review: twisted by laura griffin

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When the murder of a woman in a small Texas town is linked to multiple murdered women in California, FBI profiler Mark Wolfe comes to town.  He arrives just in time to intervene as the only female detective for the San Marcos police department finds herself in the middle of an armed robbery while getting dinner.  Unfortunately this set up Mark as the hero and Allison as the damsel for much of the book.  If Allison was in danger, Mark would rescue her.  Even when Allison didn’t need help, Mark exerted his will because he never really respected her as a fellow law enforcement agent.  He even went so far as to speculate that her position of detective was a matter of “small town politics” or being the “token woman” rather than believing Allison actually earned it.  And yet, Allison pursued him romantically.  Thankfully the romance took a backseat to the hunt for the killer, which was tense (the murders always occur on certain dates and the next is in a matter of days) and masterfully done.

4/5
Review copy provided by the author.

review: imperfect bliss by susan fales-hill

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A reality show called The Virgin upheavals the Harcourt family in Imperfect Bliss.  Family relations are already pretty strained when third child Diana announces that she will star as The Virgin and filming is to start immediately.  The varied reactions illustrate how the family dynamic has always been.  The father has little to say and retreats to his academic world while the mother is beyond thrilled for she has grand marriage plans for all four of her daughters.  The eldest, Victoria, is fairly disinterested like her father while Charlotte, the youngest, is concerned with grabbing some of the attention for herself.  Bliss, who is the novel’s protagonist, is absolutely appalled at the notion of finding a mate through a reality show.  Of course, she has relationship issues of her own having been forced to take her young daughter and move back in with her parents after catching her husband in an affair.  

Although the parallels to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice are clear, Imperfect Bliss is enjoyable in its own right.  Susan Fales-Hill could’ve done a bit more with it though.  It was clear from the beginning that race (the Harcourt girls are half-British and half-Jamaican) would be a major factor, but then there were only passing references until the end.  Much of what’s important in this blend of comedy and drama doesn’t happen until the last half which left little room for it to push beyond the superficial.

4/5

Review copy from Amazon Vine.

review: going to the bad by nora mcfarland

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With Going to the Bad, Nora McFarland once again places TV news photographer Lilly Hawkins right in the middle of a major news story.  In the first chapter Lilly experiences one of my big work fears (I work in TV news as well)—she hears her own address over the scanners.  Knowing that her boyfriend is likely home, Lilly races to the scene where she discovers her boyfriend is safe, but her uncle has been shot.  Just as she’s done in the previous books of the series, Lilly uses her work resources to find out exactly why someone shot her uncle.  

The fact that Lilly works at a TV station is not just an incidental plot element; it plays a major role, which means it’s imperative that the details are right.  McFarland shows that although she no longer works in TV news herself, she has kept up with the industry changes which she seamlessly works into the book, such as when Lilly explains why she’s the chief photographer without any photogs.  Furthermore, the mystery element is excellent.  Going to the Bad has plenty of twists with loads of drama and comedy.

5/5

Review copy provided by the publisher, Touchstone.

giveaway winner: creep and freak

Carol M is the winner of Creep and Freak by Jennifer Hillier.  Congratulations!

review: more than you know by penny vincenzi

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More Than You Know is about Eliza, Eliza’s brother Charles, Charles’s acquaintance from National Service Matt, and Matt’s sister Scarlett along with all their various family, friends, lovers, and coworkers.  Yes, there really are that many characters (the hardcover version has a cast of characters of nearly three pages at the front of the book) in a novel primarily about Eliza.  Much of the 585 pages could have been cut if the focus had stayed on Eliza who was my only real interest anyway.  Her story of going against familial and societal expectations by embarking on a career and marrying a man not of her social class was far more interesting than the many tangents about the lives of Charles and Scarlett.  Those subplots had no bearing on the main plot.  Due to all these expendable characters and Penny Vincenzi’s frequent use of pronouns, the story could sometimes be hard to follow, especially since I was listening to the audio version.

About the narrator:  The fact that Rosalyn Landor is British (like most of the characters) really set the scene.  She also made it easy to tell if the speaker was male or female, but it was difficult to tell which male and which female at times.

4/5

Review copy provided by AudioGO.

author guest post: kristen wolf

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The author of The Way, Kristen Wolf, shares some thoughts about the book below.  She's planning a trilogy!

I’ve always envisioned THE WAY as taking place in multiple time periods. In fact, when I first started writing the book, I alternated the story of Anna/Jesus in ancient Palestine with a modern-day story involving a female archeologist.

By the time I was about halfway through, both stories began to take on such lives of their own that each really demanded their own time—their own book. So, rather than conjoining the stories, I divided them, with the intention of writing the more modern-day story as the second book in the trilogy. In that book, we would learn a lot more about the history and life-cycle of The Way and its supporters.

In the third book, I intend to bring the practice of The Way from the modern day and into the future. By doing so, I hope to offer an alternative vision not only of spirituality, but also of the future shape and nature of our world. 

Really, the ideas behind the practice of The Way are eternal, in a sense, given that they reflect life itself. So to me it seems very natural, and exciting! to contemplate exploring how these philosophies might impact our world throughout time.

review: the way by kristen wolf

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Kristen Wolf’s The Way is an intriguing take on the well-known biblical story of Jesus.   In Palestine in the year 7 A.D., young Anna is frustrated by the value placed on sons.  When her brother dies at birth, her father is devastated and cruelly acts out.  Because Anna is often mistaken for a boy, Yosef determines he can get away with selling his daughter to a group of shepherds.  Although they initially doubt the wisdom in bringing along Anna, who calls herself Jesus after her dead brother, the shepherds soon realize that her skills regarding cooking and animals are beneficial.  But she is eventually separated from the shepherds and ends up with a separatist society of women who practice “The Way.”  From there, many rumors circulate about the mysterious person called Jesus.  With knowledge of the New Testament framing the story, The Way is a captivating tale; however, some of the characters are a little one-dimensional.  Given his large role, Peter should have been developed a bit more.

4/5

Review copy provided by Chick Lit Plus Blog Tours.