Kimberly reviews The Family Next Door by Fiona Cummins

TITLE: The Family Next Door
CHARACTERS: Garrick & Olivia
AUTHOR: Fiona Cummins
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
For Sale: Lovely family home, ready for your updates. Friendly neighborhood setting close to park; secluded.

If not for the bodies discovered in the woods behind their new home, Garrick and Olivia Lockwood couldn’t have afforded to buy number 25 The Avenue. It’s the fresh start they and their two children badly need. Soon, these terrible crimes will be solved, they tell themselves, and once Garrick has remodeled, he’s confident they’ll sell the house for a profit.

But the darkest secrets can reside on quiet, ordinary streets like this–behind the doors of
well-kept houses and neighbors’ friendly faces. Secrets that can destroy a family, or savagely end a life, and will surface just when they’re least expected . . .

REVIEW:
3.5 Hearts I liked most of this story. The reason I say most is there is a bit of what I would call “horror” and it was really descriptive. A bit too descriptive for me. I have never been a fan of horror movies. I enjoy suspense and I liked the suspense part of this book and the story was interesting but the horror was just too much.

Taking the horror out of it I liked the characters and I think I would enjoy the same story told with less graphic details.

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

Kimberly reviews Pivot By Kat Martin, Alexandra Ivy & Rebecca Zanetti

TITLE: Pivot
CHARACTERS: Meri, Melanie & Michelle
AUTHOR: Kat Martin, Alexandra Ivy & Rebecca Zanetti
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/31/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
As girls, they bonded over broken homes and growing up in foster care.
As women, they’re fighting for their lives, and loves, once more . . .

MERI
When Meriwether Jones takes her young daughter and runs from trouble in L.A., that trouble follows. By the time Meri reaches Spokane, she’s out of gas, money, and ideas. Luckily, ex-cop Ian Brodie hires her to help him with his father’s farmhouse, and they seem like the answer to each other’s prayers. But Meri is keeping a dangerous secret–and Ian is in danger of losing his heart . . .https://books-n-kisses.com/wp-admin/post-new.php#edit_timestamp

MELANIE
That secret explodes when Melanie Cassidy spots two men trying to kidnap a young boy she tutors and responds by ramming them with her car. The last thing she expects is for the man she once loved, Detective Gray Hawkins, to appear and rescue them both. Now she has no choice but to trust him as they investigate the truth about a conspiracy of dirty, drug trafficking cops–and the truth about their relationship . . .

MICHELLE
After a rough youth, Michelle Peach was finally content in Portland–until two men broke into her home, threatened her, and sent her mentally unstable mom on a blackmail spree that Michelle has to stop. The last person Michelle wants to see is her ex, Evan Boldon, a former marine turned sheriff. But Evan misses the woman who walked away instead of letting him help years ago. This time he’s not asking permission; he’s going to put a stop to the trouble stalking Michelle and her friends–and win her heart for good.

REVIEW:
You can not go wrong with Rebecca Zanetti or Alexandra Ivy but to put them together makes it all the better. And Kat Martin is a great third to the anthology.

As a fan of Zanetti and Ivy there wasn’t a chance that I wouldn’t like this and I was right. Seeing familiar characters was great.

And meeting new characters (to me) from Kat Martin was great as well.

Highly recommend this anthology.

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

4 Hearts

Kimberly reviews When You See Me by Lisa Gardner

TITLE: When You See Me
CHARACTERS: Kimberly, Warren & Flora
AUTHOR: Lisa Gardner
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Bestselling author Lisa Gardner unites three of her most loved characters -Detective D.D. Warren, Flora Dane, and Kimberly Quincy – in a twisty new thriller, as they investigate a mysterious murder from the past that points to a dangerous and chilling present-day crime.

FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and Sergeant Detective DD Warren have built a task force to follow the digital bread crumbs left behind by deceased serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. And when a disturbing piece of evidence comes to light, they decide to bring in Flora Dane who has personal experience of being imprisoned by Ness.

Their investigations take them to a small town deep in the hills of Georgia where something seems to be deeply wrong.

What at first seems like a Gothic eeriness soon hardens into something much more sinister as they discover that for all the evil Jacob committed while alive, his worst secret is still to be revealed.

Quincy and DD must summon their considerable skills and experience to crack the most disturbing case of their careers – and Flora must face her own past directly in the hope of saving others.

REVIEW:
This is the 11th in the series and I do not think I have read any of them but I just thought this book sounded interesting and to be honest I didn’t realize this was part of a series when I requested it. That being said it can be read as a stand alone but I did think I was missing a bit of info about Quincy and DD but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the story.

This is about a serial killer and I found the writing into the forensics world was so specific and intense that it drew me into the suspense of the story.

I found this to be a great story with a lot of interesting detail as well as the story of the characters.

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

4 Hearts

Kimberly reviews Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

TITLE: Cross Her Heart
SERIES #: Bree Taggert #1
CHARACTERS: Bree Taggert
AUTHOR: Melinda Leigh
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/17/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A homicide detective’s violent family history repeats itself in #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s novel of murder, secrets, and retribution.

For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.

Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.

REVIEW:
This is a new series by an author I have heard a lot about so I decided to try it. And I am so glad I did. Now I get it. The writing of Leigh is great. She pulls you in right away.

Bree comes back to her hometown and is immediately pulled into an investigation that she doesn’t think the police are handling correctly. And she has to team up with Matt who just happens to be the suspects be3st friend. So of course he has an ulterior motive.

I can’t wait to read the next in the series. And I think I may need to go back and read some other books by Melinda Leigh.

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

Kelly reviews Cross Her Heart by Melinda Leigh

TITLE: Cross Her Heart
SERIES #: Bree Taggert #1
CHARACTERS: Bree Taggert & Matt Flynn
AUTHOR: Melinda Leigh
PUBLICATION DATE: March 17, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A homicide detective’s violent family history repeats itself in #1 Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Melinda Leigh’s novel of murder, secrets, and retribution.

For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.

Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.

REVIEW:
Bree Taggert has to return to her hometown to once again face a violent death in her family. Once Bree returns to town she finds that she can’t just sit back and let the local police handle the investigation. Bree will team up with Matt Flynn (who just happens to be the prime suspects best friend).

But will Bree be ready for all the secrets and lies she is about to uncover?

Another great story by Melinda Leigh! Cross Her Heart is the first book in her new Bree Taggert Series. I am very excited to see where this series goes. It was fun to see a few familiar names from past series also. I am already looking forward to book two See Her Die (September 1, 2020).
If you are looking for a good suspense read I would highly suggest that you pick up a copy of Cross Her Heart.

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

Kimberly reviews Woman On The Edge by Samantha M Bailey

TITLE: Woman On The Edge
CHARACTERS: Morgan
AUTHOR: Samantha M. Bailey
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/03/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A moment on the platform changes two lives forever. But nothing is as it seems…

‘Take my baby.’

In a split second, Morgan’s life changes forever. A stranger hands her a baby, then jumps in front of a train.

Morgan has never seen the woman before and she can’t understand what would cause a person to give away her child and take her own life.

When the police question Morgan, she discovers none of the witnesses can corroborate her version of events. And when they learn Morgan longs for a baby of her own, she becomes a suspect.

To prove her innocence, Morgan frantically tries to retrace the last days of the woman’s life. She begins to understand that Nicole Markham believed she and her baby were in danger. Now Morgan might be in danger, too.

Was Nicole a new mother struggling with paranoia?

Or was something much darker going on?

Pulse-pounding, heartrending, shocking, thrilling. This is one book you won’t be able to stop thinking about.

REVIEW:
Another story that I am on the fence about. The idea of the story is good and has a lot of potential. I think a little more time would have helped this story a bit. I had a bit of trouble with the writing. Maybe it is because the author is from Canada but I just had a hard time with it.

It almost seemed like the author wrote quickly and didn’t give a lot of background to each scene.

Just not sure how I feel about this one.

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

Kimberly reviews The Silent House by Nell Pattison

TITLE: The Silent House
CHARACTERS: Paige Northwood
AUTHOR: Nell Pattison
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/01/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
If someone was in your house, you’d know.
Wouldn’t you?
But the Hunter family are deaf, and don’t hear a thing when a shocking crime takes place in the middle of the night. Instead, they wake up to their worst nightmare.

The police call Paige Northwood to the scene to interpret for the witnesses. They’re in shock, but Paige senses the Hunters are hiding something.

One by one, people Paige knows from the Deaf community start to fall under suspicion. But who would kill a little girl?

Was it an intruder?

Or was the murderer closer to home?

This mystery will keep you up all night – perfect for fans of The Silent Patient and Cara Hunter

REVIEW:
3.5 Hearts I thought this was a really interesting concept. What happens with a child is killed in your home but because you are deaf you don’t hear anything? And how do you get your story to the police when you find the murder the next morning?

Well the idea is interesting and I hoped the book would be as well. And it was… sorta. When Paige becomes the ASL interpreter she knows the family. She is not deaf but her family is so she knows the language well. And there is a lot to what happens because of the concept.

The problem is there were things that I just couldn’t make sense of. First a deaf family has other ways to know things are happening (phone rings so lights flash, alarm goes off so bed shakes, etc) so how did they not know someone was in the house.

But on another note the writing seemed a bit slow at some points. The book could have been cut down a bit by omitting a bunch of added words that didn’t make the story better.

All in all a book that had my attention for the concept alone.

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

Kelly reviews Little Girls Sleeping by Jennifer Chase

TITLE: Little Girls Sleeping
SERIES #: Detective Katie Scott #1
CHARACTERS: Katie Scott
AUTHOR: Jennifer Chase
PUBLICATION DATE: May 31, 2019
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | Audible | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
He looked down at the little girl, sleeping peacefully, her arms wrapped around a teddy bear. He knew he was the only one who could save her. He could let her sleep forever.

An eight-year-old girl, Chelsea Compton, is missing in Pine Valley, California and for Detective Katie Scott it’s a cruel reminder of the friend who disappeared from summer camp twenty years ago. Unable to shake the memories, Katie vows she won’t rest until she discovers what happened to Chelsea.

But as Katie starts to investigate, the case reveals itself to be much bigger and more shocking than she feared. Hidden deep in the forest she unearths a makeshift cemetery: a row of graves, each with a brightly coloured teddy bear.

Katie links the graves to a stack of missing-persons cases involving young girls—finding a pattern no one else has managed to see. Someone in Pine Valley has been taking the town’s daughters for years, and Katie is the only one who can stop them.

And then another little girl goes missing, snatched from the park near her home.

Katie’s still haunted by the friend she failed to protect, and she’ll do anything to stop the killer striking again—but can she find the little girl before it’s too late?

REVIEW:
3.5 Hearts Katie Scott is back from serving overseas and is trying to put her life back together. She goes back to her childhood home and starts working for the local Sheriff’s office to help her uncle out. When Katie stubbles upon a cold case file that is too close for comfort. Katie starts her own investigation into some missing girls.

This was a good read and I really enjoyed that the main character Katie is tough and fragile all at the same time. Ms. Chase does a great job with the red herrings in this story too. Just when I thought “I know who done it” she sent me down another path. I am very much looking forward to more books in this series and to see how Katie develops as a detective and learn more about her backstory. And of course Cisco and Chad. 🙂

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

Sunday Series Presents: Joanna Schaffhausen’s Ellery Hathaway Series

TITLE: The Vanishing Season
SERIES #: Ellery Hathaway #1
CHARACTERS: Ellery Hathaway
AUTHOR: Joanna Schaffhausen
PUBLICATION DATE: December 5, 2017
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Ellery Hathaway knows a thing or two about serial killers, but not through her police training. She’s an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim number seventeen in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben. The only victim who lived.

When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday—the day she was kidnapped so long ago—Ellery fears someone knows her secret. Someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer’s closet all those years ago.

Agent Reed Markham made his name and fame on the back of the Coben case, but his fortunes have since turned. His marriage is in shambles, his bosses think he’s washed up, and worst of all, he blew a major investigation. When Ellery calls him, he can’t help but wonder: sure, he rescued her, but was she ever truly saved? His greatest triumph is Ellery’s waking nightmare, and now both of them are about to be sucked into the past, back to the case that made them…with a killer who can’t let go.

*****
TITLE: No Mercy
SERIES #: Ellery Hathaway #2
CHARACTERS: Ellery Hathaway
AUTHOR: Joanna Schaffhausen
PUBLICATION DATE: January 15, 2019
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Police officer Ellery Hathaway and FBI profiler Reed Markham take on two difficult new cases in this stunning follow-up to The Vanishing Season.

No Mercy is award-winning author Joanna Schaffhausen’s heart-pounding second novel.

Police officer Ellery Hathaway is on involuntary leave from her job because she shot a murderer in cold blood and refuses to apologize for it. Forced into group therapy for victims of violent crime, Ellery immediately finds higher priorities than “getting in touch with her feelings.”

For one, she suspects a fellow group member may have helped to convict the wrong man for a deadly arson incident years ago. For another, Ellery finds herself in the desperate clutches of a woman who survived a brutal rape. He is still out there, this man with the Spider-Man-like ability to climb through bedroom windows, and his victim beseeches Ellery for help in capturing her attacker.

Ellery seeks advice from her friend, FBI profiler Reed Markham, who liberated her from a killer’s closet when she was a child. Reed remains drawn to this unpredictable woman, the one he rescued but couldn’t quite save. The trouble is, Reed is up for a potential big promotion, and his boss has just one condition for the new job—stay away from Ellery. Ellery ignores all the warnings. Instead, she starts digging around in everyone’s past but her own—a move that, at best, could put her out of work permanently, and at worst, could put her in the city morgue.

*****
TITLE: All the Best Lies
SERIES #: Ellery Hathaway #3
CHARACTERS: Ellery Hathaway
AUTHOR: Joanna Schaffhausen
PUBLICATION DATE: February 11, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS: BI agent Reed Markham is haunted by one painful unsolved mystery: who murdered his mother? Camilla was brutally stabbed to death more than forty years ago while baby Reed lay in his crib mere steps away. The trail went so cold that the Las Vegas Police Department has given up hope of solving the case. But then a shattering family secret changes everything Reed knows about his origins, his murdered mother, and his powerful adoptive father, state senator Angus Markham. Now Reed has to wonder if his mother’s killer is uncomfortably close to home.

Unable to trust his family with the details of his personal investigation, Reed enlists his friend, suspended cop Ellery Hathaway, to join his quest in Vegas. Ellery has experience with both troubled families and diabolical murderers, having narrowly escaped from each of them. She’s eager to skip town, too, because her own father, who abandoned her years ago, is suddenly desperate to get back in contact. He also has a secret that could change her life forever, if Ellery will let him close enough to hear it.

Far from home and relying only on each other, Reed and Ellery discover young Camilla had snared the attention of dangerous men, any of whom might have wanted to shut her up for good. They start tracing his twisted family history, knowing the path leads back to a vicious killer—one who has been hiding in plain sight for forty years and isn’t about to give up now.

 

About the author:
Joanna Schaffhausen wields a mean scalpel, skills she developed in her years studying neuroscience. She has a doctorate in psychology, which reflects her long-standing interest in the brain―how it develops and the many ways it can go wrong. Previously, she worked as a scientific editor in the field of drug development. Prior to that, she was an editorial producer for ABC News, writing for programs such as World News Tonight, Good Morning America, and 20/20. She lives in the Boston area with her husband, daughter, and an obstreperous basset hound named Winston.

Website | Goodreads | Amazon Page | Facebook | Twitter

Kimberly reviews In Search Of Truth by Sharon Wray

TITLE: In Search Of Truth
SERIES #: Deadly Force #3
CHARACTERS: Zack & Allison
AUTHOR: Sharon Wray
PUBLICATION DATE: 02/25/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Some treasure is hidden in plain sight…
Ex-Green Beret Zack Tremaine is a man haunted by regrets. Years ago, he betrayed his men and lost the only woman he ever loved. Now that he’s been given a chance to save both, his only hope is his lost love, Allison Pinckney, who knows more than anyone else about a lost treasure that’s the key to Zack’s mission.

Allison is fascinated by the past. Somewhere in her research is the key to a missing fortune, and Allison finds herself on a perilous mission with the one man she’s been avoiding. She knows that if she gives in to her long-buried feelings for Zack, it will put them both in danger.

But as the search heats up Zack and Allison are constantly thrown together, and they discover how much more powerful they are together than apart.

REVIEW:
2.75 Hearts I read the first in the series but missed the second. So there was some confusion as I read the story but not alot. I would however suggest reading the other two before this one.

I had a bit of a hard time with the idea of this story. There was just so much that seemed unrealistic.

I wanted to enjoy this story because the idea of it sounded good but it just fell a bit flat for me.

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

Kimberly reviews The Warsaw Protocol by Steve Berry

TITLE: The Warsaw Protocol
SERIES #: Cotton Malone #15
CHARACTERS: Cotton Malone
AUTHOR: Steve Berry
PUBLICATION DATE: 02/25/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
In New York Times bestseller Steve Berry’s latest Cotton Malone adventure, the arrogant greed of politics comes face-to-face with the weight of history.

One by one the seven precious relics of the Arma Christi, the weapons of Christ, are disappearing from sanctuaries across the world.

After former Justice Department agent Cotton Malone witnesses the theft of one of them, he learns from his old boss, Stephanie Nelle, that a private auction is about to be held where incriminating information on the president of Poland will be offered to the highest bidder–blackmail that both the United States and Russia want, but for vastly different reasons.

The price of admission to that auction is one of the relics, so Malone is first sent to a castle in Poland to steal the Holy Lance, a thousand-year-old spear sacred to not only Christians but to the Polish people, and then on to the auction itself. But nothing goes as planned and Malone is thrust into a bloody battle between three nations over a secret that, if exposed, could change the balance of power in Europe.

From the tranquil canals of Bruges, to the elegant rooms of Wawel Castle, to the ancient salt mines deep beneath the earth outside Krakow, Malone is caught in the middle of a deadly war–the outcome of which turns on something known as the Warsaw Protocol.

REVIEW:
4.5 Hearts I have read some of this series but not all. But the thing is each book can be a stand alone. Even though knowing Malone from the beginning helps but it really isn’t mandatory.

What a book this one was! I was so glad I didn’t miss this one in the series.

One of the things I enjoy best about Steve Berry books is the history he puts into every one. History that most likely you have never heard about. I want to climb into the book and visit every city Berry writes about. And the concept story is great too.

Malone is serious but has his moments of levity which makes me enjoy him even more.

Right up there with Brad Meltzer and for me that says a lot.

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

4 Hearts

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.