The Accused (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1441) by Jana DeLeon

(I purchased this book.)

Blurb:

USA TODAY bestselling author Jana DeLeon has a new trilogy—Mystere Parish: Family Inheritance.

After working as a cop in New Orleans, Carter Trahan is back in Mystere Parish, where his latest assignment seems like a joke: making sure Alaina LeBeau lives in her childhood home for two weeks to comply with her mother's will. But soon the sexy sheriff isn't laughing. Someone—or something—is stalking the beautiful defense lawyer, turning her once-grand mansion into a house of horrors.

But as he searches for the truth, Carter must face ghosts of his own past lurking in the bayou. Most troubling of all is his unprofessional attraction to the woman he's protecting, as Alaina's allure haunts him as no specter ever could….

Review:

Chills, goosebumps and a sexy bayou romance highlight this great mystery by Jana DeLeon.
Alaina conditionally inherits an incredible mansion in the swamps of Mystere Parish on the same day she resigns from her position at a prestigious Baton Rouge law firm.  She's fed up with the politics of her firm, and crippled by the guilt and self-doubt caused by her first criminal case.
Returning to the small-town of Calais and the mansion where she lived until the age of seven, Alaina must live in the house for 14 days, as must her two sisters, for them to inherit the house and her mother's estate.  The catch is that when her mother died, Alaina's rotten step-father sent the sisters to distant relatives and they've had no contact for the last 25 years.  But Alaina figures she's got nothing to lose and returning to her childhood home might set some ghosts to rest.  The opposite is true, however, and Alaina's arrival seems to trigger ghostly activity and long-lost memories.  Not all the activity is ghostly, though, as Alaina discovers signs that somebody has been in the house, and soon it appears that her life is in danger.
The local sheriff had been emotionally blackmailed into monitoring Alaina's daily presence to meet the terms of the will, and initially he thinks she's a cold city lawyer.  But as they spend time together and relize the danger is real, Alaina opens up to Carter and they discover a sizzling mutual attraction.
As strong as the story and characters are, however, the ending is weak and felt incomplete.  I don't want to spoil it for others so won't give away names, but the guilty party had a very tenuous motivation to kill Alaina, and it's never explained how he knew about the secret entrances to the mansion, which made it possible for him to sneak around.  And the paranormal element, so beautifully and deftly interwoven with the mystery (to the point where I got actual goosebumps reading the book), was barely mentioned at the end, although it played a significant part in the finale.

Check out my reviews of Jana's Mystere Parish series The Reckoning, The Vanishing and The Awakening.

And find my other reviews of Jana DeLeon's book by clicking on her label to the right of this screen - I am such a fan of her writing.
The author's website is at http://janadeleon.com/.

Find The Accused on Goodreads.

       

How Hard Can It Be? by Robyn Peterman

                                                     
(I won this book in a dirty recipe contest.  I'm very proud of that.)


BLURB:
What happens when an accountant decides to grab life by the horns and try something new? Apparently a pirate named Dave, a lot of pastel fleece, and blackmail—just to start with…
Visualize and succeed, Oprah said. I was sure as hell trying, even if my campaign to score a job as the local weather girl had ended in a restraining order. Okay, TV was not my strength. But a lack of talent has never stopped me before. Which is why I’ve embarked on a writing career. I mean, how hard can it be to come up with a sexy romance?
Leave it to me to wind up in a group of porno writing grannies who discuss sex toys and apple cobbler in the same breath. Also leave it to me to leak an outlandish plot idea to a bestselling author with the morals of a rabid squirrel. And only I could get arrested for a jewelry heist I didn’t commit—by a hunky cop whose handcuffs just might tempt me to sign up for a life of crime. Maybe I’ve found my calling after all…

REVIEW:
After reading (and reviewing HERE) the novella Pirate Dave and His Randy Adventures, I was pretty excited to read another book by the delightfully wacky Robyn Peterman.  How Hard Can It Be? is the novel that spawned/begat/birthed Pirate Dave. And it's a delightfully screwy trip through the world of Rena, a CPA who's decided a career-change is in order.  After trying to be the new local weather girl, and ending up with a restraining order for her troubles, Rena joins a romance author's writing group.  But she soon realizes that the seemingly benign and sweet-looking ladies are really a seething group of porno-writing grannies with a serious axe to grind.  And that axe is being sharpened for the freakishly deluded, surgically enhanced and slutty-outfit wearing Evangeline O'Hara, evil best-selling novelist extraordinaire.  Turns out Evangeline is blackmailing all the women in the group into ghost-writing her popular novels, and Rena is her next victim.  This is in spite of the fact that Rena's proposed plot is none other than the randy adventures of Pirate Dave.
Pretty soon Rena and the other ladies are spewing out the most ridiculous, bawdy, crappy writing of their lives in the hopes of ruining the creepy Evangeline.
Reading about Rena's poorly planned and ill-fated adventures is funny and entertaining.  Lutheran speed-dating, anyone?  Cat-house interior decorating ideas with a million-dollar budget? 
If you love tongue-in-cheek snark, surgically sarcastic skewering of hateful characters, a lovely romance blossoming in spite of Rena's nutty family, and some really lovely revenge, you'll love this book.  I sure did.



Click here for Robyn Peterman's website

Buy on Amazon.

Buy on Barnes and Noble.

 

Sharpshooter - Shadow Agents Series (Harlequin Intrigue #1437) by Cynthia Eden

(I purchased this book.)

Blurb:

Heart-pounding action meets smoldering desire in USA TODAY bestselling author Cynthia Eden's Shadow Agents miniseries!

Two years ago Gunner Ortez saved Sydney Sloan's life on a mission gone wrong. And ever since then, he's been watching her back. Now a hostage-rescue mission is about to blow the Elite Ops agents' lives apart once again.

Working side by side back in the jungles of Peru, the heat between Sydney and Gunner is hotter than ever—and so are the threats to their lives. With the danger escalating, Sydney knows Gunner is her only hope at successfully completing their assignment. But the ex-SEAL who arouses passion she'd only dreamed about also poses the greatest risk to the secret she carries in her heart… and in her belly.

Review:  I love these Harlequin Intrigues - they're a very satisfying blend of suspense, danger, and romance, and Sharpshooter is no exception.
The story opens with the ill-fated mission that left Gunner's half-brother and Sydney's fiance dead and Sydney and Gunner shot.  Gunner protects Sydney, who won't leave Slade behind until Gunner has to drag her out amid another jail of bullets.
Flash forward two years later and Sydney and Gunner are in love and still working for the same secret government agency.  But Gunner has never let his feelings show because of his guilt over loving his dead brother's fiancee and has rejected Sydney's advances.  When they finally admit their feelings to each other, their relationship is better than either could have hoped.  But before you know it they're back in the jungles of Peru, pursuing a lead that turns out to be the presumed-dead Slade.  The mystery of how Slade survived plays out against the knowledge that Sydney has been targeted for death, and all the evidence is pointing to Gunner.  What nobody knows is that she's pregnant with Gunner's baby.
I loved Gunner - he's a great hero.  He's a sniper, and a loner in his personal life as well.  He's loved Sydney since before she was engaged to his brother, but his loyalty to family and his unbreakable code of honor means he did the right thing (according to him) and never told her.  He'd die for Sydney, but he's determined she should be happy.  Gunner is not handsome, or a clever conversationalist, or a smooth operator.  He's scarred, says what he thinks, and is honest.  Sydney is lucky to have him and she knows it.  Their faith in each other, and the loyalty of their team, is rock-solid and lets them survive long enough to figure out the mystery that is Slade.
A rock-solid romantic suspense.


(My only quibble is that Sidney is supposed to be a former USAF Lieutenant Colonel who can fly anything.  Well, if she made the rank of LTC she's a lot older than the story implies.  Which would be good, I'd love a story about a late 30's/40s heroine.  But this isn't that story.  It's a minor complaint, but it yanked me out of an otherwise great story.)

Check out Sharpshooter on Goodreads.
Read more about Cynthia Eden at her website.

         

Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen

(I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for review consideration.)

Blurb:

A vivid and compelling novel about a woman who becomes entangled in an affair with Edgar Allan Poe—at the same time she becomes the unwilling confidante of his much-younger wife.

It is 1845, and Frances Osgood is desperately trying to make a living as a writer in New York; not an easy task for a woman—especially one with two children and a philandering portrait painter as her husband. As Frances tries to sell her work, she finds that editors are only interested in writing similar to that of the new renegade literary sensation Edgar Allan Poe, whose poem, “The Raven” has struck a public nerve.

She meets the handsome and mysterious Poe at a literary party, and the two have an immediate connection. Poe wants Frances to meet with his wife since she claims to be an admirer of her poems, and Frances is curious to see the woman whom Edgar married.

As Frances spends more and more time with the intriguing couple, her intense attraction for Edgar brings her into dangerous territory. And Mrs. Poe, who acts like an innocent child, is actually more manipulative and threatening than she appears. As Frances and Edgar’s passionate affair escalates, Frances must decide whether she can walk away before it’s too late...

Set amidst the fascinating world of New York’s literati, this smart and sexy novel offers a unique view into the life of one of history’s most unforgettable literary figures.

Review:  Published by Gallery Books, Mrs. Poe will be available October 1, 2013.


Darkly atmospheric, Mrs. Poe imagines an eerie twilight world of people who are destined to have sad endings.  Knowing the fate of these historical characters allows the reader to observe the fictional events and conversations with a sense of foreboding, which heightens the deliciously creepy vibe of this novel.

Mrs. Poe is a novel about consequences, and the sometimes severe effect one's decisions have on those around him.  This theme is evident from the beginning, when we meet Frances Osgood.  She's been abandoned by her philandering husband, left to deal with his debt collectors and the care of their two young daughters.  As a poet noted for her children's stories, she makes very little money, and has been taken in by her good friend Eliza Bartlett and her husband.  As a respectable woman in 1840s New York City, she is trapped by her marriage, by her husband's abandonment, by the misogynistic legal system and by the societal restrictions of her time.  After Samuel abandons her, leaving her completely destitute, disinherited from her family and without an income, Frances is still unable to divorce her husband, as that will make her a social pariah and she will lose her daughters, because they belong to the husband, regardless of his behavior. She is also unable to make a proper living, and is dependent on the charity of her friends. Nor can she become a mistress, as that will also make her a social outcast.  And in the tightly knit society of the time, connections are everything.
When she meets Edgar Allen Poe at the salon of Miss Lynch, they have an instant and intense connection.  She soon realizes that he is also trapped - by his celebrity, by his strange marriage to his much younger cousin, and by his own dark literary visions.  The poem The Raven has just been published and the public can't get enough of these "shivery" tales. 
The conversations throughout the novel, riddled with double entendres, witty verbal traps and innuendo, spark life into the personalities.  The name-dropping is incredibly extensive, and includes everyone from writers, publishers, philosophical leaders, businessmen and notables of the day.  The constant parade of historical persons throughout the book really created a sense of time and place for me, while it also highlighted the kind of world Frances and Edgar moved in.

As Frances and Edgar carry on their love affair, Frances begins to realize something is a bit "off" about Mrs. Poe.  By turns childlike, manipulative, devoted and  attention-starved, Mrs. Poe has also been deserted by her husband, albeit emotionally, and Frances feels a guilt-induced kindred with the younger woman.  When suspicious accidents start to occur around Mrs. Poe, Frances begins to realize something more sinister is at work and tries to break off with Edgar Poe.

Compelling and fascinating, this novel achieves its own "shivery" status as the love affair and mystery of Mrs. Poe unfolds. Highly recommended.


Buy Mrs. Poe at Barnes & Noble
Buy Mrs. Poe at Amazon


Check out the author's website

Check out Mrs. Poe on Goodreads


About the Author:
Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the fifth girl in a family of seven children. She learned to love history combined with traveling while visiting historic sites across the U.S. on annual family camping trips. She attended Indiana University in Bloomington and Fort Wayne, and took writing classes with Tom McHaney at Georgia State. She wrote children’s books as her three daughters were growing up, while working in a pediatric office and later, at Emory University on the editorial staff of a psychoanalytic journal. While her camping expeditions across the States have become fact-finding missions across Europe, she still loves digging into the past. She does not miss, however, sleeping in musty sleeping bags. Or eating canned fruit cocktail. She now lives in Atlanta with her husband, their dog, and two unscrupulous cats.
Lynn Cullen is the author of The Creation of Eve, named among the best fiction books of 2010 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and as an April 2010 Indie Next selection. She is also the author of numerous award-winning books for children, including the young adult novel I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter, which was a 2007 Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection, and an ALA Best Book of 2008. Her novel, Reign of Madness, about Juana the Mad, daughter of the Spanish Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, was chosen as a 2011 Best of the South selection by the Atlanta Journal Constitution and was a 2012 Townsend Prize finalist. Her newest novel, MRS. POE, examines the fall of Edgar Allan Poe through the eyes of poet Francis Osgood.

       

Night Train To Memphis (Vicky Bliss #5) by Elizabeth Peters

(I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for review consideration.)

Blurb:
An assistant curator of Munich's National Museum, Vicky Bliss is no expert on Egypt, but she does have a Ph.D. in solving crimes. So when an intelligence agency offers her a luxury Nile cruise if she'll help solve a murder and stop a heist of Egyptian antiquities, all 5'11" of her takes the plunge. Vicky suspects the authorities really want her to lead them to her missing lover, the art thief and master of disguises she knows only as "Sir John Smythe." And right in the shadow of the Sphinx she spots him. . . with his new flame. Vicky is so furious at this romantic stab-in-the-back, not to mention the sudden arrival of her meddling boss, Herr Dr. Schmidt, that she may overlook a danger as old as the pharaohs and as unchanging. . . a criminal who hides behind a mask of charm while moving in for the kill.

When Vicky Bliss, assistant curator of the National Museum in Munich, learns of a plot to rob the treasure-filled Cairo Museum, she joins a cruise up the Nile in order to prevent the crime and identify the thief, master of disguise and her occasional lover, Sir John Smythe. First, she must deal with the fury of seeing Sir John with his new flame. 

Review:

Originally published in 1994, Night Train To Memphis follows the sleuthing adventures of Vicky Bliss, an assistant curator and not-so-amateur crime-solver.  On this outing she has been asked by the authorities to participate in a three week Egyptian cruise for the extremely wealthy, in order to identify her sometime lover who also happens to be an elusive master thief.

Night Train To Memphis is classic Elizabeth Peters, with its elegant and literate narrative, and a slightly old-fashioned feel due to the complete lack of current pop culture references (the musical references are classical and American folk and bluegrass) and rather stodgy assortment of characters who all behave in a rather formal manner.  But these factors create a cozy bubble of a setting, one that is timeless, refined and classic. I feel like I should be sipping tea or a glass of wine while reading.  

Vicky is an interesting character, in that she can be rather unsympathetic.  She is aloof, and quite critical of her fellow passengers, even her friend and boss, Schmidt, who is as good-natured as they come.  All characteristics she shares with her lover John, whose arrogance and perpetual demeanor of amused contempt make him quite unlikeable as well.  Interesting for the heroine of a book. 

Soon Vicky learns of the murder of her porter, Ali, right after somebody tries to bean her with a flowerpot.
As the cruise carries on, Vicky gets to know the passengers better and realizes the danger she's in as she figures out that John is either involved with some really bad partners, or there's another element at play.  Either way she's targeted and vulnerable, and doesn't know who she can trust.  Her former lover John is behaving cruelly and oddly towards her and his new young wife, and nothing is going as planned.
Soon the cheerful Schmidt shows up, but is blessedly in the dark about the dangerous situation, and Vicky's stress increases as she worries about getting him out of the situation.

As the players and the plot are revealed, the novel turns into a desperate race of survival as the identity of enemies and allies become clear.  Truly an exciting second half!  The mystery of the complicated plot was solved, and the characters became much more compelling as their true motives were revealed.

Although this is the fifth book in this series, I had no trouble reading it as a standalone novel.  The author made discreet but frequent references to Vicky and John's history and I never felt lost.

Elizabeth Peters also writes as Barbara Mertz and Barbara Michaels.
Check out the author's website HERE.

Writing as Elizabeth Peters:
Amelia Peabody Series (19 books)
Jacqueline Kirby Series (4 books)
Vicky Bliss Series  (6 books)




         

Ruthless (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1440) by HelenKay Dimon

(I purchased this book.)

Blurb:

What happens when the only man who can protect you is also your best customer? Find out in HelenKay Dimon's Corcoran Team series.

Kelsey Moore looked forward to her daily visit from Paxton Weeks. Watching the broad-shouldered, quiet man led to some wonderful daydreams. But for real? That was downright dangerous….

It was no mistake Paxton visited Kelsey's shop every morning. This was his first mission back from injury and he had something to prove: stake out the shop for a wanted man and take him in. But when two robbers hold Kelsey at gunpoint, Paxton blows his cover to save her life—and adds bodyguard to his list of duties. Now, with his secret out in the open—and her life in danger—the days have just become far from routine….

Review:
I ordered this book as soon as it was available and am not disappointed.  HelenKay Dimon has created a great series with the Corcoran Team, and this installment featuring Pax and Kelsey had me staying up late reading.
Ruthless opens with an intense kidnap attempt on Kelsey, a young coffeeshop owner, and the tension and suspense never let up from there.  Paxton Weeks, younger brother to Davis Weeks (from Fearless) has been assigned the seemingly easy task of watching Kelsey while he recovers from a gunshot wound to his leg.  Kelsey may or may not be targeted by bad guys who are after her estranged half-brother Sean.  Turns out Sean has stolen some very valuable government computer codes, and his corrupt boss is not above using Kelsey to find Sean and those codes.  But is he also willing to kill?
When two bad guys in suits show up at the coffee shop and try to kidnap Kelsey, she fights back but is saved by the hunky Pax.  Although Pax has been coming to the coffee shop for weeks, and he and Kelsey are very attracted to each other, she doesn't trust him at first.  He finally has to manhandle her into the car to get her back to the Corcoran Team headquarters to keep her safe.  Once there Kelsey finally gets some answers and starts to believe Pax is one of the good guys.
One of the best things about Ruthless was how believable Kelsey was as the heroine.  She's had a rough time and doesn't trust easily.  She's smart and wary, and not one to let these alpha men steamroller her into doing what they want.  Her actions under fire and stress are that of a tough, smart woman who's not accustomed to people trying to shoot her.  She and Pax have an intense attraction that's been building for weeks, and the incredibly stressful situation they're now in has set the relationship speed to overdrive, as they're forced to trust each other.
Pax is a great hero.  Coming out of his big brother's shadow, he hates being limited to admin duty but fell for Kelsey pretty quickly while on observation duty at her coffee shop.  Once she's attacked his professional and personal protective instincts went into overdrive, and he quickly gains respect for her in addition to basic attraction.  Pax is smart, capable, and tough, with the same messed up childhood as Davis, creating just the right amount of vulnerability in these strong alpha males.
Add in a steady amount of action, a really good mystery, and a small but well-written cast of supporting characters, and Ruthless is one excellent read.

Now, Ms. Dimon, when will we find out what's going on with Connor's mysteriously absent wife?


Read my review of Fearless HERE.
Check out the author's website HERE.

Check out Ruthless on Goodreads.


       

Darkhouse (Experiment in Terror #1) by Karina Halle

 




(I downloaded this for free.)
BLURB:
With all the vampire, werewolf and faerie books out there, it's easy to become numb to all things supernatural. The antidote? Darkhouse introduces two real and unforgettable characters, Perry Palomino & Dex Foray, amateur ghost hunters who are "attractive, relatable and oddly heroic," "flawed but loveable," "slightly crazy" and just the most endearing pair to ever tackle the paranormal...just don't call them normal. Darkhouse is a thrilling and sexy new take on concepts like Supernatural and The X-Files, bringing a breath of fresh air to a genre that has been inundated with the dead.

~~~

"There's always been some­thing a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she's been deal­ing with a quarter-life cri­sis and post-college syn­drome like any other twen­tysome­thing, she's still not what you would call "ordi­nary." For one thing, there's her past which she likes to pre­tend never hap­pened, and then there's the fact that she sees ghosts. Luck­ily for her, that all comes in handy when she stum­bles across Dex Foray, an eccen­tric pro­ducer for an upcom­ing web­cast on ghost hunters. Even though the show's bud­get is non-existent and Dex him­self is a mad­den­ing enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threat­ens her life and seduces her with a sense of impor­tance. Her uncle's haunted light­house pro­vides the per­fect cat­a­lyst and back­drop for a hor­rific mys­tery that unrav­els the threads of Perry's frag­ile san­ity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dan­ger­ous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems."

REVIEW:
Released in May 2011, Darkhouse is the first book in an extensive series.  It's a New Adult/Horror hybrid, and a moody, compelling read. 
Perry is a struggling twenty-something working as a poorly-paid receptionist in an advertising agency, even though she has a college degree in advertising.  She hates her life of corporate drudgery, and keeps one foot in her rebel teen years by wearing Doc Martens and vintage t-shirts with her skirts.  She still lives at home,  drives a scooter, and is now plagued by nightmares so realistic they are affecting her days.  her tension builds until one day she sees a ghost in the lobby of her building.  Soon after she and her family travel to her uncle's for the weekend on the Oregon coast, and she is inexplicably drawn to the deserted lighthouse on her uncle's property.  Inside she finds terror, an evil presence, and an amateur ghost hunter named Dex.  Dex works for an internet web-show company, and is trying to get footage for a new series.
Dex is a heavily-drawn enigma.  He's thirty-two years old, and his behavior is a constant clash of nice Dex/weird Dex.  His constantly alternating, and manipulative behavior is bizarre and annoying.  Perry is drawn to Dex, but can't figure him out and has enough self-respect to not throw herself at him, finding him hypocritical and an enigma.  But she agrees to return to the lighthouse to film again, because she doesn't want an ordinary nine-to-five life, and this is her chance at something different.
Perry herself is very realistic.  She's insecure about her personal appearance but confident enough to have self-respect.  She has some self-awareness, but minimal introspection.  When she was younger she had many imaginary friends, but her parents were so alarmed they had her see a psychiatrist, and Perry has almost no memories of those years.
As Perry and Dex investigate the lighthouse again, the spooky events escalate to actual dangerous ones, and and mysterious links are discovered between Dex, Perry, and the spooky ghost lady.  Although Dex and Perry survive the investigation (barely), the book ends with them learning a great deal about each other, creating more questions than are answered and setting up the ghost-hunting duo for the next book.
Moody, creepy, and mysterious, Darkhouse walks the line between giving the reader enough information to compulsively keep going, while simultaneously keeping its secrets.


Click here for the Darkhouse Amazon page.

Click here for the Darkhouse Goodreads page.




      

About the Author:

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).
Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently splits her time between her apartment in downtown Vancouver and her sailboat, where a book and a bottle of wine are always at hand.
Darkhouse is her first novel and the first one in the Experiment in Terror Series. Things only get better from here on in.

Midnight Secrets (The Wildefire Series #1) by Ella Grace

( I received this for free at a convention.)

Blurb:
AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT, THE HEAT BEGINS

On a hot southern night, with a storm on the horizon, a family is shattered. Three beautiful daughters—Savannah, Samantha, and Sabrina Wilde—go on with their lives, each significantly changed, as they bear the memory of the murder-suicide that killed their parents. For years, they have stayed away from Midnight, Alabama. Until Midnight calls them home.

Savannah is the first one back, when a grueling case in Nashville leads the young prosecutor to seek shelter in the quiet of the once grand Wilde mansion. But when she finds letters casting doubt on her family’s dark, shameful past, she realizes that peace in Midnight is a shallow façade and sinister secrets lurk beneath the surface. Zach Tanner, once the town’s bad boy, is now the new police chief and still has a wild hold over her. Zach can feel it, too, but he hurt Savannah once. As teenagers, they broke every rule together. Now it’s his job to keep her safe, even though he isn’t sure who her enemies are—or which ones might be his own

Review:
Midnight Secrets was suspenseful, gritty and intense, and so sexy it had me on the edge of my seat. Savannah and Zach are well-developed and so real, I feel like I know them and I really cared about them.  Savannah has returned to Midnight after a ten year absence, forced to hide in her hometown after her Nashville prosecutor job endangers her life, and Zach, who is now Midnight's police chief, must gradually earn back Savannah's trust after his apparent betrayal ten years ago, the morning he left to join the military. Savannah has been dreading seeing Zach again, knowing that in her small hometown they'll run into each other.   When they see each other their intense attraction is still alive and well and it's obvious to all that they belong with each other.  Savannah's aunt and the town's mayor and his wife are soon match-making like crazy, trying to get these two back together.
But then, about 2/3 of the way in, when Zach has earned back Savannah's trust and everything is going smoothly and they are having wild, fantastic monkey sex, the author throws in a blatant plot device to create artificial-seeming tension.  Savannah has not told Zach that she is investigating her parent's deaths after reading her grandfather's old letters mentioning his suspicions over the official murder-suicide ruling.  She has been reading old newspaper reports and asking the older folks in town what they remember for old gossip, and wanted to be sure the deaths looked hinky before confiding in Zach.  But Zach finds out she's investigating her parent's deaths and FREAKS out, declaring that she obviously doesn't trust him and they'll never have a relationship again until she does. His behavior is so extreme, childish and unreasonable it comes off as contrived and awkward.  Savannah's behavior at this point in no way equals Zach's from ten years ago.  Apples and oranges.  Reading this felt  awkward and unnatural - I literally stopped reading and said "WTF?".  Up until this point I absolutely loved this book, and I did finish it, but I felt disappointed, because the rest of the novel was the perfect romantic suspense.  However, the writing was so good I will definitely read Midnight Lies and check out other books by the author (Ella Grace is a pseudonym for Christy Reece.)




Buy at Barnes & Noble
Buy at Amazon
Check out at Goodreads

Check out the author's website HERE.


The 2nd book in the series is Midnight Lies (Samantha's story) and will be released on September 24, 2103.

       

Private Deception by Tamara Ward (Jade O'Reilly #1)

(I purchased this book.)

Back of the Book Blurb:
Sassy private investigator Jade O’Reilly thinks she’s hit rock bottom when, in the midst of obtaining photos of a cheating spouse in a second-story apartment, she falls off a swing set to the feet of an attractive mystery man. But the next day, when Jade discovers the man’s identity—he’s a detective with the local Sweetwater, NC, police—she learns that the cheating spouse was murdered and Jade herself is a suspect. Rock bottom just got a new definition.

Private Deception is the first novel in the Jade O’Reilly Mystery series by Amazon Bestselling Mystery and Romantic Suspense Author Tamara Ward. The novel’s prequel, the short story Jade O’Reilly and the Ice Queen, joins Jade O’Reilly and the Mysterious Musician, a short story that follows Jade on an adventure after this novel. In all three, action and light romance combine with engaging characters and humor for page-turning whodunits set in the fictional coastal town of Sweetwater, NC.

Review:
Private Investigator Jade O'Reilly is a pretty tough young woman with a bunch of older brothers. This was self-published in July of 2012 and is a really well-written mystery with humor, a realistically sexy potential romance, and interesting characters.
But the best aspect of Private Deception is Jade herself.  The author has created a complicated, emotionally wounded young woman who is trying her best to make a life for herself.  She is smart, funny, a little nuts, and completely likeable.  Jade is navigating the tricky waters of adulthood, as she has recently broken up with her fiance, a really great guy and her brother's best friend.  The entire town thinks she should stay with him,but Jade doesn't love him, she just really likes him.  Trying to stay true to herself against her brothers, her ex-fiance and her hometown puts incredible pressure on her, but she hangs tough.  The fact that nobody approves of her chosen profession frustrates her as well, but Jade is strong (and stubborn) enough to stick to her path.  Along the way she has adventures and misadventures, starts dating the sexy new cop in town, and begins to put a painful family past behind her.
Really enjoyable story - I'm looking forward to reading the author's other books.



Click here for more information about Tamara Ward.

Amazon Bestselling Mystery Author Tamara Ward’s storylines and characters combine for fun, fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down reads. Her published mystery novels include Private Deception, Storm Surge, and Silver Flashing. In her mysteries, you’ll find characters who keep readers hooked, strong-willed women sleuths, and a sprinkling of humor.

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