Category Archives: Rated B

September 20, 2020 · 11:57 pm

Review: Well Played by Jen DeLuca

Title: Well Played by Jen DeLuca
Well Met Series Book Two
Publisher: Berkley
Imprint Jove
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Length: 332 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

A laugh-out-loud romantic comedy featuring kilted musicians, Renaissance Faire tavern wenches, and an unlikely love story.

LibraryReads Pick

Stacey is jolted when her friends Simon and Emily get engaged. She knew she was putting her life on hold when she stayed in Willow Creek to care for her sick mother, but it’s been years now, and even though Stacey loves spending her summers pouring drinks and flirting with patrons at the local Renaissance Faire, she wants more out of life. Stacey vows to have her life figured out by the time her friends get hitched at Faire next summer. Maybe she’ll even find The One.

When Stacey imagined “The One,” it never occurred to her that her summertime Faire fling, Dex MacLean, might fit the bill. While Dex is easy on the eyes onstage with his band The Dueling Kilts, Stacey has never felt an emotional connection with him. So when she receives a tender email from the typically monosyllabic hunk, she’s not sure what to make of it.

Faire returns to Willow Creek, and Stacey comes face-to-face with the man with whom she’s exchanged hundreds of online messages over the past nine months. To Stacey’s shock, it isn’t Dex—she’s been falling in love with a man she barely knows.

Review:

Well Played by Jen DeLuca is a charming contemporary romance. Although this newest release is the second romance in the Well Met series, it can be read as a standalone.

Twenty-seven year old Stacey Lindholm always feels a bit of a letdown when the yearly Renaissance Faire comes to a conclusion. The end of this year’s Faire coincides with the engagement of her friends. Although she is happy for them,  Stacey’s vague sense of dissatisfaction with her own life worsens. After drowning her sorrows one evening, she messages her summer fling, Dex MacLean and to her shock, he responds. They spend the next eleven months emailing and texting each other and she is excited to see him at the fast approaching ren fair.  However, Stacey is stunned when she discovers Dex has not been the man she has been getting to know for all these months. She is furious and hurt, but will she allow him to explain why he has deceived her?

Stacey’s life took a major detour just as she was about to embark on her career.  Although she does not regret the reason she returned to Willow Creek, she feels stuck in a life she never wanted. Through her daily text and email exchanges, Stacey gets to know herself a little better while at the same time delighting in her discoveries about Dex.  While she does not know where a relationship between them would go, Stacey is eager to see how things go between them in person.

Well Played is an entertaining romance with an intriguing premise. Stacey is a likable lead protagonist who  has to decide between family expectations and following her heart and dreams. Her love interest is very sweet and caring but can she forgive him for not being completely honest with her?  With a late in the story conflict, Jen DeLuca brings this heartwarming romance to a sigh-worthy conclusion. Old and new readers of the Well Met series will enjoy this latest installment.

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Filed under Berkley, Contemporary, Jen DeLuca, Jove, Rated B, Review, Romance, Well Played

September 9, 2020 · 11:57 pm

Review: Forging Fire by Lisa Preston

Title: Forging Fire by Lisa Preston
Horseshoer Mystery Book Three
Publisher: Arcade Crimewise
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

The Third Book in the Horseshoer Mystery Series, Featuring the Incorrigible Female Horseshoer, Rainy Dale

Days before her wedding, Rainy Dale jumps at a chance to visit the fabled Black Bluff bull sale down in California, but things go awry when she is assaulted and her truck is stolen.

In this twist on the “locked-room” form, more than one mystery is hidden on the ranch where Rainy and her dog, Charlie, end up. Everyone—the owners, ranch hands, angry neighbors, and perhaps even the deliveryman who brings coke coal for the ranch’s old-fashioned forge—is harboring a damaging secret. When Rainy realizes that even her dog knows a grisly hidden truth, the stakes are raised as high as life and death.

Review:

Forging Fire by Lisa Preston is an intriguing mystery starring amateur sleuth and horseshoer Rainy Dale.

With her wedding just days a way, Rainy Dale makes the impetuous decision to haul a tempestuous bull to the Black Bluff bull sale in California.  Upon her arrival, she is able to check an item off her bucket list but everything goes downhill from there. Rainy is unexpectedly the victim of a crime and even worse, her beloved dog, Charley is missing. She finds herself on a nearby ranch and accepts the hospitality that is offered by ranch owner Ivy Beaumont. Rainy eventually finds Charley and she also ends up solving the mystery of a ranch hand who disappeared two years ago.

Rainy is determined to make it back to her safe harbor, fiancé Guy Kittredge in time for their wedding. But a mild concussion and a stunning discovery mean she must remain on the Beaumont Ranch. She likes ranch owner Ivy and they easily bond over their love of dogs. Rainy also meets housekeeper Eliana who makes meals that rival anything Guy whips up at his restaurant and their home kitchen. Ranch hands Gabe, Stuckey and Oscar round out her new acquaintances.  Rainy also runs into neighboring ranch owner Reese Trenton who bears appears to bear a grudge against his neighbors.

Since Rainy is unable to leave just yet, she cannot resist trying to understand what happened on the ranch two years ago. She stumbles across one clue after another but it takes a while to put the pieces together in the right order. Rainy is also trying to discover who is responsible for the series of events that brought her to the ranch.

Forging Fire is an absorbing  mystery with a plainspoken, independent and honest to a fault lead protagonist who will do anything to find her beloved dog.  The other happenings on the ranch are interesting and the final reveal is rather shocking. Lisa Preston keeps the Horseshoer Mystery Series fresh by putting Rainey in a new location and surrounding her with strangers. Fans of the genre will enjoy this engaging mystery.

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Filed under Arcade Crimewise, Contemporary, Forging Fire, Horseshoer Mystery Series, Lisa Preston, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense

September 6, 2020 · 11:57 pm

Review: Sins of the Mother by August Norman

Title: Sins of the Mother by August Norman
Caitlin Bergman Series Book Two
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length: 318 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

August Norman returns with the second thrilling Caitlin Bergman novel, perfect for fans of Julia Keller, Tess Gerritsen, and Michael Koryta.

Caitlin went in search of her mother…but what she found may set the world on fire.

Caitlin Bergman’s mother is dead. That’s what the award-winning journalist has told everyone for the past forty years. Easier to lie than explain how Maya abandoned her only daughter before dropping off the map forever.

But when a rural sheriff invites Caitlin to the woods of coastal Oregon to identify her mother’s remains, Caitlin drops everything to face the woman she’s spent a lifetime hating. Unfortunately, the body–abandoned on the land of a reclusive cult, the Daughters of God–was left faceless. Instead, Caitlin finds the diary of a woman obsessed with the end of the world, one that hints the cult’s spiritual leader knows the identity of Caitlin’s real father. She’s not the only one looking for clues in her mother’s writing. Johnny Larsen, a violent white supremacist whose family runs the county, thinks the Daughters of God kidnapped his teen-aged daughter–and will do anything to get her back.

At the top of a hill, an army of women wait for the end of days. In the town below, the Larsens plot to purify their county. Caught in the middle, Caitlin must decide which is more important–learning the truth about her past, or saving Mama Maya’s chosen daughters from the end of the world.

Review:

Sins of the Mother by August Norman is a clever mystery with a topical storyline. Although this newest release is the second mystery in the Caitlin Bergman series, it can be read as a standalone.

Caitlin Bergman is an investigative reporter  who is notified that her birth mother Maya Aronson is dead. At the request of the Coos Bay County, Oregon sheriff, Caitlin travels to the small town to identify her mother.  Unfortunately, they will have to rely on DNA testing to definitively answer the question of whether or not the deceased woman is Maya. But an unanticipated finding provides Caitlin with an unexpected glimpse into her mother’s life after she joined the Daughters of God cult back in the ’90s. At the time of her death, Maya still belonged to the cult.

As Caitlin decides to dig a little deeper into her mother’s life and the cult, she crosses paths with white supremacist Johnny Larsen. His daughter Promise is in the cult’s compound and he will go to any lengths to get her back.  With Johnny and his friends hunting for her, will Caitlin unearth the truth about Maya and the cult she called family?

Caitlin loved and revered her adoptive father, but she always had questions about her birth father. Her resentment towards Maya has not abated and she still wants to know her birth father’s identity. She is not at all happy she did not have the opportunity to confront Maya before her death. But her interest is piqued as she reads her mother’s diary and she wants to talk to the Gods of Daughter’s leader Desmond Pratten. With her protégé and friend Lakshimi Anjale’s assistance, will Caitlin find the answers she is seeking?

Sins of the Mother is an intriguing mystery with a strong lead protagonist. Caitlin is not one to back down and she is quite tenacious as gathers information about Maya and the Gods of Daughter. Caitlin disregards her own safety as she is confronted with a situation that is fraught with danger.  With a timely storyline,  August Norman brings this well-written and compelling mystery to an  unpredictable but satisfying conclusion. Old and new fans of the Caitlin Bergman series are sure to enjoy this newest installment.

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Filed under August Norman, Caitlin Bergman Series, Contemporary, Crooked Lane Books, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Sins of the Mother, Suspense

August 23, 2020 · 11:58 pm

Review: The Heatwave by Kate Riordan

Title: The Heatwave by Kate Riordan
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Historical ’90s, 70s, 80s Mystery, Suspense
Length: 330 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Under the scorching French sun, a tense homecoming unearths a long-buried family secret in this deliciously propulsive beach read of a mother’s greatest fear brought to life.

Elodie was beautiful. Elodie was smart. Elodie was manipulative. Elodie is dead.

When Sylvie Durand receives a letter calling her back to her crumbling family home in the South of France, she knows she has to go. In the middle of a sweltering 1990’s summer marked by unusual fires across the countryside, she returns to La Reverie with her youngest daughter Emma in tow, ignoring the deep sense of dread she feels for this place she’s long tried to forget.

As memories of the events that shattered their family a decade earlier threaten to come to the surface, Sylvie struggles to shield Emma from the truth of what really happened all those years ago. In every corner of the house, Sylvie can’t escape the specter of Elodie, her first child. Elodie, born amid the ’68 Paris riots with one blue eye and one brown, and mysteriously dead by fourteen. Elodie, who reminded the small village of one those Manson girls. Elodie who knew exactly how to get what she wanted. As the fires creep towards the villa, it’s clear to Sylvie that something isn’t quite right at La Reverie . . . And there is a much greater threat closer to home.

Rich in unforgettable characters, The Heatwave alternates between the past and present, grappling with what it means to love and fear a child in equal measure. With the lush landscape and nostalgia of a heady vacation read, Kate Riordan has woven a gripping page-turner with gorgeous prose that turns the idea of a summer novel on its head.

Review:

The Heatwave by Kate Riordan is an atmospheric domestic mystery set in the French countryside.

In 1993, Sylvie Durand and her thirteen year old daughter Emma return to the family estate in France. Sylvie has not been back since fleeing from the home ten years earlier.  She and her now ex-husband Greg were at one time blissfully happy but their marriage eroded due their oldest daughter Elodie’s disturbing behavior.  Emma has no memories of the older sister she idolizes and Sylvie fears her youngest daughter’s forgotten few  years in France will rise to the surface.  What is Sylvie keeping from Emma?

Chapters flashback to various times spanning from the late sixties to the early eighties.  After their marriage, Sylvie and Greg are excited about the impending birth of their first child. But over the years, Sylvie becomes more and more troubled by Elodie’s actions but Greg does believe there is anything to worry about. But Greg is gone more often than he is home and Sylvie is exhausted by Elodie’s exploits. And she is very careful to keep a close eye on Emma.

Narrated by Sylvie, The Heatwave is a slow burning (in more ways than one) mystery. Sylvie’s account of their years in France are harrowing and a heavy pall hangs over her return with Emma. With unexpected plot twists and plenty of tension,  Kate Riordan brings this mystery to an intriguing conclusion. I enjoyed and recommend this suspenseful mystery to readers of genre.

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Filed under Grand Central Publishing, Historical, Historical (60s), Historical (70s), Historical (80s), Historical (90s), Kate Riordan, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense, The Heatwave

August 19, 2020 · 11:57 pm

Review: The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

Title: The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Length: 288 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

At the age of twelve, Eve Black was the only member of her family to survive an encounter with serial attacker the Nothing Man. Now an adult, she is obsessed with identifying the man who destroyed her life.

Supermarket security guard Jim Doyle has just started reading The Nothing Man—the true-crime memoir Eve has written about her efforts to track down her family’s killer. As he turns each page, his rage grows. Because Jim’s not just interested in reading about the Nothing Man. He is the Nothing Man.

Jim soon begins to realize how dangerously close Eve is getting to the truth. He knows she won’t give up until she finds him. He has no choice but to stop her first

Review:

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard is a unique serial killer novel.

Eve Black is the lone survivor of a serial killer who murdered her parents and seven year old sister.  Before killing her family, the murderer dubbed “The Nothing Man” began attacking women in their homes, then escalated to murdering women and sometimes their partners. Eve’s family were The Nothing Man’s final victims and eighteen years later, she is hoping someone will provide the information needed capture him.

With the help of Garda Sergeant Ed Healy, Eve is able to sift though police documents, visit old crime scenes and talk to surviving victims and their families. Her novel  is an instant hit and Eve is invited to discuss her book on television and the radio and book signings.  Eve is still holding out hope The Nothing Man will finally be identified. But will anyone provide the details the Garda need to capture the serial killer?

Security guard Jim Doyle accidentally stumbles across Eve’s novel and he secretly reads the book to find out exactly what she knows. Furious at some passages and stunned by others, he relives the thrill and power he felt during his attacks. Jim continues to feel invincible and much smarter than the Garda but he is growing certain he needs to take care of loose ends. And after a chilling encounter, Jim sets a plan in motion that endangers Eve’s life.  Is The Nothing Man still capable of murder and evading the police?

Set in Ireland,  The Nothing Man is an suspenseful novel. Utilizing the book within a book plot device, the story seamlessly switches between the pages of Eve’s novel and Jim’s reaction to the pages he is reading.  The descriptions of his attacks remain vague but there are enough details to understand the exact nature of Jim’s violent acts. Eve is a sympathetic narrator of her own story and she is honest that her memories are patchy and incomplete. With clever plot twists, Catherine Ryan Howard brings this innovative novel to a surprisingly uplifting conclusion. I enjoyed and recommend this fresh take on the serial killer novel.

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Filed under Blackstone Publishing, Catherine Ryan Howard, Contemporary, Rated B, Review, Suspense, The Nothing Man

· 11:57 pm

Review: Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane

Title: Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Suspense
Length: 364 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

From USA Today bestselling author Pamela Crane comes an addictively readable domestic suspense novel…

Three best friends. Two unforgiveable sins. One dead body.

Mackenzie, Robin, and Lily have been inseparable forever, sharing life’s ups and downs and growing even closer as the years have gone by. They know everything about each other. Or so they believe.

Nothing could come between these three best friends . . .
Except for a betrayal.

Nothing could turn them against each other . . .
Except for a terrible past mistake.

Nothing could tear them apart . . .
Except for murder.

Review:

Little Deadly Secrets by Pamela Crane is an engrossing domestic mystery.

Mackenzie Fischer, Robin Thompson and Lily Santoro have been friends since college. Their close friendships have survived marriages, children and more serious life experiences. Amid infidelity, shocking allegations about two of their teenagers and murder, this bond is about to face its toughest challenge. Which, if any, friendships will survive in the aftermath of nine difficult days?

Mackenzie Fischer and husband Owen are college sweethearts who married not long after graduation. They are parents to fifteen year old Aria who is pretty close to perfect. Mackenzie and Aria are close which is why she is so shocked to find her daughter in an unexpected situation.  Instead of keeping this information from her volatile and abusive husband, Mackenzie struggles to contain his darkest impulses in the aftermath of her revelations.

Robin Thompson and her pediatrician husband Grant are the busy parents of four children ranging from eight months to eighteen years of age. Robin is a stay at home mom who is sleep deprived but still alert enough to become suspicious when Grant takes great care to hide texts and calls from her.  Her own secret pales in comparison to what she suspects her husband is up to.

Lily Santoro is a successful businesswoman who is outspoken. She is separated from her husband and although she misses him, she quickly puts herself back out there. Lily is not looking for another relationship but  she is currently obsessed with a man who should be off limits. However regretful she might be, Lily is not one to deny herself the man she wants.

Little Deadly Secrets is an intriguing domestic mystery with an imaginative plot and interesting characters. Although the pacing is a little uneven, the tension builds with each chapter. With stunning plot twists, Pamela Crane brings this clever mystery to an unpredictable conclusion. I enjoyed and recommend this domestic mystery to fans of the genre.

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Filed under Contemporary, Domestic Mystery, Little Deadly Secrets, Mystery, Pamela Crane, Rated B, Review, Suspense, William Morrow Paperbacks