Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple
Not much happens in fourteen-year-old Callie McCallan's sleepy Massachusetts town. So when the famous rock'n'roll band Brass Rat schedules a concert in the valley, it's big news.
As a reporter for her school paper, Callie scores the scoop of a lifetime--a backstage pass to interview the lead singer of Brass Rat! Her friends are so jealous. But Callie isn't sure what the fuss is all about...until she meets the band.
Lead singer Peter Gringras and his band mates are so cool. Especially Peter. When he plays his flute, it's as if he has some kind of hypnotic power. But there is something strange about the band, something Callie can't quite put her finger on. Maybe she's just being weird, but it's as if they're from here--but not from here--at the same time.
Then, on Halloween night, Callie's brother, Nicky, disappears--along with all the other children of Northampton--and she begins to wonder if her suspicions are so weird after all. It's crazy but Callie thinks she knows why the children have disappeared--and who took them.
To prove it and to rescue Nicky and the other children, Callie will be forced down a road that will lead her to a mythical world filled with fantastical creatures. A world from which there may be no return...
Meh. That was what I said out loud when I finished the book. This book was okay but there were so many opportunities to make it more--more fleshed out, more intriguing, more compelling. And none of them were taken. The story felt too cut and dried for me with weird details here and there. Callie waxed poetic about the names of her siblings for about as long as it took her to figure out the riddle that the exiled fairy prince hadn't solved in over eight centuries. I picked this book up because I was looking for a fairytale retelling and the Pied Piper seemed like a fun choice. I also generally really like Jane Yolan's work. However, I was left feeling let down with this one. Rats...
Reading Challenges
I Love Library Books
105 Challenge
Fairytale Retellings
Reading Roadtrip
Bookish Bingo
Story Sprites
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
Under the Covers by Rebecca Zanetti
Opposites don't attract. They ignite.
The small Montana town near the Kooskia reserve seemed like the perfect place for Juliety Montgomery to hide from her not-so-law-abiding family. But when her peace is shattered by a break-in and threatening phone calls, it's clear someone back in New York knows where she is. It's time to plan her getaway, and fast--but first, she needs to tie up a few loose ends. Namely, finding out exactly what the town's sexy cowboy sheriff is hiding in his holster.
Sheriff Quinn Lodge has enough demons on his own to know when someone's hiding something. Clearly he needs to do a thorough investigation to uncover what's beneath Juliet's uptight, city-girl exterior--preferably one piece of clothing at a time. But when their chemistry goes from fizzy to full-on explosive, things start getting complicated. How can Juliet stay beneath the covers with Quinn, when doing so means blowing her cover.
After finishing the first book in this series, I wasted no time in downloading the second and while it was different in overall feeling, less overall family time but we get to meet more members of the community, I enjoyed it just as much. Juliet is running from her past. Quinn is a strict rule-follower. Watching these two come together was great. Quinn doesn't know exactly what Juliet is lying about but he knows she is hiding something. Juliet is trying to bide her time until she leaves again--in fact she would be gone by now but she promised Sophie a showing at her art gallery. Getting involved with Quinn will only lead to heartbreak for her and she doesn't want to hurt Quinn either, but he doesn't exactly give her a choice.
Quinn is in an election year and decides to use that to his advantage by having Juliet pose as his girlfriend for functions so he doesn't get strong-armed into going with the governor's niece with whom he had an unfortunate one night stand. He needs the governor's support but is not interested in taking the niece along with it. Although to be truthful, if that handy excuse hadn't fallen in his lap I am sure that Quinn could have figured out another way to persuade Juliet to finally give him the time of day.
When these two get together, the sparks fly. I loved watching their relationship develop but I, like Juliet, kept waiting for the past to blow up like a bomb in their faces and when it did, boy howdy! The fallout was extensive. It was great fun watching the community band together to try to get these two love birds back together and seeing Jake at work at his lawyer-ly best was a hoot as well. This is another strong entry in the Maverick Montana series and I already have book three waiting for me on my Kindle!
Reading Challenges
105 Challenge
Contemporary Romance
Men in Uniform
I Love Library Books
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
Two Souls Hollow by Paula Graves
When secrets leak from The Gates, the hunt is on for a mole. All evidence points to Anson Daughtry, who knows their security inside and out. Only coworker Ginny Coltrane can help clear his name, but she's caught in the middle of a turf war between militants in the Smoky Mountains. More at ease behind a computer than with a gun, Anson makes for an unlikely bodyguard. But hunkering down in the Tennessee foothills, turns out Ginny's not exactly the "need to be protected" type. Still, with someone stalking their every move, Anson isn't about to let her out of his sight. Or, if he gets his way, out of his arms.
This was the sixth book in a series and I haven't read the first five which unfortunately reminded me of why I am such a stickler for reading a series in order. There were a ton of little asides and one entire plotline that I was clueless about and that I probably needed to know. I am also worried that a previous book may have been ruined for me by all the info dumped in one of the chapters of this book. However, not all was lost.
The beginning of this book was great. I fell in love with Anson immediately and lucky for me he never behaved in a way that would cause me to change my mind over the course of the book. I don't believe that Ginny entirely deserves him but I was okay with him outshining her in this book. I already couldn't stand Ginny's mindless devotion to her brother who obviously could have cared less about her in his need to feed his addiction and her constant pushing aside of any good that people offered her in order to defend him got really old, really fast. I can understand wanting to believe the best in someone you love but to so obstinately refuse to even entertain the idea that due to his alcoholic ways he might not be the person she remembers growing up seemed naive at best and just plain stupid at worst. I wanted to shake her multiple times over the course of this book but Anson kept me reading. It seems a shame that he got a leading lady that doesn't deserve him but he seemed to love her anyway so as long as he is happy...Unfortunately, as amazing as Anson was there wasn't anything else about this book that causes me to want to rush out and get other books from this series. However, if the author has written other books I might give them a try. Maybe Anson has a literary twin the author wants to write about??
Reading Challenges
New to You
New Release
Romantic Suspense
Reading Road Trip
I Love Library Books
I borrowed this book from my local public library.
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.
