Tag: #series

Feature Post: Lola Wicks Mysteries, #1-#3 by Gwen Florio

  

RATINGS: 4 out of 5 Stars for All Books

I am featuring this series because I am currently reading Reservations, Book #4 in this series from Net Galley. This is a very solid series that has a strong female protagonist, Lola Wicks, who was a foreign correspondent and now writes for her small town paper. The plots are all interesting, entertaining and well written. The secondary characters are developed and realistic. Ms. Florio’s very special talent is in her description of the scenery in Montana and Dakota and the type of people that populate it. Below are my reviews for these three books and I will be adding the fourth soon. This is a series that is worth getting hooked on!

BOOK #1 – MONTANA

Lola Wicks has been pulled from her foreign correspondent post in Afghanistan because her paper has downsized. She is told to use her vacation time and decide if she wants to continue stateside with the paper on a suburban beat. Extremely upset, she decides to visit her best friend, Mary Ellen, who quit her job as a fellow reporter to relocate to Montana.

Lola discovers her friend shot dead on the hill by her cabin. When Lola is told to stay in town, upsetting her plans to return to Kabul, she decides the inexperienced sheriff is not moving fast enough and sets her reporter skills to the case. What she finds is that the techniques she has been using overseas do not translate to small town Montana or the Blackfeet reservation. She has to ingratiate herself to the locals, Blackfeet and sheriff for information to follow the trail to who killed Mary Alice and why. Racial discrimination between the towns people and the Blackfeet, drug smuggling and politics are all twisted into this mystery.

Lola is a developed, three dimensional character. She is tenacious, intelligent and everything a reporter should be and she also steals a trinket from everyone she deals with. She did come back from overseas with what appears to be PTSD and this makes her interactions with people more difficult and abrupt. I really like this protagonist. As she solves this case, she becomes more attached to the people and animals around her. My only problem was the ending of the case seemed to come very abruptly and Lola’s personal life also shifted quickly, But I will definitely be back for more.

BOOK #2- DAKOTA

This book starts three months after the death of her friend in Book #1 and it can be read as a standalone.

Lola is living in Magpie, Montana with Sheriff Charlie Larendeau on his small ranch. She is a reporter for the small town’s paper and living with the sheriff leaves her with two problems: 1. she is supposed to report on the Blackfeet, but Charlie is half Blackfeet and 2. it keeps her off the crime beat since he is the sheriff, but you know that won’t stop her.

Several Blackfeet girls have gone missing over the past year, but they were just written off as runaways until one of the girls is found dead in a snowbank. Lola is hearing rumors that the girls are all known drug users and were working as prostitutes in the oil boom shanty town outside of Burnt Creek. Lola sets off with her dog, Bub, to the North Dakota oil patch. Fracking, big oil money, prostitution and drugs all come together in this boom town with its influx of male population and law enforcement that looks the other way. Lola just wants to uncover the truth, but she ends up in a fight for her own life.

A gritty mystery with people who just want to take advantage of a money boom, but the consequences are harsh, if not deadly. Lola’s story just keeps getting more intriguing. Ms. Florio brings the oil patch and the people it attracts to life. She also once again realistically depicts the Blackfeet and their problems. I can’t wait to get the next Lola book!

BOOK #3 – DISGRACED

Lola is forced to take a furlough from the paper and so she leaves for a vacation with her young daughter, Maggie and dog, Bub on their way to Yellowstone.

Her friend asks her to stop and check on her cousin, Pal, who is a returned vet from Afghanistan who lives on the way in Wyoming. What Lola finds when she arrives at Pal’s are small town friends who served together, but when they returned, one was dead and disgraced, one gets a hero’s welcome, one commits suicide, two nearly beat a man to death and Pal, the only female of the group is traumatized. Lola smells a story and the vacation is postponed while she gets to know the vets. Secrets, truths and lies all need to be sorted and the truth can get Pal, Lola and her daughter all killed.

I liked this Lola book the best so far. It can be read as a standalone in regards to the main plot, but Lola’s personal life does carry over. It focuses on the returned troops and the many problems they face at home. There are violent scenes in this book. The author depicts prejudice, rape and a conspiracy of lies.

This is a series that makes you think was well as entertains and this is another great addition.

Check out this series and author!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Review: Twisted Irish by Sara Brookes

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

I am completely surprised by how much I loved this hero and heroine. I was not sure what to expect with a biker club BDSM contemporary romance, but Ms. Brookes has written a romance that delivers!

TWISTED IRISH (Sinner & Saints Book 4) by Sara Brookes opens at the Riding Irish Biker Club’s Valentine’s Day cookout on Oahu. Olivia Woo is invited by her boss from the tech company she works for, who also happens to be the president of the club. She is always chasing excitement, danger and chaos in her computer simulations and real life. Secretly she runs simulations of BDSM sex. She is not sure if it is right or wrong, but she wants to find someone to help her explore her fantasies. Looking for a place to evade all the men she is being introduced to at the cookout, she finds the club’s secret basement dungeon.

Jon Swagger has worked hard to keep his darker side in check since leaving the Marines. He has been afraid that no one will ever understand his killer past and has only had casual sexual encounters, but the rest of the club is finding love and he finds that he wants that for himself. He is a DOM and designed the dungeon and a very special chair that plays an intriguing part in this story. When he sees the blue haired vixen, he is immediately drawn to her. When he catches her in his dungeon, he wants to give Olivia the sexual experience of her life. What neither of them expects is that they are exactly what each of them needs.

This is a short book that is full of empathy, exploration and love between the H/h. It does make references to previous situations from previous books in the series, but not enough to confuse or detract from this story. The sex scenes are well written and extremely explicit, sexy and hot. This story is well worth the read for a fast romance and romantic introduction to BDSM.

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

Book Review: Smugglers & Scones by Morgan C. Talbot

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SMUGGLERS & SCONES (Moorehaven Mysteries, #1) by Morgan C. Talbot is a wonderful new cozy mystery that introduces us to a special B&B in Seacrest on the Oregon coast and a cast of intelligent and quirky characters.

World famous mystery writer, A. Raymond Moore left his huge home, Moorehaven, on the Oregon coast in trust to his friend Hilt, the town’s former chief of police with the stipulation that it become a B&B for mystery writers only. Now that Hilt is older, he has hired his niece, Pippa Winterbourne to run the B&B. Pippa has modernized the advertising and recipes in her six years at Moorehaven and now has a large group of famous, new and want-to-be mystery authors rotating through Moorhaven’s doors.

When a small tourist fishing boat crashes in the middle of the night, Pippa rushes to help and saves the handsome Lakyn “Lake” Ivens. They both find out the next day that there was also a dead man on the boat. Lake has no memories of the accident or what happened to the dead owner of the boat. Pippa, with the help of Lake, the visiting authors and a cast of fun characters from Seacrest become tangled in a deadly plot that incorporates the town’s Prohibition history with the present.

Pippa is a strong and intelligent lead character. She loves Moorehaven, her job, the writers who stay at the B&B and all the characters that populate Seacrest. Her Uncle Hilt keeps the old mansion in working order, while also taking care of his old friend’s journals, papers and books for future writers and scholars to study. At a few places in the book, it does slow down a bit, but I feel this is because there is so much to set up and characters to introduce for the series. Overall though, the world-building was entertaining and interesting.

Characters make a cozy for me and this book is full of many that I can’t wait to revisit. Pippa is a great choice as a lead. The “Glaze and Gossip” group she is invited to join had me laughing out loud. Tyleen with her binoculars and Wallis the gloomy florist all add to the town’s cast of unique characters. This is a wonderful story and I love that there will always be mystery writers and their books involved in each story.

I am anxiously waiting for the next book in this series!

Book Review: Brothers In Blue: Max by Jeanne St. James

max

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

BROTHERS IN BLUE: MAX (Brothers in Blue #1) by Jeanne St. James is a HOT contemporary romance read that introduces the reader to a rich, immature party girl that has her whole life turned upside down and a small town cop, who is an ex-Marine and all Alpha.

Amanda Barber is a young, rich girl partying all over Miami with her friends and no responsibilities. Suddenly, she has to move to small town PA to live in her dead father and stepmother’s home to care for her 22 year old special needs half-brother and his dog. She has never met Greg and Chaos due the messy divorce of her parents and has no idea how to deal with him or his needs.

I did not like Amanda at first, but as the story progresses and you see how she is trying to learn to help Greg and stand on her own two feet for a change, she pulled me to her side. You learn her backstory slowly, and like me, the small town folk did not care for Amanda at first either. She makes mistakes, but you also watch her mature quickly. She wants to go back to her old life at first, but things conspire to make her want to stay more and more as the story progresses.

Max Bryson is a third generation police officer in his hometown and the oldest of three Bryson boys. When he first runs into Amanda, he has trouble believing such an immature girl has been assigned the care of Greg, but even as her attitude chafes, he finds her extremely hot. The back and forth between these two was extremely well written. You can see in each encounter the strength in Amanda continues to grow as she stands up to him and takes control her own life and Greg’s. How much Max’s attitude changes towards Amanda is also realistically written. The emotional growth of both Amanda and Max is what makes this an engaging romance.

It was great getting to know all the secondary characters in this story, also. Max’s loving and stable parents and his teasing younger brothers. Not so nice, but necessary to understand Amanda were her mother and ex-boyfriend from Miami. I am looking forward to reading Marc’s story next.

Please Note: Although this is a small town love story it does contain many explicit sex scenes throughout the story. They are well written, integrated into the story and very, very hot!

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

Book Review: Embattled SEAL by J.M. Madden

embattled SEAL

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

EMBATTLED SEAL (Lost and Found #4) by J.M. Madden is a character driven romance that had me reading straight through the night, crying sad tears and then happy tears.

Harper Preston was a Navy SEAL sniper and nearly fatally wounded on Lost and Found’s last operation. As his boss and friend wait for him to wake from surgery, a woman shows up and takes control. She is Harper’s estranged wife that no one knew existed.

Catherine “Cat” Preston has come to Harper’s hospital bedside once again. She has always understood what she signed up for by being a SEAL’s wife. His job would always come first, he couldn’t talk about his time away and she would basically be a single parent, but 18 months ago he left his family and cut all communication thinking he was doing what was best for them. Cat disagrees and she has plans to abduct her husband and settle the future of their marriage and family once and for all.

I loved that so much of this story was told from Cat’s point of view. She loves and understands her husband. She was strong and took care of their home and children while he was away. She took care of him when he was home, so when he just left, she was devastated. She knew he was having problems adjusting to civilian life, but he didn’t communicated how bad it was and he wouldn’t go for help until LNF hired him and made it mandatory. LNF saved his life and now he wants to save his marriage.

This story delves into the mind and marriage of a military man that his country has turned into a killing machine that has seen and lived through the horrors of war. Injuries, PTSD in all its forms and the fear of accidentally hurting those he loves are discussed. The stigmatism, even if it is only in his own mind, of seeking psychiatric help is also discussed. I feel this book handled the communication issues between Cat and Harper realistically and with a lot of mutual love.

Another great addition to the LNF series!

Book Review: In A Ranger’s Arms by Donna Michaels

in a ranger's arms

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

IN A RANGER’S ARMS (The Men of At Ease Ranch, #1) by Donna Michaels has a ranch full of hard bodied, ex-military men, a curvy and intelligent heroine, smart, snappy and flirty dialogue and a love struck cow named Lula Belle.

Former Army Ranger Stone Mitchum has big plans for the Texas ranch and construction company he, his brother and two of their Ranger friends have bought to help ease the transition for ex-military men back into society. Stone is a born leader who personally shoulders the guilt for any problem and especially when one of their close buddies tries to commit suicide. He has put his own personal life on hold to devote all his attention to the ranch and men, until he has a run in with his new tenant. His mind might say no, but his body is ready to go.

Jovy Larson is in a contest with her cousin for control of her Grandfather’s company. She has four weeks to show the most profit, but there is more to this contest. Jovy has to run a gluten-free, vegan restaurant in Texas cattle country. As she is hanging her sign for her restaurant, The V-Spot, a crazy cow comes charging towards her ladder. Luckily Stone is there to catch Jovy and save her from harm. Jovy wants her surly, and sexy landlord immediately, but she wants to win control of her Grandfather’s company, too. They both know she will be gone in four weeks. Surely they can keep their hands off each other for that long.

What makes this romance POP is the dialogue. It is completely natural and true to life. Every snarky, sweet, emotional, funny comment fits the character and that moment in the story. Jovy is a strong, intelligent business woman who has a heart of gold and is open and honest. Stone is the strong leader who takes too much responsibility for things he can’t control. Ms. Michaels brings these two together is a heartwarming and sexy hot romance that has you cheering them on throughout the story. I am looking forward to the other men of At Ease Ranch meeting their perfect matches.