The Empress Game by Rhonda Mason

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Space Opera



 I went into The Empress Game expecting a space opera. While this is being classified as one, and in some aspects it is, it didn't feel like one when I was reading it. It read more like an other world fantasy - one that wasn't all that original. However, I was immediately drawn into the story and I liked it even if it lacked some depth and originality.

The Empress Game is a tournament where the winner gets to be - well, the Empress. I did not think this to be a very plausible way for an Emperor to choose his Empress. The reason given for these games is because it's tradition and no one wants to change the way this is, even though our current Emperor has tried. Ok whatever. I was willing to overlook this.

Kayla our main character here, is recruited to impersonate Princess Isonde, who isn't a fighter, in the games through some sort of bio strip and holographic means. I'm still not sure how it worked. This is against the rules and they could all be put to death if anyone finds out. One thing I did like was the way the author described the different fighting styles and how our protagonist, who is described as tall and athletic, had to fight different opponents differently based on size and skill. This is loads better than the scenario where the tiny woman beats huge opponents in direct hand to hand combat. Unless the tiny woman has some special powers, it's completely implausible. So points to the author for making these fights seem more realistic.

Things are going along pretty smoothly for a while, but Kayla has her own secrets and they complicate things. Those secrets involve who she really is and her history, and they are tied in some ways to what the Emperor and Princess Isonde are trying to accomplish by making Isonde Empress. I won't say anything else about this because of spoilers.

I found the characters in this mostly likable, even if a few of them could have been more fleshed out. We get no real insight into Isonde as a person or the Emperor, Alton. I liked Kayla instantly and her young brother, Corinth, who she is so protective of. Malkor was also likable. I did feel like the romance could have been developed better. There were hints of feelings throughout most of the book, but then they suddenly end up coming across too strongly near the end. How did we get from developing feelings to love so quickly? The romance however, does not overpower the story. It is left in the background mostly until near the end, which was good.

I will probably read the next book when it comes out in August. I'm hoping for more of a space opera feel in the next one.


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Hounded by Kevin Hearne

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy




Atticus is a twenty-one centuries old druid who lives quietly undercover as an Arizona occult bookshop owner. His neighbors think he's 21 and I have to say that he comes off more as a 21 year old than someone who is centuries old. In this first book in the series a Celtic god who wants a sword that Atticus owns has finally tracked him down, shattering his peaceful Arizona existence.

I found the first 80 or so pages of Hounded to be rather dull. After that the story became more interesting and I began to enjoy it. I do see the comparison to Dresden but Atticus did not pull me into the story from the beginning the way Harry did. It took me a lot longer to care about Atticus, but eventually I liked him.

I appreciated the humor in the book and liked a couple of the secondary characters, namely Oberon and Granuaile. I do think this series has the potential to be really good in future books. I liked that the action scenes didn't go on and on. They made me worry about the characters without dragging on forever. I also liked that the book was relatively short.

Despite the first part that I found kind of dull, it felt like it got to the point without a lot of nothing happening in the middle. One thing that was rather tedious to me was all of the hard to pronounce names. When I read a book I want to know how the names are pronounced, but even after looking at the pronunciation I kept forgetting how to pronounce some of them because there were so many to remember. I may continue on with this series, but I'm not feeling the need to do so right now.



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Winterkill by Kate A. Boorman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia, Mystery



Emmeline knows she’s not supposed to explore the woods outside her settlement. The enemy that wiped out half her people lurks there, attacking at night and keeping them isolated in an unfamiliar land with merciless winters.

That part of the book description is what really made me want to read Winterkill. What was it that was lurking out there in the forbidden woods? The answer wasn't really all that surprising.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I got annoyed with Emmeline a few times because I thought she made some stupid choices and couldn't see who she should obviously have been able to trust and who she obviously should not have been able to trust. Also the romance was a bit too insta-love for me because there wasn't enough build up to it. And while I thought the characters were ok, none of them really stood out in any special way to me.

This book also reminded me a lot of another book series, The Frost Chronicles by Kate Avery Ellison. That one, while not perfect either, surprised me more and had a creepier feel to it so I liked it better over-all.

When I chose to read this for some reason I thought it was a stand-alone, but it is the first book in a trilogy. There were no cliff-hangers, and the main mystery is wrapped up. It looks like the next book explores new territory and while it advances the plot-line of what Emmeline found out in the woods, I'm happy to leave it where it is and consider it a stand-alone. If I had loved it more I would continue, but there was just something missing for me.






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The Kate Burkholder Series: Sworn to Silence, Pray for Silence, Breaking Silence

The story of how I originally became acquainted with this Amish mystery thriller series is that I watched a Lifetime movie called An Amish Murder a couple of years ago.





I enjoyed it more than I typically enjoy Lifetime movies. I'm usually more of a Hallmark Channel girl if I want fluff, but while watching this I discovered that I have a thing for Amish mysteries so I looked up some books with Amish mystery themes. Now I did not find this series right off the bat. I found another series first which I will post about at another time, and I thought it sounded similar to this movie. It wasn't until after I was reading that series that I discovered the Kate Burkholder books and was pleasantly surprised that I recognized that name. It turns out that Lifetime movie was based on the first book in this series. After reading the first three books in the series I feel like the actors that were chosen to play the roles in the TV movie were spot on. I especially liked the choices of Neve Campbell as Kate and Noam Jenkins as John Tomasetti, although it can be hard to tell if I'm just biased because I saw the movie first and actually like it better than the books. Here are my reviews of the first three books in the series...




Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Content: Strong Language, Implied Sex



A killer is preying on sacred ground....

In the sleepy rural town of Painters Mill, Ohio, the Amish and “English” residents have lived side by side for two centuries. But sixteen years ago, a series of brutal murders shattered the peaceful farming community. In the aftermath of the violence, the town was left with a sense of fragility, a loss of innocence. Kate Burkholder, a young Amish girl, survived the terror of the Slaughterhouse Killer but came away from its brutality with the realization that she no longer belonged with the Amish. 

I decided to read Sworn to Silence because I saw the TV movie that was based on it. Comparing the two I found the book to be much darker than the movie. While viewing the movie I could curl up on the sofa with a blanket and hot chocolate and enjoy. It wasn't a cozy mystery, not even close, but still it was relatively mild. The book is not that kind of book. There is a lot of detail written about the crime scenes and what happened to the victims in the book. Let's just say, it isn't pretty, and it certainly doesn't make you want to curl up with a hot chocolate.

I've said before that I love Amish mysteries, and for the most part I enjoyed this one. The language was a bit harsh for my liking (the C word was used a couple of times) and more frequent than I prefer in the books that I'm reading, but the story was very compelling even though I had already seen the movie and knew who the serial killer was. There were a couple of things that I thought a little implausible; like Tomasetti not buying Kate's story about who she thinks the killer is after she explains to him all the circumstantial evidence she has. I think he should have believed her right away. There were way too many coincidences there for that person not to be the killer.  [ Kate not thinking to ask Mona not to tell the Sheriff about any calls that might come in concerning the cold cases she was checking on. But I guess if she had done that the Sheriff would never have found out she was onto him.  (hide spoiler)]

I liked this book enough to want to read more in the series. There are some similarities in this series and the other Amish mystery series I've been reading, Serenity's Plain Secrets. This series is darker and more gritty than that one. I do believe I like Kate a little better than Serenity just because Kate seems more mature and she doesn't have the trust issues. But this series is not an easy read when it comes to the murders and the dark pasts of some of the characters. John Tomasetti in particular was hard to like in the beginning. And Kate blames herself too much for things that happened in her past that quite frankly were out of her control. Those issues aside I am interested in reading more.





Pray for Silence by Linda Castillo

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Content: Strong Language, Implied Sex


The Plank family moved from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to join the small Amish community of Painters Mill less than a year ago and seemed the model of the Plain Life—until on a cold October night, the entire family of seven was found slaughtered on their farm.

Pray for Silence is the second book in the Kate Burkholder series. I did not enjoy it as much as the first, for a few reasons.

Reason one being that I do not care for some of the tactics Kate and Tomasetti use in dealing with suspects. I know they are supposed to be flawed with personal demons, but it doesn't endear them to me.

Reason two is that Tomasetti annoys me with his attitude towards his superiors. Sure he's flawed and he went through some terrible things that left him in a psych ward for a while, but he chose to self-medicate through prescription drugs and alcohol and his utter refusal to face the consequences of his actions like he should annoy me. In book one I could understand his attitude a little more because he was still abusing drugs and alcohol and trying to hide it. Also his superiors didn't come off as particularly caring about his situation, but in this case the consequences were minor compared to what they could have been and it seemed like they took into consideration all that he had done in the previous case. I just thought he should have been happy that all he was getting was put on leave for a while.

Reason three is that there were some things I thought should have been done during the investigation that were never considered, like going around to area nightclubs with the victims photo and asking questions. Putting someone in the park to observe and see if the perpetrator was still hanging around there taking photos. Looking for the necklace the victim mentions in her diary. It could have had fingerprints on it, but it's never even thought of.

The mystery aspect of this book was good and it kept me guessing about who was involved for a while, but the motivation was easy to figure out. I did feel like there were some similarities to the first book[ especially Tomasetti rushing to save the day at the end. I had hoped Kate would be a bit smarter this time and not get herself in that sort of a situation  (hide spoiler)]. I'm still mildly interested in this series and I will probably eventually read the next book.




Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Content: Strong Language, Implied Sex


The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family. When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit. But in the course of a routine autopsy, the coroner discovers that one of the victims suffered a head wound before death—clearly, foul play was involved. But who would want to make orphans of the Slabaughs’ children? And is this murder somehow related to a recent string of shocking hate crimes against the Amish? 

Breaking Silence is the third book in the Kate Burkholder series. I did not like it as much as the previous installments, and to be honest, I don't think Kate Burkholder has any business being the Chief of Police. Kate's issues over her past are getting a little old at this point. She is drinking a lot and even driving while drunk now, which is unacceptable for anyone, but as Chief of Police it especially crosses a line. She is supposed to be an example of upholding the law for goodness sake! She might be a fictional character, but this actually made me really angry, especially because I know someone who was hit and severely injured by an off duty cop who was driving while drunk. I don't care if Tomasetti followed her home, she shouldn't have been behind the wheel. I have a hard time sympathizing with her after this.

Tomasetti on the other hand grew on me. He seems to have made huge strides in overcoming his demons and is now trying to help Kate who seems to be spiraling downward. There was some movement forward in the relationship between Kate and Tomasetti also, which I liked.

Other issues I had with the book were:

-The Amish kids were treated and described a lot younger than they were. The 10 and 12 year old seemed as though they were 3 and 6.

-Inaccurate behavior for an Amish kid.

-Some of the red herrings really didn't make sense. Especially one of them, it was like the author had the idea to include it to throw us off, but couldn't come up with a good reason for it to have happened. [ Mose had himself beaten up to look like a victim of one of the hate crimes? The explanation was too flimsy. There just wasn't enough to support the action or reasoning behind it. (hide spoiler)]

- Kate and Tomasetti once again angered me with the way they treat suspects. They really didn't have to arrest that poor guy right in front of his kids. They could have stepped out onto the porch with him first.

For some reason I'm still interested in this series. I really can't figure out why since I now dislike the main character quite a bit. Maybe it's because I want to see her overcome her demons and get to a better place. I don't know, but I will probably stick with the series a little longer.



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Heartstrikers Series: Nice Dragons Finish Last and One Good Dragon Deserves Another

It's back to fantasy today with the Heartstrikers series. I had previously read other books by Rachel Aaron and enjoyed them so adding this series to my to-read list was automatic. My daughters and I have listened to the first two books in the series, but we haven't gotten to book 3 yet simply because these are our road trip books and we haven't taken a road trip since last August. I'm really looking forward to our next trip, partly because we get to listen to this book! If you like dragons, nice ones and scheming ones, then you should give this series a try. It's I believe considered an adult series, but could be read by teens as well. That's one of the appeals of this series, it seems to be for everyone. I'm not sure how many books will be in this series, but as of now there are at least 5 planned.

Here are my thoughts on the first two books in the series:

 Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult                             
Genre: Urban Fantasy
                             Content: Clean


As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don’t cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ--a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit--Julius has one month to prove that he can be a ruthless dragon or kiss his true shape goodbye forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are considered monsters to be exterminated, he’s going to need some serious help to survive this test.

He only hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons...

Nice Dragons Finish Last was our audio book pick for our summer road trip and happily it lived up to our expectations. I initially thought it was a YA book, but it isn't. However it was still appropriate for my young teen daughter's to listen to. The narrator was great, and that's something that is so important when listening to an audio book. I've enjoyed all of Rachel Aaron's/Bach's books so far. My daughters enjoyed this one just as much as I did. One of them said she would give it 5 stars. We can't wait to listen to the next book in the series.




One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
                             Content: Clean


After barely escaping the machinations of his terrifying mother, two all knowing seers, and countless bloodthirsty siblings, the last thing Julius wants to see is another dragon. Unfortunately for him, the only thing more dangerous than being a useless Heartstriker is being a useful one...

My daughters and I were all very excited to listen to One Good Dragon Deserves Another on our holiday road trip. We loved the first book in the series and really enjoyed the narrator. We were not disappointed; this second book in the series is just as good as the first one was and once again the narrator does a great job. One great thing is that my daughter, who doesn't really care to read very much, really likes listening to these.

It was a nice treat to revisit Julius, Marcy, Ghost Cat (whom we learned some interesting things about), and all the other characters. We are all looking forward to book three.



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Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series: 16 Lighthouse Road, 204 Rosewood Lane, 311 Pelican Court, 44 Cranberry Point, 50 Harbor Street, 6 Ranier Drive

So I got sucked into reading Cedar Cove recently. This is not my normal genre. I typically don't go for chick lit or contemporary romance but I had watched the TV show a couple of years ago and I wanted to find out how the books were compared to it. I'm only halfway through the series and in all honesty I'm already starting to lose interest. I'm pretty sure it's because I took a break from reading the series instead of going directly into the next book. These are like a daytime soap only lighter and fluffier and they pull you in the same way. I also didn't like the last book as much as the others because I felt like one of the story lines was pointless. For the most part we only gloss the surface of the characters in these stories. If there had been more character development and fewer story lines crammed into each book I think the series would have been much better. Here are my impressions of the books I've read so far...

Content: Most of the books in this series include either implied sex or mild sex scenes, mostly between married couples.


16 Lighthouse Road by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance



Dear Reader,

You don't know me yet, but in a few hours that's going to change. I'm inviting you to my town of Cedar Cove because I want you to meet my family, friends and neighbors. Come hear their stories--maybe even their secrets! 

My secrets are pretty open. My marriage failed years ago, and I have a rather...difficult relationship with my daughter. Then there's my mother, Charlotte, who has plenty of opinions and is always willing to share them.

I'm a family court judge and she likes to drop in on my courtroom. Recently I was hearing a divorce petition. In Charlotte's view, Cecilia and Ian Randall hadn't tried hard enough to make their marriage work--and I agreed. I rendered my judgment: Divorce Denied.

You wouldn't believe the reaction! Thanks to an article by Jack Griffin, the editor of our local paper (a man I wouldn't mind seeing more of!), everyone's talking.

Cedar Cove--people love it and sometimes they leave it, but they never forget it!

Olivia Lockhart


I enjoyed the TV series Cedar Cove on Hallmark Channel and was disappointed when Hallmark decided not to continue with the series, so I decided to try reading the books to revisit the characters and see how they differed from the TV series. I had heard there were quite a few differences and so far, after finishing the first book in the series, there are some minor ones compared to the TV pilot.

I will say that I liked the TV series better, but maybe that's because it's what I knew first. It was a nice fluffy escape for me on Saturdays and I'll miss it. The book lacks some of the charm that the TV series had. I think the author could do a better job of describing the surroundings, but I think the main problem with the book is that there is too much telling and not enough showing. There are things that are glossed over, events that are mentioned, but then skipped, and the book jumps forward in time a week and sometimes a month.

As far as the characters go:

-I liked Olivia as much as I did in the TV series and I had no problem picturing Andie McDowell as I read the book.

-I found Jack to be a bit wittier in the book and I liked him better than the Jack on the TV series.

-Justine was hard to like for a while and I didn't think her relationship with Warren really made any sense. She was very different from the Justine I knew from the TV series. I definitely liked the TV Justine better.

-Warren was pretty much the same Warren; he just seemed a little older in the book…and impotent? I never pictured the Warren on TV as impotent. But seriously has he never heard of Viagra? Are there some men that nothing will help? I have no idea. I liked the scheming Warren on TV better.

-I loved Seth. He was better in the book than on the TV series, but I thought his romance with Justine kind of came out of nowhere and progressed too quickly.

-Cecelia annoyed me with her immaturity and the way she blamed Ian for things he couldn't help, and I wasn't any more interested in their story than I was when I watched the series. I got tired of the back and forth in her relationship with Ian. They should have just talked to each other! I did find that their relationship played out much better in the book, especially the emotions, which seemed glossed over in the TV pilot.

-I liked Ian and I mostly felt sorry for him because of the way Cecelia treated him, except for the part in the hospital, that seemed to come out of left field and I didn't really understand why he acted the way he did. I liked him better in the book.

-I thought Grace was likable except for the fact that I wanted her to stop being a door mat. I think she was pretty well portrayed in the TV series, and I liked her the same here. I was glad that she moved on in the end.

-Charlotte was the real surprise here. She wasn't this well developed in the TV series and I liked her personality better in the book. I wish she had stayed on the TV series longer.

One thing I am wondering is if Moon exists in any of the books. He ended up being a favorite character on the show.

Overall this was an ok escape-type read. It was nothing spectacular, just light fluff, but sometimes that's what I need. I will most likely be reading more of the series.




204 Rosewood Lane by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance



After finishing 16 Lighthouse Road I had put this series on hold for a while because I wasn't sure if I would ever want to revisit it. But a few days ago when I was between books I was feeling the need for something that was completely an escapist read, especially since I've got a Sanderson book going on audio right now. I saw these on my Kindle so I decided to give the series another try and I ended up completely engrossed this time.

Most of my same complaints about Macomber's writing are still there, like the amount of telling instead of showing, the way the books skip over weeks and months at a time, and the fact that too many of the characters are just too afraid to commit to the person they are interested in romantically. And also once again there is the couple who is having marital problems. They were not really that fun to read about. I just wanted to hit them both over the head! Also Maryellen, I can hardly stand her right now. But despite all of that I liked this book for what it is, an easy read about people in a small town. Some of them are endearing and others are annoying. I got my escapist read and I'm satisfied.

This book ended kind of abruptly with more than one story line unfinished and that annoyed me a little, but it also drew me right into the next book, which I'm sure the author did by design.




311 Pelican Court by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance



311 Pelican Court is the third installment of the Cedar Cove series. It starts out with the annoying divorced couple from the last book, but I will say that I ended up enjoying the way things turned out with that part of the story. The plot threads that were left hanging in book two were wrapped up here and I was glad of that. This series is light soap opera fare and surprisingly it's been the perfect counter to the heavy fantasy world of Brandon Sanderson that I've been listening to on audio. I can only handle one of those at a time.

While these are engrossing I can't bring myself to give them more than 3 stars because they are just complete fluff and I don't feel like the writing is on par with a 4 star book. Sometimes that doesn't bother me and I can enjoy a story enough to give high marks anyway, but with this series it does bother me. As I've said in my previous reviews, there is too much telling and not enough showing, and too much back and forth between characters who cannot make up their minds about how they feel, which is one of the things that makes this series resemble a soap. Despite all that I still do like this series and I've already started the fourth book in this series and am just as glued to it as I was to the previous ones.




44 Cranberry Point by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance




Several story lines were wrapped up in 44 Cranberry Point leaving just two remaining unresolved for the next book in the series. The ones I'm the most happy about are...

Grace[ She and Cliff finally put things behind them and renew their relationship  (hide spoiler)], mostly because that story line was way overdue for a resolution, even though Grace was a little like a stalker the way she kept sending the postcards and letters to Cliff after he broke things off with her. I broke up with someone once and they did that to me. It did not make me want to see them again, it had the opposite effect. Also wrapped up was the story of the man that died at the Thyme and Tide. We finally find out who killed him and it came as no surprise to me who did it.

The story I was least happy about was the one involving Cecelia and Ian. I was not crazy about revisiting them. Cecelia as a character really bothers me. The fact that she completely disregarded her husbands feelings on having another child bothered me greatly. This is not the way to a healthy marriage, even if this books wants to make it seem like it is.

The communication issues between all the couples featured in this book were annoying. Olivia treated Jack like a child instead of an intelligent man and it was disappointing that their relationship has become so unpleasant to read about so quickly.

That being said, I'll be starting the next book soon because I'm hooked.




50 Harbor Street by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance



50 Harbor Street is the fifth book in the Cedar Cove series. There are a lot of different story lines covered in this edition. More I think than in past ones. We visit Roy and Corrie and the story line with the mysterious postcards they have been getting is wrapped up in this book. We also visit Olivia and Jack, who I feel have become somewhat annoying as a couple, but they deal with something serious happening in this book. We visit Grace and Cliff, who are still on again off again, and I wanted to pull my hair out when they broke up yet again in this book! Thank goodness that story line is gets completely resolved in this book. Also we visit Maryellen and Jon and their frequent love scenes that are all written pretty much the same; Charlotte and Ben and his good for nothing son; Cecelia and Ian and the upcoming birth of their baby; Allison Cox and her troubled boyfriend; Rachel and the weird Nate/Bruce situation; Justine and Seth who deal with a devastating loss; Linnette and Cal; Gloria and Dr. Timmons; and even Warren Saget is back in this one. Whew! Did I miss anyone?

This series is definitely set up just like a daytime soap, but without the salaciousness. Sure people have sex, get pregnant, can't make up their minds about who they love, etc. But there is no cheating on spouses or anything like that, and they always end up doing the right thing in the end.

On another note, After reading this book I think the TV show based their version of Warren Saget on a combination of Ben's son David who isn't in the TV show at all, and the Warren in these books. David reminded me so much of the TV version of Warren with his manipulative scheming.

I also need to mention that I completely agree with another reviewer who pointed out how awful the clothing choices are in these books. I cringe every time there is a description of what Grace is wearing. Thinking back on how put together the character was on the TV show, it's hard to imagine 50 something Grace wearing such out of style clothing like the denham jumper with daisies and the turtleneck, which were even out of style when these books were written. And also the 20 something character Linnette putting on the sequined Christmas vest for her hot and sexy date. Spare us the ugly details next time Ms. Macomber!

Like the clothing, I end up ignoring a lot of little annoying things in these books. All the books in the Cedar Cove series have the same formula and so do every one of the relationships, which drives me crazy sometimes, yet for some reason I keep on reading them. I just need to know what happens to these characters, so of course I will be continuing on.




6 Rainier Drive by Debbie Macomber

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance



I liked 6 Ranier Drive about as much as the rest of the series so far. The negatives for me were that the book repeated itself unnecessarily...a lot. I got bored reading about Maryellen being on bed rest and Jon and his issues with his parents. This was the main part of the book that I found to be really repetitive and I'm glad those issues are resolved now. Also I was disappointed in the Cal/ Lynette story line and
thought it ended up being pretty pointless with Lynette acting pretty childish and Cal being a bit of a jerk. Also The Teri/Bobby whirlwind romance was a little weird. Bobby himself is just weird. And I thought Seth was really written out of character just to add drama to the story.

The positives were Olivia and Jack are finally pleasant to read about again, and some long running story lines were resolved. I'm halfway through the series now and still hanging in there...I think.



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Lighthearted Mysteries - Louisiana Longshot and 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy

Today I'm posting a couple of lighthearted mysteries I recently read. To be honest neither of them lived up to my expectations. I find this genre can be really hit or miss--well mostly miss. A lot of the time these books are supposed to be really funny, but end up just being silly. I did like Louisiana Longshot a lot more than 'Scuse me While I Kill This Guy. I am on a quest to find a lighthearted mystery that is really laugh out loud funny without being silly or implausible. I'm just not sure one like that exists.


Louisiana Longshot by Jana Deleon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Comedy



CIA Assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever--in Sinful, Louisiana.

I was looking for something lighthearted to read when I decided on Louisiana Longshot and it was indeed lighthearted. Though not as funny as I had hoped, it did have its laugh out loud moments.

CIA agent Fortune Redding's cover has been blown and a price has been put on her head so she is sent off the grid to the tiny town of Sinful Louisiana to lie low for a while. Fortune feels completely out of her element posing as an ex beauty queen who works as a librarian and is in town to take care of her "aunt's" estate. However, not long after she arrives the dog digs up a human bone. Mishap after mishap occurs when she agrees to help a couple of seemingly innocent little old ladies, who the locals refer to as the Geritol Mafia, uncover who murdered the man. Fortune isn't just completely out of her element pretending to be an ex beauty queen, she is also completely out of her element in the Louisiana swamp country.

"As soon as I finished that shower, it was time to break out my laptop and do some reading on Louisiana. It was stranger than any foreign country I’d ever been in."

Being from there I can attest to that!

While this was a fun diversion I wouldn't go into this one with real high expectations as there isn't too much thinking involved. My biggest complaint was that most of the time Fortune didn't seem like much of an assassin to me. There were moments where her skills as an assassin did shine, if briefly, only to be dumbed down for the sake of a few laughs as she makes one unwise decision after another. I also found it hard to believe that a CIA spy would really feel that out of her element anywhere. Aren't they trained to play just about any role and to fit in just about anywhere? That's what I would have thought anyway. It ended up coming off as unbelievable. I think the story would have been much better had she just really been the person she was pretending to be instead of an assassin in hiding.

On the other hand, the little old ladies were a hoot and I loved their backstory and the town of Sinful where little old ladies make moonshine and the Baptists and the Catholics have a war going on over banana pudding. I got a good chuckle out of the names of the churches, Sinful Baptist and Sinful Catholic. I looked up Sinful Louisiana to see if there really is such a town, but there is not.

This is the first book in a series and I may read more when I'm in the mood for something silly.



'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy by Leslie Langtry

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Romance, Comedy


YOU CAN'T PICK YOUR FAMILY... 

In 'Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy, the main character Virginia (Gin) Bombay belongs to a family of assassins. In the Bombay family there is no leaving the family business unless you want to die.

BUT YOU CAN PICK THEM OFF.

A family meeting is called and usually this only takes place if one of the family members is in big trouble, like they betrayed the family kind of trouble, and that usually means one of the other family members will be chosen to carry out the assassination. Yeah, real warm and fuzzy family we have here...

I went into this book hoping that it was truly laugh out loud funny, maybe like Mr. and Mrs. Smith was funny, especially after she meets a guy who claims to be a bodyguard, which is what she uses as her cover. There was so much potential there. He could have been secretly working against her or something, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

With the exception of one paragraph about Chia Pets with supersonic listening devices, this book didn't make me laugh at all. I know I was supposed to find the main character's inner monologue about the hot guy she had just started dating funny but to me it was just cheesy (and the insta-love thing ugh!). I was probably also supposed to laugh at the first names of the whole Bombay family in which every one of them is named after a place, like Uncle Lou whose name is Louisiana (who would do that to a guy?), or cousin Missi. That's short for Mississippi in case you couldn't figure that out. The whole name thing might have started out mildly amusing, but it got old and repetitive after a while, which resulted in me rolling my eyes every time a new relative was named.

However, my biggest problem with this book beyond it not being funny was the fact that the Bombays were all forced to start training to become assassins at the age of 5 and Gin's daughter is now turning 5. If there was anything funny about this book, it would have been trumped by this as I just couldn't stand the thought of training 5 year olds to be killers and there was no way the book could make this seem ok to me. Also Gin suddenly realizes her daughter is turning 5 and kind of freaks out about it because, oh my goodness she forgot her daughter was going to have to start her assassin training. I'm pretty sure that any real mother would have been thinking about that for years.

So overall this was a letdown and it seems I'm still looking for a really funny, lighthearted mystery. This is a series but I will not be continuing with it.



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