Posts Tagged ‘suspense’
Monday, August 20th, 2012
Pros: Trademark snappy dialogue; fascinating mystery; continuing character development
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Eve’s latest case is a terrifying one. A toxic brew of chemicals was released into a bar, and everyone went mad. The death toll was horrific, and the deaths themselves more so. The chemicals are fast-acting and deadly, allowing the killer to strike quickly and decisively—anywhere, anytime. It’s an act of terrorism by its very definition, but when the killer strikes a second time, targeting people who overlap strongly in their occupations, employers, and area of residence with the first victims, Eve becomes convinced that the killer is going after personal enemies, despite the wide swath of destruction.
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Tags: crime, Eve Dallas, futuristic, in death, J.D. Robb, Nora Roberts, Roarke, romance, science fantasy, serial killer, suspense
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Science Fiction, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2012
Pros: Larger-than-life blend of action, romance, and mystery
Cons: Larger-than-life and melodramatic
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
PI Paige Holden took on a pro bono client—a woman she knows who believes that her son is innocent of the terrible crime he was convicted of. The case seems like a dead end until the woman’s minivan crashes right in front of Paige, and she sees that the woman’s been shot. The woman’s final words and actions send Paige on a collision course with a very high-profile case and some extremely dangerous people.
Five years ago, State’s Attorney Grayson Smith felt satisfied that he had put a murderer in jail and made the streets just that much safer. But when Paige gives him her evidence and tells him what she knows, he starts to doubt himself—and those he works with. Before long, the two of them are largely hiding out with help from Grayson’s adoptive family, hoping to figure out who the bad guys really are before it’s too late.
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Tags: Baltimore, Karen Rose, police procedural, procedural, romance, suspense, thriller
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | No Comments »
Friday, March 30th, 2012
Pros: Love the sweeping family drama, the suspense, the small-town humor, and the hot hook-ups
Cons: Tone/type of plot didn’t entirely match the book cover, which was a little confusing
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Nine years ago, Noah Di Luca, youngest of the Di Luca boys, seemed to have it all. When Penelope Alonso scraped her way out of the ghettos and landed a plum internship with an interior designer in the area, she and Noah fell head over heels for each other. Then Noah’s secrets reared their ugly heads and he walked away, dumping Penelope without a word and leaving her devastated.
Now Penelope has returned, looking for answers to some of her own family questions since her mother died. She hopes she won’t recognized. She’s also hoping to avoid Noah. Of course neither hope lasts past checking in to her hotel and getting settled in. She doesn’t want to fall for him all over again and get her heart broken again. And he knows that just like last time, he can’t afford to let her anywhere near his dangerous secrets—secrets that could destroy the Di Lucas and their friends and allies.
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Tags: Bella Terra, Christina Dodd, romance, suspense
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
Pros: Absolutely fantastic conclusion to the trilogy; it had a lot to live up to and it pulled it off
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5
It all started in If You Hear Her when Lena heard screams behind her house at night. She knew what she’d heard, but almost no one believed her except a state cop, Ezra King, who was taking a leave of absence from his job after an injury. Once a dead body finally showed up it wasn’t long before the small town’s population turned against one another and accusations flew, ultimately resulting in one of Lena’s friends, Law Reilly, and his friend Hope, being implicated in the crime. To make matters that much worse, Law gets severely beaten in an attack and it appears that Hope is the one who attacked him.
In If You See Her, small-town golden boy lawyer Remy Jennings has to somehow straighten out this mess while dealing with his growing feelings for Hope. Unfortunately, Hope’s abusive ex-husband now knows where she is and is determined to haul her back home with him. Meanwhile, there’s still a killer out there somewhere.
If You Know Her
makes a perfect conclusion to this romance/suspense trilogy. Nia, the cousin and only family of the murdered girl, returns to Ash, Kentucky because she can’t let her cousin’s disappearance go. She’s sure the small-town cops aren’t doing enough to find out who did it, and she’s equally certain that they’re dealing with a serial killer who not only will strike again, but already has. She finds an unlikely ally in Law, who not only buys into what she’s saying, but is willing to help her prove it. He just doesn’t want to see her get hurt along the way…
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Tags: romance, Shiloh Walker, suspense
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Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Pros: So totally in tears! An emotional roller-coaster tied to a dark mystery and some wonderful characters
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5
Hope Carson is a survivor of domestic abuse, still battling her demons and trying to get her feet under her. It was her terrible luck to try to piece her life back together while visiting her friend Law, whose small town has just become the site of a terrible killing. As if that weren’t enough, Law was attacked and Hope was made to look as though she’d tried to kill both him and herself.
It takes golden-boy local DA Remy Jennings a while to catch up to the fact that she’s innocent. He feels it in his gut, but he also knows he’s having trouble remaining objective about her, and that means he needs to be particularly careful about basing his decisions only on the evidence at hand. Thankfully that evidence does eventually turn up, leaving him free to think about whether or not to pursue his interest in her. He knows she comes with baggage, maybe more than he can handle. But he just can’t seem to stay away from her.
Unfortunately for both of them, Hope’s ex-husband, the one who battered her, the one who tried to convince Remy she was violent and manipulative, now knows where she is. And he’s determined to bring her back home, no matter what he has to do to accomplish it. He isn’t counting, however, on an unlikely protector who doesn’t want to see Hope hurt…
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Tags: mystery, romance, Shiloh Walker, suspense, thriller
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Pros: Good rationale for personal involvement this time; backs off of the dark personal stuff a bit; enjoyable murder mystery
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Also posted on Epinions.com
A movie is finally being made based on one of Eve’s prior cases, and she’s the guest of honor at a dinner party attended by the stars, director, and producers. While her partner, Peabody, is delighted to experience Hollywood glamor, Eve almost hopes for a murder to get her out of it. Be careful what you wish for, Eve—the evening isn’t yet over when K.T. Harris, the actress playing Peabody, is found drowned on the roof. No one particularly misses her; she was beyond rude, she stalked those she supposedly cared about, and she used blackmail and violence to get her way. In fact, the problem isn’t finding a suspect—the problem is sorting out which one of many might have done it. And this isn’t easy when all of the suspects are such good actors, and quite accustomed to circling the wagons to keep outsiders at bay. Things become more urgent, however, when another person turns up dead, and Eve begins to suspect a larger pattern at work…
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Tags: in death, J.D. Robb, mystery, Nora Roberts, romance, Sci-Fi, science fantasy, suspense
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Science Fiction, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 8th, 2011
Pros: Intense!
Cons: It helps to read The Missing first, but it isn’t necessary
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of the author and Penguin Group
Also posted on Epinions.com.
Desiree (”Dez”) Lincoln is a psychic who works for the FBI. Her ability? She talks to dead people, and they don’t let her rest until she helps them rest. Taylor Jones is Dez’s boss, a man whose talent lies in finding psychics and helping them to focus their talent. His driving goal above all others is to save lives—because he couldn’t save his little sister when she disappeared at age six.
Dez and Taylor feel the mutual heat of attraction between them, but Taylor is too cut off, too controlled, and too much Dez’s boss to allow a relationship—and in pushing Dez away after seeing her critically wounded, he pushes her too far. She leaves the FBI entirely and strikes out on her own.
Months later, a strong-willed spirit calls to Dez from Taylor’s old hometown; it needs her help to save a girl’s life. Dez and Taylor are thrown together again to resolve a situation that keeps escalating, and Dez may be able to help Taylor find out what happened to his sister all those years ago. Hopefully the craziness will bring Dez and Taylor finally together, rather than tearing them apart even further…
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Tags: erotic romance, psychics, romance, Shiloh Walker, suspense, thriller
Posted in Horror & Paranormal, Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 28th, 2011
Pros: Enjoyable stories of odd happenings
Cons: Some predictableness; due to the length of the stories, some characters lacked depth
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
The Unquiet
contains five novellas by different authors, all tales of “uncanny suspense and disquieting romance,” as the back of the book says. It includes stories set in the past, present, and future, with notes of horror, tragedy, and humor. The thing that links them all is a sense of something not-quite-right with the world.
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Tags: anthology, in death, J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Mary Kay McComas, Nora Roberts, novellas, paranormal, Patricia Gaffney, romance, Ruth Ryan Langan, suspense
Posted in Horror & Paranormal, Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | No Comments »
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Pros: I was totally, absolutely on the edge of my seat, and there are some fantastic characters in here!
Cons: Gah! I have to wait for the next two books to find out what happens! Be aware there’s some definite dark material here
Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book (e-book) courtesy of Shiloh Walker
Lena Riddle is a chef at a small-town bed-and-breakfast. She lives out on the edge of nowhere, and one of her best friends owns the B&B she works at. She’s also blind. In daily life this doesn’t cause any problems for her—it’s more of a problem for those who stare at her and don’t know how to cope with the fact that she can handle herself. But one day, she wakes up in the middle of the night to hear a woman screaming for help in the woods behind her house.
The police reaction runs the gamut from the condescending deputy who suggests she shouldn’t be living alone to the sheriff who at least realizes she believes what she’s saying, but can’t do much once his people have checked the woods and found nothing. Luckily, Lena has an unexpected ally—the grandson of a recently-deceased town fixture has returned to fix up his grandmother’s old house. Ezra King is a state police officer, injured in the line of duty, and he’s still contemplating whether he wants to return to his old job or not. He immediately takes a liking to Lena, and is one of the handful of people who treat her like a normal person. In particular, when she says she heard someone screaming, he believes her. And he’s determine to find out what’s going on—even if the process of doing so tears the entire town apart.
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Tags: erotica, romance, Shiloh Walker, suspense
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
Pros: Delicious romantic pairing; tense story; author does a great job of sounding like her characters
Cons: Definitely read the series in order; even characters with depth have moments of seeming like raging stereotypes; some of the “voices” of her characters were too over-the-top for me; a little too much misunderstanding
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Also posted on Epinions.com
Thomas “Veck” DelVecchio, Jr., is the son of a famous serial killer. Dating isn’t exactly easy for him—between the girls who think he’s a curiosity or just want to bed a quasi-celebrity, and his father’s “groupies”, he’s learned to keep any relationships quick and uncomplicated. Of course everyone watches him, wondering if there’s anything of his father in him. As a homicide detective, he’s doing his damndest to prove there isn’t—while fighting some serious inner demons that constantly push and prod him in that direction. Demons that won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.
After Veck punches a reporter for trying to sneak a picture, he has Internal Affairs watching his every move, in the person of one Sophia Reilly—the first woman to make him think past the end of the night. Unfortunately, he now thinks he tried to kill someone, and she’s his only hope since she seems to believe he’s innocent. And to tell the truth, he can’t really remember—he blacked out when it happened, and gets a splitting headache any time he tries to remember.
But that’s hardly the toughest thing going on in Veck and Reilly’s lives. The forces trying to push Veck into following in his father’s footsteps are real. So are the forces trying to save his soul—he’s just become the latest game piece in a particularly high-stakes game between Heaven and Hell.
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Tags: Fallen Angels, J.R. Ward, paranormal, romance, serial killer, suspense
Posted in Horror & Paranormal, Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | No Comments »
