all book related reviews
I’ve read some plot and character types I usually avoid as I make my way through the Family Secrets series. In Virginia Kantra’s Her Beautiful Assassin, it’s the dreaded (or depending on your preference, beloved) Navy SEAL hero. The good news is, this is the best book yet in the series, good enough that not…
You’ve read this story before. Older, more experienced hero exploits innocent young woman, using her as an unknowing pawn in a ruthless quest for vengeance. But even though the plot holds few surprises, in Madeline Hunter’s hands, a familiar story gains an altogether unexpected depth and dimension. Ms. Hunter, fellow readers, is good. Very good….
Blood and Chocolate was one of the first werewolf books I read, and it’s still one of my favorites, second only to Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten. I stumbled across it on a list of recommended young adult books. It was a 1998 American Library Association Best Book and Quick Pick for teens, which basically means that…
Suspicion has an interesting setting and not much else to recommend about it. Flat, unsympathetic characters, and the pace of a funeral dirge made this one a chore to finish. Scott Campbell quit his job at the Los Angeles Times and moved to Santa Catalina Island off the California coast to take over the local…
The back cover blurb for Laurens’ latest has a list of bold print Headings: The Author, The Series, The Hero, The Heroine, and The Outcome, each followed by a brief, supposedly descriptive sentence. Though I’m sure the author and publisher intended the bullet points to grab their audience quickly, what it actually did was define…
As widowed Alexandra Alastair compiles a listing of possible second husbands, she wonders whether she should add the new Viscount Stoke to her list. When she hears, through a connecting wall, a villain attempting to hang him, Alexandra races to the rescue and begins an adventure that will turn her staid life upside down. Alex…
A book with the words “Dewey Decimal” in the title was just too much for this librarian to pass up – luckily for me. Josephine Carr’s latest book moves her out of suspense and into the realm of chick lit, a move that appears to have been made wisely. At times funny, occasionally silly, this…
Writing a trilogy can be a tricky proposition. Some authors seem to start very strongly and then lose steam – and, unfortunately, that seems to be the case with A Wedding Story, the conclusion to Susan Kay Law’s Marrying Miss Bright trilogy. While I enjoyed the thoroughly charming The Bad Man’s Bride very much, this…
The Major Meets His Match has lots of excellent elements: An exciting story, an intelligent hero, a forthright heroine, a totally delightful teenage boy who is the target of assassins, a clergyman who is sort of “Mr. Collins lite,” and much more. The only thing it lacks is a couple who made a good couple….
Likable lead characters, an entertaining cast of secondary ones, and an intriguing setting are the main attractions in the first book in JoAnn Ross’s new Stewart Sisters trilogy. Less effective for me, however, was the central theme of a missing broach, long an object of dissention between the families of the hero and heroine, and…
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