2014 – Book #32

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Historical Romance, Lords of Vice series, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The thirty-second book I read in 2014 was Till Dawn wit the Devil by Alexandra Hawkins. This is the second book in the Lords of Vice series by this author. I finished this book on 4/29/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book is about Lady Sophia Ravenshaw and Gabriel Housely, the Earl of Rainecourt, affectionately known to his friends as Reign. When these two meet at a ball, Reign is instantly attracted to the blond angel Sophia. When Sophia’s brother storms onto the terrace to rescue her from Reign’s scandalous nature, Reign discovers that his lady is a Ravenshaw. The Rancourt and Ravenshaw names are twisted together in a number of sordid past tragedies, but Reign can’t stop himself from wanting Sophia.

After Reign finds out Sophia is in trouble he races off to her rescue, but in rescuing her from her family he doesn’t realize he’s placing her in even greater danger. When he is faced with losing the love that’s begun to bloom inside of him, he knows he must fight for his wife’s life in order to keep what’s developing between them.

My blog post on the first book in the Lords of Vice series was overall not my favorite. There was a lot of things in the story that made me slightly uncomfortable while I was reading it. The second book in the series though was greatly improved, I liked it a lot better than the first. It was touching and interesting, sweet and steamy at the same time. Overall this was a great book and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Link to author website: http://www.alexandrahawkins.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Till-Dawn-Devil-Lords-Vice/dp/0312381255/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398817956&sr=8-1&keywords=till+dawn+with+the+devil

29Apr2014

2014 – Book #31

Posted in Book reviews, Book series, Contemporary romance, Cousins O'Dwyer series, Paranormal romance, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

ShadowSpell

The thirty-first book I read in 2014 was Shadow Spell by Nora Roberts. This is the second book in the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy, I read the first in 2013. I finished this book on 4/28/14. I rated this book 4 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells the story of Connor O’Dwyer and his lifelong friend Meara Quinn.

As the cousins O’Dwyer and their friends recover from their last battle with the evil Cabhan and try to plan for their next attack, Connor finds himself attracted to his sister’s lifelong friend Meara. But Meara has scars from her past that close off her heart from Connor’s love, and leave her susceptible to Cabhan’s sorcery.

One of the things I love most about this series is the interwoven back story back to the original Three Dark Witches, children of Sorcha. The story from long ago used as a backdrop for the journey of the Three Dark Witches now is very interesting. This book was fairly riveting, I didn’t want to put it down once I started it.

Though this was a simple story, it was one full of love, friendship, and family. It was a very touching story and I think I may have even liked it better than the first in the series. I am looking forward to the third book so I can find out if Fin and Brannan are finally able to work out their issues and be together.

Link to author website: http://www.noraroberts.com/index.php

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Spell-Cousins-ODwyer-Roberts/dp/0425259862/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398736504&sr=8-1&keywords=shadow+spell

26Apr2014

2014 – Book #30

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The thirtieth book I read in 2014 was River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz. I finished this book on 4/25/14. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This book tells the story of Lucy Sheridan and Mason Fletcher in the small town of Summer River.

Lucy is still ticked that Mason had the nerve to pull her out of a party and drag her home when she was sixteen, but she isn’t aware of the danger she was in at the time. Skip forward to thirteen years later, Lucy is a woman with a job she loves but she can’t seem to find the right guy. She returns to Summer River after she inherits her aunt’s house and who does she run into but Mason Fletcher. Mason has grown up as well but he’s still got a protective streak in him and Lucy’s not one to take well to being given orders anymore. Their personalities and the compromises they make to adjust those personalities to fit well with one another was a great piece of this story.

Krentz usually writes novels with some kind of psychic or paranormal twist. However, this was a fantastic romantic suspense (with no psychic or paranormal twists) that kept me riveted through the whole story. Overall it felt like a quick read, but the story was full of intrigue and honestly I never saw it coming who the villain turned out to be. Was a great book and if you like romantic suspense I would definitely recommend!

Link to author website: http://jayneannkrentz.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/River-Road-Jayne-Ann-Krentz/dp/0399165126/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398515120&sr=1-1&keywords=river+road

28Mar2014

2014 – Book #20

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The twentieth book I finished in 2014 was Below the Surface by Karen Harper. I finished this book on 3/28/14 (again on a technicality at 12:20am). This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I rated this book 3.75 stars out of a scale of 5.

Brianna Devon resurfaces from her dive off the coast of Florida to discover her twin sister, Daria, and their boat have disappeared. With the threat of sharks and an oncoming storm, she is stranded 4 miles out in the ocean with little hope of being saved. Luckily for her Cole De Roca is also shored by the oncoming storm on a nearby island. When Brianna washes ashore unconscious, he knows he must get her help immediately.

After Brianna awakens and begins searching for her missing sister, she uncovers a wealth of things she never knew about the twin she thought she knew like the back of her hand. And after Daria’s body is discovered in their sunken ship at the bottom of the ocean, Brianna refuses to believe that Daria simply fell victim to the storm. With a wealth of motives from various people in their lives, Brianna believes that Daria may have been murdered. But as Brianna begins to dig deeper into Daria’s secret life to try and discover her killer, she becomes the new target. Cole must now protect Brianna at all costs as he discovers life wouldn’t be complete without her.

I very much liked the plot of this book, it was a good suspense story with a wealth of possible suspects. The conversations tended to be a bit choppy at times and there were a few loose ends that weren’t ever tied up (who was the second guy that Daria was meeting at that bar?) but overall this was a good story and I had a lot of trouble putting it down. I plan to read more by this author in the future.

Link to author website: http://www.karenharperauthor.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Below-Surface-Karen-Harper/dp/0778324966/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363631021&sr=1-1&keywords=Karen+Harper+Below+the

18Mar2014

2014 – Book #17

Posted in Book reviews, Paranormal romance, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The seventeenth book I finished in 2014 was The Haunting of Josie by Kay Hooper. I finished this book on 3/17/14. I rated this book 2.75 stars out of a scale of 5. This was the first book I’ve read by this author.

Overall this was a cute story and a quick read. Since it was so quick though I thought it went a bit too fast and the plot/characters were a little underdeveloped for my tastes. This story is about Josie Douglas who retreats to a quiet country house to complete her research in trying to vindicate her father. She becomes infatuated with her landlord, much to her dismay, and also becomes involved in the mystery of the ghost who wanders the house she’s staying in.

I love it when a book ties everything out in the end. I think that’s one of the things I found frustrating in this book, there was discussion of a villain who set hotels on fire but the question was never addressed and she never cleared her father’s name before the end of the book. I just found this disappointing as I felt like there should have been more resolution there.

Overall it was an ok book though and was a quick read at only 212 pages so if you’re looking for a quick and interesting suspense then this would be a good one. Be prepared to feel unresolved at the end though. I have heard that this is a good author so I will likely try another of her books but I wouldn’t return to this one I don’t think.

Link to author website: http://www.kayhooper.com/

Link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Haunting-Josie-Kay-Hooper/dp/0553590472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395152100&sr=8-1&keywords=the+haunting+of+josie

5Feb2014

2014 – Book #1 and #2

Posted in Book reviews, Romantic suspense by rebeccabook17

The first book I finished for 2014 was Shades of Temptation by Virna DePaul. I finished the book on 1/1/14 and it is the second in a connected series by this author (the first was Shades of Desire which I read in 2013). I rated this book 3.25 stars out of a scale of 5. The book is about two Special Investigations detectives who are hunting a serial killer and fighting their growing attractions for each other. The plot is filled with danger and suspense, but was a little hard for me to stay focused on at certain points. My favorite books are the ones that I get so focused on the story I completely lose touch with reality and get lost in the plot and the characters. And while this book didn’t do quite that, it was a very interesting story and was worth the read.

The second book I finished for 2014 was Shades of Passion also by Virna DePaul. I finished the book on 1/9/14 and it is the third in a connected series by this author (the second is discussed in the first paragraph of this post). I rated this book 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5. The book is about a character introduced in the first two books in the series. He is another Special Investigations detective and he was more involved in the end of the second book in the series. The hero in this book has recently suffered a significant loss and he heals during the book through his relationship with the heroine. Like the first two books in the series, the hero is hunting for a serial killer and the plot is filled with mystery and suspense. And underneath the thriller/suspense there was a sweet love story involved. Something I also thought was interesting about this story was the underlying message about therapy and about people’s attitudes towards seeking therapy. This really stood out to me because one of my friends is currently getting her Masters degree in psychology and we’ve had many discussions about this very topic. Overall though this was a good story and a good continuation of the series.

By the way, anyone who reads any of my review posts please feel free to disagree with me (politely though please)! I love a good discussion about a book and I would love to hear other people’s opinions on the books I read.

Link to author website: http://virnadepaul.com/

Link to Amazon for Book #1: http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Temptation-Hqn-Virna-DePaul/dp/0373776748/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391630691&sr=8-1&keywords=shades+of+temptation

Link to Amazon for Book #2: http://www.amazon.com/Shades-Passion-Hqn-Virna-DePaul/dp/0373777426/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391639558&sr=8-1&keywords=shades+of+passion