Review: Tana French "The Likeness"

Publisher: Viking Adult
 

ISBN: 9780670018864

My rating: 5/5

Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons detective Cassie Maddox to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who she is. A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction. (www.goodreads.com)

My thoughts

What a brilliant read. I loved it.

This was my first book by Tana French and although initially I thought it was slow going, it (thankfully!) dawned on me very quickly that this isn't a "fast-food-read" which we get bombarded with from everywhere. It's well and truly over 400 pages, but each page worth the while.

A woman with the name Lexie Madison is found dead - it's the same fake identity Cassie Maddox used in an undercover case years earlier, but not only that, the dead woman looks exactly like Cassie as well.

So Cassie becomes Lexie once again and goes undercover and moves in with Lexie's four friends Daniel, Abby, Justin, and Rafe.

I loved the group, graduate students, who couldn't be any more different from each other, living together in an old house in the country, trying hard to escape the hectic daily life of the big city and the boundaries of society. Even Cassie finds herself getting attached to their life, to a point where her loyalties to her job and the police are tested. But, of course, their perfect life isn't perfect at all and soon cracks appear.

Tana French's writing style is beautiful with details and descriptions near perfect. I felt drawn into the story so much, I felt somewhat lost after I finished the book.

 

Review: Robyn Carr "The Wanderer" (Thunder Point #1)

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

ISBN: 9780778314479

My rating: 4/5

 

Nestled on the Oregon coast is a small town of rocky beaches and rugged charm. Locals love the land's unspoiled beauty. Developers see it as a potential gold mine. When newcomer Hank Cooper learns he's been left an old friend's entire beachfront property, he finds himself with a community's destiny in his hands.

Cooper has never been a man to settle in one place, and Thunder Point was supposed to be just another quick stop. But Cooper finds himself getting involved with the town. And with Sarah Dupre, a woman as complicated as she is beautiful.

With the whole town watching for his next move, Cooper has to choose between his old life and a place full of new possibilities. A place that just might be home.

 

 

My thoughts

 

The main reason why I picked up the book was the location - Oregon. Since my visit there last year, it's been one of my favourite travel destinations.

 

Hank Cooper's old friend Ben's left him a beachfront property in Thunder Point, a small remote community on the Oregon coast. While he tries to find out what happened to his friend and fixes up the old run-down bar shack, he gets involved in the life of the community... and meets Sarah Dupre, a helicopter pilot raising her brother.

 

I loved the book, the characters were quirky, laid back and "real". Although commitment shy, Cooper was the guy of dreams. I loved his humour, and his ability to be serious when he needed to be. Sarah only appears in the story about half way through the book, and I have to admit it took me a little bit to warm up to her... once finding out about the reasons, I understood, and liked how the character was developed.

 

Having said all that, there were pages and pages of dialogue, and the introduction of characters (I assume for future Thunder Point books) where I felt it was too long.

 

Definitely want to read the next Thunder Point #2, which tells Roger "Mac" McCain and Gina's story.

 

Review: Bella Andre "Never too Hot" - #Review #BellaAndre #HotShots

Publisher: Bantam

ISBN:  978-0440245025

My rating: 3.5/5

A TOUCH IGNITES. A FIRE BURNS.
AND THE HEAT HAS JUST BEGUN.

Deep in the cool green mountains of the Adirondacks, wounded firefighter Connor MacKenzie has come to rebuild the 100-year-old MacKenzie family cabin – and to be alone. A horrific blaze has left him scarred inside and out and certain of two things: He’ll get back on his hotshot crew no matter what it takes, and any woman who ventures too close will not stay long.
Ginger Sinclair has been burned by a different kind of fire. Having just escaped from a bad marriage, she’s retreated to the safety of the lakeside vacation town in upstate New York to start a new life. She’s done with men, with relationships, with the danger of desires that can rage out of control – until she unexpectedly encounters Connor MacKenzie. As a hot summer on the lake grows ever hotter, they find themselves sharing a cabin and a romance that will swiftly engulf them both. (bellaandre.com)
 


My rating

I have to admit, the story took me by surprise. Having picked up the book merely because I read Hot Shot #1 and #2, this book contained that little bit of something which was missing in the first two stories. It had lots of clichés in it, but all in all, I enjoyed reading it.

We met Connor in the previous books when he ended up in hospital after a getting severely burnt in a bushfire. Two years later, while still waiting to be re-instated to the Hot Shot crew, he takes his mind off by repairing his grandparents' cottage in the mountains of the Adirondacks, which is currently occupied by Ginger Sinclair.

While Connor is running from his from his life as it is without being a firefighter, while Ginger is running from a broken marriage, trying to find herself.

I loved the issues in this book with Connor severely scarred, yet still sexy, and Ginger the curvier woman, trying to enjoy life without her parent's money, doing what she wants to do and not what she's told to do.

One of my favourite scene is, when Connor pulls her in front of a mirror and makes her "see" how beautiful she is.

 All in all - nice read..

Review: John Grisham "Sycamore Row (Jake Brigance)"

Publisher: Doubleday

ISBN:  978-0385537131

My rating: 3/5

John Grisham's A Time to Kill is one of the most popular novels of our time. Now we return to that famous courthouse in Clanton as Jake Brigance once again finds himself embroiled in a fiercely controversial trial-a trial that will expose old racial tensions and force Ford County to confront its tortured history.

Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier.

The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?

In Sycamore Row, John Grisham returns to the setting and the compelling characters that first established him as America's favorite storyteller. Here, in his most assured and thrilling novel yet, is a powerful testament to the fact that Grisham remains the master of the legal thriller, nearly twenty-five years after the publication of A Time to Kill. (from the backcover)


My rating

It's been a while since I've read a book that's worth writing a review.

Having said that, Grisham's latest book "Sycamore Row" wasn't a page turner for me either, although it almost had me in tears at the end. Yes, a small disappointment, considering how much I enjoyed "A time to Kill"

Jake Brigance (I have to admit, it was nice to imagining him with Matthew McConaughey's face) returns in this book. Set in the late 1980s and only a few years after having defended a black man for killing the two rapists of his daughter, Jake defends the hand written will of the late Seth Hubbard, who has left most of his estate to his housekeeper, Lettie Lang, cutting out his children completely.

Over the next I-don't-know-how-many-pages, we follow the trial, the good and the bad, the interesting and the boring part, until the reader has an idea where this is leading - that's when Grisham draws out the story and it gets really boring!

I love most aspects of the law. And I love reading about it. In my opinion, though, this story was waaaay to long and would've been much more interesting if some of the parts were left out.

PS - Loved Harry Rex!

"More Beginnings" review by the newspaper The Courier #ebook #love

More Beginnings

 

Review by Frank Nolan, The Courier / VoiceFM

 

More Beginnings is the second of a proposed three story series by author Iris Blobel. It follows the lives of characters introduced in the first book of the series titled New Beginnings. Six years have now passed since Sophie Levesque and her younger sister Mia unexpectedly became the owners of a cottage in beautiful Chestnut Avenue, Battery Point, Tasmania. The identity of their mysterious benefactor has now been revealed and fourteen year old Mia is happily settled at school. However, her life is suddenly disturbed when a stranger named Darren Schuster turns up and she is faced with ”more beginnings” in her young life.

Iris Blobel tells an interesting story with believable characters and More Beginnings will have her readers eagerly awaiting the third instalment of the story of the folk at Chestnut Avenue, Battery Point.    

Review: Lee Child "Nothing to Lose" (Jack Reacher #12)

Publisher: Bantam Press

ISBN: 9780593057032

My rating: 4/5 

Two lonely towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher never turns back. It's not in his nature. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets is big trouble. So in Lee Child’s electrifying new novel, Reacher—a man with no fear, no illusions, and nothing to lose—goes to war against a town that not only wants him gone, it wants him dead.

It wasn’t the welcome Reacher expected. He was just passing through, minding his own business. But within minutes of his arrival a deputy is in the hospital and Reacher is back in Hope, setting up a base of operations against Despair, where a huge, seething walled-off industrial site does something nobody is supposed to see . . . where a small plane takes off every night and returns seven hours later . . . where a garrison of well-trained and well-armed military cops—the kind of soldiers Reacher once commanded—waits and watches . . . where above all two young men have disappeared and two frightened young women wait and hope for their return.

Joining forces with a beautiful cop who runs Hope with a cool hand, Reacher goes up against Despair—against the deputies who try to break him and the rich man who tries to scare him—and starts to crack open the secrets, starts to expose the terrifying connection to a distant war that’s killing Americans by the thousand.

Now, between a town and the man who owns it, between Reacher and his conscience, something has to give. And Reacher never gives an inch. (leechild.com)


My thoughts

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary defines "page turner" as a book so exciting or gripping that one is compelled to read it very rapidly.

And I did!

I have to admit, though, I didn't quite get the whole story, but I got the gist of it.

The part I liked was that IMHO the raw emotions displayed by Reacher. Although I'm not a big fan of authors bringing in their personal opinion into their stories, Lee Child did really well creating a thought-provoking balance of displaying the cost of war. Reacher seems to have "matured" and although still stubborn in many ways, I like this new development.

Bottom line - it was a page turner!
 

 

Review: Lily Malone "Fairway to Heaven"

Publisher: Lily Malone

ISBN: n/a.

My rating: 4/5

Fairway to Heaven
It’s golf, but not as we know it.

When Jennifer Gates drives to Sea Breeze Golf Club to kick off date-night with her boyfriend, the last thing she expects is to find Golf-Pro Jack giving one of his lady students a private—and very personal—lesson in bunker-play.
Lucky for Jenn, her best friend gives her the keys to the Culhane family’s beach shack on the white-pepper shores of Western Australia’s Geographe Bay. Jenn hopes a weekend on the coast with her young son will give her the space she needs to rebuild her confidence after Jack’s betrayal.
But she’s not the only person seeking sanctuary by the sea. Brayden Culhane is there too, and Jenn can’t look at Brayden without remembering the tequila-flavoured kiss they shared on the shack steps years ago.
As long-buried feelings are rekindled, and a friendship is renewed, Jenn knows it is more than lazy summer days bringing her mojo back. Romantic sunsets, ice-cold beers and the odd round of golf can only go so far, because this time, trusting Brayden with her heart won’t be enough. Jenn has to learn to trust her body, too. (goodreads.com)


My thoughts

"I always thought a yellow rose about to open was the most beautiful thing in the world.

Then I found you."

My second book by Lily Malone and I loved it just as much. This one was different - in a few ways. First, I had read the initial 3,000 words script and was intrigued how Lily would turn it into a full novel. Second, it's written in first person, present tense.

Jennifer Gates catches her partner (and father of her son Sebastian) Jack in flagranti with another woman. She moves out and takes time out at her best friend Emmy's parent's beach house. Only to find Emmy's brother Brayden there.

Initially a bit slow for me, once Jennifer's "new life" started I wasn't able to put the book down. I loved the way she grew over the few weeks, how the relationship with Brayden developed and her "ups and downs" as a mother. It was beautifully written! I laughed

Why wasn't Brayden's issue resolved, though? Or may I hope for a sequel?

Fully recommend this one!

Review: Rebecca Clare "Breaking Point"

Publisher: Penguin Group

ISBN:  9780425240519

My rating: 4/5


While investigating border violence in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Denver journalist Natalie Benoit is caught in a bloody ambush and taken captive. Alone in the hands of ruthless killers, she will need every ounce of courage she possesses to survive.

Betrayed by another operative, Deputy U.S. Marshal Zach McBride has endured a week of torture and interrogation at the hands of a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel. Ready to give his life if he must, he remains unbroken—until he hears the cries of an American woman.

Although Natalie is only a voice in the darkness of their shared prison, her plight brings renewed strength to Zach's battered body. With her help, he overpowers their captors, and they flee through the desert toward the border, the attraction between them flaring hotter than the Sonoran sun.

But past loss and tragedy leave both of them reluctant to follow their hearts, even when the passion between them reaches its breaking point. Faced with feelings neither expected, they fight to stay ahead of the danger that hunts them as forces more powerful than they can imagine conspire to destroy them both… (www.pamelaclare.com)


My thoughts:

Ack - this is a tricky one. I liked it, then came the sex scenes and I was close to not finishing it, but persisted. AND I'm glad I did.

Natalie Benoit, a Denver journalist, gets kidnapped in Mexico and held captive next to Zach McBride, US Marshal, tied up and tortured by the Los Zetas (Mexican Crime ring). They're able to escape and make it back to the US. But even back home they're not safe. Piece by piece they figure out why the kidnapping happened and who is responsible for.

It's a definite page turner, if you turn a blind eye to the 'into-too-much-detail sex scenes. It's fast paced, with a wonderful touch of romance, a great story about friendship and emotions. I really enjoyed the book to the very last sentence.

Review: Rachel Gibson - It must be Love

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers

ISBN: 9780380807154

My rating: 3/5

It Must Be Love

Undercover cop Joe Shanahan's bad luck hit bottom the morning he stared up into the face of sexy suspect Gabrielle Breedlove. She'd blown his cover---brought him down with a can of hairspray---and now his new assignment was to pose as her boyfriend. But spending as much time as possible with the utterly irresistible New Age beauty caused unexpected complications. To make matters worse, his matchmaking sisters are picking out china patterns.
Joe's brooding good looks and T-shirt-straining muscles might be easy on the eyes, but how could Gabrielle be attracted to a straight-laced detective who's determined to find evidence to arrest her? Still, he invades her dreams and when they share a transcendent lovemaking experience, Gabrielle knows it must be love.


My thoughts

This was an okay read by Rachel Gibson, a nice "time filler".

Joe Shanahan is an undercover cop, trying to find out who has stolen Mr Hillard's Monet. Suspect is Kevin Carter, Joe's reluctant informer is Gabrielle Breedlove, Kevin's business partner.

The background story was actually quite interesting, but slowed by the constant "inner thoughts" by both main characters, Joe and Gabrielle, as well as their romance. Fair enough, it's a romance novel, but it's still a shame, it could've been much better.

As usual with RG, there's lots of "in detail" sex scenes.

Bottom line, as said before, a nice time filler.


 

Jill Shalvis - At Last (Lucky Harbor #5)

Publisher: Forever

ISBN:  978-1455503742

My rating:  4/5

 

 

HER LOVE HAS COME ALONG . . .
Amy Michaels loves her new life in Lucky Harbor. A waitress in the local diner, she's looking forward to her first weekend hike through the mountains. But when a wrong turn takes her off the trail, she finds herself up close and personal with forest ranger Matt Bowers. And even though she's tempted to kiss that sexy smile right off his face, she won't make the mistake of getting involved with the town heartthrob.

A former cop whose life went south, Matt doesn't let anyone get too close. But something about the feisty beauty caught his eye the moment he first saw her in the diner. After a hot night under a starry sky, Matt can't deny their attraction-or the fact that for the first time in a long time, he feels the stirrings of something more. Now it's up to Matt to help Amy see that, no matter what is in their past, together they can build a future in Lucky Harbor. (amazon.com)

 

My thoughts

"I do trust you," she whispered.

Well, trust Jill Shalvis to present another ripper of a story! Not quite "Ty" or "Jax", but another memorable hero: Ranger Hot Buns - Matt Bowers.

 

Amy Michaels gets lost in the woods and out of all people, her friend Mallory sends Matt Bowers to the rescue - resulting in a night out in a tent. Both are attracted to each other, but both have baggage from the past which seems like a heaven burden. Resulting in avoiding a relationship .... but in true Shalvis style, with wit, humor and the perfect touch they're able to move on.

The side story with Riley fits in perfectly and it wouldn't surprise me if any of the future "Lucky Harbor" books will tell her story.

All in all - a must for Jill Shalvis / Lucky Harbor fans, and a good read I can only recommend.

James Lee Burke - Rain Gods

Publishers: Simon & Schuster

 

ISBN:  9781439128244

 

My rating: 3/5

 

 

When Hackberry Holland became sheriff of a tiny Texas town near the Mexican border, he'd hoped to leave certain things behind: his checkered reputation, his haunted dreams, and his obsessive memories of the good life with his late wife, Rie. But the discovery of the bodies of nine illegal aliens, machine-gunned to death and buried in a shallow grave behind a church, soon makes it clear that he won't escape so easily. As Hack and Deputy Sheriff Pam Tibbs attempt to untangle the threads of this complex and grisly case, a damaged young Iraq veteran, Pete Flores, and his girlfriend, Vikki Gaddis, are running for their lives, hoping to outwit the bloodthirsty criminals who want to kill Pete for his involvement in the murders. The only trouble is, Pete doesn't know who he's running from: drunk and terrified, he fled the scene of the crime when the shooting began. And there's a long list of people who want Pete and Vikki dead: crime boss Hugo Cistranos, who hired Pete for the operation; Nick Dolan, a strip club owner and small-time gangster with revenge on his mind; and a mysterious God-fearing serial-killer-for-hire known as Preacher Jack Collins, with enigmatic motives of his own.
With the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and a host of cold-blooded killers on Pete and Vikki's trail, it's up to Sheriff Holland to find them first and figure out who's behind the mass murder before anyone else ends up dead. In this thrilling and intricate work, James Lee Burke has once again proven himself a master storyteller and a perceptive chronicler of the darkest corners of the human heart (goodreads.com)

 

 

My thoughts

 

My first book by James Lee Burke. Bottom line - great story. Why only 3 stars? Well several reasons.

 

The story has so many characters and story lines I won't even try and give a brief summary.

 

It took me quite a while to actually get into the story and a few chapters I had to re-read to remember the plot from the previous chapter and the characters. Once I  got hooked, I really enjoyed the book.

But it's a looooong book. Just short of 400 pages, I initially enjoyed Burke's detailed descriptions, "show not tell" paragraphs, but in the end, it was just too much and repetitious. The characters are interesting, but again the constant analysis of their past, emotions or behaviour was at times too much.

 

Not sure whether I started with the wrong story, but I will probably not add another book by James Lee Burke on my TBR file.

Lynette Sofras - The Apple Tree

Publisher: Inspired Romance Novels

ISBN: 978 - 0 - 9847645 - 3 - 2

My rating: 3/5


Escaping from your past is never easy, as young hospital doctor Juliet discovers when she tries to start afresh, leaving both her marriage and her career behind. Love blossoms rapidly when she meets the mysterious and forthright ‘gardener’, Nicholas, who seems to herald the new beginning she craves.

The past quickly dissolves into insignificance as their all-consuming romance propels them forward but Juliet has to learn the price of happiness in the cruelest way possible. Will she be able face the painful roots of her past in order for her future to grow strong and healthy? (amazon.com)


My thoughts

This is a beautiful story - don't get me wrong! But compared to other books I've read I just couldn't give it more than three stars.

The main character is Julie, Dr Julie Somerville, who's just come back from Saudi where she's lived with her husband. But she couldn't settle and returned to the UK. Julie literally bumps into Robert, a friend from years back, and through him meets Nicholas. They both spend a wonderful summer together.

I honestly couldn't warm up to Julie. The constant whining and self-doubt made me put the book aside quite often, unfortunately too often so that I had lost the "train-of-thought" here and there. I liked Nicholas and even more so for his views. It gave his character a certain 'oompf'.

All and all a really nice read, and I really should mention that the story was the 2011 Inspired Romance Novels' Writing Contest GRAND PRIZE WINNER  - so please don't let my opinion deter you from giving it a try!

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The Self-Publishing Review: How This Is Going To Work:

 If you've self-published or vanity-published your book, and you're confident that it's good enough to compete with the books on the bookshop shelves, then send me a copy. Submission details are in the bar on the right.

I'll read it as I would anything from the slush-pile. As I'm reading I'll count the errors that I see, and once I get to fifteen errors then I'll stop reading. I'll include errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as problems with tense and point-of-view. If I don't spot many errors I'll read it for as long as it holds my attention: once my interest slips (and remember that I am known for reading the back of the milk-carton at breakfast, such is my need for reading matter), I'll persist for another couple of pages.
I'll post the title, author and sundry details of each book that is submitted to me, including the number of pages I got through before putting it aside (I hope the page-counts will end up as a league-table rather than a catalogue of shame).
If I finish your book I'll write a review of it here, and recommend it to my friends. I can't say that it'll lead to fame and fortune for any of the writers that I review: but I hope it will give some encouragement, and a reason to keep writing.