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#BookReview: Shipping The Captain by Nora Phoenix

Precise Shipping. This is the first book I’ve seen in the Valentine’s Inc Cruises series to take on the actual staff, and it does an excellent job of showing the lives of the officers at least – at least the lives of two certain officers. 🙂 Precise in details most normally miss (cruise ships don’t actually use actual anchors much if ever any more) and plays with details when needed for the story (debarkation from one cruise is followed within minutes by embarkation of the next cruise, not the next day as shown here). But ultimately both the precision and the license are used very effectvely to tell a great story, and that is what matters the most. The brief descriptions of San Juan and St Thomas in particular are spot on in my experience in both ports, and even better is how well they serve the budding romance between these two. The scene where each realizes who the other is – after a relatively anonymous night together – is worth the price of the book alone, and Phoenix spins an amazing romance tale throughout the entirety of the book. As a romantic drama, one of the strongest in a truly excellent series, and very much recommended.

This review of Shipping the Captain by Nora Phoenix was originally written on September 9, 2019.

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#BookReview: Ghost Of A Chance by Pandora Pine

Jude And Cope Face Their Toughest Case Yet. Particularly with this “spinoff” of Pine’s long running Cold Case Psychic series, she is doing a *great* job of making the cases and battles ever harder with every outing, and if they can get tougher than this particular one… well, Jude and Cope won’t like it one bit. 😉 Continuing her excellent work of showing the professional and personal dramas, this particular book isn’t a good place to start with even this spinoff series… but it could well be a good place to end it…

This review of Ghost Of A Chance by Pandora Pine was originally written on September 8, 2019

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#BookReview: The Extinction Agenda by Michael Laurence

Great Setup. In this book, Laurence does an excellent job of telling a complete tale that winds up setting up a compelling overall mythos. There are a couple of issues that others may criticize more heavily than I will, but I thought that at minimum these issues didn’t really detract from the overall story. In fact, the one most likely to be criticized actually serves as a plausible motivation generally, that Laurence works to great effect in his telling of this tale. Action fans will love the sequences in this book, which can be very inventive.

Overall truly a strong tale, but unfortunately for me the entire series will be compared to another that wrapped up last year and had a very similar premise (and was astounding) – Brett Battles’ PROJECT EDEN series. This particular effort does well in differentiating itself in key ways from that effort, and I look forward to seeing how this series progresses. Very much recommended.

This review of The Extinction Agenda by Michael Laruence was originally published on September 7, 2019.

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#BookReview: Abandoning Ship by Susan Hawke

This one time, NOT at band camp…

When Ryan Met Sawyer…

The universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has generally been regarded as a bad move.

If you enjoyed the trip down this rabbit hole that the top line being in the book sent my brain down and you like pop culture references like the end battles of Avengers: Endgame, the Battle of Winterfell from Game of Thrones, and others… you’re going to love this book. So quit reading this review and go read the dang book already!

This review of Abandoning Ship by Susan Hawke was originally written on September 6, 2019.

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#BookReview: Shipping Our Loves by Sammi Cee

Brand New Characters Feel Ultra Deep. (And not always in a sexual way.) This is a MMM romance that is brand new yet feels like it is a continuation of a very deep series – and is very intriguing because of it. The dynamics of the setup of the story work well, then the rest of it falls into place in a very well paced shortish novella. My first from this author (somehow), will not be my last. Very much recommended.

This review of Shipping Our Loves by Sammi Cee was originally written on September 6, 2019.

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#BookReview: The Long Call by Ann Cleeves

Solid British Police Procedural. This was an excellent book for fans of any combination of mystery, British fiction, or police procedurals. And generally, I’m a fan of all three. But for some reason this book was a bit slower of a read than most books of its size, and I’m struggling to figure out why. MAYBE because it used *several* more British terms that I’m less familiar with, despite reading more and more British fiction these days? (Full disclosure: I’m an American who has lived nearly all of my days in its southeastern corner.) Regardless, truly a solid book and very much recommended, despite my personal difficulties with reading it.

This review of The Long Call by Ann Cleeves was originally written on September 5, 2019.

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#BookReview: Mischief And A Marathon by Maddie Evans

Mischief And Mirth. In this continuation of Evans’ Brighthead Running Club series, we get the story we have been waiting on for a couple of books now – Julie and Cashman. And we learn some very startling things about Cashman throughout, but some of the biggest surprises are right up front… Excellent book, and one that can serve as an introduction to the series with only minimal spoilers at all. Very much looking forward to the next book in the series.

This review of Mischief And A Marathon by Maddie Evans was originally written on September 3, 2019.

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Featured New Release of the Week: Third Party by Brandi Reeds

This week, we are looking at a mostly intriguing book by yet another Lake Union author. This week, we are looking at Third Party by Brandi Reeds.

This book opens with a scene shocking enough to suck the reader straight into the mystery and for the most part only gets better from there. Weaving in and out mostly between two female perspectives who at first seem completely unconnected, we are also introduced to a third perspective sporadically – the murder victim herself. And we even, exactly once, get a fourth perspective of events. The topics introduced here, specifically underground sex clubs and the strict yet also laissez faire rules they operate under, are rarely mentioned in these types of books – and in particular, the exact kink featured heavily is almost unheard of in my experience with fiction. So on all of these points, this book is absolutely a thrill of a read.

But ultimately the book disappoints in its final act. Instead of continuing the unorthodox-bordering-on-bold approaches used before a certain point, instead the author chooses to go a direction that can’t be openly discussed as it features major spoilers, but was ultimately disappointing for me. Far too pedestrian, particularly in the current era and particularly after the refreshing nature of the 80%+ of the book that preceded this particular sequence.

Still, a very worthy read even with a disappointing ending, as at least the ending did in fact make sense within the context of the story.

And as always, the Amazon/ Goodreads review:
Continue reading “Featured New Release of the Week: Third Party by Brandi Reeds”

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#BookReview: The House By The Cypress Trees by Elena Mikalsen

Beautiful House. In this comedic romance, Mikalsen does for all of Italy what Under the Tuscan Sun did for just Tuscany. With Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast all making appearances in this tale, we get a wide view of the beauty of the land even as we concentrate on a very specific comedy of errors and miscommunications romance between a Brit and an American, both drawn to Italy for dramatically different reasons and yet finding themselves just as drawn to each other. Excellent work, and I’ll be looking forward to more from this author. Very much recommended.

This review of The House By The Cypress Trees by Elena Mikalsen was originally written on September 1, 2019.

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#BookReview: A Bittersweet Surprise by Cynthia Ellingsen

More Sweet Than Bittersweet. I fully admit that when I got this book, I didn’t realize it was the third book in a series. And yet it doesn’t really read like one, since it uses the shared world style of building a series – yes, some other characters have already had their tale told, but this book focuses on characters who haven’t yet. And it does a really great job of showing a caring young woman scarred by events of the last 20 ish years trying to move forward and achieve her dreams… while finding some startling personal and municipal history along the way. Excellent Hallmark type book, and very much recommended.

This review of A Bittersweet Surprise by Cynthia Ellingsen was originally written on August 27, 2019.