B Reviews

REVIEW:  It Had to Be You by Jill Shalvis

REVIEW: It Had to Be You by Jill Shalvis

Dear Ms. Shalvis: I suspect you could write your Lucky Harbor books in your sleep. That is as much a testament to their sameness as it is to your skill. Every book in the series–with the exception of the second, The Sweetest Thing–features a young woman either facing a problem or needing to reboot her(…)

REVIEW:  True by Erin McCarthy

REVIEW: True by Erin McCarthy

Note:  The comments are closed for this review. I’d direct you to the Dear Author Book Club pick for May for centralization of comments. Dear Ms. McCarthy: Rory  does one thing really well – school. Everything else, particularly the social scene and the interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex, she can’t quite grasp the nuances.(…)

REVIEW:  The Slipstream Con by S.Reesa Herberth and Michele Moore

REVIEW: The Slipstream Con by S.Reesa Herberth and Michele Moore

Blurb: For three years, Kellen Frey has led bounty hunters Tal and Vanya on a merry chase, evading capture with flair and style. Now, just when they finally have their pet project–and object of their mutual fantasies–cornered, the elusive con artist turns the tables and gives himself up. A sudden attack of conscience, perhaps? Tal(…)

REVIEW:  A Prior Engagement by Karina Bliss

REVIEW: A Prior Engagement by Karina Bliss

Dear Ms. Bliss: This was such an interesting plotline.  Juliet Browne has been playing the mournful fiancee to presumed dead SAS soldier Lee Davis.  But Davis comes back to life and confronts Browne because not only is she not his fiancee, she turned him down when he asked her.  And now she is living in(…)

REVIEW: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

REVIEW: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Dear Ms. Harris: Now that I read so much in digital, I don’t pay as much attention to book covers as I used to. But the cover for Dead Ever After says so much about the book itself, that I’m tempted to tell people who wonder how the series ends to take their cues from(…)

REVIEW:  A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

REVIEW: A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

Paris, 1923 The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather’s savannah manor house until gossip subsides. Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded(…)

REVIEW:  Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

REVIEW: Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella

  Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose during lunch at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. But when his big question involves a trip abroad, not a trip down the aisle, she’s completely crushed. So when Ben, an old flame, calls her out of the blue and reminds Lottie of their pact(…)

REVIEW:  Smoketown by Tenea D. Johnson

REVIEW: Smoketown by Tenea D. Johnson

  The city of Leiodare is unlike any other in the post-climate change United States. Within its boundaries, birds are outlawed and what was once a crater in Appalachia is now a tropical, glittering metropolis where Anna Armour is waiting. An artist by passion and a factory worker by trade, Anna is a woman of(…)

REVIEW: Turbulence by Jordan Castillo Price

REVIEW: Turbulence by Jordan Castillo Price

The foundation of superstition is ignorance. First Officer Paul Cronin has no use for magical thinking—he’s a logical guy, a skeptic who only believes what he can see. When a new assignment on Flight 511 takes him directly through the legendary Bermuda Triangle, he’s not concerned about losing his aircraft to supernatural forces. He’s busy(…)

REVIEW:  Escorted by Claire Kent

REVIEW: Escorted by Claire Kent

Dear Ms. Kent: I’m not sure where I received the recommendation for your book but I do remember I picked it up because it was free. Ordinarily the premise – male prostitute – wouldn’t appeal to me but from the opening scene I was hooked. The heroine, Lori Addison, is a virgin and she’s having(…)

REVIEW:  Demon’s Fall by Karalynn Lee

REVIEW: Demon’s Fall by Karalynn Lee

She was an angel at the gates of Hell. When Kenan, an incubus, finds a caged angel for sale in the Hellsgate marketplace, he sees her as a challenge. Certain that his skills in seduction will work as well on a heavenly creature as they do on mortal women, he buys Jahel, intent on having(…)

REVIEW:  Six Years by Harlan Coben

REVIEW: Six Years by Harlan Coben

I’m not addressing this review to Mr. Coben because the guy’s one of the world’s top-selling suspense writers–he was the first to win all of three of that genre’s top awards: the Edgar, the Shamus, and the Anthony. It seems unlikely he’ll see this review. I like Mr. Coben’s books especially his stand-alones. This is(…)

REVIEW:  After Hours by Cara McKenna

REVIEW: After Hours by Cara McKenna

Dear Ms. McKenna: After Hours is a gritty romance. It’s set in the economic wreck that is much of the state of Michigan. The protagonists work a “high security ward designed specifically for men who suffered from persistent, disruptive psychotic episodes.” The story contains poverty, violence, and people who just barely make it through each day. The(…)

REVIEW:  Sumer Lovin’ by Nicole Chardenet

REVIEW: Sumer Lovin’ by Nicole Chardenet

Divorced, middle-aged Rachel Brinkerhoff, a Jewish matchmaker from New York who hopes to remarry, moved to Toronto for a fresh new start with her business and her love life. But no one told her that female-aversive Toronto was BYOB – Bring Your Own Boy. She partners with an Indian and a Muslim lady who want(…)

REVIEW:  India Fan by Victoria Holt

REVIEW: India Fan by Victoria Holt

Drusilla Delaney, daughter of an English Victorian vicar has grown up near and with the aristocratic Framling children – handsome Fabian and spoilt Lavinia. While she isn’t in contact with Fabian as much until they are adults, she has been tutored along side and then sent off to boarding school with nearly out-of-control Lavinia, since(…)