REVIEW: The Heist by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

Title: The Heist (Fox and O’Hare #1)
Author: Janet Evanovich
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: June 2013
Genre: Mystery / Contemporary Romance
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase.

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one.

Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare.

Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.

My Thoughts: I must start this by stressing that if you go for this series thinking it will be the same wacky and zany shenanigans you have to come to expect with this author’s Stephanie Plum series, you will be disappointed. If, however, you are looking for something a little different than Stephanie Plum but features interesting characters that you would like to get to know, then this would be a good series to start.

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is described as tenacious by her boss. Her sole focus is bringing down the most wanted criminals and will stop at literally nothing to bring them to justice. The few friends she has think she is a tad obsessed and I would have to agree with them for the most part though I admire her dedication to her career.

Nick Fox is your typical con-man, thief, liar, scammer, etc. He’s also very charming and gosh darn it, very likable. Kate doesn’t care about that. She wants to capture him and throw him in jail until the end of time. She almost gets her wish but just as quickly as she slaps the silver bracelets on him, the next thing she knows, Nick has worked a deal where they are partners working together to bring in much bigger fish than he.

I liked Kate and Nick. They have great chemistry and though Kate tries hard to ignore that fact, the spark practically jumps off the page. Kate is wound a little too tight and Nick is exactly the type of character to bring her back to the Kate that has forgotten how to lighten up and enjoy life.

The story-line was interesting and I quite enjoyed the precision with which Nick put together their team. It’s early days yet to decide if Nick has turned over a new leaf or is just working another con, but that mushy soft-center heart of mine is hoping that Nick can be redeemed in both the eyes of the law and in Kate’s heart.

REVIEW: Pippa's Cornish Dream by Debbie Johnson

Title: Pippa’s Cornish Dream
Author: Debbie Johnson
Publisher: Harper Impulse
Publication Date: July 2015
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN

Description: Since Pippa Harte was forced to take over her parent’s farm, she’s barely had time to shave her legs let alone make time for love. Now she’s more likely to be getting down and dirty mucking out the pigs – and avoiding those of the human male variety.

When Ben Retallick walks out of her childhood and back into her present it seems that perhaps Pippa has more time than she thought. All Poldark smolders and easy-going charm, Ben’s definitely worth whipping her wellies off for!

But Ben is a man with his own past and his own issues – and as much as she’s enjoying having him around, she’s got to get a grip. After all life isn’t always a beach … even if you are in Cornwall.

Set on the gorgeous Cornish coast at the height of summer, this is the perfect romance to take on your hols!

My Thoughts: An enjoyable story about a woman who has to carry the burden of taking over her parent’s farm and looking after her younger siblings. She has no time for anything else, especially not a romance. Even if the guy walking in the door is the guy she harbored a secret crush on in her youth.

Ben spent a lot of time at the farm in his youth and feels this would be the best place to come for a respite from his past, get some peace and quiet, work on his novel. Unfortunately, that’s not in the cards. Pippa’s younger siblings come to depend on Ben much too quickly for Pippa’s liking and she’s having a hard time trying to maintain a distance herself. Ben seems to be the answer to their prayers. Along the way, Pippa and Ben find themselves feeling much more than either expected.

I liked Pippa but found she was too stubborn when she didn’t need to be. She has shouldered so much responsibility for someone so young, but never asks for help. Whether it’s pride or fear, she keeps most people at an arm’s length. I really enjoyed it when Pippa finally lets Ben in. The author does a great job of bringing two characters together, baggage and all. Both Pippa and Ben have a lot of scars and trust issues. I enjoyed seeing these characters let their guard down and begin to trust and like one another.

My Final Verdict: I found this story engaging and the characters easy to relate to. The descriptions of the Cornish countryside added to the story and gave it more vibrancy. Fans of stories featuring characters overcoming the hardships life throws at them will enjoy this story.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Pippa’s Cornish Dream from the author in exchange for an honest review.

REVIEW: Secrets In Death by J.D. Robb

Title: Secrets In Death (In Death #45)
Author: J.D. Robb
Publisher: Platkus Books
Publication Date: September 2017
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it’s not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that’s exactly what happens one cold February evening.

The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described “social information reporter,” or as most people would call it, a professional gossip. As it turns out, she was keeping the most shocking stories quiet, for profitable use in her side business as a blackmailer. Setting her sights on rich, prominent marks, she’d find out what they most wanted to keep hidden and then bleed them dry. Now someone’s done the same to her, literally—with a knife to the brachial artery.

Eve didn’t like Larinda Mars. But she likes murder even less. To find justice for this victim, she’ll have to plunge into the dirty little secrets of all the people Larinda Mars victimized herself. But along the way, she may be exposed to some information she really didn’t want to know…

My Thoughts: Another very good installment of the In Death series where the story opens with Eve Dallas having drinks with Garnet DeWinter to work on their communication. I know, I know, that in itself is enough to take the reader out of the story, but the story opens with it so the reader has the whole rest of the book to process this anomaly. Like Eve, I’m having a hard time warming up to DeWinter. Nothing specific about this character puts me off exactly, but I just don’t feel a connection to her. Maybe I’m protective of Morris and I don’t want to see him hurt again and as he and DeWinter seem to have gotten really friendly, I’m a tad skeptical that she’s good for him. I think Eve feels the same. They have a frosty relationship, not hostile but definitely not friendly, so this story begins with an ice-breaker of sorts for Eve and Garnet, to have a drink or two, talk and get to know one another better. I got the feeling that Eve was a little relieved when the murder goes down so she can get out of that booth and get to work.

One of the biggest characteristics Eve demonstrates that I absolutely adore is her black and white approach to her cases. It doesn’t matter to her who the victim was in life, the lives they led or the kind of people they were. In death, they are all hers and she works tirelessly to bring them justice.

I found it interesting that this murder was so brazen while being subtle at the same time. Public place and to the average patron, nothing unusual about the victim stumbling as she comes out of the bathroom, but to Eve’s eagle eye, she sees death all too often not to recognize its arrival. In the blink of that eagle eye, Eve has her cop hat on, drinks forgotten and she gets to work.

My Final Verdict: Overall a solid addition to the series. I don’t expect Eve and DeWinter to become besties, but I think there’s a level of professional respect that is very slow to come to the surface. I didn’t care for Nadine at first, but now she is one of Eve’s most solid allies, so honestly with this series, absolutely anything can and will probably happen. J.D. Robb does an amazing job of surprising me so I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes next.

REVIEW: The 9th Girl by Tami Hoag

Title: The 9th Girl (Kovac and Liska #4)
Author: Tami Hoag
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: June 2013
Genre: Mystery / Suspense / Thriller
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: "Kovac had seen more dead bodies than he could count: Men, women, children; victims of shootings, stabbings, strangulations, beatings; fresh corpses and bodies that had been left for days in the trunks of cars in the dead of summer. But he had never seen anything quite like this . . . "

On a frigid New Year's Eve in Minneapolis a young woman's brutalized body falls from the trunk of a car into the path of oncoming traffic. Questions as to whether she was alive or dead when she hit the icy pavement result in her macabre nickname, Zombie Doe. Unidentified and unidentifiable, she is the ninth nameless female victim of the year, and homicide detectives Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska are charged with the task of not only finding out who Zombie Doe is, but who in her life hated her enough to destroy her. Was it personal, or could it just have been a crime of opportunity? Their greatest fear is that not only is she their ninth Jane Doe of the year, but that she may be the ninth victim of a vicious transient serial killer they have come to call Doc Holiday.

Crisscrossing America's heartland, Doc Holiday chooses his victims at random, snatching them in one city and leaving them in another, always on a holiday. If Zombie Doe is one of his, he has brought his gruesome game to a new and more terrifying level. But as Kovac and Liska begin to uncover the truth, they will find that the monsters in their ninth girl's life may have lived closer to home. And even as another young woman disappears, they have to ask the question: which is the greater evil--the devil you know or the devil you don't?

My Thoughts: The 9th Girl begins with murder when a young woman’s body falls from the trunk of a car on New Year’s Eve. Her murder is attributed to Doc Holiday, making her the ninth victim of this vicious and elusive predator. The press quickly nicknames her Zombie Doe because of questions as to whether she was still alive when she fell out of the trunk. I found that truly crass and heartless, but then I’m not a real fan of the media personally, and I find it unethical and abhorrent how they twist a story to sensationalize it for ratings, like they do in real life.

When she is identified as Penelope Gray, we also learn she was a classmate of Detective Liska’s son and that’s where it should hit home to people that this young girl’s life has been taken, along with the promise of what she could have been, what she could have done had she lived. Instead, we learn that Penelope, known as “Gray” to the people who knew her lived a troubled life. She was an unhappy person, struggling to find her place in a world that seemed to be against her. She didn’t have many friends and the people that got close enough, usually got pushed away. Suffice it to say there weren’t many people who mourned her passing.

As Kovac and Liska begin investigating, a lot of clues don’t add up to support the theory that Doc Holiday is responsible for this murder. In spite of the media’s rabid insistence that it is. One thing I enjoyed is this book gives us some first-person perspective and insight from Doc Holiday giving the reader the opportunity see how his mind works, particularly when he hears the media reports that a murder is being attributed to him. As the clues lead the reader to believe Gray’s murder was not the work of Doc Holiday, what will he do next?

I enjoy the partnership and friendship Kovac and Liska share. They work well together but I got a strong sense they are getting burnt out and this series will be coming to an end in the near future. Hopefully it ends because Kovac retires or Liska takes an assignment out of homicide so she can spend more time with her family. I really like these characters and don’t want to see anything bad happen to either one of them.

My Final Verdict: Overall, an intense nail-biter, edge-of-your-seat offering that continues the story of the serial killer introduced in The 1st Victim, but what is interesting is this book segues right into Cold Cold Heart, which is not part of the Kovac and Liska series. After reading this book, you should follow up with Cold Cold Heart to bring things full circle and get closure with Doc Holiday. This was another great thriller that I highly recommend to fans of thriller, suspense, mystery genres.