Disarming Detective by Elizabeth Heiter
When FBI profiler Isabella Cortez finds a stranger outside her office, she's in trouble. Because even though Detective Logan Greer is one of the good guys, their instant attraction is a serious distraction. Ella's got one mission: to find the criminal who hurt her friend and drove her to become a profiler. But Logan's appeal isn't just chemistry. He has a case that bears an eerie resemblance to the crime Ella's been trying to solve for years. Together, they're racing to stop a killer, but the closer they get, the more dangerous the search becomes. Falling in love could be deadly...or it could be the only way to survive.
The suspense in this Harlequin Intrigue title was great, the romance was not very believable based on the extremely fast timeline--I just didn't think the two leads had enough time to really fall in love.
Ella is approached by Logan who feels he has a serial killer on his hands. Ella looks at the evidence and agrees but is shocked when a burn on the back of the victim's neck looks like the brand left behind by the Fishhook Rapist--someone that Ella has been interested in finding since her childhood friend became one of his victims. Ella follows Logan to Florida and they quickly find themselves with more questions than answers and very little support. However, as time goes on and it looks like there might be another victim, they begin to get more support and more answers which all tend to lead to more questions. When it looks like Logan's sister might become a new target and a blue van starts to follow Ella around the stakes only get higher and the tension becomes unbearable. I felt that one of the strengths of this book was showing how frustratingly slow evidence collection can be due to red tape and procedures. There would be ideas for leads and they would have to wait for clearance and forms and warrants. This is the first in a trilogy and I like the sound of the second stories premise so I will probably check it out as well.
Reading Challenges
I Love Library Books
Men In Uniform
New to You
New Release
Reading Road Trip
Romantic Suspense
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
House Calls by Abbie Zanders
Maggie Flynn has always been a good girl. She leads a simple life and believes in helping others. Under normal circumstances, she would never even consider performing the dance of the seven veils at a bachelor party. But when her best friend begs for help and waves the promise of much-needed cash in her face, Maggie reluctantly agrees to step outside her comfort zone and relax her lofty standards a little.
Most doctors don't make house calls anymore, including Michael Callaghan. But he's willing to make an exception when the pretty redhead with the jewel-like green eyes takes a header off the stage at his brother's bachelor party. Something about her piques his masculine interest, and it's not just her dancing.
Lightning hits the Callaghan clan a third time when Michael and Maggie find themselves snowbound during a classic nor'easter, but their bond is soon tested when Michael is forced to choose between following his finely-honed instincts and respecting Maggie's wishes.
It's a hell of a choice. Either way, he could lose her forever.
I have been having the best luck with new-to-me authors lately! Abbie Zanders has created quite the sexy clan with the Callaghan brothers. The saying "the best things in life are free" definitely applies to my free download of House Calls book 3 in the Callaghan Brothers series from Amazon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end.
Maggie is a sweet, hard-working woman whose self esteem took a huge hit when she discovered the man she was going to marry giving his secretary "special" attention and then having him tell her he wasn't marrying Maggie because he loved her but because his company needed her land. Maggie's house sits on a couple hundred acres of prime property that she uses to grow orchards for school field trips, local donations to food pantries, and to make the homeopathic remedies that her grandmother passed down to her.
Maggie's lack of faith in her womanly assets almost causes her to turn down her friend who needs someone to dance with her at a bachelor party but the lure of $500 plus tips talks her into it. After drinking some liquid courage, Maggie finds herself on stage dancing and letting all of her inhibitions go--in the midst of the music and movement, Maggie finds that she has truly missed living in the moment and being spontaneous. Unfortunately, soon after she finishes, she missteps off the stage and hits her head on some bar tables that had been moved for storage. This allows the sexy bartender who hasn't been able to keep his eyes off of her a chance to step in and play white night.
Michael is fascinated by the beautiful green-eyed dancer and is horrified to witness her accident. He immediately calls upon his medical training to try to ease Maggie's pain. When Maggie refuses to go to the hospital, Michael drives her home and stays with her to ensure she is okay. This starts a beautiful meeting of two people who just click. Michael has seen two of his brothers be struck by lightning when their future wives walked into their lives and realizes pretty early on that Maggie is the one for him. Maggie also falls for Michael hard and fast, but due to past experiences doesn't believe that he could reciprocate her feelings for the long term. The most she believes she can hope for is a short term affair.
Michael works hard to prove his trustworthiness to Maggie and just when things are smoothing out a medical emergency puts everything at risk. Maggie has a major aversion to hospitals and Michael has taken an oath to do no harm and with his added feelings for Maggie, his ability to respect her wishes is put to the ultimate test. Further stresses soon follow including secrets, the dastardly plans of an ex, and more. Just when things would settle down, something else would pop up leaving our protagonists and the reader wondering just how much more they could take. Michael was absolutely rock solid throughout; Maggie had a tendency to withdraw and plain old run away (metaphorically speaking) but her reasons were always understandable. I might not have liked her choices all of the time but I always appreciated where she was coming from and why that particular choice made sense to her at the time.
Overall, this couple worked really hard for their happy every after, aided and abetted by characters from previous and later books in the Callaghan series. I usually am a huge stickler for reading a series in order, but when I looked up the first couple of books, I saw a note from the author assuring that each book could be read as a stand alone with the caveat that events from previous books might be alluded to. I took Abbie Zanders at her word and am happy to report that everything was as she said it would be. I was also pleased that events from previous books were presented clearly enough in this book for me to get the gist of what had happened but still left enough mystery and intrigue to make me want to read those books to get all the details of what really happened. I will be reading more in this series and keeping an eye on what else this author is working on. Abbie Zanders can add my name to her list of fans!
Reading Challenges
Contemporary Romance
Foodie Challenge
New to You
Read Your Freebies
Reading Road Trip
Story Sprites
I downloaded this book for free.
Authors A to Z: A Completed Reading Challenge
Thanks to Samantha Lin for hosting the Authors A to Z Reading Challenge. I have very much enjoyed it and discovered a number of new to me authors and revisited some old friends. Among the highlights for me are new authors Rebecca Zanetti, Charlotte Stein, Andy Weir, and Alexandra Ivy. On to who I read:
A: Archer, Jennifer
B: Bailey, Tessa
C: Covington, Cara
D: Dean, Kimberly
E: Evans, Gabrielle
F: Flynn, Joyee
G: Gasq-Dion, Sandrine
H: Holm, Jennifer L.
I: Ivy, Alexandra
J: Janzen, Tara
K: Kearsley, Susanna
L: Land, Alexa
M: Miller, Linda Lael
N: Northcote, Jay
O: O'Tierney, Raine
P: Parker, Sara K.
Q: Quinn, Julia
R: Robson, Cecy
S: Stein, Charlotte
T: Tarrent, T.N.
U: Urban, Madeleine
V: Violet, Sylvia
W: Weir, Andy
X: Xanthe*
Y: Yolan, Jane
Z: Zanetti, Rebecca
I hope this challenge is hosted again next year! I will sign up again for sure!!
*Xanthe is an amazing author of fan fiction. She only uses the one name so I many be stretching the rules a bit since we are supposed to use surnames only. However, I love her work and the letter X is hard to find so there you have it.
Against the Wall by Rebecca Zanetti
Surveying the proposed site for a high-end golf course should have been a breeze for spunky landscape architect Sophie Smith. But when this born-and-bred city girl is literally swept off her feet by a sexy cowboy on horseback, she realizes country life has some serious (and seriously steamy) possibilities. That is, until she finds out exactly who her smoking hot wrangler really is.
Tribal lawyer Jake Lodge is desperately trying to block the development. And if that means playing hardball, so be it. But Sophie is a distraction he didn't expect. A distraction that makes his blood burn. Two different worlds. Two opposing sides. And when they finally give into temptation, the consequences will shake the foundations of both of their lives.
Thank goodness for reading challenges! If I wasn't looking for an author whose last name began with the letter Z for my Authors A to Z challenge I might never have stumbled across Against the Wall and that would have been most unfortunate as I LOVED this story! I can't wait to try something else by this author, preferably the next book in this series. From page 1 I was hooked--this has to be one of the best opening scenes in a book that I have read in a long time. How good was it? Well, I was stuck at my local car dealership listening to too loud music with the Today show blaring and after the first paragraph all of that faded away. Need more convincing? The courtesy van driver came by and offered to take me to far nicer surroundings and I turned him down because I couldn't stand to bring myself out of the story long enough to go somewhere else. Two and a half hours later I sit perched at a table surrounded by new cars tipity-typing up this review--STILL at the dealership. Yup. Could not put down this story that should come with an addiction warning sticker on it: Caution!! Make sure you have no pressing engagements and that the family is fed--once you open this book you will be completely unavailable until the last word has been read!
It's been a while since I've been this excited about a new author (maybe since Henrietta Clark?) and it reminded me all over again about why I love this thing called reading so much. To be able to meet characters like these and visit the Montana community that houses them was a treat. Now, let's see if I can stop my gushing long enough to actually give you a coherent idea of what this story is about:
Sophie has been assigned to travel to a rural Montana town as part of her job as a designer of golf courses. A development group has bought the land and wants to put in a golf course but the local community is less enthusiastic for a variety of reasons--some are about a lake that might be negatively impacted, others are open to a golf course but in a different location which is a problem for the development company as they only own this land in this area. Jake is a tribal lawyer (a VERY good one) who is working to stop the golf course. When he literally sweeps Sophie off of her feet before they are even introduced I knew I was in for a fun ride (pun intended for those of you who have read the book!)
Jake is strong, tall, dark, and stubborn. He is the father of a very-well written six year old, has two swoon-y brothers, and long-suffering younger sister, and is the son of a loving mother and step-father. Sophie is the only child of a deceased mother who came from very humble beginnings before her mother married a wealthy man and basically dumped Sophie in a boarding school. Sophie is used to being alone with few people to count on which explains a lot about why she is both thankful for and baffled by everyone's quick acceptance of her as well as their continued efforts to pull her into family and community affairs. Sophie and Jake's red hot attraction only adds spice to the zippy fast pace of the story. At no point does the story feel rushed but there is a definite pace to the story that was just perfect. An amazing blend of couple-time (both sweet and spicy!), family-time, and Sophie-ruminating-on-what-to-do time (part of which are Bob dreams that were a hoot!) along with just enough tension from a mystery figure leaving pointed notes on Sophie's car warning her off the golf course, a past love-interest of Sophie's who suddenly wants to make a go of it, and an offer to let Sophie do what she loves without having to run back to San Francisco and you have one rock solid offering from Rebecca Zanetti.
The reader gets such a clear picture of what the various people in this small community are like, both good and bad, with the good clearly outweighing the crazies. This only makes Sophie's internal struggle concerning knowing in her head that she will be leaving for her home in California and her heart's wish that she could belong to a place like this one more poignant without ever becoming a conflict for conflict's sake. Everything in this story felt so real and genuine; nothing felt contrived. Even when the author used story lines that can easily feel cliched there was a fresh feeling that came from how they were used and the fact that I was so invested in these characters that my heart was beating and my gut clenching watching them achieve the HEA.
Just in case there is any doubt left: Get this book and read it ASAP. I am only sad that I haven't discovered this author until now and insanely happy that she has quite a backlist of books so that I can have a happy glom now.
Reading Challenges
Authors A to Z
Contemporary Romance
I Love Library Books
New to You
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
Fitting In by Sylvia Violet
Two cops walk into a bar. Mason, the bartender, waits for the punch line, because no way in hell are these ridiculously hot men real cops. They're straight out of a cop-fetish fantasy. But he quickly learns that Jack and Gray are the real deal, and they want him in the worst way.
What starts as a night of hot, three-way sex becomes a lot more. The two cops fulfill Mason's submissive fantasies, but they also meet a more basic need, comfort. They want to take care of Mason, to offer him unconditional friendship, but their concern for him unnerves Mason more than even the kinkiest sex.
To find happiness with his new partners, Mason must change his belief that love is as much a fantasy as a pair of gorgeous, handcuff-wielding cops landing in his bed.
Mason can barely keep his mind on the job when he first sees two hot cops come into the bar where he is a bartender. Gray and Jack are partners who are questioning people about a robbery in a neighboring business--the third such robbery in this area of Durham. Mason tries to keep his eyes on what he is doing but they insist on straying to Gray and Jack. The more he watches the two cops who start frequenting his place of work, the more he is convinced that Gray and Jack are already a couple which only reinforces his belief that his fantasies are just that with no hope of every becoming reality.
Mason has had a bad experience with trying to be a third when a former date admitted he had a boyfriend and invited Mason along for some fun. Mason ended up sneaking out when the two fought over how serious the boyfriend really was and Mason was stalked by one of the partners. Mason is used to being alone now, especially since his family is convinced that being gay is just a phase he is going through and have eliminated all support both emotional and financial from Mason. When it looks like Gray and Jack are both interested in him he is nervous due to past experiences--he really doesn't want to come between two such loving, amazing men but he can't deny how much he would love to be a part of them either.
Mason takes a chance and goes home with Gray and Jack where he finds they meet all of his needs, even those he didn't know he possessed. Gray's dominant tendencies and Jack's tender caring only make him fall deeper and harder for these two men. His insecurities grow as their relationship continues to develop until Mason decides he can't take it any more and leaves them both. At the same time, the robberies are continuing and when a cop is killed, Mason worries about what would happen if one of the men he loves died before he could tell them how he truly felt.
Watching Mason come to terms with his fears and decide for himself the future he really wants was amazing--Sylvia Violet walked a fine line of making his fears extremely understandable without having him wallow in melancholy or veer into holding out for too long and she stayed on the right side of that line the whole time. Mason is not the only one with issues either--Gray is getting tired of hiding what he is and who he loves but he knows that coming out doesn't only effect him and that he needs to take Jack's needs into account as well. At best they wouldn't be able to remain partners--at worst they would have to work in separate precincts. Watching all three of these men come together with an emphasis on communication and compromise was a beautiful thing. You know there are still hard times and difficult choices to come for these guys after the story ends and yet I am so confident that theirs is a relationship that can weather all storms. This is the first book in a series with at least one more book being about Jack, Gray and Mason-- I can't wait to read it!
Reading Challenges
Authors A to Z
Contemporary Romance
ebook Reading
Men in Uniform
Reading Road Trip
Story Sprites
I purchased this book with my own funds.
Warrior's Cross by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux
Cameron Jacobs is an open book. He considers himself a common waiter with normal friends, boring hobbies, harmless dogs, and nothing even resembling a secret...except a crush on a tall, dark, devastatingly handsome man who dines alone at his restaurant on Tuesday nights. All it takes is one passionate night with Julian Cross to turn Cameron's would on its head.
Julian's love and devotion are all Cameron could have hoped for and more. But when his ordinary life meets and clashes with Julian's extraordinary lifestyle, Cameron discovers that trust and fear can go hand in hand, and love is just a step away from danger.
Cameron is captivated by the man who sits in his section at the restaurant he works at every Tuesday, who always orders a bottle of wine and the special of the day, never talks or gets dessert, and often sports bruises, cuts and scrapes. One evening, the man breaks his silence and Cameron is only more intrigued. Shortly after that Cameron is inviting Julian back to his apartment and that begins a relationship between the two men. If you can count seeing each other for 48 hours of the week as a relationship. Cameron has questions and, at times, reservations, about Julian but always he knows that he loves him. Julian is very clear in his love for Cameron as well, but there is always a sense of danger around Julian and what he might be doing for a living. Eventually this causes Cameron to issue an ultimatum and Julian, to both of their regrets, leaves Cameron's life. This part of the story was leisurely and meandering and beautiful. I had tears in my eyes when Cam and Julian's relationship came to its heartbreaking end--I watched it teeter on a point knowing it could fall either way and when Julian turned around and walked away my heart broke right along with Cam's.
It is at this point in the story that things really speed up. Julian's dangerous job takes more of a leading role as a mysterious figure named Lancaster comes into play. He is scary and clearly out to hurt Julian and it seems like he has decided to use Cameron as his instrument to deliver said pain. There was no easy resolution to this story as bad things happened to good people and Cam's already broken heart gets completely shattered in the course of events that took this reader hurtling to the end of the book and left her trying to recover her composure before writing this review. I'm not sure that I really believed in Cameron and Julian's relationship in the beginning, it was hard to see what was so fascinating about Cameron that would catch Julian's eye to the degree that it did...don't get me wrong, Cameron is a really sweet guy who loves his four pups and does his job as a head waiter in a prestigious restaurant to the best of his ability--I just don't know what it was about their limited interactions at the restaurant that caused Julian to become so enamored. Once they were together, it also didn't seem as if they really got to know each other enough to stay together long term--between their limited time together and Julian's secrets it seemed that there was so much they didn't know about each other besides how compatible they were in bed together. But...the writing was so well done, both characters were so great to know--Cameron with his honesty and Julian with his intensity that I didn't really care about believability and instead threw myself into the story, feeling Cameron and Julian's emotions in the pit of my stomach and hoping against hope that they would somehow, someway have a happy ending, even when it seemed that any such hope of that would be in vain.
Reading Challenges
105 Challenge
Authors A to Z
Hard Core Reread
Romantic Suspense
Bookish Bingo
I purchased this book with my own funds.
Afterglow by Cherry Adair
A high profile celebrity wedding in Monaco in the kind of A-list event security specialist Rand Maguire excels at. Everything goes like clockwork, until guests start inexplicably losing all their inhibitions.
Rand is no stranger to the effects of Rapture. His chemist father's attempt at a cure for depression caused Rand's mother's death years ago, and put his father away for her murder. Now someone is circulating Rapture in a campaign of terror, intending to manufacture and sell it on a global scale. But with no leads, Rand feels the heat.
Sexy Lodestone agent Dakota North is sent to help Rand kick-start his search, armed only with her uncanny sixth sense. But what they discover in their race across Europe is more far-fetching and lethal than an erotic street drug. From a Barcelona bank heist to a million-dollar arms deal in Paris, Dakota and Rand give in to an insatiable craving for each other in nights of pure carnal delight, no senses left untouched. No Rapture necessary.
Yikes. This book. At the end of of it, I wished I had abandoned it after the first couple of chapters like I originally wanted to. I didn't for two reasons: it was one of the titles on my Official TBR Pile challenge list and it was clear that the hero had seriously wronged the heroine and I wanted to see him grovel. I love a good grovel. Unfortunately, I was let down.
From the beginning: Rand is the head of a security firm who is having to seriously cover his keister after members of a high profile wedding were slipped a drug causing ALL of them (priest, grandmother of the bride, EVERYBODY) to immediately start having sex with whoever was closest to them. Dakota shows up as the help requested by Rand who is NOT happy to see her as they used to be engaged until he broke it off because he believes she was 1) cheating on him with many different men, 2)involved in the death of his mother and 3) a money hungry whore. So, no warm fuzzy feeling for him although he does spend a lot of time rhapsidising about her red hair.
Rand and Dakota form an uneasy alliance and Dakota uses her psychic ability to track the bad guys. Mayhem across Europe ensues, Rand and Dakota come together and fight apart again and again until things come to a head when they visit Rand's father in an Italian prison to see if he can give them any insight into the drug they are sure is being used. This scene is used as a catalyst to give Rand a chance to see for himself the weakness of the evidence used to frame Dakota. More mayhem ensues until the final showdown which is completely whacked out. The explanation as to how everything came to pass was ludicrous in its dependency upon coincidences and seemed in no way plausible. And after sticking with all of that I never got my grovel scene. Instead, Dakota, who had been treated abominably by the hero and his family makes excuses for Rand and assures him she understands. Ugh!
I have read some books by Cherry Adair that I really enjoyed but I am sad to say that this is definitely not one of them. Ludicrous and unsatisfying--this book disappointed on many levels.
Reading Challenges
Around the World
Monthly Mix Up Mania
Official TBR Pile Extreme
Romantic Suspense
