REVIEW: Friction by Sandra Brown

Title: Friction
Author: Sandra Brown
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 2015
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him doing deskwork rather than fieldwork, and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court-imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer.

Holly, ambitious and confident, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high stakes. Despite Crawford's obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet.

But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat.

Catching the real culprit becomes a personal fight for Crawford. But pursuing the killer in his customary diehard fashion will jeopardize his chances of gaining custody of his daughter, and further compromise Judge Holly Spencer, who needs protection not only from an assassin, but from Crawford himself and the forbidden attraction between them.

FRICTION will keep you on the edge of your seat with breathtaking plot twists and the unforgettable characters that make Sandra Brown one of the world's best-loved authors. It is an extraordinary novel about the powerful ties that bind us to the ones we love and the secrets we keep to protect them.

My Thoughts: Enjoyable story with plenty of plot twists and turns to keep me on the edge of my seat anticipating what would happen next. Texas Ranger Crawford Hunt is in family court to fight to regain custody of his daughter from his in-laws. Long story short, after the sudden death of his wife, Crawford gave temporary custody to his in-laws as he wasn’t quite up to the job of being a good parent. Unfortunately, his father-in-law has always hated him and is using Crawford’s past and even his present as a tool to label him as unfit so that Crawford loses custody permanently. When a gunman bursts into the courtroom firing several rounds striking the bailiff, Crawford does what he automatically is conditioned to do. He tackles the judge and shields her from the shooter. After the shooter takes off, Crawford pursues him and ends up on the roof with a man holding the gun. A SWAT sniper takes out the man holding the gun. Case closed, end of story, right? Nope…not even close.

It takes a while to get there but finally the story takes off when Crawford realizes the man who was killed by the SWAT officer is not the man firing the weapon in the courtroom. Who is this guy? How did he end up with the weapon? Naturally, more questions pop up and Crawford is trying to ensure the judge is protected while trying to convince local PD that he did not orchestrate the entire event in the first place. I had a bit of difficulty with that part as it seemed the local detectives came across as complete imbeciles and someone else is going to end up dead at this rate.

Throw into the mix that there is white hot chemistry between Judge Holly Spencer and Crawford and the fact that they are both eyewitnesses to a shooting make their one-on-one involvement on any level a conflict of interest. There appears to be no reason or connection between the man killed on the roof of the courthouse and Holly so that made investigating the motive and reason behind the attack all the more perplexing.

This story moved much slower than I normally like but once it kicked into gear, it was good. The attraction between Crawford and Holly was well written and gives the reader an excellent sense of the conflict they both feel but cannot deny their attraction. All of the characters are well developed and the story itself was credible.

The identity of the mastermind behind the attack is revealed early in the story but the connection between them and the target remained unclear until the end. Once that was revealed, I was a little disappointed as I was expecting something much more intense to match such a well-structured attack in an open courtroom.

My Final Verdict: This story wasn’t my favorite by this author, but fans of romance with suspense will find this enjoyable.

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

REVIEW: You Belong to Me by Karen Rose

Title: You Belong to Me (Romantic Suspense #12)
Author: Karen Rose
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: February 2011
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible

Description: Years ago, a young woman was beaten and raped while onlookers did nothing. Now those witnesses are becoming victims themselves…

Baltimore homicide detective J.D. Fitzpatrick has seen a lot of horrific violence both as a cop and during his deployment in Afghanistan, but nothing like the trail of tortured bodies turning up throughout the city. He's up against a brutal killer with a very personal vendetta, and J.D. is beginning to suspect that his medical examiner may be shielding some crucial evidence linked to the case.

Medical examiner Dr. Lucy Trask is intrigued by J.D.'s compassion, but she isn't about to mix work with pleasure. Not while there's a ruthless killer on the loose. And definitely not while she's keeping a dark secret that could connect her to these vicious killings - and put her next on the killer's hit list...

My Thoughts: Although there was a lot to unpack, and I mean A LOT, with this one, fans of Karen Rose will enjoy this installment where we are now in Baltimore with new characters, new scenery and a new sadistic monster who is avenging the rape and murder of a young woman many years ago by hunting down the people who witnessed the act, as well as people who had any knowledge of it, but did nothing.

The author pulls out all the stops to bring these characters to life and the explicitly graphic and horrifying details of the murders. Reader, be warned, as this story will test your mettle. I found myself cringing multiple times because this author is so gifted at pulling her readers right into the story, I got a good sense of what the other characters were likely feeling and thinking because I was feeling and thinking it myself. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and, as with earlier installments, these secondary characters will most likely be making an appearance in future books in primary roles.

At the center of this story is Baltimore homicide detective J.D. Fitzpatrick and medical examiner Lucy Trask. The killer has Lucy in his sights as an upcoming victim so in the meantime, he gets his rocks off by terrorizing her. While getting to know Lucy and J.D., the story takes us into Lucy’s past to the town where she grew up and where the rape and murder occurred. Trying to connect all the dots and figure out the identity of the killer proved to be impossible for me as Karen Rose is quite gifted at keeping the reader guessing.

The story moves at a good pace and the chemistry between Lucy and J.D. was sizzling. Both of these characters have tons of baggage in their past and watching them engage with one another while trying to keep their walls up was interesting and seeing the wall start to crumble was fantastic. The killer was a well-written character too. Trying to figure out not only his identity, but his game plan was beyond challenging. He had no qualms about killing innocent bystanders or others not connected to his manifesto and seemed to derive immense pleasure in making it as painful for the victim as he could. If this had been a movie, I would have been hiding underneath a blanket.

My Final Verdict: Fans of romantic suspense, mysteries or thrillers won’t go wrong with this author or this series. Good character development and intriguing plot will hook the reader, leave them breathless and eager for more.

REVIEW: The Breakup Mix by T.K. Carter

Title: The Breakup Mix
Author: T.K. Carter
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Publication Date: April 2015
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN

Description: A lot of wine, a little time, and the Breakup Mix CD on repeat cures a multitude of hurts, but I don't know if my broom and dustpan are big enough for the messes we've created. The five of us have been best friends since childhood, our lives have always intertwined, but this time we may have reached a point of no return. Leave it to Alissa to make a snap decision that drags Dani and me with her halfway across the country for the next six months. That girl may have a big heart and more money than God, but this time she's in over her head and sinkin' fast. Even though Dani's marriage is in the toilet, she's flying on Cloud 9 thanks to Alissa, but I'm done. My single toes are in the sand, and I'm trying to forget the existence of my ex -Tony. Marriage-pfft-does he know me at all?

Back at home, Katie's lost in married-and-dutiful land proclaiming to be happy and rarely comes around anymore. But Michelle? She got the life she dreamed of when we were kids but watching the rest of our success over the last twenty years has her wondering if she aimed too low and hit the bullseye. Her marriage to Brandon-the-douchebag inches closer to the breaking point every day and there's nothing any of us can do but wait for the snap.

The Breakup Mix is a story of five women and the decisions they make that tear them apart but connect them forever.

My Thoughts: It’s been an exceptionally long time since I found a book that has pulled me into the story so deeply and completely that I didn’t want it to end. With The Breakup Mix, new to me author T.K. Carter has created a story about friendships weathering everything life throws at us, from careers, marriages, families and the myriad paths all of us walk in life with each decision and choice we make.

This story is told from the different points of view of Chance, Alissa, Dani, Michelle and Katie and I loved how each character’s personality came alive on the page. It gave me a sense that I knew these women and could be friends with them as I cheered their successes and commiserated their losses with each of them. As this story develops, we are given insight into their lives and the issues each of them are struggling with.

The story moves at a wonderful pace with brilliant dialog that had me laughing out loud or being moved to tears from the emotion packed events these women are facing. I loved that these women have been best friends for most of their lives that they are more like sisters than just friends. I knew this story would get me right in the feels as soon as Chance’s pug, Chubs, was introduced. I enjoyed the time I spent with these women so much that I truly hope the author will revisit these characters in a sequel to see how they fare after the events of this story.

My Final Verdict: Readers who enjoy stories that are relationship driven, love to laugh until their sides hurt or sobbing uncontrollably in empathy for these amazing characters will love this story.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of The Breakup Mix from the author in exchange for an honest review.