Like most things in my life, my reading journey proceeds in a convoluted and undirected fashion. The reading cut ends up being about 75% romance, 25% everything else. Almost all of the books will have been supplied by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Friday, April 2, 2021
Last Beautiful Girl by Samantha Chase
Sunday, March 7, 2021
Feel the Burn by G.A. Aiken
Monday, March 1, 2021
Cubicles That Make You Envy the Dead by Scott Adams
Not much has changed. All of the characters are fairly one-dimensional. Nobody likes their job. Management is incompetent. Not much, other than the technology has changed.
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Samantha Chase
Hunter Jones has a little boy but the boy's mother has been pulling away more and more, taking less and less care of the child. Now she's disappeared completely and he's not sure what to do. He's definitely not prepared to have some unknown woman yelling at him.
Violet Drake grew up with an unreliable parent before being stuck into foster care. She has no use for people who have children but can't take care of them. Normally a travel writer, Violet is just in Magnolia Sound to help her super-pregnant friend until her husband comes back on leave. Violet is definitely not expecting to fall in love twice. Once with Hunter and once with his son.
There were definitely too many misunderstandings at the end of the story.
This book came out August 10th, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own
Friday, February 5, 2021
Lucky Ride by Deborah Coonts
I keep going back and forth on finishing this series. There are only three more books after this one but the fluff is really starting to outweigh the parts that I enjoy. This is starting to feel like the same ol' same ol' with Lucky having a case, being stonewalled by her parents, and having to blunder around until a solution presents itself. I still enjoyed parts of the book, mostly Lucky herself who, excepting around her parent, is a shining example of a character who excels competency-porn in the confines of her work life.
Three stars
Follows Luck the Hard Way
Followed by Lucky Score
This book came out June 21st, 2017
Borrowed as an ebook from Hoopla
Opinions are my own
Saturday, January 9, 2021
A Hundred Thousand Dragons by Dolores Gordon-Smith
This book just didn't keep my attention like some of the others have. It was a nice enough book in the series but nothing spectacular. When I reread it as an audiobook, it definitely improved.
Three stars
This book came out May 27th, 2010
Follows As if by Magic
Followed by Off the Record
Borrowed from Hoopla and Audible Premium Plus
Opinions are my own
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
My Kingdom for a Hearse by Craig Rice
Malone is trying to solve the murder and he's getting help from both Helene and Jake but neither thinks the other is involved so he's having to keep that a secret as well while more and more body parts are showing up.
A fun story. The end seemed to come a bit out of nowhere and was pretty convoluted but that is not unusual for a Malone story.
Heard about this one on the Classic Mysteries podcast.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
The Origin of Evil by Ellery Queen
The mystery ends up being incredibly convoluted and Ellery comes off as a major asshole (he lusts after Delia who does nothing to encourage him then gets pissed off when he finds out that she’s sleeping with the secretary - why? He wanted to sleep with her too. Boo, Ellery, boo).
I heard about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast.
Two stars
This book came out 1951
Borrowed from the library
Opinions are my own
Thursday, September 3, 2020
Skeleton Key by Lenore Glen Offord
Georgine is a widowed mother who is trying to make ends meet during the war by selling magazines. But she’s not very good at it. So when she stumbles into a cul-de-sac of Gettry and one of the home owners mistakes her for a secretary that is supposed to type copies of his scientific treaties. When he mentions the person will get $100, Georgine jumps at the chance. Her daughter is on vacation with family friends so she has the time and this money will get her ahead. But the more Georgine gets involved in the neighborhood, the more she realizes that things aren’t right and that the sense of wrongness really emanates from one man, the local air warden.
During a potential air raid, the man is killed by a supposedly run away Jeep. But Georgine has her suspicions and goes to the police with them. While the inspector seems suspicious, he also at least listens. So does Todd MckKay, the odd man down the street.I should have been thinking more clearly about this book which I first heard about on the Classic Mysteries podcast. It was written in 1943 and definitely contains the casual racism of the day which, today, can pull a reader out of the story pretty quickly. I did mostly like the story and the mystery was fairly clued but Georgine was a little too Mary Sue for me and Todd pretty glib. The characterizations of the other folks in the book was often broad and stereotypical.
Friday, June 5, 2020
And Then One Day by Samantha Chase
Dean Jones didn't know that Courtney thought of him as anything other than a pseudo-brother. But when she lays one on him, he's all in. Her plans to leave town are stalled when her car runs through some water and her trailer comes unhitched. They're further stalled when Dean's sister asks him to take his time fixing the vehicle so Courtney will stay in town longer...
This was fast, fun, and fluffy. Not a lot of depth but nothing to slow the read.
Three stars
Follows In Case You Didn't Know
This book came out January 28th, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from the library
Opinions are my own