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Look to the East (The Great War, #1)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Out of the east comes a terror that will attempt to destroy the world.

At the dawn of World War I, the village of Briecourt is nestled in relative safety. That all changes when the German Imperial Army marches in and takes over. Life will never be the same for the villagers, who have had a family dispute for generations. Will having a common enemy finally bring them together? Julitte Toussaint, the adoptive daughter of a seaman, has to withstand the scorn of the de Colvilles for the shadows of her past. When she finds an unexpected "visitor" hiding in the cellar of the church, she feels the pull of love for this man she hardly knows. Charles Lassone is a Belgian entrepreneur caught behind enemy lines. He longs for escape so that he can join the Allies cause and win the respect and love of Julitte. With a dispute running so rampant, who can be trusted? The difference between friends and foes could not become more complicated.

This is both the first book that I have read by Maureen Lang and my first book set during World War I. Unfortunately, The Great War is not always as popular of a topic as its "sequel" is. Labor camps were in full effect during this period and the Germans were just as ruthless. The difference in time period wouldn't seem so drastic, but, I learned that they didn't believe it was safe to drop soldiers from planes during 1916. The tactics and methods were much more advanced come time for World War II. I became very emotionally attached to the characters. Their fight for freedom had me cheering them on with every turn of the page. Something that Julitte learns is that God sometimes uses us in ways that we can't explain, to ourselves or to others. He will work everything out, even if it's not how we had it planned. There is still evil in the world because God gave us a free will. But He will not abandon us. We must keep our eyes on Him and our hope in His promises.

I received a free copy of Look to the East from Tyndale House Publishers through their Tyndale Rewards Program. I was not required write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.
  
Gunning for Trouble
Gunning for Trouble
Helenkay Dimon | 2011 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Romance
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Bland Characters Gun Each Other Down in Gunning For Trouble
Genre: Contemporary

Page Count: 217 Pages

Average Goodreads Rating: 3.79 out of 5 stars

My rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Caleb was in a dead sleep until his phone alerts him to a break-in to his apartment. Immediately his defensive instincts — honed by his dangerous work of tracking missing persons and protecting witnesses — surface and he springs out of bed with his gun to tell the would-be burglar they have chosen the wrong apartment. But he ends up pointing the gun at Avery Walters, his former boss and ex-lover.


To Caleb’s irritation, Avery is on an assignment from Caleb’s boss about a string of murders in the witness protection program. Now dangerous people are after her and the only person she could turn to was Caleb. Despite Caleb’s resentment and anger toward Avery, he still feels the need to protect her. While they work together to stop the murders, old anger and mistrust rises between them, but so does the lust they feel for each other. Can they move forward and learn to love each other, or will the past always hold them back?

This book was awful. Caleb and Avery have the chemistry of fifth graders in their Drama Club rendition of Romeo and Juliet.

Caleb is a complete jackass. He protects Avery but it’s clear he doesn’t want to do it out of anything other than a sense of duty. Not only is he angry about her waking him up in the middle of the night– you know, just because her life is in danger. She should stop whining, right?– but he constantly makes her feel stupid and makes it clear he resents the shit out of her. He says she fired him so she could get a promotion, when in reality he was a loose cannon who deserved to be fired.

Even his friends and coworkers think he needs to tone down the anger.

“Haven’t heard you apologize to her,” (Zach, Caleb’s friend and coworker said).

“For what?”

“You tell me.”

“I was blindsided by what she did back then.”

“Any chance you had tunnel vision?”

Caleb is also so hot-headed I wouldn’t be surprised if he took steroids on a regular basis. Even someone like Avery, who has little more character than a stock photo, deserves better than that.

Caleb does eventually realize he’s been acting like a PMSing Neanderthal and “forgives her”, still thinking he did nothing wrong but wanting to put it behind him.

Avery isn’t as bad as Caleb, but Avery isn’t much of anything at all. She probably goes down in history as one of the least interesting protagonists ever created.

I might have cared more about the characters if I understood and liked the plot. But even that was a hot mess. While I get the gist of the situation– someone is selling names of people in the Witness Protection Program– I can’t make sense of the finer details. A hailstorm of minor characters were dumped on me at once and I couldn’t even keep them straight, let alone focus on what they were saying.

On top of that, there are a couple of times Avery seems to just “get” stuff and the reader is supposed to just “get” it too. But these aren’t obvious things, nor are they minor.

These things are like why Avery is too dangerous to be around Caleb’s coworkers’ wives. Avery just accepts that it’s reasonable she would put the wives in danger, but it’s not.

Even after reading the entire book and going back to skim parts of it for this review, I still don’t understand the plot that well.

If you are looking for a good Harlequin Intrigue book, you would be better off reading Scene of the Crime: Black Creek by Carla Cassidy. But don’t waste your time reading a half-assed story like Gunning for Trouble