Last weekend, I resisted the impulse to buy books at RustyCon. However, I am being tempted again.
This weekend is the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, otherwise known as ARC-city. There will be ARCs everywhere I look, and all just waiting to jump into my bag. Free for the taking.
Of course, then I have to carry the things around the conference until I get back to my hotel. By the fourth (fifth, sixth?) book, the lead weight encumbers decision making. Too much of a good thing can be very heavy!
I really hope that more publishers are getting on board with the idea of offering NetGalley or Edelweiss eARCs!
I was hoping to come up with something really profound to say today, but it’s been a wet, gloomy weekend here in Seattle. While this is terrific reading weather, the constant drip does not inspire!
However, this was one of my best weeks ever for review books. So many grade A reviews! Even the B+ book was a load of fun. And although I was sad to see the end of this “chapter” of Modesitt’s Imager Portfolio, he has said on his blog that there will definitely be another series in that world. That news made this reader very happy. Except…I have to wait for it. Darn.
It’s been thirteen years since Lucy Sheridan was in Summer River. The last time she visited her aunt Sara there, as a teenager, she’d been sent home suddenly after being dragged out of a wild party—by the guy she had a crush on, just to make it more embarrassing. Obviously Mason Fletcher—only a few years older but somehow a lot more of a grown-up—was the overprotective type who thought he had to come to her rescue.
Now, returning after her aunt’s fatal car accident, Lucy is learning there was more to the story than she realized at the time. Mason had saved her from a very nasty crime that night—and soon afterward, Tristan, the cold-blooded rich kid who’d targeted her, disappeared mysteriously, his body never found.
A lot has changed in thirteen years. Lucy now works for a private investigation firm as a forensic genealogist, while Mason has quit the police force to run a successful security firm with his brother—though he still knows his way around a wrench when he fills in at his uncle’s local hardware store. Even Summer River has changed, from a sleepy farm town into a trendy upscale spot in California’s wine country. But Mason is still a protector at heart, a serious (and seriously attractive) man. And when he and Lucy make a shocking discovery inside Sara’s house, and some of Tristan’s old friends start acting suspicious, Mason’s quietly fierce instincts kick into gear. He saved Lucy once, and he’ll save her again. But this time, she insists on playing a role in her own rescue . . .
My Review:
I enjoyed reading River Road so much that it was surprisingly difficult to crystallize my thoughts into a review!
One utterly marvelous thing is that this is a stand-alone story, and sometimes those feel rare. As well as this one weaves past and present, it is complete within the very tight confines of itself; we have the beginning, middle and end wrapped up. No cliffhanger, no next book, no loose ends.
And this was definitely one of those “I couldn’t put it down” sort of suspense stories. Every element in both the past and the present mattered, and both the revelations about the past and the attacks in the present kept on coming. The suspense drove the story to the point where I couldn’t turn pages fast enough.
But there’s still a love story that takes its time to develop in the present. One of the things that makes that love story “sing” is that it is also a second chance at love story. In the case of the past influencing the present, in the “way back”, he was her first crush, but as adults, that three-year age gap is immaterial.
There are two stories in River Road. One is about the past haunting the present. Thirteen years ago Lucy Sheridan’s Aunt Sara murdered Tristan Brinker and bricked his body up inside her fireplace. After Sara’s death, Lucy and Mason Fletcher re-open Sara’s terrible “do-it-yourself” job on that fireplace and discover Tristan’s body; along with evidence indicating that the young man was the “Scorecard Rapist” who police had been unable to capture thirteen years ago.
On the long ago night that opens the story, when Mason Fletcher rescues Lucy from one of Tristan’s famous beach parties at Summer River, Lucy had been Tristan’s next intended victim. Instead, Mason gets Lucy out of the party, Sara gets Lucy out of town, and Sara puts Tristan out of everyone’s misery.
Thirteen years later, Sara and her domestic partner Mary are killed in a car accident on a lonely road, and after the body is discovered in the fireplace, Lucy suddenly isn’t so certain that the “accident” was accidental; especially after an arsonist dies while setting her aunt’s house ablaze and she discovers that she has inherited either money or trouble as the result of not Sara’s, but Mary’s shares in a local investment firm.
And it all relates to the people who were the other victims of Tristan Brinker and that long-ago summer.
Escape Rating A+: I could not put this down, to the point that I was carrying the book around with me so I could get in a few more pages…just a few more paragraphs…
River Road is an absolutely terrific romantic suspense story, with a definite emphasis on the suspense. Krentz did a marvelous job of continually interweaving the past with the present, all the while making the old case both relevant to the present investigation but not taking the reader’s focus on the present-day skullduggery. Of which there was plenty.
The suspense plot was edge-of-the seat tense in this story. Every puzzle piece fit neatly into the ones we had already seen, and yet, I still didn’t know whodunnit until the very end. I had some ideas that some people didn’t exactly have clean hands, but not who the real evildoers were.
And there is one stand up and cheer moment as the story concludes, you’ll be surprised about that, too.
But there’s also a slowly developing love story between Lucy and Mason, and it’s just right. In the prologue, he’s an adult, just barely, and she isn’t quite yet. He’s protective and too much for her, and she knows it. As adults, they are equal. He’s still overprotective, but she doesn’t let him be. They need something from each other. And they need to solve the mystery, because they were both part of what happened in the past, and they are both targets in the present. But their caution makes the romance burn slow and hot.
Excellently well done all the way around. If you enjoy romantic suspense, you’ll love River Road.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
It’s the first Sunday Post of 2014. It took me a couple of tries to get the title set up. That “14” looked really strange in the header on first (and second) glance.
How often have you caught yourself writing the wrong year so far?
This was the week of the “list” posts. It was fun to look both back and ahead, to do the best of the year post and the most anticipated post in the same week. Although it was funny (funny weird not funny ha-ha) to see that there were books on the 2013 most anticipated list that hadn’t been published, and books that had been published that I hadn’t managed to get to.
Frank Zappa was right, “So many books, so little time.” And OMG it was Frank Zappa?
Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson (blog tour review) Beg Me to Slay by Lisa Kessler (blog tour review + giveaway) Rex Regis by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (review) River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz (review) Sharp by Alex Hughes (review)
Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss Formats available: ebook, paperback Genre: Romantic Suspense; New Adult Romance Series: Forgiving Lies, #1 Length: 371 pages Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks Date Released: October 29, 2013 Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository
A matter of secrets …
Undercover cop Logan “Kash” Ryan can’t afford a distraction like his new neighbor Rachel Masters, even if she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. To catch a serial killer, he needs to stay focused, yet all he can think about is the feisty, long-legged coed whose guarded nature intrigues him.
A matter of lies …
Deceived and hurt before, Rachel would rather be a single, crazy cat lady than trust another guy, especially a gorgeous, tattooed bad boy with a Harley, like Kash. But when his liquid-steel eyes meet hers, it takes all of Rachel’s willpower to stop herself from exploring his hot body with her own.
A matter of love …
As much as they try to keep it platonic, the friction between them sparks an irresistible heat that soon consumes them. Can Kash keep Rachel’s heart and her life safe even as he risks his own? Will she be able to forgive his lies … or will she run when she discovers the dangerous truth?
My Review:
I didn’t know that “New Adult Romantic Suspense” was actually a thing. Apparently it is now, because Forgiving Lies definitely is one. Is it EVER!
It’s entirely possible this book should come with a trigger warning. The stuff that happens to Rachel was seriously creepy. For a book that is being marketed as New Adult, very bad shit happens to Rachel, and not just in the past that she is getting over, but within the story itself.
And readers should definitely be warned that this story is not complete. We think we’ve reached a happy ending, and then the rug gets totally pulled out from under us. Forgiving Lies does not end, but stops on a horrifying cliffhanger of the awful suspense type.
Lest anyone think I’m revealing the ending, I don’t feel I am because I don’t feel like I got an ending. I feel like I got left in mid-air, dangling. The next book in the series, Deceiving Lies, won’t be published until March 2014, and I’m biting my nails here.
If you hate hanging off cliffs, wait until the next book. It IS worth the wait.
But about those Forgiving Lies…
There are certainly more than enough of those to go around in this story, and not all of them are actually forgivable.
Kash and Mason are undercover cops in Tampa Bay Florida. When their cover gets blown, they need to lay low and out of town for a while, until the kingpin who has put a price on their heads goes to jail. Their captain sends them to Austin, Texas to work undercover as part of team hunting for a serial killer.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the women living in the apartment across the hall from them in Austin are Rachel and Candice. This is where everything goes both right and wrong. Candice seems to be a typical bubble-headed, self-centered cheerleader, and Rachel is a woman with too much pain and too many secrets.
Candice and Mason spend the summer as friends-with-benefits, although Mason turns out to be just one of Candice’s many summer playtoys.
But Kash spends the summer not just befriending Rachel, but getting closer to her, even though he knows that he shouldn’t become involved with anyone while he’s undercover.
Rachel’s mixture of pain, vulnerability, bravery and beauty is more than he can resist. When he finally discovers the nature of the ordeal that she’s been through, he vows to protect her in any way that she’ll let him.
He can’t stop himself from falling in love with her, even though he knows there’s a risk that she’ll run when he reveals that he’s been deceiving her the whole summer.
The real surprise is that Kash and Logan’s case has been about Rachel all along.
Escape Rating B: There are some terrific things about this story that made it well worth reading for me. And then there were other factors that drove me insane.
The love story between Kash and Rachel is both heart-warming and sexy. It’s not the typical good girl takes a walk on the wild side, or bad boy is reformed by sweet girl, in spite of what the book summary might lead you to believe. Kash is a cop who enjoys working undercover. He may look like a bad boy, but he is definitely a hero.
Rachel is a strong young woman who is hiding an intense amount of damage. Her parents were killed in an accident and she has never dealt with the grief. Then she was nearly raped by someone she knew and no one believes her. Even worse, her supposed best friend thinks she’s lying and believes her attacker. In fact, she set up the attack, and continues to enable Rachel’s attacker.
Rachel is being stalked by her attacker, and she is certain that no one will believe her. That’s where Kash enters her life.
Even though he doesn’t reveal that he’s a cop, he does reveal himself. And he finally convinces Rachel to do most of the same.
She hides the name of her stalker/attacker, because she doesn’t want Kash to kill him. Kash hides that he’s an undercover cop. They’re pretty even on secrets, and those secrets nearly get Rachel and everyone she loves killed.
The problem character in this story is Rachel’s roommate and supposed best friend, Candice. While I can understand that Candice might believe the best of her cousin, and he’s the man who attacks Rachel in the beginning of the book, what I can’t understand is either her self-centered attitude or Rachel’s willingness to tolerate it. Candice repeatedly locks Rachel out of their entire apartment for the entire night whenever she has a hookup. The entire night! Candice demonstrates a constant disregard for Rachel’s feelings and well-being except when it’s convenient for Candice. Candice’s behavior and attitude result in Rachel’s original attack and assists with the stalking. According to the story, they have BFFs since grade school, but it seems to only go one way.
Kash and Rachel’s love story is wonderful. Kash’s cop buddy Mason is a terrific friend to both of them (and I hope he gets his own story!) But there’s that cliffhanger that steals the ending of the story. There should have been a huge warning label for that.
This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
Yesterday a storm blew through Seattle and 200,000 people lost power temporarily. Although we weren’t among them, Comcast was less than Comcastic for most of the day. They must have lost something major.
NO NET. Horrors! Or not. It’s nights like that Clear 4G wireless was invented for. Mobile internet access isn’t just for hotels anymore.
Yes, we’re geeks. Right now I’m one very annoyed geek. Galen took the Clear modem on a trip and I’m sitting at Third Place using their wifi. Comcastic is down again.
This seems to have been giveaway week at Reading Reality. There are four ongoing giveaways, so there should be something for everyone, including another $10 Amazon or B&N gift card.
The winner of the ebook copy of Promise Me, Cowboy by CJ Carmichael is Jen M.
The winner of a $10 Amazon Gift Card in the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop is Karen H.
The winner of a $10 Amazon Gift Card in the Something Wicked Returns Blog Hop is Stacey D.
The Best Man by Kristan Higgins (review) The Perfect Match by Kristan Higgins (blog tour review + giveaway) Fiddlehead by Cherie Priest (review) Foreplay by Sophie Jordan (blog tour review) Vampire Games by Tiffany Allee (blog tour review + giveaway)
Psychic medium Alexandra King is sick of being pestered by her boss’s dead mother demanding help to reunite her two estranged sons. Determined to get some peace and quiet again, Alexandra follows a lead in finding the younger Collins brother to Charleston, South Carolina, where she immediately meets the hottest man she’s ever laid eyes on and finds herself a willing participant in seduction. Of course, her one-night-stand turns out to be none other than Dylan Collins — her boss’s younger brother and a homicide detective who believes psychics are a complete waste of time.
All Dylan wants is a few hours of pleasure to take his mind off of the case haunting him. A serial killer is stalking the streets of The Holy City — a killer who calls himself The Grim Reaper. When the woman he’d just spent the night with turns up and offers her services as a psychic consultant on the case, his ardor quickly cools. Last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a con artist.
It doesn’t take long for Dylan to realize Alexandra is the real deal – and the killer’s next target. Dylan’s protective instincts battle his reluctance to get too involved with a woman he isn’t sure he can trust. As they get closer to finding the killer, they also grow closer to one another, but will Alexandra’s secret agenda destroy their chance at happiness — if the killer doesn’t strike first?
My Review:
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”, or so says one of the witches in Macbeth.
Something Wicked is also the darker second book in Angela Campbell’s Psychic Detectives series, after the first book in the series, the light-hearted romp On the Scent, reviewed at Book Lovers Inc.
I picked Something Wicked as my Halloween review because it considerably darker than the first book in the series. While the story still contains a romance, there is much more of a feeling of suspense and absolutely a heart of darkness; psychic medium Alexandra King and Charleston Police Detective Dylan Collins are on the trail of a serial killer calling himself “Grim Reaper”; all the while that Grim Reaper is stalking them.
The story starts as a simple quest. At the end of On the Scent, the late, lamented Rebecca Collins pesters Alexandra King until she agrees to go to Charleston to attempt to reunite her two sons, Zachary and Dylan. Alexandra left Zachary in Atlanta, happily in love with Hannah at the end of the previous story, but unfortunately very much estranged from his younger brother Dylan.
Dylan is a cop in Charleston, and Rebecca is sure that he is in danger, and not just the everyday kind of danger a cop usually faces. In case you missed it, I called Rebecca the “late, lamented”. Rebecca is a ghost, and Alexandra does, indeed, see dead people. This is that kind of story. It is Halloween, after all.
There’s “meet cute” and then there’s “meet really cute.” Alexandra gets to Charleston, goes to a bar/restaurant recommended by her hotel, has a meal, picks up a gorgeous guy, has a night of really fantastic sex, and never gets the guy’s name.
The next morning, her visions show her that there’s a serial killer in town, and that the cop leading the case is both her one night stand and the guy she came to find. Only then does she discover that Dylan Collins hates psychics. Dylan does not want her on the case. His boss does. The police need all the help they can get, even from a psychic.
Something Wicked should have been the same kind of lighthearted romp that the first book was, but it isn’t. Not just because the serial killer is not merely a sick bastard, but he’s chasing Alexandra and Dylan while they’re chasing him. It goes further than that. Alexandra has a sympathetic relationship with ghosts, she helps them “cross over” to the other side. Something evil is messing with the ghosts of Charleston, and is making living people get sick, too. A demon gives Dylan’s partner pneumonia. Charleston has LOTS of ghosts (think Civil War) and the demon is suborning those ghosts and getting them to attack the living. It’s very creepy.
So we have a live serial killer, killing people, and a dead serial killer messing with ghosts doing even more evil. Kind of a double-creepy effect. This shouldn’t work but it very much does.
Because Alexandra talks with ghosts, she can be affected from both planes, so both the serial killer and the demon are out to get her.
It all starts because one mother wanted to make sure her sons reconciled. If Zachary and Dylan work together, maybe they can manage to save both Rebecca and Alexandra.
Escape Rating Boo+: Something Wicked is a wickedly fun read for Halloween, although it will help you enjoy the story if you read On the Scent first to get introduced to Alexandra and the other Collins brother, Zachary. The scene late in the book where Zach figures out where Alexandra is will be way more fun (and loads funnier!) if you know their history.
Dylan and Alexandra have a lot to work through. They start out not being honest with each other, at least partially because they start out not sharing much except hot sex. No introductions were made. It’s only later that Alexandra neglects to mention that she’s in Charleston because she knows Dylan’s brother.
The scene where Alexandra gives Dylan a complete dressing down for his assumptions about psychics is funny but also spot-on. He has a lot of baggage he needs to lose before they can have a real relationship. He spends most of the story dropping those bags, piece by piece.
This story had just the right amount of creepy factor for a Halloween read for me. I don’t like straight out horror, but I was looking for something with those elements to give the season that appropriately shivery sensation. Something Wicked was just right!
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
Charismatic bar owner Rowdy Yates isn’t the kind of man women say no to. So when he approaches waitress Avery Mullins, he fully expects to get her number. However, the elusive beauty has her reasons for keeping her distance—including a past that might come back to haunt them both.
Avery spends her nights working for tips… and trying to forget the secret Rowdy is determined to unearth. But when history threatens to repeat itself, Avery grows to rely on Rowdy’s protective presence. As the sparks between them ignite, she will be forced to choose between the security she’s finally found… and the passion she’s always wanted..
My Review:
I love that the main character of Getting Rowdy was named for the character Clint Eastwood played in the old TV western Rawhide, way, way back, Rowdy Yates. There is even a resemblance between the book cover picture and the character.
And it’s all too possible to think of lots of Eastwood’s western heroes riding to the rescue of Avery Mullins the way that this Rowdy Yates does, whether Avery consents to being rescued or not. Because Avery needs a little help from a friend, and Rowdy is willing to be that friend, or even “friends with benefits”, if he can get Avery to let him get that close.
This a story of two people who don’t let anyone close, although they have totally different reasons for why they keep people outside of their inner circle and exactly how they each define what “close” means.
Rowdy has his sister Pepper. We’ve already read her story in Run the Risk (reviewed here) Because of the childhood abuse that Rowdy protected Pepper from, he grew up not trusting anyone. The last several years he spent hiding in plain sight while he guarded Pepper did not make him more trusting. After all, it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you. And the mob, along with some corrupt cops, really were out to get him. But that’s finally behind them and Pepper is married to one of the good cops, Logan Riske.
So Rowdy has started to put down roots in order to stay close to Pepper. He’s bought a bar and is cleaning up the place. Not clean up as in dirt, but clean up as in getting the low-lifes out of the area. It used to be a place where the owner did drug dealing and flesh peddling. Now it’s a middle-class place where people can get a halfway decent meal and the drinks aren’t watered down. It’s a safe place and Rowdy keeps it that way.
It’s also where he picks up too many women for his bartender’s comfort. Avery Mullins is the one woman he really wants, but she keeps turning him down. Rowdy uses sex as a way of keeping his nightmares away. There’s just been too much crap in his life. He doesn’t sleep much and no-strings-attached sex is his way of finding oblivion.
Avery has demons and secrets of her own, but no-strings-attached sex with Rowdy Yates is about the last thing she’s going after as a way of getting past anything. She wants him, but she has no interest in being just another notch on his much-marked bedpost. And her job as bartender at his place is too good to jeopardize with a one-night-stand, no matter how terrific.
One-night-stands are all Rowdy ever does. His friendship is more important to Avery than sex. Then she discovers that his protection is an absolute necessity, because her past comes back to find her.
And once Rowdy discovers that Avery needs him, he realizes that he wants to protect her much, much more than he ever thought he wanted to escape. The man who never had a home may have finally found one, if he can convince himself that he’s worthy of keeping her.
Escape Rating B+: I always look forward to another Lori Foster book. Her romantic suspense series deliver marvelous stories that fulfill both parts of that equation every single time! She always tells a delicious romantic story that also includes spine-tingling suspense, and Getting Rowdy definitely was another story in that marvelous tradition!
Rowdy and Avery have been dancing around each other since they first met in Run the Risk, so it was terrific to see both what was keeping them apart and how they finally managed to get together. While we know a lot of Rowdy’s history from Pepper, it was different seeing things from Rowdy’s perspective; he protected her from a lot of the worst of it, which means he had a lot of healing to do.
Avery might have been a bit more understanding about Rowdy’s parade of female bed partners than other women would have been. While he doesn’t owe her anything until they start seeing each other, it would have been more than unnerving to have a man hit on you nearly every night and then pick someone else up when you turned him down. Only to rinse and repeat the very next evening.
Avery’s situation starts out chilling and only gets squickier. No wonder she ran. I like her character and the way she took charge of her life a lot. I was a bit surprised at just how creepy her enemies turned out to be. The evil-dude turned out to be a bit over-the-top, to the point where I was amazed that if he was that much of a creepazoid, I wondered why he hadn’t dragged her back earlier.
The group dynamics as a whole are loads of fun. It was great to see Logan, Pepper, Reese and Alice (especially Cash!) from Run the Risk and Bare it All (reviewed here) again. Rowdy’s reluctant bonding with the rest of the guys is a hoot.
I can’t wait for book 4, Dash of Peril.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
Format read: print book borrowed from the library Formats available: ebook, hardcover, large print paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook Genre: Romantic suspense Series: In Death, #37 Length: 417 pages Publisher: Putnam Adult Date Released: September 17, 2013 Purchasing Info:Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository
Lieutenant Eve Dallas has plenty to be grateful for this season. Hosting Roarke’s big Irish family for the holiday may be challenging, but it’s a joyful improvement on her own dark childhood.
Other couples aren’t as lucky as Eve and Roarke. The Reinholds, for example, are lying in their home stabbed and bludgeoned almost beyond recognition. Those who knew them are stunned—and heartbroken by the evidence that they were murdered by their own son. Twenty-six-year-old Jerry hadn’t made a great impression on the bosses who fired him or the girlfriend who dumped him—but they didn’t think he was capable of this.
Turns out Jerry is not only capable of brutality but taking a liking to it. With the money he’s stolen from his parents and a long list of grievances, he intends to finally make his mark on the world. Eve and her team already know the who, how, and why of this murder. What they need to pinpoint is where Jerry’s going to strike next.
My Review:
There are aspects of Thankless in Death that are, well, thankless, in spite of an absolutely awesome scene where both Eve and, surprisingly Roarke get thanked for their service to the NYPSD.
Unlike many of the entries in this series, this isn’t a whodunnit. It’s not even a “whydunnit”. This one is simply a “when in the deity’s name are they going to finally catch the bastard doing it?” The only suspense involved the length of time the sadistic killer could continue to get lucky and evade capture.
I said lucky and I meant it. This moron wasn’t planning all that much, and he wasn’t bothering to cover up his crimes. He simply caught a lot of lucky breaks, until one of his victims effectively planted a logic bomb in the fake identity he forced her to create for him at knifepoint.
There’s no mystery in this mystery. And we spend more time inside the head of a psychotic serial killer than is comfortable. He isn’t even all that bright, so his world view manages to be both blood soaked and boring at the same time.
This one is a crime about how bad things happen to good people.
The family side of this story doesn’t reveal a lot that’s new, although it is pleasant to have Roarke’s Irish family come to America for Thanksgiving. Roarke playing soccer with his cousins is priceless.
But the best part of this particular outing with Dallas & Co. isn’t either the case or the romance (not that Eve and Roarke aren’t still amazing) but something else altogether.
All the way back in the beginning, from the very first story in Naked in Death, one of the themes was that originally all Eve Dallas ever wanted was to be “a good cop”. Her job was her life, and it was all she had. Roarke gave her a life outside her job, and made her better at it. Ironically in a way, because he started out as a street-thief, and only stopped the last of his illegal enterprises in order to be with her.
In this most recent story, the NYPSD decides to finally set aside the internal politicking that has kept the powers-that-be from completely acknowledging their contributions. In a very public ceremony. Eve is awarded the Medal of Honor, and Roarke the highest civilian honor, the Civilian Medal of Merit. I choked up when I read the scene, and I did re-reading it just now. It was as if friends were being awarded something, because after all the books and all the years, it feels as if they are.
And that’s why I keep reading.
Escape Rating B-: Definitely far from the best in the series. The experiment of having the reader know much more about the case than the detectives was interesting, but I hope it isn’t repeated, particularly since the scumbags that Dallas generally chases do not have the kind of minds that I want to wallow in for more than a nanosecond.
This particular scumbag wasn’t even intelligent or interesting. Just very scummy.
The cop shop scenes had some good chemistry. I always enjoy seeing Dallas and Feeney work together, and their father/daughter moments had extra poignancy in this one.
All of Eve’s angst and acceptance about receiving the Medal of Honor and the accolades that went with it were far and away the best part of the story. She didn’t want the award or the ceremony that went with it. It wasn’t until the event was taking place that she finally accepted that the award didn’t just have meaning for her, but that it had significance for every victim she had ever stood for–and not just their families, but her own. Not just the family that both she and Roarke had finally discovered were theirs by right, but also the one that they had created through friendship and love.
If only the rest of the book had been close to the emotional resonance of that Medal of Honor ceremony. If only.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
Halloween is coming. This week! It’s our first Halloween in Seattle, and we don’t know what Autumn will mean here in the Pacific Northwest, although we’re guessing that it’s the start of the rainy season.
In the South, it meant the weather finally got decent again, after a summer of “OMG it’s hot!” In Alaska, by late October winter had already set in for the long haul. In the Midwest, Halloween really did mean that Fall was ending. Chicago usually has a pretty nice (and generally pretty, Fall. (Spring kind of sucks, but Fall was often long and beautiful).
But about Halloween. There are still a few more days to enter both the Spooktacular Giveaway Hop and the Something Wicked Returns Hop. Because, of course, they are Halloween-themed hops and will ghost away on Halloween. However, the lucky winners will be able to spend their $10 Amazon or B&N gift cards any time they like. Even on non-ghostly books. But enter soon before the chance disappears until next spook time.
Speaking of ghosts, Book Lovers Inc. has sadly joined the legion of ghost book blogs. The international book congress was my book blogging “home away from home” for two years, and I’ll miss posting there and all the friends I made over at BLI. I’d like to formally welcome those who followed the links and decided to give Reading Reality a try.
And for those who miss Draconismoi’s trademark rants from BLI, let me introduce you to Cass, otherwise known as Draconismoi from BLI. She has graciously, or snarkily, agreed to bring her ranting and reviewing skills down the coast from Alaska to Seattle for the occasional rant and review. Her first post at Reading Reality was this week’s Series Shakedown. Read and enjoy!
Current Giveaways:
Something Wicked Returns: my prize is a $10 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble; visit the other stops on the hop to see their fabulous prizes.
Spooktacular Giveaway Hop: Yet another opportunity for you to win a $10 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Check the post to see the over 300 other stops on this hop!
This weekend is the American Library Association Midwinter Conference, otherwise known as ARC-city. There will be ARCs everywhere I look, and all just waiting to jump into my bag. Free for the taking.
