I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey. Enjoyable catnip. If you enjoy a hero totally gone for the heroine this will scratch the itch nicely.
Category: reviews (Page 14 of 117)
Forgotten in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen. When I said I was right back into the series, I meant it!
Homicide detective Eve Dallas sifts through the wreckage of the past to find a killer.
The body was left in a dumpster like so much trash, the victim a woman of no fixed address, known for offering paper flowers in return for spare change—and for keeping the cops informed of any infractions she witnessed on the street. But the notebook where she scribbled her intel on litterers and other such offenders is nowhere to be found.
Then Eve is summoned away to a nearby building site to view more remains—in this case decades old, adorned with gold jewelry and fine clothing—unearthed by recent construction work. She isn’t happy when she realizes that the scene of the crime belongs to her husband, Roarke—not that it should surprise her, since the Irish billionaire owns a good chunk of New York. Now Eve must enter a complex world of real estate development, family history, shady deals, and shocking secrets to find justice for two women whose lives were thrown away…
Forgotten in Death is a twofer – two separate crime scenes a block apart, two separate murders decades apart. Are they connected? This one is a less ambitious story than the previous book with a plot which is somewhat disjointed at times but still entertaining. I did appreciate Eve taking the time to go back into the first victim’s past and setting that right (as right as it could be at least).
Susan Ericksen’s narration is a large part of the enjoyment. I recognised the regular characters by voice alone and I love the way she helps me connect to the new characters – some of whom have only very brief airtime. I know that she will deliver a great narration – it’s part of why I keep coming back.
I get through an In Death book very quickly – 3 or 4 days tops – and after 53 books, it’s impressive it still holds my interest so well.
Grade: B+
Faithless in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen. After taking a break from the series, I’m right back into it.
What looked like a lover’s quarrel turned fatal has larger – and more terrifying – motives behind it…
The scene in the West Village studio appears to be classic crime-of-passion: two wine glasses by the bed, music playing, and a young sculptor named Ariel Byrd with the back of her head bashed in. But when Dallas tracks down the wealthy Upper East Side woman who called 911, the details don’t add up. Gwen Huffman is wealthy, elegant, comforted by her handsome fiancé as she sheds tears over the trauma of finding the body–but why did it take an hour to report it? And why is she lying about little things?
As Eve and her team look into Gwen, her past, and the people around her, they find that the lies are about more than murder. As with sculpture, they need to chip away at the layers of deception to find the shape within–and soon they’re getting the FBI involved in a case that involves a sinister, fanatical group and a stunning criminal conspiracy.
After a long break between In Death listens, I’m right back into the series. Faithless in Death is a strong entry into the series, with awful bad guys and a message about acceptance and a rejection of bigotry that hit the spot for me. Mavis and Leonardo are buying a house and there are updates with Peabody and McNab as well as the usual (welcome) interludes with Roarke and Eve. Susan Ericksen’s narration embodies the In Death series for me. Even if I read a book, it’s her voice(s) I hear in my head as I do. She’s consistently reliable and has a wide range of character voices – which is necessary with such a large recurring cast.
Grade: B
I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Funny Guy by Emma Barry. I liked Chick Magnet better.
To Hold and Protect by Sandra Owens, narrated by Patrick Zeller. Not enough of the dog!
To Hold and Protect is the third book in the K-9 Defenders series set in the fictional town of Marsville, North Carolina and which tracks the romances and HEAs of the Church brothers. Parker Church is, somewhat surprisingly, all things considered, both a highly successful artist (known as “Park C”) and the full time Fire Chief in Marsville. He’s also the single dad of a nearly-6-year-old daughter, Everly. (When does the man sleep??)
I first met Parker and Everly in the first book, In His Protection (about the oldest brother, Tristan and his HEA with Skyler) which I also reviewed here at AudioGals.
Children’s book author, Willow Landry, has inherited the house next door to Parker from an uncle with whom she had no meaningful relationship. After a breakup with a man she was living with and, as it turned out, didn’t love all that much, she decided to move to the house, renovate and sell it and with the proceeds, move to the beach* (*exact beach to be decided).
Parker tends to fall in love easily and quickly and every time it gets him into trouble. The last time, he had a disastrous relationship but he ended up with Everly so he’s calling that good. He dearly loves his daughter. All the Church brothers do. But since becoming a parent, Parker has been very careful to provide a consistent and safe home life for Everly. So, when he first encounters Willow, he’s dismayed to find himself both disturbed by and deeply attracted to her. Initially, he plans to ignore the attraction but proximity and a daughter whose fondest wish is to have a mother soon show that to be an impossible ask.
For her part, Willow couldn’t help but notice Parker is the most handsome man she’s ever met and she quickly falls in love with Everly. She’s a little slower to fall for Parker – but only a little. However, Willow is not planning on staying in Marsville. Parker doesn’t want Everly to get attached to Willow if she’s just going to leave. How can they have a HEA? (Don’t worry – they work it out in the end of course!)
Meanwhile, there’s an arsonist at work in Marsville. The arsonist is leaving messages for Parker which indicate there’s some kind of personal motivation to the fires. Over the course of the book, as Parker and Willow fall deeper and deeper in love (albeit denying it for most of the way there), the investigation into who is setting the fires continues. The fires get closer and closer to home until everything Parker loves is put at risk.
Parker’s red Labrador, Ember, assists him to investigate as she is trained to sniff out accelerant. Sadly there wasn’t enough Ember in the story for me. (I’m a firm believer that a series called “K-9 Defenders” should have much more dog.)
I have previously enjoyed Patrick Zeller’s narration and there was a lot to like here too. I like the way he uses the character voice which applies to whoever’s POV he’s in. Any narration that’s not dialogue as well as the dialogue from the POV character is in that same voice. It’s a clear signal to the listener of a change and it helped me orient myself in the story. He’s also good with emotion – although… ultimately here I thought it was just a bit too much. For me it needed to be pulled back a little. It seemed overacted and at times, overwrought.
When a character is excited – anxious or scared for example, Mr. Zeller speeds his voice up quite a bit. Now, this is a true reflection of how things work in real life but in this listen, it was just a little too fast, a little too much.
If he’d pulled it back about 20% the narration would have been in the A range for me.
I wasn’t surprised by the reveal of the arsonist (I picked who it was very early on) and there were aspects of the story which were a little overwrought too, but overall the listen was enjoyable and entertaining.
Grade: B
Legacy by Nora Roberts, narrated by January LaVoy. Great narration but fairly light on the romance. Watch out for some fatphobia too.
Legacy is Nora Roberts’ 2021 release which has been languishing on my TBR until now. While I think it is not close to her best work, it certainly held my interest. The romance side of things is very slow to start and not at all the main focus of the book.
Adrian Rizzo was 7 years old when her father tried to kill her. She had been raised by a single mother; her biological father was a college professor who couldn’t keep it in his pants, had a problem with alcohol and was violent when he didn’t get his way. Somehow a reporter found out about Adrian’s existence which led to the professor’s downfall and definitely makes him (and his wife!) unhappy. So, dear old dad pays Adrian’s mother a visit and does violence to all in the house. As much damage as he causes, he does not survive the experience.
Adrian’s mother started “Yoga Baby”, fitness and workout classes, videos and merchandise. By age 16, Adrian wants to start her own version of the business and over the next few years, becomes very successful. Around the time she first found success with “Next Generation” she started getting poems containing death threats – one a year at first.
Adrian ends up moving to a small town where her grandparents are and settling in. She’s not like her mother who enjoys constant travel. Adrian wants to put down roots. She prefers to have a streaming type service for her workouts but does videos with her mother regularly too.
There’s a lot of family stuff. Roberts writes engaging characters so it was entertaining enough, particularly with excellent narration from January LaVoy.
Adrian’s eventual love interest is Raylan Wells. But Raylan has a tragedy of his own to live through first. (I’d heard about this from a friend when the book first came out and it was a reason I delayed starting Legacy.)
The threats to Adrian are escalating and eventually Adrian’s mother puts a private investigator on the case. She has more time than the police or FBI and she starts to make headway. She also finds out that “the poet” has killed multiple women in the years since he or she first started sending verses to Adrian. The threat to Adrian is very real.
The fitness and wellness aspects of the book were the least interesting for me. A little too much information and I felt uncomfortable with some of the messaging around the topic which I felt was fatphobic.
There were multiple instances where a character I came to care about died and I cried when I got to those bits.
The romance between Adrian and Raylan doesn’t even get started until 2/3 into the book and it’s fairly thinly developed. I prefer Roberts’ standalones which have more developed romance.
There were some other parts of the book which were a bit light on – for instance, Adrian is described as having a lifelong friendship with a character by the name of Lorilee but there’s almost nothing more about it in the book.
However, January LaVoy is always a pleasure to listen to and she elevated the story with her performance. As the title suggests, the characters in Legacy are multigenerational – Ms. LaVoy had the opportunity to showcase her wide variety of voices – multiple children, teens, adults and the elderly – all genders and all different. Just fantastic.
Of course, her tone and emotion was also wonderful, as I’ve come to expect.
While Legacy wasn’t my favourite, the narration alone made it worthwhile.
Grade: B
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