A Whisper in the Dark by Linda CastilloLC has been a consistently good author for me and this book continues her track record.
John Merrick is a former cop still haunted by memories of the night he accidently killed a fellow officer. But my favorite character is the heroine, Julia Wainwright. She owns a bookstore (YES!) AND writes erotic romance (YES, YES!) and is determinedly independent. What's not to love? Julia's problem is that she writes under a pseudonym and is now receiving letters from a crazy stalker. Julia writes in secret because she doesn't want to embarrass her father, a well known religious leader. Her father hires John, a family friend, to beef up her security and protect her from the stalker. The action was fast paced and the suspense was intriguing but the hero was not much of a hero to me. He was tormented by nightmares of the accident and like many cops seemed to be handling his problem with booze. He was supposed to be protecting Julia but was getting drunk every night and left her unprotected. John works through a lot of internal demons but eventually I'm convinced they get their HEA, but just barely.
My grade: B
The Samms Agenda by Alison KentTSA is book #3 in the SG-5 series and was VERY short (117 pages) so I finished it in a few hours. I loved book #1 (The Bane Affair), and hated book #2 (The Shaughnessey Accord), so hestitated about reading this one. It read like a short story where the H/H have sex and fall in love way too quickly (within 24 hours I think). Very fast paced and HOT.
Katrina Flurry writes a gossip column and seems like a high maintenance airhead to Julian Samms at first. Julian is supposed to protect her from a hit man hired by her ex-boyfriend. I'm partial to road romances and the nonstop action kept me turning the pages.
My grade: B
Perils of the Heart by Jennifer AshleyThis book was a pleasant surprise. It has been languishing in my TBR for 3 years and KristieJ spotted it in the picture I posted below. She recommended it (along with some others) so I grabbed it to take along for the weekend. And I'm glad I did. I would describe POTH as a swashbuckling high seas adventure. Well actually, there weren't any buckles being swashed but it was great fun.
Evangeline finds herself on a merchant ship bound for Boston after discovering her fiance in bed with her maid and disowned by her stepfather and mother when she refuses to marry him. She starts out as a very naive young woman who does some pretty stupid things. Austin is the captain of the ship and a typical tortured hero. After a failed attempt at a mutiny and a seduction, Austin suspects Evangeline of being a spy. The action takes off and there was never a dull moment. I enjoyed seeing the gradual change in Evangeline to a courageous plucky heroine and Austin is a yummy hero. POTH was a fast paced romantic adventure laced with humor and some steamy love scenes. The cast of characters were well done especially Lord Rudolph. After checking Ashley's website I see that she plans to write his book eventually. POTH was Ashley's debut book and she shows some potential.
My grade: B+
4 comments:
I'm so glad you like POTH! It was a fun one wasn't it. And neat that she has a book planned for Lord Rudolph. I thought at the time he'd make a pretty decent hero but then she moved on to other stories (which in a way was refreshing in itself) but after a bit of an absence, it's nice to see Ms. Ashley plans on revisiting him.
And the Linda Castillo book sounds intiguing. I've read a few of hers and liked them. But not such a good hero you say? :(
For some reason I thought I had read all of Jennifer Ashley's pirate books, but I haven't read this one!! Off to search for it!
Hey all those books sound good, well I'm not too wild about the Hero in the first book, but I liked your reviews so I'm going to add these to my TBR list soon...
Kristie: Yes, thanks for the rec. I really like Rudy almost as much as the hero. The hero in AWITD really had problems dealing with the accident and should have asked for help and kept expecting him to do that but he never did. Would have made him a better hero and I'd have given it a better grade.
Marg: If you like JA's book you'll really like this one. Very fun.
Dylan: I enjoyed all of them but POTH was the best of the bunch.
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