Tag: romantic suspense

reading · science fiction

Surprising Tid-Bit In Apprentice in Death

Sonia LalLeave a comment

I finished the latest In Death book, Apprentice in Death. It is the 43rd book in the series and that is pretty cool. I hope they finish the movie soon. Who knows what is going on with it?

There is a high school named after Hillary Rodham Clinton. 

I don’t think she has any high schools named after her in the present, but it’s interesting that she does in the future this book lives in. I mean, lots of famous people have schools named after them. But it gave me quite the jolt to see it in this book.

She may have schools named after her, no matter how this election goes. But I suppose it is more likely if she wins.

It is still sort of surprising to see it there in Apprentice in Death, mentioned all causal-like.

 

 

General · reading · science fiction

Eve Dallas is mellowing?

Sonia Lal1 Comment

image I finished the new Eve Dallas, Devoted in Death, a few weeks ago and I’ve been thinking: Eve Dallas is a lot mellower in this book. She still kicks ass and takes names, but in a less aggressive way.

Before, she threatened robots and parked right in different of buildings instead of finding a proper parking spot.

In this book she actually parks in parking garage before going up to interview witnesses or suspects or whoever.

It’s just so odd. What does this new, mellower Eve portend? I’m convinced it means something.

reading

Feel Like Romance

Sonia Lal3 Comments

I spent a couple pleasurable hours today reading romance. In fact, that’s all  I’ve been reading this past weekend.

I can’t say why. I need to start The Rook, but I just haven’t felt like it. Sometimes all I really feel like is reading romance. Sometimes nothing else will do.

My favorites are romantic suspense, like the In Death books by JD Robb, Nalini Singh books and Joey W. Hill’s vampires. Hello, danger, romance, adventure and a happy-ever-after. It has a lot of the things I like best in books.

Do you have days like that? When all you want to read is romance?

Book Review · reading

Stranger on the Shore by Josh Lanyon

Sonia Lal4 Comments

I really liked the title. It fits the book. I have to add that I got this book from NetGalley.

There are two parts to this book: the mystery and romance. The mystery, but I do not know that the romance worked for me.

The main character comes to research and write a book about a twenty year old kidnapping. The love interest interferes.

Blurb from GoodReads:

Twenty years ago young Brian Arlington, heir to Arlington fortune, was kidnapped. Though the ransom was paid, the boy was never seen again and is presumed dead. Pierce Mather, the family lawyer, now administers and controls the Arlington billions. He’s none too happy, and more than a little suspicious, when investigative journalist Griffin Hadley shows up to write about the decades-old mystery. Griff shrugs off the coldly handsome Pierce’s objections, but it might not be so easy to shrug off the objections of someone willing to do anything to keep the past buried.

The Mystery:

Some of this I saw coming, some of it I didn’t. I figured out the part I saw coming half way through the book. I enjoyed finding out I was right.

So, IMO, it’s good. It is a fun, enjoyable read. I finished it pretty quickly.

The Romance:

I have to admit, I didn’t actually get the romance. The love interest is hot and cold. Uses him one minute and the next minute he is all hearts and roses.

Plus, the love interest did a few things that I personally would have a hard time forgiving. I think the main character should have made him grovel more. Like, weeks more instead of just forgiving him. It was just too quick.

Favorite Scene:

This is a hard one. There are a lot of really good scenes. But if I had to pick one, I would pick the conversation one between the main character and the love interest’s sister. Not, note, the love interest.

If I had to pick a favorite scene with the love interest, it would be the last one, the one where he declares his love and is practically forgiven. For all that I thought the forgiveness came too quick and the main character should have just driven on, it was pretty good. That might sound contradictory.

I have to say, there were no boring scenes. I also think every single scene did something to push the story forward.

Would I reread Stranger on the Shore by Josh Lanyon? Probably not. It wasn’t bad, but not nearly as good as some of Josh Lanyon’s other efforts.

General

Teaser Tuesday: Concealed in Death

Sonia Lal12 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser: 

And what the hell does that mean? Why would you serve food for thoughts, and what kind of food? If you serve spinach, do you get healthy thoughts? If it’s ice cream and candy, it is fun thoughts? Why do we say stupid sayings?

– Concealed in Death by JD Robb

This line made me laugh. Food for thought . . .

General

Concealed in Death Out Tomorrow

Sonia Lal3 Comments

Tomorrow, Concealed in Death by JD Robb comes out. 

Some lucky people snagged a review copy. (I was not one of them. But I haven’t been looking for review copies of any book, not even JD Robb.)

There is fan art and even videos made by the fans. (These people are clearly more talented than me.) Some of the videos are to fun watch. One uses Stana Katic from Castle to portray Eve – this is not a portrayal I would’ve thought of, but I understand it.

Why do I love this series? I am not so sure I can say.

I love the fact that it takes place in the future, complete with flying cars, AutoChefs that do the cooking, droids that can do the cleaning and illegal, unregistered computers one uses to do illegal computer stuff.

I love the mystery plot-lines – murder and mayhem. The whole police-procedural feel of it is really nice (and would go wonderfully on the silver screen, IMO).

I love the romance, too, that’s woven throughout. Well, Nora Roberts is known as a romance writer, so it is marketed as romantic suspense. Truthfully, I feel that if you take the romance out, there is still plenty of story left. (But that’s me.)

Not many stories combine these three elements. The mix varies, depending on the book, but all three are always present. I love it for that.

I just wish I could get a copy tomorrow. Or even this month. Instead, I will be haunting the review sites. 😉

General

Teaser Tuesday: Fantasy in Death

Sonia Lal21 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

“Do you think the penis ever gets tired?” As she drove, Eve turned her head toward Peabody, tipped down the shades she rarely remembered to wear. “Whose?”

“Anybody’s. I mean anybody with one. Does the penis ever just think: For God’s sake, pal, give it a rest? Or is it all: Woo-hoo! Here we go again!”

by Fantasy in Death by J.D. Robb

General

Book Review: Celebrity In Death by JD Robb

Sonia Lal1 Comment

From GoodReads: Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she’s managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash  celebrating “The Icove Agenda,” a film based on one of her famous cases. It’s a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director’s luxury building. Now she’s at the center of a crime scene-and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster and step into the role she was born to play: cop.

IMO, Celebrity In Death is as enjoyable as all the other In Death books. Slower paced – there is a dearth of stabbings, shootings, chase scenes and other mayhem. There is no drama between Eve and Roark (I do so enjoy the drama.) Still fun to read though. It’s quite a bit funnier than previous books.

The murder victim in not very sympathetic at all. Her death is unsettling, because she’s looks so much like Peabody and it’s like a preview of what Peabody would like in death. Unsettling, but not really sympathetic because the victim is mean and no one likes her. (She basically tells Peabody she is a weak, pathetic cop. Which Peabody isn’t. Very insulting. I am insulted on Peabody’s behalf.)

Still. She is murdered, to celebrate the movie made from a previous case, and Eve investigates. She talks to people, figures out timelines, the placement of everyone who had reason to want the actress dead. Nora Roberts throws out the usual red herrings, nothing major there.

For someone like me, who has read all of the previous books, there are no earth shattering revelations. It’s a good fun read. That’s enough.

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Book Review · reading

Book Review: Armed & Dangerous by Abigail Roux

Sonia LalLeave a comment

Blurb from Goodreads:

Left alone in Baltimore after his unpredictable lover bails, Special Agent Zane Garrett takes his frustration out on everything in his path until he is ordered to Chicago to back up an undercover operative. When he gets there, though, he finds himself face to face with his wayward partner, Special Agent Ty Grady. They have to deal with the uncertainty lingering between them while they work to retrieve their intended mark, a retired hit man and CIA wet-works operative named Julian Cross.

Ty, once a marine and now an FBI hotshot, has a penchant for being unpredictable, a trait Zane can vouch for. Zane is a man who once lived for his job but has come to realize his heartbreaking past doesn’t have to overshadow his future. They’re partners, friends, lovers, and the go-to team for unusual cases. With Cross and his innocuous boyfriend, Cameron Jacobs, in tow, Ty and Zane must navigate the obstacles of a cross-country trek, including TSA pat-downs, blizzards, their uncooperative prisoners, CIA kill teams, a desperate lack of sleep or caffeine, and each other. Ty and Zane are determined to get Julian Cross to DC in one piece, but it’s starting to look like it might be the last thing they do.

I’ve been reading this series for a long time, since Cut & Run came out, and I loved this one.

Julian Cross and Cameron from Warrior’s Cross are in this book and that is a crossover I never saw coming. But you don’t have to have read to appreciate them in this book.

All the others in the series were written by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban. This one was written by just Abigail Roux. I wasn’t sure what to expect without the collaboration, but it was good. Truthfully, I don’t think it made much of a difference. Armed & Dangerous felt a little smoother than the previous books. I don’t know if that’s because there was just one writer or something else.

What I loved: We finally learn a lot more about Ty. What makes him tick, why he is always fidgeting, what happened to him in the marines.

Oddly, we learn about it from Nick, Ty’s best friend. In the last book Nick did something he shouldn’t have and they haven’t spoken since. But they still got each other’s backs. 😀

I wanted to hate Nick for what he did, but I don’t and I even forgive him. Zane forgives him, too, which is amazing. He seethed for almost the whole book whenever Nick was mentioned. IMHO, Nick deserves his own story.

So. At the end of the last book Ty left and the reunion in this book was pretty good. The drama over Ty leaving didn’t last long. Just as well.

By the end, their relationship is in a good place, stronger than in any of the other books. They both admit they love each other and they move in together. They are not open about their relationship at work, which should be interesting.

Ty’s and Zane’s boss is betrayed by an old friend. So the drama there is pretty interesting. As a result, they end up running and ditching anything traceable. Phone, car, car gps, watch.

Also, the book is just plain hilarious. The descriptions, the banter between them, everything. I really love the banter between them. It was always one of the best parts from the very beginning.

I am really looking forward to the next book. We still don’t know much about Zane’s family and history. Here is hoping the next book will fix that.

Plus, maybe Ty’s father will find out his son is gay. Not sure how the man will react to that, but judging from the past book, I don’t expect it will be fun.

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General · reading · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Armed & Dangerous

Sonia Lal10 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Zane had to fight back a jangle of nerves. He had to believe that the CIA agents after them wouldn’t hurt anyone unless they were in the path of Julian Cross. Deuce would be fine. He hoped.

– Armed & Dangerous by Abigail Roux