February 24th, 2010 — 3 Stars, Contemporary, Divorced, Guest Reviews, M-O, Secret Agent, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
The Marriage Game by Fern Michaels is a light summer read.
I figured by the description it would have some humor, and it does.
Samantha Rainford returns from her honeymoon to find she has been served divorce papers. She is both shocked and heart broken. She is going to be paid off with a check for $5000. When she visits the attorney, she learns there are three other wives before her who have all been treated the same way. She determines that she will not get mad, she will get even. She enlists the aid of the other wives to extract their revenge.
Meantime, she and a girlfriend attend an FBI training school -- seriously, how remotely possible is that! where they both flunk out. But they've learned a thing or two.
Then they are recruited for a secret ops camp deep in the mountains of NC. How Samantha gets the better of her recruiter is one of the funnier portions of the book. The only way the two of them will join is if the other wives come along too.
The cast of characters in the mountain includes the head trainer who is endangered by his past if he comes off the mountain (Pappy), and the cook (who turns out to be his father), a dog that is part wolf (Alpha), and the other teams that are being trained.
This section of the book is interesting as the characters are developed. The better part of a year is spent on the mountain. Samantha passes with flying colors, but Pappy doesn't want her to have the life that he has had. He is in love with her, though she doesn't know it. And he doesn't know she was ever Mrs. Rainford.
How she and the other women -- they find he has a number of other ex-wives that they find out about, and that might not be all, who are also included in this -- exact their revenge is a cute part of the story. And how it interweaves with Pappy's story is believable.
I give it a 3.
I've never read any of her books before, but judging from this, I will see if I enjoy the others as much.
With all that FBI and special agent secret op going on The Marriage Game sounds like a cross with Miss Congeniality. What do you think?
Buy: The Marriage Game
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Originally posted 2008-08-11 05:26:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 5th, 2010 — 5 Stars, A-C, ARC, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, Guest Reviews, Revenge, Science, Soldier, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America
by Karin of Savvy Thinker, guest reviewer.
No spoiler.
The Cost of Love, Drue Allen’s first book, is terrific! I hope she has more up her sleeve.
Genre: romantic suspense
Format: hardback
Length: 311 pages
ISBN 13: 9781594148675
ISBN 10: 1594148678
Publisher: Five Star
Author name: Drue Allen
Pub Date: March, 2010
In the interests of transparency: I was given a pdf to read by LRP who received it from Drue. I put it on my Kindle, and unfortunately it didn’t format perfectly, which was super annoying, but the book was so good, I could overlook all that.
National security comes with a price.
My take:
It has been a long time since I read a book that held my interest to such a level. I didn’t want to put it down. Besides that, it is very well written. If you like romantic suspense, you will love this one.
I rate it 8* out of 5, that’s how good it is. Seriously.
And it is contemporary, in that what it posits is something that is truly fearful.
The characters:
The characters are very well drawn. They are interesting, from the youngest to the oldest.
Dean Dreiser is a hard bitten operative, sent undercover to flush out terrorists who are bent on using biological weapons in an escalating situation. Its capabilities are gruesome. He is given a new partner, one too young for him, one hardly out of school, Dr. Lucinda Brown. She has no field expertise, but she is the leading expert in molecular biology. It’s up to her to find out what the weapon is and how it works. It’s up to both of them to stop it, if they can.
Undercover
Together they are working undercover in a bar. Dean is the bartender. She is one of the waitresses. It is thought that something is going down in the bar. And, as you’d expect, the bar offers many opportunities for odd characters, any of which could be one of the baddies.
Dean expected her cover to be that she is interested in UFO’s. The cover that she felt was believable is: he is interesting enough to spend her summer vacation getting to know him. That doesn’t thrill the bar owner who is a character herself – quick to pick up her shotgun to stop a fight; chain smoking, though supposedly stopping; questionable enough to be a suspect.
The place
Roswell, home of the extraterrestrial sightings. So you have UFO groupies that forward the story.
Suspense:
Yes, every page. I completely missed who the baddie is.
Trust no one
Someone on base is feeding the terrorists the news as to what is happening. Dean is smart enough to have figured out how to meet with his superior, but even his superior is suspect.
Only Aiden (who has a back story with Dean – and hopefully this story will be written in book form too!) is free and clear. Good thing Dean has him to rely on!
Murder and gore
Yes. And yes. Gruesome, made all the more so because it is so believable. Murders upon murders. Shoot to kill to protect oneself. Be prepared for anything. Trust no one. Hope to make it out alive.
Romance
Yes, and believable.
Peripheral characters:
I’d read stories about them too. I can’t tell you which one(s) because then you would know they weren’t a baddie, but trust me, they are interesting enough to become part of the next main stories or for back stories, and each has enough info that they would easily become part of a new team.
Buy: The Cost of Love
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January 1st, 2010 — 2 Stars, 5 Stars, ARC, Children, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, Estranged, Guest Reviews, J-L, Kidnapping, Police, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America
by Karin of Savvy Thinker, guest reviewer.
LRP gave me an arc copy to review.
The genre
Romantic Suspense
Shattered has plenty of suspense.
The sex
Hot, hot, hot, but not crude.
There is one scene of angry sex, but they are both equally angry, it is not one-sided.
Lots of twists and turns
This includes intertwined relationships which might seem contrived (and they are) but they don't read as contrived. In the context of marital separation, there is a hint of another romance, but it is never consummated.
Violence
Yes. Torture (off page but strongly hinted at.) Murders. Kidnapping. Children witnessing murder.
Heads up
Negatives to me
One of the children in the book is diagnosed with Leukemia. I'd rather have had this left out of the book. Is it a romance book or reality book?
There are a number of treatments discussed in the book.
The child survives and likely goes into remission in a relatively short time, which might not happen in RL.
All's well that ends well.
The ending is satisfying. Everything is settled in 423 pages and a pretty fast read, one you won't want to put down. If only life would follow suit!
Part of the Bitter Creek novel series
This book is part of the Bitter Creek series, one of seven other books. There is enough information given within the book that someone who has never read any of the other books, can get a sense of who is who and have a pretty good guess at what the other books contain.
My take
I liked this book a lot, but then romantic suspense is a genre I particularly like to read.
Rating: I'd rate it a 5 Stars for romantic suspense, and a 2 Stars because of the Leukemia thread.
Buy: Shattered (Bitter Creek Novels)
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December 28th, 2009 — 4 Stars, African American, Black, Contemporary, Executive, Guest Reviews, United States of America, V-Z
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
A Moment on the Lips by Phyllis Bourne Williams is a sweet love story. I picked it up from the library because the cover was different. It is an artist's rendering of a lovely black woman about to eat a strawberry. It is a Leisure Book, and I will certainly look for more.
Grant Price is a wealthy, high powered executive who is used to getting his way in business, but his life is ruled by how busy he is. He and his father wish to recruit Melody Mason, but she has more or less disappeared from business life, after being at the head of her game. Grant goes to find her, determined to bring her back for the company. They had been in college together where the two of them were rivals, spurring each other on to bigger heights.
Melody has left the business world, originally for health reasons, but also because she no longer loved it. (There isn't an emphasis on the problems.) Being responsible for other people's money, even though she is very good at it, was also stressful. She cared enough that those invested with her were more than a number, even if she didn't know their names.
When Grant comes to offer his business proposal in person, she counters his proposal with one of her own. If he will stay in her small town in Tennessee for one week, without a cell phone, laptop, fax machine or contacting the office, she will go with him for one week and present a seminar. She doesn't think he will stick to it. He feels she will come to work for more than a week.
Melody's reason is that she doesn't want him to have the health problem she had because of his Type A personality. Grant has his own misgivings because he wished to pursue another career, only his father overrode him in his youth.
Melody is in process of opening a knit shop. Grant doesn't realize how far along the plans are.
Her small town has the usual cast of characters -- a town gossip, a homeless man, many long time friends, the intertwining of lives.
Melody suspects Grant is only using her to get her to make money for the firm. She has had two engagements fall through when she realized both men only wanted her for the money she could make them. She also isn't the typical heroine -- she is nearly 40, mature in her body and her thinking -- so she is skeptical of his involvement in her life and has been hurt enough that trust doesn't come easily for her.
Of course, they fall in love. There is humor and realism; possible marital problems with a friend whose marriage had always been happy; enough romance to be satisfying; and grown ups living lives not too far out of the realm of reality. The various threads in the story are cleared up nicely, but not in ways that seem contrived.
If you are interested in a black romance, this is well done. However, the book is not particularly black. Other than the descriptions of the two main characters and a small bit mentioned about hair weaves vs. natural curls, the other characters could be black -- or not. There is no colloquial language.
Rating: 4 Stars
It was a happy read for a hot summer day.
Buy: A Moment on the Lips
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Originally posted 2008-11-29 12:16:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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April 8th, 2009 — 1 Star, Acting, Contemporary, G-I, Guest Reviews, Journalism, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
Some Nerve by Jane Heller promised to be an interesting book, but it turned out to be less than I had hoped for.
The cover looked intriguing, but alas, the story could have been summed up in about 10 pages.
Plus it is quite dated, printed in 2006, and opening with Britney Spears pregnant with her first child. It shows how careful one should be in including various trivia, even if the book is about the fictional Ann Roth, who writes about celebrities.
When Roth's boss demands she go for the main man, the big get, Malcolm Goddard who refuses all interviews and thinks the worst of interviewers to the stars, she has every intention of being the killer journalist her boss expects.
Alas, she is afraid to fly. Goddard knows this too and says he will accept the interview only if she does it aboard his plane.
She can't do it.
She is fired and goes back to her family, where Goddard ends up hospitalized to avoid the paparazzi. She, in turn, decides to become a candy striper in order to get close to him and get a story.
Of course, they fall in love. Goddard doesn't recognize her. She doesn't tell him at all. He thinks she is honest. She wishes she were. Someone sends her story, not her. But all ends well in the end.
There is humor, some laughs out loud, but for the most part this book details again and again and again and...you get the idea...about her fear(s). I ended up skipping huge sections of it except for a sentence here and there.
And there are some decidedly unlikeable characters and situations in the book.
I give it a 1.
I will read at least one more of her books.
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Originally posted 2008-07-10 05:18:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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April 5th, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, A-C, Children, Contemporary, Guest Reviews, Paranormal, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
Have you ever wanted to switch bodies or lives with someone else? Even if it was only for a day? How about a month? Could you survive a month as another person? Switchcraft is just such a tale. Switchcraft is a fun book, sort of like the movie Freaky Friday. But it does make you think.
Aggie and Nely have been good friends for a lot of years, but they have drifted apart because Nely is married with a baby, and Aggie is living the high life, sort of. Each wishes what the other has. But both are withholding secrets. Aggie's business is about to fall into the ground, not to mention a crazy stalker, and Aggie's life is more complicated than it looks.
You guessed the rest! They take off for a weekend alone to visit a spa where the guru somehow manages to switch their identities. He is only able to switch back on a full moon.
Throw in two men who are over their heads. Kevin would love to be Aggie's significant other, but they are best friends. Nely's husband is afraid she is drifting away from him (which, as Aggie, she definitely is.)
Both Aggie and Nely learn how valuable friendship is. Each is able to help the other's life out -- which they could have done in RL if they had only known.
Definitely light fair for summer, but I enjoyed it. I give it a 2.5
Buy: Switchcraft
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Originally posted 2008-12-06 18:23:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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April 3rd, 2009 — 2.5 Stars, Detective, Guest Reviews, S-U, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
Love You to Death by Melissa Senate is a light, summer read.
Who is turning Abby Foote's life upside down? Abby has had the unfortunate (or fortunate) experience of loving and losing a number of truly unsuitable men.
Her latest is unable to attend the bris of her nephew and deserts her in LL Bean. But he is substantially better than her last love. While serious about him, she found him in intimate circumstances with the woman who is now about to become his wife. Or is he?
His engagement picture hits the paper the day of the bris.
Then he is found murdered. In the course of the investigation, it is learned that two other of her former lovers have had attempts on their lives.
Enter Detective Benjamin Orr, the best thing that has ever happened to her. She is the police's number one suspect, but if she isn't the one who has committed these crimes, then someone close to her is liable to harm her also.
To the author's credit, the family dynamics, the fiance to her ex-love, and the co-workers are all developed well. There is a lot of humor as those close to her suck up to her, while claiming they don't believe it, because they think she is capable of murder and who knows if they might be next on the list.
Then again, it is a serious subject and in real life it might not tie up as neatly. It's a lucky thing for her that she is believed and the real murderer is found out.
I give it a 2.5.
Buy: Love You To Death
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Originally posted 2008-12-04 15:40:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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March 26th, 2009 — 0.5 Stars, Guest Reviews, J-L, Paranormal, Pilot, Survival
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
I wasn't going to review this book, but figured, what the hey!
First, I didn't like the book.
Island Heat by Susan Kearney had a lot of possibilities. I figured it would have some military tones as the guy on the cover looks like he could be military.
He is, but he's from another planet.
OK, that could be seriously interesting. Sort of like time travel with a twist. After all, they are more advanced than us and had to travel a long time to get here.
But while the author maintains the fantasy with words she has made up, like 'quait' for the ability to mentally influence the actions of another, or like 'underfirst' to delineate all those who aren't Firstborn, the story is unpalatable in parts.
Cade Archer literally falls into the sea in front of Shara Weston's remote island retreat. His ship is destroyed, but he falls without a parachute and recovers faster than you'd expect. That is because he isn't strictly human. He is able to use this power to save himself and those that are with him as he is avoiding being murdered.
It's all tied into the story of the underfirsts needing salt to gain their strength. (She develops this nicely.) On his planet, only the Firstborn are given salt. This also gives them their quait which they use in horrific ways, basically enslaving the underfirsts. (You never see life on this planet, only as told by Cade as the story unfolds or as you see actions of his Firstborn brother, Jamal.)
Cade is shot down by Jamal who is dead set on killing him however he has to do it. Cade had thought his mission was secret, but somehow Jamal knew.
Throw in a psychic who has real powers to foresee the future, some of which can be changed by one's actions, and a reporter, and a volcano expert, and a security officer, and you have a story that could have been quite interesting.
But Jamal has a malicious streak a mile wide as is shown off page when he kills a Polynesian woman he has taken and 'trained' -- but not trained so well that she doesn't try to exhibit her individuality. The more troubling scenes are the sadistic ones involving mental (and physical) rape, torture and blood that he is capable of. And that he takes pleasure in it even though he already has the information he was seeking.
Of course Cade and Shara fall in love. Jamal is killed (I expected him to recover and the scene to go on). Cade finds he gains quait powers, even as Jamal's powers diminish slightly, but Cade is disturbed by his powers knowing how it corrupts the user, and asks that Shara kill him after his mission, if necessary. And the earth is saved.
There were huge sections of this book that I glossed over or went back to see what happened without taking it in.
I give it a 1/2 star. But for originality, it could be a 2. But I'd even take some of that away because of the troubling scenes. They make you think how you would be able to break a mind hold, or if you would be able to. Like hypnotism, is it not something that you could decide NOT to go under? Evidently not. Ugh.
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Originally posted 2008-11-26 09:52:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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