed the story and had a hard time guessing what came next. All the faith content was enjoyable too, a bit more than I usually find in LIS, which was a very nice treat.
This one's just before and during the Mother's Day event for the winning mother's pageant. Whew, can competing women overdo on the drama a bit! And Mandy has someone from her past after her, who's determined if he can't have Mandy, no one will.
It was really sweet to get to see more of Sarah and to come to know Mandy and why she was in town.
On to the last one...
A new author to me who was a fun new find. I liked this story of a former bad boy coming back to reckon with his past and finding more than he bargained for–a lot more, with the current danger in town. Shelby was a fun character to get to know with her librarian ways and the way she relates to people in the town.
Worth the read to stay awake for! I was so eager to get to Leah's story and find out what had happened to her. There was still so much story left to discover, and honestly this size book wasn't long enough. I still wanted more by the end but it was satisfying to find out for sure who was behind things after all. Some things I suspected correctly and some things I didn't. But Leah gets a new start and maybe this creepy little town will too, with the serial killer(s) locked up tight.
Two stars for “okay.” I liked Liz even though she had a bad case of Too Stupid To Live, and the hero Oz apparently had some sort of invisible armor the way he'd bounce right back up and be fine after serious injuries. I also wasn't quite sold on the strong instalove and even the bad guy. Wasn't a bad read, just a sloppy job that had enough promise to show it could have been a lot better. Especially I found it tragic that they just waltz around town, refusing to let the other police protect them, and head right into a crowd as though they aren't being hunted for their lives; the collateral damage is no surprise.
I'll read more of this author, but hopefully she gets a better content and typo editor for the next story. :)
