Monday, June 30, 2014

REVIEW: Angels Fall by Nora Roberts

Title: Angels Fall
Author: Nora Roberts
Publisher: Putnam
Publication Date: July, 2006
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Description: Angels Fall by Nora Roberts introduces us to a young woman named Reece Gilmore who is on the run from her past, avoiding her present and dreading her future. After a near death experience that resulted in the deaths of many people she cared about, Reece has been on the road trying to find peace from the nightmares, panic and anxiety attacks that are a part of her life now. Car trouble lands her in a small mountain town in Wyoming so she decides to take a temporary job until she can raise enough money to fix her car and get back on the road. During a hike one day, Reece witnesses what she believes are a man and a woman fighting resulting in the man killing the woman. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest a crime has been committed and she has a hard time convincing law enforcement officials. With the exception of one man, nobody in town is inclined to believe her as Reece has a reputation for being fragile and a little jumpy. With the assistance of Brody, Reece tries to find out the identity of the unknown woman while the killer is coming closer to her and determined to make sure nobody finds out.

My Thoughts: This wasn’t the best by Nora Roberts in terms of her standard romantic suspense titles, but I did enjoy the story. I thought Reece was a likeable character and once I learned why she was so jittery and tense, I felt a lot of empathy for her. She came across as a very believable character, having experienced what she went through in her previous life and I thought she was very brave for taking charge of her life and trying new experiences, despite her anxiety. I liked Brody immediately and didn’t let his gruff exterior fool me. Reece’s boss, Joanie and coworker, Linda Gail were wonderful supporting characters. The story flowed well, but was a little predictable, especially when the killer started stalking Reece, trying to make her think she was going crazy. I guessed early on who the killer was, but enjoyed finding out why he did it at the end.

My Final Verdict: Overall, this was a good story and fans of Nora Roberts and romantic suspense stories will enjoy it, but may not be blown away by it.


Wednesday, June 04, 2014

REVIEW: Tweethearts by Nicole Haddow

Title: Tweethearts
Author: Nicole Haddow
Publisher: Destiny Romance
Publication Date: February, 2014
Genre: Chick-Lit

Description: Jemima Starler loathes her job writing for the pregnancy magazine Placenta Monthly. To break the monotony, she writes scandalous tweets about the magazine industry as her secret online identity, Maghag. Thankfully, she also has her cute and talented housemate, Samson, to keep life interesting. When her editor stoops to a new ethical low, Jemima's reputation is suddenly on the line. She must find a way to carve out a new career, but it's hard to focus when Samson's mixed signals are driving her crazy. And when her handsome housemate is plucked from obscurity to star on a new reality TV show, everything changes. It's time for Jemima to trust her feelings instead of believing what she sees online, but has she missed her chance?

My Thoughts: With Tweethearts, new to me author Nicole Haddow introduces the reader to Jemima Starler, a girl we can all relate to. She hates her job and has a massive crush on her housemate, Samson. She writes articles for pregnancy magazine Placenta Monthly and if that isn't bad enough, her boss is a tyrant and a bully. To make her work life more bearable, Jemima posts snarky and scandalous tweets about the magazine industry under a secret Twitter identity, Maghag. Of course, she has acquired a massive following and everyone is dying to know who Maghag really is.

When a popular actress finds herself pregnant and unmarried, Jemima is given an exclusive but her unethical editor turns the article into a sordid piece that not only causes scandal for the actress, but calls Jemima's integrity into question and forces her into a career change.

Jemima's prospects seem a little dark until her housemate is selected to appear on the reality television show Dance Like No One's Watching. Jemima lands a position on the show as the social media director, but is forbidden from associating with Samson. Things get interesting when the show's director decides to market Samson in a faux on-stage romance with another contestant.

I really enjoyed this story. The multiple character story plots were easy to follow and I really liked most of the characters. Jemima's boss at the magazine, Jemima's sister and Samson's co-contestant, Lottie were less than likeable, but a reader learns to accept the nasty characters as part of the hero/heroine's journey to their happily ever after.

I also enjoyed the use of Twitter and social media in general as a backdrop for this story. In today's digital age, Jemima's recognition and use of Twitter and social media was spot on and relevant.

My Final Verdict: If you are looking for a light summertime read that has interesting characters and story, I highly recommend you give Tweethearts a try. I will be looking for more titles by Ms. Haddow when I am craving something tweet.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Tweethearts from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.


Sunday, June 01, 2014

New Additions To The TBR Pile In May

I have completed 48% of my 2014 Reading Challenge. At my current pace, I am 3 books ahead of schedule and 70% done with my current read. It's still early, but I am more hopeful this year of completing my goal than I have been in previous years.

Many new review requests arrived in May that I am looking forward to reading.


Title: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter
Description: Karin Slaughter, author of the New York Times bestselling Will Trent novels, is widely acclaimed as “one of the best crime novelists in America” (The Washington Post). Now she delivers her first stand-alone novel: an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval, a serial killer targeting cops, and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice.

Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.

Kate isn’t the only woman on the force who’s feeling the heat. Maggie Lawson followed her uncle and brother into the ranks to prove her worth in their cynical eyes. When she and Kate, her new partner, are pushed out of the citywide search for a cop killer, their fury, pain, and pride finally reach the boiling point. With a killer poised to strike again, they will pursue their own line of investigation, risking everything as they venture into the city’s darkest heart.

Relentlessly paced, acutely observed, wickedly funny, and often heartbreaking, Cop Town is Karin Slaughter’s most powerful novel yet—a tour de force of storytelling from our foremost master of character, atmosphere, and suspense.


Title: Stay Close by Harlan Coben
Description: Megan is a suburban soccer mom who once upon a time walked on the wild side. Now she’s got two kids, a perfect husband, a picket fence, and a growing sense of dissatisfaction. Ray used to be a talented documentary photographer, but at age forty he finds himself in a dead-end job posing as a paparazzo pandering to celebrity-obsessed rich kids. Jack is a detective who can’t let go of a cold case—a local husband and father disappeared seventeen years ago, and Jack spends the anniversary every year visiting a house frozen in time, the missing man’s family still waiting, his slippers left by the recliner as if he might show up any moment to step into them. Three people living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn’t recede. Even as the terrible consequences of long-ago events crash together in the present and threaten to ruin lives, they will come to the startling realization that they may not want to forget the past at all. And as each confronts the dark side of the American Dream—the boredom of a nice suburban life, the excitement of temptation, the desperation and hunger that can lurk behind even the prettiest facades—they will discover the hard truth that the line between one kind of life and another can be as whisper-thin as a heartbeat.

With his trademark combination of page-turning thrills and unrivaled insight into the dark shadows that creep into even the happiest communities, Harlan Coben delivers a thriller that cements his status as the master of domestic suspense.


Title: Bound To The Highlander by Kate Robbins
Description: Aileana Chattan suffers a devastating loss, then discovers she is to wed neighboring chief and baron, James MacIntosh -- a man she despises and whose loyalty deprived her of the father she loved. Despite him and his traitorous clan, Aileana will do her duty, but she doesn't have to like it or him. But when the MacIntosh awakens something inside her so absolute and consuming, she is forced to question everything.

James MacIntosh is a nobleman torn between tradition and progress. He must make a sacrifice if he is to help Scotland move forward as a unified country. Forced to sign a marriage contract years earlier binding Lady Aileana to him, James must find a way to break it, or risk losing all -- including his heart.

From the wild and rugged Highlands near Inverness to the dungeons of Edinburgh Castle, James and Aileana’s preconceptions of honor, duty and love are challenged at every adventurous turn.


Title: Promised To The Highlander by Kate Robbins
Description: Nessia Stephenson's world was safe until a threat from a neighbouring clan forces her to accept a betrothal to a man whose family can offer her the protection she needs. The real threat lies in her intense attraction to the man who arranged the match—the clan's chief and her intended’s brother, Fergus MacKay.

When powerful warlord Fergus MacKay arranges a marriage for his younger brother, William, he has no idea the price will be his own heart. Fergus is captivated by the wildly beautiful Nessia, a woman he can never have.

When the feud between the MacKay and Sutherland clans escalates, Nessia, William, and Fergus all must make sacrifices for their future. Longing and loss, honour and duty. How can love triumph under such desperate circumstances?


Title: Leaving The Pack by David J. O'Brien
Description: Nobody believes in werewolves.

That's just what Paul McHew and his friends are counting on.

They and their kind roam our city streets: a race of people from whom the terrible legend stems; now living among us invisibly after centuries of persecution through fear and ignorance. Superficially Caucasian but physiologically very different, with lunar rhythms so strong that during the three days of the full moon they are almost completely controlled by their hormonal instincts, you might have cursed them as just another group of brawling youths or drunken gang-bangers. Now at the point of extinction, if they are to survive their existence must remain restricted to mere stories and legend, but, paradoxically, they also must marry outside their society in order to persist.

The responsibility for negotiating this knife-edge is given to Paul, who runs the streets with his friends during the full moon, keeping them out of real trouble and its resultant difficult questions. Having succeeded for years, he finds his real test of leadership comes when he meets Susan, a potential life-mate, to whom he will have to reveal his true identity if he is ever to leave his pack.


Title: Angels Fall by Nora Roberts
Description: #1 New York Times-bestselling author Nora Roberts explores the wilds of the Grand Tetons-and the mysteries of love, murder, and madness-in her engrossing and passionate new novel.

Reece Gilmore has come a long way to see the stunning view below her. As the sole survivor of a brutal crime back East, she has been on the run, desperately fighting the nightmares and panic attacks that haunt her. Reece settles in Angel's Fist, Wyoming-temporarily, at least-and takes a job at a local diner. And now she's hiked this mountain all by herself. It was glorious, she thought, as she peered through her binoculars at the Snake River churning below.

Then Reece saw the man and woman on the opposite bank. Arguing. Fighting. And suddenly, the man was on top of the woman, his hands around her throat . . .

Enjoying a moment of solitude a bit farther down the trail is a gruff loner named Brody. But by the time Reece reaches him and brings him to the scene, the pair has vanished. When authorities comb the area where she saw the attack, they find nothing. No signs of struggle. No freshly turned earth. Not even a tire track.

And no one in Angel's Fist seems to believe her. After all, she's a newcomer in town, with a reputation for being jumpy and jittery-maybe even a little fragile. Maybe it's time to run again, to move on . . .

Reece Gilmore knows there's a killer in Angel's Fist, even if Brody, despite his seeming impatience and desire to keep her at arm's length, is the only one willing to believe her. When a series of menacing events makes it clear that someone wants her out of the way, Reece must put her trust in Brody-and herself-to find out if there is a killer in Angel's Fist before it's too late.

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I am not a professional reviewer, but I love to read and share my opinions on my reading with others who are interested. I work full time but my ideal perfect day would be to curl up with a good book. The majority of the books I review here are from my private collection and my reviews are provided purely for entertainment purposes. I receive no compensation whatsoever for sharing my thoughts and review on any book. If you would like me to review your book, please email me at sharalsbooks@yahoo.com Happy Reading! :o)