Author: Kimberly

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Kimberly reviews The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

TITLE: The Other Mrs
CHARACTERS: Sadie & Will
AUTHOR: Mary Kubica
PUBLICATION DATE: 02/18/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbor, Morgan Baines, is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie, who is terrified by the thought of a killer in her very own backyard.

But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. It’s their eerie old home, with its decrepit decor and creepy attic, which they inherited from Will’s sister after she died unexpectedly. It’s Will’s disturbed teenage niece Imogen, with her dark and threatening presence. And it’s the troubling past that continues to wear at the seams of their family.

As the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of Morgan’s death. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.

REVIEW:
3.25 Hearts Boy the beginning of this book had me going. The thrill of it and the intensity was leading up to… well nothing.

After the first third to half of the book it was good. But then bam… nothing seemed real, logical or really interesting. I was looking for more of a spooky feel but the story just didn’t end with that and really was a let down.

Maybe I built it up to much but I the best way I can describe it is the author started this book, put it aside because of writers block then came back with a whole different mindset.

Giving it 3.25 because of the beginning and the concept.

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

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Kimberly reviews Been There, Married That by Gigi Levangie

TITLE: Been There, Married That
CHARACTERS: Agnes Murphy Nash
AUTHOR: Gigi Levangie
PUBLICATION DATE: 02/11/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A hilarious new novel full of Hollywood glitz, glamour, and scandal.

When he changes the locks, she changes the rules.

Agnes Murphy Nash is the perfect Hollywood wife – she has the right friends, the right clothes, and even a side career of her own as a writer. Her husband Trevor is a bigshot producer, and from the outside it looks like they’re living a picture-perfect celebrity life, complete with tennis tournaments and lavish parties.

But the job description of a Hollywood wife doesn’t cover divorce, which is the way Agnes’ life is headed after she comes home one day to find her credit cards cancelled and the security passwords to get into her enormous LA home changed. Oh, and there’s a guy there whose job it is to tase her if she tries to enter…which she does. Needless to say, Agnes’ husband is dead set on making sure she loses big time, but Agnes isn’t the type to just lie down and take it. In a world of fremenies and hot nannies, personal psychics and “skinny” jello shots, Agnes may be losing her husband, but could that mean getting her own life back?

Been There, Married That is a drop-dead hilarious battle of wills that will make you laugh out loud, cringe, and keep turning the pages to see what crazy disaster will happen to Agnes next…and how she’ll rise from the ashes.

REVIEW:
2.5 Hearts This was a close DNF for me but decided I would skim the rest of it. I think the author was too set on throwing in snark that she forgot there should have been a story involved.

I have never read this author but the title caught my attention. And then the description seemed good so I requested it. I really just didn’t enjoy it.

The husband is such an asshat that I just wanted to stop reading anything about him. There was NOTHING good about this man. And why Agnes listens to anything he says is beyond me. I mean he sends her to rehab for almonds and she goes? I can’t even begin to tell you the words that would have come out of my mouth and the last one would have been divorce…. And been happy about it.

I just couldn’t stand these characters and like I said the writing was going more for snark than humor if you ask me.

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

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Kimberly reviews Hands Across The Grave by Donna Kolling Lear

TITLE: Hands Across The Grave
CHARACTERS: James Riley, Bob Maywood & Hank Welch
AUTHOR: Donna Kolling Lear
PUBLICATION DATE: 09/22/19
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
September, 1967

After twenty-seven years with the FBI, Assistant Special Agent, James Riley, has officially retired. Finally out of the crazy and unpredictable world of law enforcement, he and his wife, Meg, are excited to start the next chapter of their lives in the small town of Monrovia, California.

Meg throws James a surprise retirement party that brings their daughter, Clair, and her husband Tom, home from Ohio and reunites James with his old friend Bob Maywood. When Clair announces that she and Tom will be moving back to Monrovia, James and Meg are thrilled. However, their excitement turns to terror when Clair and Tom fail to return from a short walk. A search of the neighborhood leads James and Bob to an abandoned house, where they find Clair’s opal and diamond necklace and a chloroform-soaked rag.

James and Bob team up with his former supervisor, Special Agent Hank Welch, to find Clair and Tom. They will soon find themselves caught in a web of lies, revenge, and deception that threatens the Riley family and friends.

REVIEW:
3.5 Hearts So I was expecting something a bit more well spooky. But that is not what this is about. And because it is so short I was ok with it.

I actually liked the characters. I would say that the author should consider adding to this book and making it more of a novel than the novella it feels like.

Because it is short, I don’t want to give much away, but the suspense was written really well.

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

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Kimberly reviews The Intended Victim by Alexandra Ivy

TITLE: The Intended Victim
SERIES #: The Agency #4
CHARACTERS: Remi & Ash
AUTHOR: Alexandra Ivy
PUBLICATION DATE: 12/31/19
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
ONCE, SHE GOT AWAY
The body lying on a cold steel slab bears all the hallmarks of the Chicago Butcher. There’s a cruel slash across her throat, deep enough to sever the carotid artery, and a small crescent carved into her right breast. Her delicate features are painfully familiar to Ash Marcel, once a rising star in the Chicago PD. But though the victim resembles his former fiancée, Remi Walsh, he knows it’s not her.

BUT THIS TIME
Though Remi escaped a serial killer five years ago, her father died trying to save her. Grief and guilt caused her to pull away from the man she loved. Now Ash is back in her life, insisting that Remi is still in danger.

IT’S A DEAD END . . .
Someone is targeting women who look just like Remi. With or without a badge, Ash intends to unmask the Butcher. But the killer isn’t playing games any longer. He’s moving in, ready to finish what he started, and prove there’s nothing more terrifying than a killer’s obsession . . .

REVIEW:
I have truly enjoyed all the works from Alexandra Ivy. There is nothing she can’t write and I can’t enjoy!

The suspense is well written (but then anything by Ivy is) but I found myself on the edge of my seat a few times. And this is certainly one that I said to myself “one more chapter” and then at the end of the chapter “ok one more”.

Remi and Ash make a great partnership and I hope that Jax (Ash’s brother) gets his own story soon. Because I have to say he was my favorite character in the book.

Another great read from Alexandra Ivy. I would say to read from the beginning of the series but that is just so you can be familiar with Ivy’s Agency. But it can be read alone.

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

4 Hearts

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Kelly reviews A Longer Fall by Charlaine Harris

TITLE: A Longer Fall
SERIES #: Gunnie Rose #2
CHARACTERS: Lizbeth Rose
AUTHOR: Charlaine Harris
NARRATOR: Eva Kaminsky
PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2020
RUN TIME: Hours & Minutes
ORDER LINKS: Audible | Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
NUMBER ONE ‘NEW YORK TIMES’ BEST-SELLING AUTHOR CHARLAINE HARRIS RETURNS WITH THE SECOND OF THE GUNNIE ROSE SERIES, IN WHICH LIZBETH IS HIRED ONTO A NEW CREW, TRANSPORTING A CRATE INTO DIXIE, THE SELF-EXILED SOUTHEAST TERRITORY OF THE FORMER UNITED STATES. WHAT THE CRATE CONTAINS IS SOMETHING SO POWERFUL, THAT FORCES FROM ACROSS THE THREE TERRITORIES WANT TO POSSESS IT.
In this second thrilling installment of the Gunnie Rose series, Lizbeth Rose is hired onto a new crew for a seemingly easy protection job, transporting a crate into Dixie, just about the last part of the former United States of America she wants to visit. But what seemed like a straight-forward job turns into a massacre as the crate is stolen. Up against a wall in Dixie, where social norms have stepped back into the last century, Lizbeth has to go undercover with an old friend to retrieve the crate as what’s inside can spark a rebellion, if she can get it back in time.
Number one ‘New York Times’ best-selling author Charlaine Harries (Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and Midnight Texas Trilogy) is at her best here, building the world of this alternate history of the United States, where magic is an acknowledged but despised power.

REVIEW:
A Longer Fall is the second installment of Charlaine Harris’ Gunnie Rose series.

A Longer Fall picks up a few months after the end of An Easy Death. We catch up with Lizbeth Rose (aka Gunnie Rose) and her new crew of Gunnies. We find them on a train headed to Dixie with a package. Dixie is not a place the Lizbeth would normally want to be but the package needs to be delivered. What should have been an easy sit on the box and deliver turns out to be not so lucky for the Lucky Crew. A train derailment leads Lizbeth and her crew facing enemy after enemy. But in the midst of all the chaos a familiar face emerges. One Lizbeth never thought she would ever see again.

Eva Kaminsky does a great job again bring these characters to life. I really enjoyed having her read this story to me. I do hope that she stays on for the rest of this series.

I really enjoyed this book and I am already looking forward to the next installment in this series. Lizbeth is a great character and I enjoy watching her grow as a person. I have high hopes for what might come next in this series.

Note: I would recommend reading this series in order. I think you could read book two without book one but there is a lot of history that you will miss if you don’t.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley, Edelweiss & Gallery / Saga Press 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 Scorched Grounds by Debbie Herbert

TITLE: Scorched Grounds
SERIES #: Normal Alabama #2
CHARACTERS: Della Stallings
AUTHOR: Debbie Herbert
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
From bestselling author Debbie Herbert comes a chilling, fast-paced story about family tragedy and confronting what terrifies us most.

In the eighteen years since her father went to prison for killing her mother and brother, Della Stallings has battled a crippling phobia. Her fear only grows when her father’s released. She still believes he killed her family, but the police don’t have enough evidence to arrest him again.

When new grisly murders occur—each bearing the telltale signs that seem to implicate her father—Della begins to wonder if the real murderer is still out there. Could her father have been framed?

To find the truth, Della must face her greatest fears and doubts—not only to find justice for her family but to ensure her own survival.

REVIEW:
3.75 Hearts This is the second in the series but I didn’t read the first but that being said this could be written as a stand alone.

Della witnessed her mother and brother murdered and her father charged with the crime. Now he is getting out of prison and when a murder occurs Della suspects her father but she and Detective Whitt take up the investigation but is it to find her father guilty or innocent?

The suspense was very well written and I enjoyed the characters. Normal, AL seems like a place that has a lot going on. Herbert has a way of writing that makes you interested in the characters and wanting to know what will happen next.

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

4 Hearts

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Kimberly reviews Shall We Dance? by Shelley Shepard Gray

TITLE: Shall We Dance?
SERIES #: Dance With Me #1
CHARACTERS: Shannon & Dylan
AUTHOR: Shelley Shepard Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
At twenty-seven, Shannon Murphy has just discovered that she has two sisters she never knew. Now, through Shannon’s loving persistence, the three of them are moving in together above her dance studio in Bridgeport. Shannon is excited to make a home with her sisters and to grow her budding business. Then she meets her newest client–he has all the right muscles, a perfect smile, and a lot of attitude. Will Shannon be able to keep things professional with this charming stranger?

Dylan Lange has a lot on his mind. He’s just been assigned a new partner at his job with the Bridgeport Police, and while he’s busy striving to protect and serve his town, he’s also trying to keep his baby sister out of harm’s way while she heals from her own trauma. And on top of everything else, he’s gone and lost a bet with his buddies, forcing him to take dance lessons. But when he walks into the dance studio to meet his instructor, a young and beautiful brunette with a sweet southern drawl is the last person he expected to find.

Get ready to fall in love again as Shelley Shepard Gray takes us back to Bridgeport, Ohio, where nobody gets left behind and a powerful community helps ordinary men and women to find extraordinary strength inside themselves.

REVIEW:
3.25 Hearts This is the first time reading this author. But it is the first in a new series so I decided to give it a try.

I might have picked it up because of the coincidences. First one of the names (Kimber) is one of the coincidences but also, oddly, I just found I have a sister I didn’t know about… year, really!

This story is very much women’s lit. There is romance but with a “hero” I never really fell for. And there was a bunch in the story that didn’t flow. Somethings done off page that didn’t make sense. Which is why I say it is more women’s lit than romance.

Still on the fence.

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

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Kelly reviews A Heart Of Blood And Ashes by Milla Vane

TITLE: A Heart of Blood and Ashes
SERIES #: A Gathering of Dragons #1
CHARACTERS: Maddek & Yvenne
AUTHOR: Milla Vane
PUBLICATION DATE: February 4, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil—until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents’ murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones—because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…

REVIEW:
Maddek is out for vengeance and nothing will stand in his way. That is until he meets an unlikely ally. One that will test everything the Maddek knows and feels. Nothing will ever be the same for Maddek.

Yvenne has been looked away for all her life. But now she is free and she is determined to take what is rightfully hers. In order to do that she will need the help of a very reluctant ally that would rather her dead.

What a great first book in Milla Vane’s new A Gathering of Dragons series. I really enjoyed reading this book. Milla does a great job building a world full of very strange creatures, magic and the people that live in this world. I really enjoyed the case of characters too. I am already looking forward to the next installment in this series.

If you are looking for a great read that is filled with stubborn warriors, strategic queens, lies, betrayals, magic, hope and romance you need to put add this book to your need to read list!

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

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Kelly reviews Whiteout by Adriana Anders

TITLE: Whiteout
SERIES #: Survival Instinct #1
CHARACTERS: Ford Cooper & Angel Smith
AUTHOR: Adriana Anders
PUBLICATION DATE: January 28, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Angel Smith is ready to leave Antarctica for a second chance at life. But on what was meant to be her final day, the research station is attacked. Hunted and scared, she and glaciologist Ford Cooper barely make it out with their lives…only to realize that in a place this remote, there’s nowhere left to run.

Isolated in the middle of a long, frozen winter with a madman at their heels, they must fight to survive in the most inhospitable—and beautiful—place on earth. But the outside world depends on what Ford and Angel know and, as their pursuers close in and their new partnership burns bright and hot, they will stop at nothing to make it out of the cold alive.

REVIEW:
This was an okay read for me. I found myself not really connecting to the characters. Oh, I routed for them and wanted everything to workout but there was not a strong connection for me. The story was a little predictable.
Overall it was a decent story and I am glad that I picked it up. I do believe that if there is a follow up story I will pick it up and give it a try.

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