Tag: romantic suspense (Page 15 of 18)

Vanished by Kendra Elliot, narrated by Nick Podehl and Amy McFadden

December 30, 2014 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This is one from my personal library.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When an eleven-year-old is abducted on her way to school, the FBI doesn’t waste a moment, sending agents to scour the area and embedding Special Agent Ava McLane with the distraught family. In the eye of the storm is local detective Mason Callahan, whose life is crumbling to pieces – he’s related to the victim, and his longtime confidential informant has just been murdered.

Both he and Agent McLane hole up in the victim’s family home. Every second counts in a kidnapping case, and the stakes keep rising the longer the girl is missing. As Ava and Mason struggle to hold the family together in their darkest hour, the two investigators find themselves drawn to each other.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): With the focus more on the suspense than the romance, I had mixed feelings about this one. There are other books planned for the Callahan and McLane series so I expect the romance will build over time. In some respects I thought there wasn’t enough romance in this one but I also thought that what there was moved too fast. I didn’t quite catch the attraction and build up to desire so when the pair take an (appropriate) time out of the investigation for some sexytimes it kind of came out of left field for me. Similarly by the end, they seemed to have moved farther along the relationship trail than what I could reasonably believe, even allowing for the pressure cooker environment in which they met.

Ava is embedded with the family of the missing girl and her role is less investigative, so I didn’t feel that taking some time out for a bit of romance affected the case very much. So too was Mason not actively investigating and I thought it was a clever way around a thorny RS issue. Continue reading

Review at AudioGals

December 19, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Off the Edge by Carolyn Crane, narrated by Romy Nordlinger. It’s a romantic suspense with something special for word nerds and linguistics lovers.

Review at AudioGals

December 12, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals today with a review of Protecting His Witness by Katie Reus, narrated by Sophie Eastlake. Sexy romantic suspense; a little short, but a lot of fun.

Review at AudioGals

November 15, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Festive in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen. Book 39 and I’m not sick of it yet.

Review at AudioGals

July 22, 2014 / Kaetrin

I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Alone by Kendra Elliot, narrated by Tanya Eby. I’m always on the lookout for good romantic suspense. This didn’t exactly knock it out of the park but I liked it and plan to read/listen to more from this author.

Concealed in Death by JD Robb

June 11, 2014 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I bought it. It’s a trade paperback – it bugs me that my In Death collection is all different sizes but what can you do?

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) In a decrepit, long-empty New York building, Lieutenant Eve Dallas’s husband begins the demolition process by swinging a sledgehammer into a wall. When the dust clears, there are two skeletons wrapped in plastic behind it. He summons his wife immediately—and by the time she’s done with the crime scene, there are twelve murders to be solved.

The place once housed a makeshift shelter for troubled teenagers, back in the mid-2040s, and Eve tracks down the people who ran it. Between their recollections and the work of the force’s new forensic anthropologist, Eve begins to put names and faces to the remains. They are all young girls. A tattooed tough girl who dealt in illegal drugs. The runaway daughter of a pair of well-to-do doctors. They all had their stories. And they all lost their chance for a better life.

Then Eve discovers a connection between the victims and someone she knows. And she grows even more determined to reveal the secrets of the place that was called The Sanctuary—and the evil concealed in one human heart.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This is book 38 in the series and I’m not sick of it yet. While there is less focus on the romance aspect (Roarke and Eve are happy – no conflict means there’s not a lot of story that can be told in an interesting way), what there was in this book was satisfying in its way. Eve realised some things about where she is now as opposed to before she met Roarke and it’s not just (or even) about the money, but more about the sense of home and connection she didn’t even know she wanted until there it was.

As usual, Robb can make me care about a character very quickly and the parts where Eve and Peabody were doing notifications once the remains began to be identified were particularly moving. While the suspense part of the story didn’t blow my mind – I picked it early and I’m not usually good at that sort of thing; plus, I was hoping for a twist in the tail which didn’t really arrive – it was a solid entry in the series. There is a melancholy sadness to the ending which I won’t go into because spoilers but I had a tear in my eye on the last page. The villain as it turned out, wasn’t your run of the mill criminal. While I would have liked to understand some aspects of said villain a little more, I did appreciate the variety in terms of the villains in past books. I also appreciated that there was no torture porn or gratuitous violence.