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Rachel King (13 KP) rated Blackberry Summer (Hope's Crossing, #1) in Books

Feb 11, 2019  
BS
Blackberry Summer (Hope's Crossing, #1)
RaeAnne Thayne | 2011
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The community of Hope's Crossing is quaint in its friendliness and familiarity of the different individuals with one another. Though the town operates as the hub of a large resort, it does not lose its charm as a small town. So when the type of crime that is more prone to big cities happens here, it causes its citizens to be less welcoming to its newest inhabitant and chief of police, Riley McKnight. Riley faces an uphill battle both socially and romantically, as he is drawn all over again to the stubbornly independent Claire that was attracted to growing up. The big difference this time is that Claire likes him back! They play the typical game of I can't believe he/she likes me, and do I really like him/ her that is so common in romance novels. In the mean time, Claire dreams up a way to put the town in better spirits, while defending Riley's place there.
Claire is easy to like, with her bead store that attracts such colorful characters, and the patience she exhibits in all of her relationships, from the one with her mother to the ones with her ex-husband and his new, pregnant wife. I even like how her injuries drive Riley to constantly offer to help her in any way possible.
Riley's honesty is at times comedic, shocking, and even alluring. He has charm to spare, but keeps most of it bottled up because of a difficult past.
The book was more entertaining than I have come to expect from the typical Harlequin, but in many ways not very unique from the standard plot line. While I did enjoy reading it, I doubt that I will remember much about the book.
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Watcher in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
The Watcher
The Watcher
Ross Armstrong | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
My author Q&A is now live on my blog! Go check it out: http://bookbum.weebly.com/author-qas/qa-with-ross-armstrong-author-of-the-watcher

<i><b>...some lies, even errors and guesses, do turn out to be true.</i></b>

Stay clear of <b>most</b> the reviews on this book so far because I accidentally skimmed over them and got some stuff ruined! Ugh! I <i>promise</i> I won’t spoil anything in my review!

I really like Armstrong’s style of writing, this is <i>a fantastic debut.</i> It’s fast paced, witty and thrilling!

The plot was so intriguing and entertaining, which is why I don’t get why people found this so average on Goodreads! Yeah, maybe the plot has been done before, but that made this no less interesting or fun to read. There were certain aspects of the story that were easily predictable, but reading them unfold made up for the fact you could guess them beforehand.

Lily was a great character! She was really sweet but also incredibly funny! I found myself chuckling at the situations she got herself into and the little anecdotes she’d often share. It was really nice to have this down-to-earth character, who was pretty barmy, troubled and weird, but also happy and friendly to the reader and fictitious neighbours.

This was a really fun book to get carried away with, totally unputdownable! I’m certainly going to keep my eyes peeled for more of Armstrong’s writing in the future.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin UK for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

<i>p.s. I have an interview with Armstrong coming out on the 29th (the same day this is published), so please check that out on my blog! I'll link it when it's up :-)
  
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Kristy H (1252 KP) rated The Christmas Escape in Books

Nov 18, 2021  
The Christmas Escape
The Christmas Escape
Sarah Morgan | 2021 | Humor & Comedy, Romance
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Christy Sullivan and her best friend Alix have spent Christmas together since they were children. This year they are planning to go to Lapland, a snowy wonderland. The trip will include Christy's husband and their young daughter, Holly. But when Christy faces trouble with her marriage, she asks Alix to take Holly to Lapland without her. She'll be joined by their family friend, Zac--whom Alix has been avoiding ever since Christy's wedding. But as Alix, Zac, and Holly enjoy their time in Lapland, Alix realizes she may have made a mistake in avoiding him. Meanwhile, Christy starts to wonder if her friendship with Alix and marriage will survive the holidays.

I hate rating books low, but this just did not work for me. It was a sweet enough story and I liked the fun, snowy Arctic setting, but, oh, this book could have been so much shorter and enjoyable. The repetition is intense, to the point I found myself skimming sections. We are constantly bombarded by everyone's thoughts and issues. Did you know Alix has commitment issues? Oh you will. Christy struggles with perfection? The overwhelming focus on the characters' tropes and the rehashing and pontificating on thoughts and feelings was incredibly frustrating. It was very slow moving with far more telling than showing. I was not that invested in Alix and Zac's relationship.

There's a sweet storyline involving Christy's aunt, who lives at Lapland, which I enjoyed, and others have enjoyed the overall story more, so take my review with a grain of salt, but most of this book was just too repetitive and trite for me. 2.5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from Harlequin and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
  
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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Just One Bite in Books

Jun 21, 2019  
Just One Bite
Just One Bite
Jack Heath | 2019
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Timothy Blake is waiting on the side of the road for someone to drop of a package to him. While he is waiting he decides to take a short walk through the woods and he stumbles upon a body. Being the man that he is, he takes the body and goes home since the person never arrives. He puts the body in his freezer for another time. Then he gets a call from his friend Thistle who is also an FBI agent. She needs his helps to solve the case of a missing person. Blake knows where the missing person is, but if he tells her this, he will be charged for the murder, which he didn't do. So he helps the FBI for just as much reason to keep himself clean as to find out what happened to this guy. Will they find the real killer before the body is found in his freezer?

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the first book I've read by Jack Heath. I'm very interested to find out what happened to Blake in the first book. I don't know if there will be more books in this series, but the way this one ended, there could be. I now have to go back and read book 1 which is called Hangman.

Just so you're not surprised if you decide to read this book, Timothy Blake is a cannibal. I didn't see that coming and I think I said out loud, "What the hell!" while I was reading and my family looked at me strange. So that is why he kept the body in the freezer, to have for dinner or a snack later.

One very interesting thing about this book is that there is a riddle at the beginning of each chapter. Some I was able to figure out, others not so much.

Here's one I couldn't figure out: What food has no beginning, end or middle?
  
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Whatchareadin (174 KP) rated Beautiful Bad in Books

Apr 3, 2019  
Beautiful Bad
Beautiful Bad
Annie Ward | 2019 | Mystery, Thriller
7
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Maddie is a wife and a mother who would do anything to protect her family and those she loves. After college Maddie decides she is going to to go Bulgaria to write and tutor. She isn't quite alone as her friend Joanna, is not too far away in Macedonia. When she visits Joanna it's always a good time, even though they are in a war-torn country. When Maddie meets Ian, there is an instant connection, but time and opportunity are never on their side, so they see each other when they can, and are friends for a very long time. Eventually, they are able to get together and build a life and start a family. But everything isn't as it seems. Ian is suffering from PTSD from his many years serving as protection in Iraq, Bosnia, and other countries. And Maddie has anxiety about it all. Will their relationship last, or will the events of their pasts be too much for their future to handle.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin-Park Row for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The story starts with a call to 911 and you can hear a woman and child in distress. The book takes you back and forth from Maddie's time in Bulgaria, to the days and weeks leading up to this 911 call. I will admit the very beginning drew me in, but then all the in between felt very unnecessary. Until you get to the end and you see everything unfold. I definitely did not see the end coming and I was pleasantly surprised.

Beautiful Bad drew me in from the beginning with the 911 call. I was disappointed a few chapters in when it seems as though the whole incident was forgotten. Then when it popped back up, I didn't even remember the characters from that time. So that is why I gave the book the lower rating. I would like to see the finished book to see if there were any differences. I read an interview with the author that said that this book started off as a memoir, but her editor convinced her to change it into fiction. I think the middle parts where the memoir that got thrown out.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and I stayed up way past my bedtime once I reached the 60% mark to finish it. The ending was really good and it made up for the slow middle. I look forward to reading more by Annie Ward.

Here is an interview that Shelf Awareness did with Annie Ward. It gives you insight on the book that I believe is valuable.
https://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=796#m13960
  
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Kara Skinner (332 KP) rated In Debt to the Enemy Lord in Books

Jun 11, 2019  
In Debt to the Enemy Lord
In Debt to the Enemy Lord
Nicole Locke | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Romance
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.62 out of 5 stars

Genre: Historical

Page Count: 288 pages

Anwen, bastard of Brynmor, has fought hard to find her place in the world. But she’s forced to rethink everything when she’s saved from death by her enemy Teague, Lord of Gwalchdu. Instead of releasing her, he holds her captive.

Teague trusts no one. So, which ominous messages threatening his life, he must keep Anwen under his watch, no matter how much her presence drives him wild.

And when passionate arguments turn to passionate encounters, Teague must believe that the strength of their bond will conquer all!

Anwen, the main character, was really cool. She was very strong, sarcastic, and always pushes Teague for answers about why he’s keeping her captive. She also keeps trying to escape so she can go back home and protect her sister from her abusive father.

However, after she falls in love with Teague, her reservations about him were a little frustrating. Even after finding out that he wasn’t the Great Traitor everyone thought he was, she still didn’t want him to be part of her life. Her only reason was that she didn’t want take orders from a domineering tyrant, but Teague was never tyrannical to her. He only held her captive to make sure she wasn’t the person attacking his home. After that, the only demands he ever made of her were for her own protection. She grew up under a tyrant, so it’s understandable that she would be a little wary, but he was never the villain she kept making him out to be.

Teague was pretty cool overall. He definitely has issues, but they’re understandable considering his rough childhood, including having his mother dying at an early age and having everyone think he’s the devil because he has an epileptic aunt. He has a lot of trust issues and really doesn’t trust anyone except his brother.

As much as I liked both Anwen and Teague, I didn’t like them together. They had a little actual sexual tension at first, but their love story is really forced. Teague is complete anti-love at the beginning and then falls head over ass for Anwen for no real reason. And sure, she still has some baggage holding her back, so they’re not both completely hypnotized but for fuck’s sake did he drink a love potion?

I was so disappointed by the two of them together. It’s Harlequin, so I wasn’t expecting an epic love story or anything, but I was expecting a love story.

On top of that, the sex scenes were pretty weird. I kept getting pulled out of the story because I couldn’t figure out the logistics of the positions or even picture what was happening. The dialogue during the sex scenes was delightfully cringy, like a romance novel parody.

I liked Teague’s brother, Rain, more than Teague. He had a lot less baggage and I would have found it much more believable if he was the one who fell in love with Anwen instead of Teague because Rain trusts people.

This book wasn’t horrible, and it’s certainly not the worst romance I’ve ever read, but it wasn’t great. However, I really didn’t see the ending coming, so I give Nicole Locke huge props for that.
  
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Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated The Breakdown in Books

Mar 15, 2018  
The Breakdown
The Breakdown
B.A. Paris | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
4
8.0 (16 Ratings)
Book Rating
Read my review here: https://bookbumzuky.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/review-the-breakdown-by-b-a-paris/

<i><b>Synopsis:</b> On a stormy night, Cass decides to go against the wishes of her husband and take a dangerous shortcut home. Passing through the rural wooded road, she notices a car pulled up with a woman sat inside. After pulling over to help, Cass gets a weird feeling - why hasn’t the woman in the car shown relief at someone pulling over? Why has she not moved from her spot in the seat, just staring blankly out of the windscreen? Feeling spooked, Cass decides to drive off. The next morning she finds out that the woman is dead, “brutally murdered”, as the police say.

Cass can’t shake the guilt she feels at leaving the woman alone, and soon, the guilt is all she can focus on. She’s started to forget things, like when she bought an alarm system or inviting her friends over, but what she can’t forget is leaving the woman on her own, on a stormy night, to be murdered. She also can’t forget the silent phones calls she’s receiving and the horrible feeling that she’s being watched.</i>

---

After the huge success of <i>Behind Closed Doors</i>, B A Paris had a lot to live up to with this second novel, and for me, it wasn’t anywhere near as good. It didn’t grab me as well as the last. The tension was built just as well in this, steady and slowly, but it was the actual plot that I wasn’t connecting with. It seemed a bit outlandish and didn’t keep me on my toes quite as much. Annoyingly, someone hadn’t marked the spoilers in their review of this, so about halfway through reading the novel, the twist was “ruined”, but, to be honest, the ending was very predictable and I had already sussed it by the time I read that person’s review, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Another problem with this book was the lack of character development. While we felt so attached to Grace and eager for her to be rid of the troubles in her life, I didn’t find myself thinking the same for Cass. In all honesty, she was a bit of a drip and was so overly hysterical that she just became annoying to read about. Our other, more side characters, Matthew and Rachel, were flat, soppy and unrealistic.

<spoiler>The texts between Matthew and Rachel, at the end of the novel, were really irritating that I ended up skipping over them. Why would we need to see what they said to each other when we already know what they had done? It was just rehashing parts of the plot that we could have sussed was them…</spoiler>

I hate to say such negative things about this novel, but I just don’t get the hype. The story has been done a million times before, and in better ways, too. Maybe I think so badly of this novel because Paris’ last was so great, but there is no comparison between the two.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Harlequin UK Ltd for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.</i>