Category: New Reviews

I am honored to have enlisted the help of my dear friend, Selene, for this review. We originally met, years ago, from our mutual love of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and have become closer than I could have ever imagined. I am so lucky to have her in my life as a friend and now, as a guest reviewer. If you, like me, are as big a fan of the Brotherhood, I know you will enjoy this review as much as have. Thank you, Selene….I heart you big time sistermine! *mild spoiler below*

Synopsis:

Qhuinn, son of no one, is used to being on his own. Disavowed from his bloodline, shunned by the aristocracy, he has finally found an identity as one of the most brutal fighters in the war against the Lessening Society. But his life is not complete. Even as the prospect of having a family of his own seems to be within reach, he is empty on the inside, his heart given to another….
Blay, after years of unrequited love, has moved on from his feelings for Qhuinn. And it’s about time: The male has found his perfect match in a Chosen female, and they are going to have a young—just as Qhuinn has always wanted for himself. It’s hard to see the new couple together, but building your life around a pipe dream is just a heartbreak waiting to happen. As he’s learned firsthand.

Fate seems to have taken these vampire soldiers in different directions… but as the battle over the race’s throne intensifies, and new players on the scene in Caldwell create mortal danger for the Brotherhood, Qhuinn finally learns the true definition of courage, and two hearts who are meant to be together… finally become one.

Selene’s Review:

Amazing.

UH-MAZING!!!!!!!!

It’s been a really long time since I’ve read a book twice in succession and it is no surprise that it was this one. Lover At Last delivered far beyond its promises. Everything a novel requires to make it a complete success was present here – drama, comedy, action, and, above all, romance. It was extremely rare that my attention ever strayed from the story while reading J.R. Ward’s latest and, in my opinion, one of the greatest.

Blaylock and Qhuinn, the main characters, have been tip-toeing around their feelings for each other for some years now. This has led the audience to much heartbreak and an overwhelming feeling of frustration, something that’s all too familiar to this pair… up until now.

The scorch factor between these two was off the charts! And that was before they started their physical relationship. Their history of repressed feelings created such a thick atmosphere around them – a feeling that the reader will unequivocally share. But that first time when they came together… WOW. Ward did such a good job with their first love scene. It was exactly how you would expect two very male characters with a long history, tremendous attraction, and even stronger love for each other to come together; it was hot, sweet, and incredibly touching. It became very clear towards the end of this book that the only thing keeping them apart was Qhuinn’s dishonesty and shame with himself. It took Blay to show him that in order for them to finally come together. As far as the proposal scene goes, I simply have no words. There was crying involved. Very ugly, went through a whole box of Kleenex, swelling of the eyes for days kind of crying. But they were definitely happy tears! The ending could not have been more perfect for the couple. And the feeding scene with Selena? FORGET IT. That sequence has been bookmarked many times over by yours truly.

Other stories were continued and new characters introduced in Lover At Last. And in traditional J.R. Ward-style, they raised many more questions and peaked quite a bit of interest. The Shadow brothers Trez and iAm are now living at the Brotherhood compound. And with Trez’s growing attraction to the Chosen Selena and the little problem of him already being promised to another, it should provide a great story in the future. Xcor and Layla’s story continues and it makes me wonder how and if these two will ever be together. Such a sad situation for them. And lastly, there is Assail and his love interest Sola (Marisol). These two are already lighting up the pages with their heat and I’m very much looking forward to their story.

Overall, the book was everything I wanted. The only thing I thought was missing was the interaction between Blay and Qhuinn and John Matthew. I may be a little biased as John is my favorite character of the series, but these three have been as tight as friends get since they were all introduced and I would have like to see his reaction to his two best friends finally getting together and Qhuinn being inducted into the Brotherhood (which was also a scene that caused some ugly crying). Perhaps the author will have more of this in the future. One can only hope!

Five Loves

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Synopsis:

Shades of the past

Detective Simon Granger has devoted his life to solving high-risk cases, and he’s vowed never again to get involved with a woman whose work is equally as dangerous. But when the Special Investigations Group teams him with a beautiful psychiatrist, his resolve is shattered by the tense and emotionally charged partnership….

Shades of intrigue

Determined to outrun the grief over her sister’s death, Dr. Nina Whitaker reluctantly agrees to use her training to help the police. Despite Detective Granger’s disdain for her profession, she believes she can change his mind. But then a grieving father begins a deadly game of revenge, threatening Nina’s life, challenging her beliefs, and drawing Nina and Simon together in an explosive endgame of intrigue…and unstoppable passion.

Shades of passion…

My Review:

This is the third book in Virna DePaul’s SIG (Special Investigations Group) series and the very first one I have read.  I am happy to say that not reading the first two in the series didn’t take away from my enjoyment in reading this third installment.

Dr. Nina Whitaker is a psychiatrist who relocated to San Francisco to rebuild her life after leaving her hometown, and tragedy, behind.  She had been responsible for implementing a successful program with law enforcement in South Carolina educating the police on better ways of handling situations when mental illness was involved.  Unfortunately, even that success couldn’t outweigh the grief she carries over her sister’s death.  The distance also won’t allow her to outrun the blame of the father of a former patient whose suicide he blames her for.  Now, her current supervisor wants her working her magic with the San Francisco P.D.  It’s the last job she wants to do but, when she starts to receive death threats from the dead patient’s father, it just may be the very job that saves her life.

Detective Simon Granger has been dealing with the grief over his ex-girlfriend’s murder for a little while now and is dealing just fine, if you ask him.  She was a psychiatrist who was murdered by a serial killer.  A serial killer he had warned her about….and she hadn’t listened.  He’s ready to put it all behind him and start over as a captain in SIG.  So, to say he was less than thrilled to hear he was being asked yet again to seek the help of a therapist before even being considered for a management position would be an understatement.  Fortunately, a beautiful doctor catches his eye on the way to his appointment.  Unfortunately, she will end up working alongside him while making a bid to the city to start a new program training the police on mental health issues…. something he has no interest in learning about.  Even the beautiful doctor couldn’t change his mind on his feelings about the mentally ill, not after the violent way his ex was murdered…or can she?

I really enjoyed this story.  I found the mystery surrounding Nina and her past intriguing and thought it was developed well throughout the story.  I also thought questions were answered at the perfect points through the book.  The buildup of the facts lead you in one direction, but you knew there had to be a twist, and there was a terrific one! (my lips are sealed!) The chemistry between Nina and Simon was really well-developed as well.  They went into things knowing they didn’t see eye to eye on the whole mental health issue.  However, they both were willing to see things through the other person’s eyes and were ready, even if reluctantly, to learn.  Ultimately, they were willing to give other ideas a chance, and it made both of them better people in the end.

I will definitely be looking in to the first two books in the SIG series and will be keeping up with it in the future.  Thank you, Ms. DePaul, for a fast paced and captivating read!

Four Loves

*Thanks to NetGalley for providing an advance copy for an honest review.

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Synopsis:

Name: Big John Wallace

Rank: Staff Sergeant, Chief Mechanic and Gunner

Mission: To serve and protect his crew and country.

Name: Connie Davis

Rank: Sergeant, Flight Engineer, Mechanical Wizard

Mission: To be the best…and survive.

Two Crack Mechanics, One Impossible Mission

Being in The Night Stalkers is Connie Davis’s way of facing her demons head-on, but mountain-strong John Wallace is a threat on all fronts. Their passion is explosive, but their conflicts are insurmountable. When duty calls them to a mission no one else could survive, they’ll fly into the night together—ready or not.

My Review:

This is the third book in the Night Stalkers Series by M.L. Buchman and after falling in love with the first two books I was so excited when release day for Wait Until Dark came. This book was fantastic and a great addition to the series!

Sergeant Connie Davis is one of the few female members of SOAR, and damn good at what she does.  She’s known since she was a child, and being the daughter of a military pilot, that she was born for mechanics.  Her gift for remembering schematics and instructional manuals word for word has gotten her to where she is today.  She can fix anything…..except her broken and battered heart.  She’s been alone since she was a teen.  Losing her mother at the age of 3 was tough, sure, but losing her father when she was 13 was devastating.  She had idolized him, admired him, and loved him with all she had.  He was the only one who truly understood her love of all things mechanical, and the only one who encouraged her gift.  He was all she had.  When he was killed in action, she knew she would never be the same.  So she lived her life as an outsider who no one understood.  She really never fit in anywhere…until now, on her current assignment.  She’s on a crew with Big John Wallace and right off the bat she knows there’s something about him.  He just may turn out to be the only one besides her father who ever really understood the constantly misunderstood Connie.

Big John Wallace has always had a love for life.  He’s flying with the best crew there is, is a mechanic second to none, has some great friends and a family he adores. He grew up in farm country with a big, close-knit family in an equally close-knit community and flies and serves to protect those very people.  He’s always confident and has a way with people….he’s always watching and observing them and their true nature and can always figure a person out.  He’s always been able to assess problems and fix them.  Ever since Connie entered their crew, he’s determined to fix what he can see is definitely broken.

Together, John and Connie will venture on what I can assume is the toughest mission for them both.  John’s determination and Connie’s reluctance to let anyone in prove to be a battle neither one are prepared for….but one that will ultimately put the separate pieces of Connie and John together to make a perfectly working whole.

This was an awesome book.  Some say this series is overly heavy on the military lingo but I don’t feel that way.  This is one of the only series I read written by a male author and I really appreciate the tough heroes and heroines he creates.  Connie is a no-nonsense, straightforward woman in a man’s world.  She has worked hard at getting to where she is and in doing so, has had to learn to shut down her emotions and move forward from her personal loss.  Unfortunately, in doing so, she never truly dealt with that loss.  John proves to be the balm her broken heart and soul need.  He is everything a woman could want.  Warm, kind-hearted, fun loving, focused, determined, brilliant, loyal and tough wrapped up in a big, handsome package. Connie and John paired together were simple, opposites attract perfection!

Meanwhile, there’s action packed flying sequences that had me white-knuckling my e-reader and reading wide eyed.  Add a whole top-secret mission weaved into the romance between Connie and John and this book was a win for me.  We also got to see more of our favorite Majors, Mark and Emily, from the first book, The Night is Mine.

I truly enjoyed this installment of The Night Stalkers and definitely look forward to continuing on with the series! Thank you, Mr. Buchman, for yet another pulse pounding, action packed romance!

Four Loves

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Synopsis:

Ten years after their broken affair, Sebastian and Caroline meet again: this time in very different circumstances, against the background of the war in Afghanistan

Now a successful journalist, Caroline meets Chief Sebastian Hunter, US Marine. Will this chance encounter rekindle the erotic madness of her passionate affair with a younger man?

My Review:

This is the second book in the “Education of…” duet by Jane Harvey-Berrick. The first book, The Education of Sebastian, was really damn good….but, The Education of Caroline will go on the list as one of my favorite books of all time.

We met up with Caroline ten years after she left San Diego, and the love of her life, Sebastian, behind.  She has made a life for herself in New York City as a freelance reporter with a successful following and a knack for her reporting on military life overseas.  It’s that knack that lands her on her current assignment…and running into a certain blue-green eyed, tanned San Diego surfer boy.  Only now, that surfer boy is a Chief in the Marines and is assigned to help train the journalists going overseas, the journalists she is a part of.

Sebastian can’t believe his eyes.  Sitting in the hotel conference room in Switzerland is the woman he has loved since as long as he can remember.  She is also the woman who left him…and took his heart with her.  Now he was supposed to brief her on the dangers of reporting in hostile circumstances in dangerous countries.  How the hell was he supposed to concentrate on anything other than the anger, pain, frustration, desire and long-buried feelings of love and lust toward her?  Now way was he going to let her get away this time….

Dear God.  This book was freaking INCREDIBLE! I loved the first in the series but damn; this book was that much better.  The emotional turmoil starts from the very beginning and doesn’t let up until the very last page.  Caroline and Sebastian have mastered the art of push and pull and just can’t seem to catch a break.  They’ve lived a long ten years apart and have given up on ever ending up together, and now, they almost don’t have a choice.  Fate was surely on their side this time…of so we think.  They go through some amazingly loving high points and crushingly devastating low points.  I bawled my freaking eyes out the last 25% of the book!  But don’t worry, the ending is totally “dreamy sigh” worthy and I was delighted with it.  Sebastian is one of my all time fave book men.  Totally swoon worthy…the whole sexy, bad-assed, romantic, occasional-bumbling-idiot, delicious package.  Caroline is finally happy within her own skin at forty and is a great match for Sebastian, level-headed when he is fanciful but playful when he is lost in his head and needs distracting.  She also realizes Sebastian is just amazing now as he was when he was seventeen.  Better even.  Amazing book couple…even if I want to hate Caroline for having Sebastian to call her own and I’m seething with jealousy!

I read this book in a day.  I could NOT put it down.  I loved every word on every page…laughed and cried and thought it was blissfully perfect!  I already recommended The Education of Sebastian and I HIGHLY recommend The Education of Caroline.  Thank you, Ms. Harvey-Berrick, for writing the newest member of my favorite books.

Five Loves