Author: Kimberly

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Kimberly reviews The Friendship List by Susan Mallery

TITLE: The Friendship List
CHARACTERS: Ellen and Unity
AUTHOR: Susan Mallery
PUBLICATION DATE: 08/04/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
[ ] Dance till dawn
[ ] Go skydiving
[ ] Wear a bikini in public
[ ] Start living

Two best friends jump-start their lives in a summer that will change them forever…

Single mom Ellen Fox couldn’t be more content—until she overhears her son saying he can’t go to his dream college because she needs him too much. If she wants him to live his best life, she has to convince him she’s living hers.

So Unity Leandre, her best friend since forever, creates a list of challenges to push Ellen out of her comfort zone. Unity will complete the list, too, but not because she needs to change. What’s wrong with a thirty-something widow still sleeping in her late husband’s childhood bed?

The Friendship List begins as a way to make others believe they’re just fine. But somewhere between “wear three-inch heels” and “have sex with a gorgeous guy,” Ellen and Unity discover that life is meant to be lived with joy and abandon, in a story filled with humor, heartache and regrettable tattoos.

REVIEW:
4.5 Hearts Every year Mallery takes us away from Happily Inc/Fool’s Gold and takes us on a journey of friendship instead of romance. Not that it doesn’t have romance involved… what would a Mallery book be without romance?… but the books are mostly about friendship and the “other” relationships in our lives.

In this story we have Ellen and Unity. They have been friends for what seems forever and they make a pact. This will do the things on their bucket list and the one that doesn’t get everything complete will pay for the winner to have a spa weekend.

I will be honest and say I had moments of dislike for every single character. But you know what? That is life. Even the people we love most drive us crazy. Or we want to kick them in the butt and say “It is what it is. Get over it.”

Mallery brings real life to paper. The way we handle our teenagers and their grown up actions. Our friends and their childlike behavior. And of course love and romance. So many moments with the teenagers in the story I wanted to yell at them or yell at the parents for what they were/were not doing. But when a book can make you feel so involved you know you have been taken into the authors world and out of your own.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews Never Look Back by Mary Burton

TITLE: Never Look Back
SERIES #: Criminal Profiler #3
CHARACTERS: Melina & Jerrod
AUTHOR: Mary Burton
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/01/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Expect the unexpected in this gritty, tense, and page-turning mystery from New York Times bestselling author Mary Burton.

After multiple women go missing, Agent Melina Shepard of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation makes the impulsive decision to go undercover as a prostitute. While working the street, she narrowly avoids becoming a serial killer’s latest victim; as much as it pains her to admit, she needs backup.

Enter lone wolf FBI agent Jerrod Ramsey. Stonewalled by a lack of leads, he and Melina investigate a scene where a little girl has been found abandoned in a crashed vehicle. They open the trunk to reveal a horror show and quickly realize they’re dealing with two serial killers with very different MOs. The whole situation brings back memories for Melina—why does this particular case feel so connected to her painful past?

Before time runs out, Melina must catch not one but two serial killers, both ready to claim another victim—and both with their sights set on her.

REVIEW:
This is the third in the series but certainly can be a stand alone. The series wraps around Agent Melina Shepard. Melina goes undercover as a prostitute and is barely able to escape an attack from who will soon be identified as a serial killer. In comes FBI agent Jerrod Ramsey who has been trying to catch the killer.

I enjoy a book that can stump me. And while I was close to all the answers some surprised me.

Mary Burton has become one of my favorite authors and I always grab her books as quickly as I can. And this is another great story by the author.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews The Bad Sister by Kevin O’Brien

TITLE: The Bad Sister
CHARACTERS: Hannah, Eden & Ellie
AUTHOR: Kevin O’Brien
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
TOO CLOSE
The site of the old campus bungalow where two girls were brutally slain is now a flower patch covered with chrysanthemums. It’s been fifty years since the Immaculate Conception Murders. Three more students and a teacher were killed in a sickening spree that many have forgotten. But there is one person who knows every twisted detail. . . .

TO SEE
Hannah O’Rourke and her volatile half-sister, Eden, have little in common except a parent. Yet they’ve ended up at the same small college outside Chicago, sharing a bungalow with another girl. Hannah isn’t thrilled—nor can she shake the feeling that she’s being watched. And her journalism professor, Ellie Goodwin, keeps delving into Hannah and Eden’s newsworthy past. . . .

THE DANGER
When Hannah and Eden’s arrival coincides with a spate of mysterious deaths, Ellie knows it’s more than a fluke. A copycat is recreating those long-ago murders. Neither the police nor the school will accept the horrific truth. And the more Ellie discovers, the more she’s convinced that she won’t live to be believed. . . .

REVIEW:
3.25 Hearts I had high hopes for this book once I read the first few chapters. And enjoyed the first half of the book for the most part. But the second half left me a bit, well, unsatisfied. I liked the writing of the first half. The flow is different and entertaining but in the later half the writing changed.

I almost felt like the writer had written half than put the novel away to come back to it later.

Just not all I hoped it could be.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Kimberly reviews The Next Window by C.J. Lyons

TITLE: The Next Widow
SERIES #: Jericho And Wright #1
CHARACTERS: Jericho & Wright
AUTHOR: C.J. Lyons
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A gripping crime thriller with unputdownable suspense

In the distance Leah heard sirens. She ignored them. Right now, her daughter needed her and Emily was just out of reach, curled up under the bed, her eyes closed, desperately shaking. Leah did the only thing any mother would do. She crawled through the blood to get to her daughter.

Dr Leah Wright returned to her childhood home in rural Pennsylvania with her husband to find peace and quiet, start afresh and raise her six-year-old daughter Emily. But when she gets home one dark winter night, clutching roses in her hand, she finds her daughter huddled under her bed and her husband’s blood all over the floor…

When Detective Luka Jericho is called to investigate, he’s shocked to learn that the killer left a witness behind – the victim’s young daughter. The scene is a painful reminder of his fiancé’s unsolved death, and he is desperate to find out what Emily saw that night. He knows that the killer could still be out there, waiting to strike again.

But growing up, Leah learned the hard way that the only person she could rely on was herself. And it’s not until she and Emily are attacked again that she realizes just how close the killer is. Can she trust Luka to keep her daughter safe?

REVIEW:
2.75 Hearts The story was a bit too predictable for me. I figured it out pretty quickly but continued to read in case I was mistaken and I wanted to know the reason. I was a bit disappointed.

The story drags a bit in some parts. There was enough interest to keep me reading but if not for my curiosity to be sure I had it right I wouldn’t have bothered.

I liked Detective Luka Jericho but wasn’t thrilled with Dr Leah Wright. She just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Kimberly reviews The Last Secret by Rick Mofina

TITLE: Their Last Secret
CHARACTERS: Janie & Emma
AUTHOR: Rick Mofina
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Some mistakes can never be forgotten—or forgiven.

Janie Klassyn was only fourteen years old when she made the blood pact with her friends. She could never imagine she was setting in motion the horrifying crime that would tear her peaceful prairie town apart.

Twenty years later in California, school counselor Emma Grant struggles to keep her past buried. But when she finds a note on her car threatening to reveal her secret, it becomes harder to keep up the deception. Even her teenage stepdaughter suspects that Emma is hiding something. Now, with her celebrated true-crime author husband digging into a decades-old murder case for his next book, and a suspicious accident involving someone who’s been following her, the perfect life Emma’s built is crumbling, forcing her to take desperate steps to save it…

REVIEW:
4.75 Hearts WOW What a read. This reminds me of the original writings I read of Mofina when I first stumbled upon him.

Some things we do as kids are best forgotten but what if our past finds us? That is the concept of this book.
Emma has a past but when her husband wants to write a story about what happened all those years ago, not having a clue it involves his wife, secrets are revealed.

This story takes you in a whirlwind of emotions, including disdain for Emma’s husband.

Not a book to be missed by Mofina. Can’t wait for the next one!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Kelly reviews He Started It by Samantha Downing

TITLE: He Started It
CHARACTERS: Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan
AUTHOR: Samantha Downing
PUBLICATION DATE: July 28, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | Audible | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons—we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and—more importantly—secure their inheritance.
But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone.
It’s even harder when you’re all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory—a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won’t stop following your car—and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there’s a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons.
But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.

REVIEW:
4.5 Hearts He Started It is a wild ride of three siblings fulfilling their late grandfather’s final wish to revisit the family road trip that they went on 20 years earlier. What lays ahead for the Morgan siblings is a lot of memories, questions, lies and betrayals.

*Staring at the final sentence in the book wondering what the heck just happened*
I think it took me a whole 5 minutes to realize that the story was over. Wow, just wow!!!
Family road trips will never be the same after reading He Started it. This was a great follow up novel by Samantha Downing. I really enjoyed My Lovely Wife and was excited to pick up He Started It for review.
The story has a few slow parts but I could not put the book down because I had no clue what was going to be next. And boy was I surprised multiple times.

I am already looking forward to whatever Samantha has in store for us next!!!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley, Edelweiss & Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews A Walk Along The Beach by Debbie Macomber

TITLE: A Walk Along The Beach
CHARACTERS: Willa & Harper
AUTHOR: Debbie Macomber
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/14/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
TWO SISTERS MUST LEARN FROM EACH OTHER’S STRENGTHS AND TRUST IN THE REDEEMING POWER OF LOVE IN A TOUCHING NEW NOVEL FROM NUMBER ONE ‘NEW YORK TIMES’ BEST-SELLING AUTHOR DEBBIE MACOMBER.

The Lake sisters are perfect opposites. After their mother died and their father was lost in grief, Willa had no choice but to raise her sister, Harper, and their brother, Lucas. Then, as an adult, she put her own life on hold to nurse Harper through a terrifying illness, Now that Harper is better and the sisters are living as roommates, Willa has realized her dream of running her own bakery and coffee shop, bringing her special brand of caretaker to the whole Oceanside community.

Harper, on the other hand, is always on the go. Overcoming a terrible illness has given her a new lease on life, and she does not intend to waste it. When Harper announces her plan to summit Mount Rainier, Willa fears she may be pushing herself too far. Harper, for her part, urges Willa to stop worrying and do something outside of her comfort zone – like taking a chance on love with a handsome new customer.

Sean O’Malley is as charming as he is intriguing – a freelance photographer whose assignments take him to the ends of the earth. Soon Willa’s falling for him in a way that is both exciting and terrifying. But life has taught Willa to hedge her bets, and she wonders whether the potential heartache is worth the risk.

Life has more challenges in store for them all. But both sisters will discover that even in the darkest moments, family is everything.

REVIEW:
Can you really go wrong with a Debbie Macomber novel? Simply put… No!

This book has more emotion than I could stand. And yet I wanted more. The end is a bit more abrupt than I would have liked but the story is such a roller coaster of emotions.

If you have someone (anyone) who is sick that you have walked through the sickness with them you will be more sensitive to this book than others. And when you have a family even if you are not that close anymore, at a time like this they learn that family is more important than anything.

What a story but have a box of tissues near!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews One In Three by Tess Stimson

TITLE: One In Three
CHARACTERS: Louise, Andrew & Caz
AUTHOR: Tess Stimson
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/09/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Both of them loved him. One of them killed him . . .

Louise has had to watch her husband, Andrew, start a new family in the four years since he left her. The ‘other woman’ is now his wife – but Louise isn’t ready to let Caz enjoy the life that was once hers, or to let go of the man she still loves.

As Louise starts to dig into Caz’s past, the two women’s pretence of civility starts to slip. But in trying to undermine each other, they discover more about the man they both married.

And when Andrew is murdered at a family party, both women are found standing over the body.

And when Andrew is murdered during the anniversary celebrations, both women are found standing over the body.
It’s always the wife. But which one?

REVIEW:
What a crazy ride. Ok so Andrew leaves his wife a week after their child is born, marries another woman right after the divorce is final and yet wife #2 thinks she is second in line to wife #1. And then Andrew and wife #2 are invited to wife #1’s parents anniversary party. And guess what… he ends up dead. And both women are standing over the body. Confused yet?

We read a number of different accounts as to what happened and my loyalties kept changing.

I really enjoyed this story and all the mayhem that went with it.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews Holy Blood by Kim Fleet

TITLE: Holy Blood
SERIES #: Eden Grey #2
CHARACTERS: Eden Grey & Aidan Fox
AUTHOR: Kim Fleet
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/20/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Eden returns in a thrilling time slip mystery! Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Dan Brown, Kate Mosse and Tom Harper.

Digging up the past has deadly consequences…

16th Century England
Dark secrets surround Hailes Abbey – a medieval monastery with a shrine supposedly containing the blood of Christ.
When one of the priests is suspected of hatching a deadly plot against Queen Elizabeth I, a contract killer is sent to the Abbey.
But more than one person has a motive for murder…

Cheltenham, 2015
500 years later, Private Investigator Eden Grey stumbles upon a medieval skeleton when exploring Hailes Abbey with her boyfriend, archaeologist Aidan Fox.
Next to the corpse is an ancient relic – a relic that could contain legendary ‘Holy Blood’ – an artefact that some people believe to have miraculous powers.
But when the relic goes missing and another violent death occurs, Eden must connect the secrets of the past to the crimes of the present…

HOLY BLOOD is the second book in the Eden Grey Mystery Series, dual timeline conspiracy thrillers with a strong female lead.

THE EDEN GREY MYSTERY SERIES:
Book One: Paternoster
Book Two: Holy Blood

REVIEW:
3.75 Hearts This book was originally published in 2017 and re-released in January of 2020. And this is the 2nd in the series that I did not read the first one of but it can be a stand alone because it is mostly the mystery that the book is about.

I really enjoyed the history of the story. It felt like reading a Brad Meltzer or Dan Brown story when you are discussing the history discussed.

The other areas of the story are ok but worth the read to be entwined in the history.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews Signalz by F. Paul Wilson

TITLE: Signalz
SERIES #: Prelude to Nightworld
CHARACTERS: Elli & Hari
AUTHOR: F. Paul Wilson
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/07/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Twilight has come. Night will follow.
It will begin in the heavens and end in the Earth
But before that…the rules will be broken
The Change is coming and the world as we know it is ending. Sixteen-year-old Ellie has changed. She looks the same but her mother detects someone else looking out through her blue eyes. Ellie builds a “shelter” in her room with an entrance that leads…elsewhere.
And what of the convoy of tractor trailers Hari Tate watches drive up a mountain road and return without the trailers…leaving nothing on the mountain. What are they shipping?
And the writer who finds a hole in the floor of his NYC apartment and tumbles through into… elsewhere.
They will all find each other and find their answers in the electromagnetic pulses piercing the Earth from Out There, pulses that no one should hear, but some do. But they are not simply pulses. They are SIGNALZ.

REVIEW:
As a fan of Repairman Jack I was not missing this book. It is a novella from before Nightworld. The story is typical of Wilson with an eeriness not many could match.

Since it is a novella not much could be said without giving much away. But know that this is typical Wilson and a part of the Repairman Jack series you should not miss.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews Desolation Road by Christine Feehan

TITLE: Desolation Road
SERIES #: Torpedo Ink #4
CHARACTERS: Absinthe & Scarlet
AUTHOR: Christine Feehan
PUBLICATION DATE: 07/07/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Take the ride of your life with the Torpedo Ink motorcycle club in this thrilling romance novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.

Torpedo Ink is Aleksei “Absinthe” Solokov’s whole life. They’re his brothers, his family—his everything. But that doesn’t stop him from wanting something that only belongs to him. That’s why the tough biker has spent the last six weeks at the library, reading every book he can get his hands on and watching the prim and proper librarian who makes his blood rush.

For the past six weeks, Scarlet Foley has been fantasizing about the handsome, tattooed man whose eyes follow her every move. She senses he’s dangerous. She wants him to get close enough to touch. She wishes she could let him know the real woman, not the one she pretends to be. But Scarlet has a plan to carry out, and she can’t afford any distractions.

Absinthe is well aware that Scarlet is hiding something. She’s a puzzle he intends to solve, piece by intoxicating piece….

REVIEW:
Christine Feehan is honestly one of the best. And I truly enjoyed this story. This one was about Absinthe and Scarlet. Absinthe has Scarlet on his mind and he can’t seem to get her off. When Scarlet becomes “his” the whole team takes her as their own.

Scarlet has issues that Absinthe and the team are slowly finding out about and they will do anything to protect her.

Another great story by Feehan. This is the fourth in the series and I love this series and everything Feehan writes and this one doesn’t disappoint.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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Kimberly reviews Catch Me If You Can by Donna Kauffman

TITLE: Catch Me If You Can
SERIES #: Men Of Rogue’s Hollow #3
CHARACTERS: Tag & Maura
AUTHOR: Donna Kauffman
PUBLICATION DATE: 12/31/19
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Oh, those Morgan Brothers. In Bad Boys Next Exit and Jingle Bell Rock, USA Today bestselling author Donna Kauffman’s bad boys, Austin and Jace Morgan, couldn’t seem to stop themselves from getting into the most delicious kinds of trouble. Now, it’s brother Tag Morgan’s turn. The brainy anthropologist is in for the biggest discovery of his life – and his greatest treasure – in a woman who blows the dust off his libido…and unearths his secret desires…

IF IT’S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE SCOTLAND

All Tag Morgan wants to do is help settle his father’s estate so he can get back to properly cataloguing his Mayan ruins. So he’s caught quite off guard to discover that A) his father had holdings in Scotland, and B) the property now belongs to Tag. Leafing through his father’s correspondence with the property’s overseer, one Maura Sinclair, yields even more surprises. His father’s letters reveal a warmer, kinder man – nothing like the harsh, cold disciplinarian Tag remembers. Surely it has to do with Maura, whose writing is filled with a dry wit, and infectious charm that keeps Tag reading all night. By the time the sun rises, Tag knows he’s going to Scotland to find this woman who has so thoroughly captivated him.

Traveling alone through the Scottish highlands with an old car and an even older map, the man who dissects other cultures for a living is completely out of his element in this one. Eccentric locals. Bone-chilling weather. Lethal-strength ale. Scary sheep. It’s a lot to take in. More unsettling is Maura Sinclair, the woman with the sparkling blue eyes and the even sparkier temperament…a woman who’ll fight to keep the land for her tenants…and who ignites passions Tag didn’t even know he had. Once he gets a taste, Tag only wants more. And if he does, he’ll have to let go of the past and embrace the future with everything he’s got…especially his heart.

REVIEW:
This is a reprint from 2005 that I had never read. And I will be honest and say having read most of Donna Kauffman’s books and especially the newer ones and I can see how she has grown as an author. But that being said it was still a great book.

I loved some of the scenes that are in the book, especially the first meeting of Tag and Maura. The story is sweet and humorous. It is a light read but enjoyable.

I love that this story was set in Scotland in a castle the boys father bought years ago and now Tag is responsible for. And he meets Maura who has been caring for the castle for years. And the romance begins.

Such a great story to sit back and enjoy. It isn’t a mindless read but it is a simple read.

I will have to go back and see if I missed this whole series and pick them up.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts