Category: C reviews (Page 4 of 20)

Concrete Evidence by Rachel Grant, narrated by Meredith Mitchell

August 30, 2018 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This one is part of the #AudibleRomance package.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Accused of stealing artifacts from a 500-year-old shipwreck, underwater archaeologist Erica Kesling is determined to clear her name. She’s concealed her past and taken a job certain to give her access to the buyer of the missing antiquities. She’s finally closing in on her goal when she’s distracted by a sexy, charismatic intern who makes her want something other than revenge.

But Lee Scott is no intern. He’s looking for the lead conspirator in an international artifact smuggling scheme, and Erica is his prime suspect. He’ll do whatever it takes to win her trust and get her to reveal her secrets, even seduce her.

As Erica and Lee struggle to conceal their real agendas, the one thing they can’t hide is the attraction that burns hot between them. When Erica’s quest puts her life in jeopardy, Lee must choose between old loyalties and a woman he never expected to fall for.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I believe Concrete Evidence is Rachel Grant’s first published book. Having recently listened to her most recent release, Firestorm, it is obvious that her skills have only grown since then. In some ways this listen, so close on the heels of the other was a strange juxtaposition. Concrete Evidence is somewhat dated already and, while entertaining, romantic and pacey, it is also not to the same calibre as Firestorm (then again, not many books are).
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April Round Up

April 30, 2018 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Carolina Heart by Virginia Kantra – C I’ve been a fan of the Dare Island series since the beginning. I was browsing Amazon recently, idly wondering what Virginia Kantra was doing and whether there might be a new book out soon (not that I could see alas) when I came across Carolina Heart and realised that I had missed it.

The story is novella length and it really would have benefited from some further expansion. Cynthie Lodge is a single mother with two daughters from two different dads. I liked how the author showed this heroine unapologetically as deserving a HEA too. She’s perhaps the kind of woman one might easily judge. Certainly society most often does. So it was a lovely surprise to see her get her own book (albeit a novella) and to be treated sympathetically while being true to her story as well. She was married to the father of her first daughter but her second daughter was the result of a drunken one night stand with a soldier whose name she does not know. She loves her daughters and works hard to support them. She’s studying at community college to be a dental hygienist and holding down a job at night waitressing. She’s decided that she has to be a good example for her girls and has no time for men anymore. She won’t be hooking up or bringing random men through her daughter’s lives.

When she stumbles into the path of Max Lewis, she notes straight away he’s good-looking. But, as a professor of marine biology and a man from a wealthy privileged background, he’s not for her and she knows it. Besides, she’s not getting involved in any relationships. She’s too busy and she has her girls to think of. Continue reading

Relationship Status by KA Mitchell

April 20, 2017 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’m a fan of KA Mitchell and I have enjoyed the previous two novellas in the series.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Life doesn’t come with a syllabus.

Ethan knows firsthand that long distance is hard on love. If Wyatt is spending his summer at an internship in Pittsburgh, that’s where Ethan will be. Even if it means inventing his own career goal just to find a reason to stay with his boyfriend. He didn’t expect they’d be living in a hot, crappy apartment, with work schedules that keep them apart more than together.

Wyatt’s past has taught him to keep his head down and focus on living through the day. Loving Ethan has him looking to the future for the first time; he’s just not in as big of a rush to get there. It’s hard to trust in happiness when life has been busy kicking you in the nuts.

Together they’re getting the hang of real life, when a new responsibility for Wyatt throws everything off balance. Ethan’s doing everything he can to prove he’s in this forever, while Wyatt is torn between a future with Ethan and a debt to the past. Too bad they didn’t cover this in college.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Most of Relationship Status takes place over the course of a summer where Ethan and Wyatt are sharing a room in a small apartment together in Pittsburgh while working and interning. Wyatt is interning at a prestigious engineering firm and Ethan at the ACLU – because there is the vague possibility he might want to be a lawyer but mostly because he wants to be near Wyatt. Between their jobs and internships, there is not a lot of time for them to spend together and when things start off, there is some tension between the pair because of the whole “ships passing in the night” thing.
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Ready to Roll by Suzanne Brockmann

November 22, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This was a gift because I was too cheap to buy it myself (it’s expensive for a novella – really, $6 – $8 at Kobo – is just TOO MUCH).

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The only easy day is yesterday. BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training is known for being the toughest, meanest, most physically punishing program in the entire U.S. Navy, and a new crop of tadpoles have arrived in Coronado eager to prove their worth—to make it through Hell Week, and become U.S. Navy SEALs.

Although Izzy prefers assignments out in the “real world,” he’s glad to be an instructor for the current BUD/S class, because it allows him to spend time at home with his wife, Eden, and her lively and lovable extended family.

Eden’s sixteen-year-old brother, Ben, is dealing with a new crush and a homophobic bully in his high school, but it soon appears that things are not as they seem.

Meanwhile, Eden’s other brother (and Izzy’s SEAL teammate and former frenemy) Danny Gillman and his wife Jenn have just had a baby who has colic and cries constantly.

As Ben deals with the type of too-serious high school drama that could involve a body count, and Danny and Jenn juggle a new baby, lack of sleep, and postpartum blues, Izzy is intrigued by “Boat Squad John,” a misfit team of young SEAL candidates all named John, including the intriguing young Seagull, his swim buddy Timebomb, and Seagull’s nemesis Hans.

Does Seagull have what it takes keep Boat Squad John still standing when the dust of BUD/S Hell Week settles or will they ring out?

Set in Coronado during BUD/S training Hell Week, in Ready to Roll Brockmann introduces the SEAL officer and instructor nicknamed Grunge—Lt. Peter Greene—as she delivers what she does best: a story celebrating the U.S. Navy SEALs—and the women (and sometimes men) who wholeheartedly love and support them.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I’ve been a fan of Suzanne Brockmann’s novels and in particular her Troubleshooters series for years. They tend to hold up well for me on re-reads. I didn’t even get super cross about the whole Decker, Sophia, Dave and Tracy thing. So I say this in love. Please for the love of all that is good in a book, do not write stage directions in first person narratives. This is not Twitter. Continue reading

Force of Attraction by DD Ayres, narrated by Jeffrey Kafer

September 25, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’ve had my eye on this book for a while and wanted to catch up on the series. I decided to try the audio rather than the digital version. MISTAKE.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The only thing more powerful than fear is desire…

A seasoned K-9 officer with the police in Maryland, Cole Jamison has left her old life behind her. With a new home and a new partner – a protective canine named Hugo – Cole is ready for fresh challenges. A crucial position on an important drug task force is exactly what she wants – until she discovers her gorgeous, infuriating ex-husband will be the DEA agent in charge.

Agent Scott Lucca may be a pro when it comes to undercover assignments, but this job is daunting even for him. Posing as a happy couple on the dog competition circuit means he and Cole need to get a lot closer than they’ve been in years. Playing a live-in couple should seem like a walk in the park compared to tracking a brutal criminal, but suddenly nothing could be more dangerous than the passionate fire they’ve rekindled.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Cole (short for Nicole) Jamison is somewhat unexpectedly asked to join an undercover operation run by a joint FBI/DEA task force. She’s a K-9 officer with the Maryland police but her previous experience in agility training/courses is the big attractor for the task force. Also, her ex-husband (who wants her back) suggested she be brought in.

Scott Lucca met and married Nikki (as he then knew her) in a whirlwind romance. After his beloved (and golden) brother, Gabe, died while deployed, Scott lost it a bit and things fell apart. At the time he was working as an undercover operative infiltrating the Pagans MC and some of the things he had to do to maintain his cover cost them both. That was two years earlier and Scott still misses Nikki like it was yesterday.
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Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold, narrated by Grover Gardner

August 15, 2016 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I am slowly making my way through this series and Mirror Dance was up next.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) The dwarfish, fetally-damaged yet brilliant Miles Vorkosigan has more than his share of troubles. Having recently escaped an assassination plot whose tool was a brainwashed clone of himself, Miles has set the clone, Mark, free for a new chance at life. But when he decides to let his clone brother assume his secret identity and lead the Dendarii Free Mercenary on an unauthorized mission to liberate other clones from the outlaw planet of Jackson’s Whole, things start to get really messy. The mission goes awry, Miles’s rescue attempt goes even more wrong, and Miles ends up killed and placed in cryogenic suspension for future resuscitation. Then, as if that weren’t bad enough, the cryo-container is lost! Now it is up to the confused, disturbed Mark to either take Miles’s place as heir of the Vorkosigan line or redeem himself by finding and saving Miles.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I hadn’t planned writing a review of this one. But there was a thing which happened late in the story which changed my mind. I won’t go in to a lot of detail about the thing (for reasons which, I hope, will become obvious) but given that it happens later in the story, I should probably give a SPOILER warning about now.
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