Pine Lake by Amanda Stevens

Title: Pine Lake
Author: Amanda Stevens
Series: Stand-Alone
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin Intrigue; Original edition (October 1, 2017)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2

Synopsis: SLEEPWALKING WITH DANGER  

The murder of security expert Jack King's girlfriend has haunted him for fifteen years. Returning to Pine Lake, Texas, where the townsfolk still consider him suspect, might not be the smartest move, but a killer seems to be holding up a mirror to his past. The same witness to this new murder was also present the night Jack's girlfriend dieds…but both times, she was sound asleep…

Sleepwalking has gotten Olive Belmont into some sticky situations. Being the witness to both murders may have put her on the killer's list. Even so, she doesn't think the killer is Jack and is willing to help him. But will putting his past to rest ease her mind or leave her with even greater nightmares?

My Thoughts: A good suspense book from a great author.

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: While I feel the suspense of this book was top notch I would have loved for the book to be longer. A longer book would have been really able to capitalize on the feeling of suspense. The length of book is pretty typical of a category romance and in most cases it always leaves me wanting more. This book in particular. I wanted the romance to have more time to develop naturally as well as wanting longer suspense. The book takes place in a matter of days so a viable romance really doesn't have time to develop but luckily there wasn't insta-love. Yes the characters had a connection but thankfully there were no I Love You's at the end. So that was a plus for me.

The mystery part was expected but with a twist so I liked it quite a bit but would have liked a more hidden motive rather than the one explained. There were also a couple episodes of a sleepwalking incidents that felt off to me. I don't know a lot about sleepwalking but I did have a friend who did sleepwalk who said she had to have a lock on her bedroom door because while she was a sleepwalking she was unable to have the dexterity to unlock doors. Of course sleepwalking could be highly different from one person to another. As I said, I don't know a lot about it.

The characters could have been fleshed out more but there is a basic understanding of both Jack and Olivia and what makes them tick. I liked Olivia but found she was a bit of a Mary Sue. I also liked Jack but his complexity was just glossed over. Stevens gave us just a taste of what Jack was all about and, not to beat a dead horse....where did that saying come from anyway?....it's pretty morbid, but had there been the option of a longer book Jack might have ended up worth of Book Boyfriend status.

In a Nutshell: This was a good book on the verge of being great. This author knows her stuff and is really capable of penning a thrilling book. This is my first book by her but not my last as I have tons of her Intrigues on my shelf.

Mother's Day Out by Karen MacInerney

Title: Mother's Day Out
Author: Karen MacInerney
Series: #1 in the Margie Peterson Mysteries series
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Brilliance Audio (April 15, 2014) (first published June 2,2012)
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: Margie Peterson is a typical stay-at-home mom until she trades dishes for detective work to become Austin's least-likely PI. Soon she's knee-deep in cheating husbands, transvestites, and trouble in a laugh-out-loud new mystery from award-winning author Karen MacInerney.

With a husband who works long hours trying to make partner and two rambunctious kids that are running her ragged, Margie Peterson is like any other worn-out suburban mom. When she decides to take a job as a PI for a seedy local detective agency, everything changes. It doesn't take long for Margie to get in over her head: Her first day on the job she totals her minivan, mistakenly enters a drag contest, and winds up in the bathroom with a dead transvestite. But when Margie finds her home number in the victim's phone, things really start to get interesting.

My Thoughts: I found this book while looking for a cozy mystery featuring a PI to fit in a Bingo Game I'm playing over at GoodReads. It was a good find.

The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle:  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book after realizing the LGBTQ community was going to be a hot topic within it. The last cozy mystery I read that mentioned the Gay community had homophobic undertones that pissed me off to the extreme and I will not read another book by that author.  I was prepared to hate this book even though I read another MacInerney (in a different series) a few months ago and liked it a lot. I was pleasantly surprised to find our main character, not an expert on the Drag Queen community, but open minded and willing to listen without judgement.

I did find Margie a bit TSTL (which is a common trait in the genre) but I do have faith she will make a good PI. I'm hoping the fact that she is running around claiming to be a PI after working for a PI company for only 2 weeks and has no license will get rectified. You just can't be a PI without a license.

Most of the secondary characters were specifically drawn to either have the reader like them or hate them. I did like that Margie's husband, Blake, was a bit more complex. Sure, through most of the book I didn't like him. I wasn't supposed to. He comes from uppity stock and I was wondering how in the world they ever got together as he was all about status and appearance. Towards the end I almost liked him and even felt sorry for him.

I'm really interested in seeing what happens in the future for Margie and Blake.

I listened to the audio recording and thought Cris Dukehart was a good Margie. Her voices weren't super distinctive but I was able to listen to the book at my usual speed of almost 2Xs. Her voice for Margie's friend Becky did get a bit chipmunky though. If she had been the main character I may have had to adjust the speed to a little slower.

In a Nutshell: I'm looking forward to getting to read more in the series and with my Kindle Unlimited I'll be able to listen or read. I love that option.

Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson

Title: Murder in Chinatown
Author: Victoria Thompson
Series: #9 in the Gasllight Mystery series
Genre: Historical Mystery (cozy mystery)
Publisher: Berkley(June 5, 2007 )
Source: Gift
Rating: ☕☕☕1/2

Synopsis: Sarah Brandt has made her uneasy way to Chinatown to deliver a baby. There she meets a group of Irish women who, completely alone at Ellis Island, married Chinese men in the same predicament. But even as a new century dawns, New Yorkers still cling to their own kind, scorning children of mixed races.

When the new mother's half-Chinese, half-Irish niece goes missing, Sarah knows that alerting the police will accomplish nothing, and seeks the one person she can turn to-Detective Sergeant Malloy.

And when the missing girl is found dead in a Chinatown alley, Sarah and Malloy have ample suspects in her murder-from both sides of Canal Street.

My Thoughts: I typically love this series but this wasn't one of my favorite books in the series. It took me forever to read which is also an indication that I didn't enjoy it as much.

The Good, The Bad, And The Stuff in the Middle:  In this book, similar to Murder in Little Italy, the topic of racial prejudice was a major topic. As these are set in the late 1800's it wasn't a surprise but for me it was tiresome. People hated the Irish. People hated the Italians. And in this one, people hated the Chinese. Considering every single person in New York in this book is either a foreigner or can easily trace their family tree to show their roots are also foreign....the hatred was almost too much for me. Thankfully Sarah does not fall into this way of thinking so her attitude was one of the only aspects that prevented me from chucking this book. When Thompson went out of her way to mention the Chinese way of talking was different and their "L's" came out as "R's" with an example....well folks...that was almost the chucking point. I couldn't help but start to mentally read the dialogue that way. Up until that point I was happily reading everything in my own voice.

The mystery felt like it took too long to resolve (of course that was probably due to me taking forever to read this book) and Sarah and Frank's relationship did not progress even a little bit. This made me sad as I view the budding relationship between the two important in my enjoyment of the series. The solving of Sarah's husband's murder moved barely half an inch but now has a timeline where Frank only has a few weeks to find his killer. So the next few books might have closure on that underlying link.

What did I like about this book? Agnes/Catherine and Maeve. I love those girls and they are just blooming under Sarah's guidance. I love the family unit she has created and the addition of the nosy but lovable elderly woman next door is even more of a plus.

In a Nutshell: I'm hoping this was just a one off and the next book will be better for me because I am not ready to give it up.

Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory

Title: Spoonbenders
Author: Daryl Gregory (narrated by Ari Fliakos)
Series: Stand-alone
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio  (June 27, 2017)
Source: Library Find
Rating: ☕☕☕

Synopsis: The year is 1995.

Meet the Telemachuses: an apparently ordinary family with strikingly obvious issues. Their individual personalities are eccentric, their intergenerational relationships are strained, their collective failures are well documented, and their finances are, well, let's not even go there.
The city is Chicago.

For Grandson Matty Telemachus, this is just the way things have always been. The only person who has ever tried to convince him otherwise is his hapless Uncle Frankie, who rushes to retrieve 'that video tape' every time he consumes too much red wine at Thanksgiving.
The family is dysfunctional.

This cassette is proof that the family - Grandad Teddy, Grandma Maureen, Aunt Irene, Uncle Frankie and Uncle Buddy - were once known as The Amazing Telemachus Family, and toured the country with a magic and mind-reading act. That was, until on fateful night in 1974...
So is the magic.

Spoonbenders is the legacy and legend of an extraordinary, normal, entirely unique family across three generations of big personalities and socially inept recluses - each cursed with the potential of being something special.

My Thoughts: I read a very short review about this book and the reviewer enjoyed this book so I thought I'd give it a shot.

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: I made a mistake when tackling this book. I did not read the synopsis. I had no idea this book was set in 1995. I did manage to figure it out but the book also skipped back and forth in time with no indication it was happening. At least on the audio version. The results made for a little bit of a confused listen at first. I did figure it out but I thought this hindered my enjoyment rather than enhance it.

The building of the storyline was actually very interesting and the character, Buddy, although being portrayed as a secondary character was the best of the bunch. The plot was pretty cleverly woven and it built and built throughout the book to a good climax but overall it didn't wow me. Probably because the book spent so much time focusing on two characters, Teddy and Frankie, who were essentially the same person. I don't necessarily have to like the characters in a book but sometimes my dislike of specific characters can sway my enjoyment of a book anyway. In this case having  more than half the book so focused on the two characters I disliked was a big negative sway.

The narration was adequate but not great. I don't recall any voice differences between characters. This could mean they might have been there but were not great nor horrible enough for me to notice or there really wasn't any difference. At the end of the book I felt Fliakos just read the story to me rather than it being a great audio production. I would not seek out another book narrated by Ari Fliakos for the sake of the narration but wouldn't refuse to listen to another one based on this book.

In a Nutshell: An overall OK book but not one I would re-read. I also wouldn't recommend this book except for, perhaps, likeminded readers. I'm not sure if I would seek out another book by Gregory but as I do like to give an author at least 2 tries I would rule it out.

Murder on the Rocks by Allyson K. Abbott

Title: Murder on the Rocks
Author: Allyson K Abbott
Series: #1 in the Mack's Bar Mysteries series
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Kensington (August 6, 2013)
Source: Purchased
Rating: ☕☕☕

Synopsis: Mack's Bar is one of those nice, friendly places where everybody knows your name. That's great when someone's buying you a round, but not so hot when you find yourself atop a list of murder suspects--with your fingerprints on the bloody knife!

Mackenzie "Mack" Dalton is a Milwaukee bar owner with a nose for trouble--literally. A neurological glitch has left her with extra perceptive senses. So when she stumbles upon a dead body in the alley behind the bar--the same spot where her own father was shot eight months earlier--she can tell right away there's something fishy in the air. The lead detective thinks there's a link between the two deaths, and he'll need Mack's help to sniff out the murderer amid the crowd of eccentric regulars. But when all the evidence points to her as the most likely culprit, it could be an early last call for Mack--and celebratory cocktails for a killer.

Includes drink recipes

My Thoughts: A decent enough start to a new series with a very unique protagonist.

The Good, The Bad, and Everything in the Middle: I've always been drawn to unique characters, particularly ones with some sort of "disability" as their inner character tends to be strong and full of perseverance. With Mack I've found a character I've never run across before. Mack has Synthesia (a very basic definition is a neurological condition where the person's senses are crossed often resulting in being able to see sounds or taste smells among other things...it is more involved but this is the gist.) Her constantly having to sort if she were having a real sensory reaction to stimuli or a resulting secondary reaction caused by her Synthesia was really interesting. Mack did mention she spent her whole life trying to ignore the sensory reactions that weren't "real" but I would think after so many years some reactions would be constant. For example, her father, although he had already died months before this book takes place, I would think Mack would have one specific occurrence when, let's say, she hugged her father. In turn whenever she would see, taste, or hear that particular indicator she'd know it was her dad's "ring tone" so to speak but all of extra sounds, colors, smells, etc. were viewed as garbage distractions she felt she had to ignore. Towards the end a friend and her were putting together something to track them but I would have thought she would have had a basic list already. Oh and on a side note tasting chocolate when a good looking man talks to me sounds like a great way of controlling my blood sugars. All the flavor. None of the sugars.

OK enough of that. As far as character development goes I thought Mack was done pretty well and left enough room to grow through the series. On a lesser degree, Duncan's character wasn't as fleshed out. I really don't know what he saw in Mack (other than she threw a temper tantrum and stripped in front of him and the rest of the police because she was considered a suspect)….and hey! what guy wouldn't appreciate a young healthy woman who strips in front of him after an hour? His admiration and attention to Mack felt a bit forced unfortunately especially since Mack went from nice to bitchy at the drop of a hat. I spent half the book liking Mack and half the book thinking she was emotionally unbalanced. The bar regulars were not really fleshed out and became stereotypical bar patrons to me. You got the floozy, the 2 brothers who are the wise old owls offering advice to everyone, the pushy boyfriend who was unlikable and you knew that relationship was doomed from the beginning, the crotchety cook, and the secondary father figure who happens to have book shop next to the bar. There were more but you see what I'm saying. None of them were fleshed out really well and none stood out to me. I'm hoping for more development for them in the coming books.

The conclusion felt rushed as the majority of the book was setting up the "sting" where Duncan would pose as Mack's new bartender/server and Mack turned out to be TSTL. Why Mack? WHY? Once murder has been established you do NOT fail to lock your door. You do NOT venture down into the basement during a BLACKOUT. You do NOT assume your fake employee, who happens to be a cop, decided to just leave without saying good-bye. Especially since the night before he was the last to leave and made sure you LOCKED YOUR FREAKIN' DOOR!!! Ugh...I just can't with her. If this was a Friday the 13th movie she wouldn't have even made it to the half way point. Matter of fact she probably would have died during the stripping scene.


In a Nutshell: Despite Mack's TSTL moment at the end of the book I will read the next book in the series. I'm interested in seeing how Mack's condition can be used in the future rather than being ignored and there were quite a few yummy sounding drink recipes included in the book. The coffee based Macktini sounded really tasty.

A Merciful Death by Kendra Elliot

Title: A Merciful Death
Author: Kendra Elliot
Series: #1 in the Mercy Kilpatrick series
Genre: Mystery/Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Brilliance Audio (January 17th 2017)
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: FBI special agent Mercy Kilpatrick has been waiting her whole life for disaster to strike. A prepper since childhood, Mercy grew up living off the land - and off the grid - in rural Eagle's Nest, Oregon. Until a shocking tragedy tore her family apart and forced her to leave home. Now a predator known as the cave man is targeting the survivalists in her hometown, murdering them in their homes, stealing huge numbers of weapons, and creating federal suspicion of a possible domestic terrorism event. But the crime scene details are eerily familiar to an unsolved mystery from Mercy's past.

Sent by the FBI to assist local law enforcement, Mercy returns to Eagle's Nest to face the family who shunned her while maintaining the facade of a law-abiding citizen. There, she meets police chief Truman Daly, whose uncle was the cave man's latest victim. He sees the survivalist side of her that she desperately tries to hide, but if she lets him get close enough to learn her secret, she might not survive the fallout...

My Thoughts: While I found myself riveted to my phone while listening to this book on my Audible app I'm not sure I would have read it as quickly as I listened to it. There is something to be said about household chores for sure. 😃

The Good: I thought the audio version of this book was done pretty good. Teri Schnaubelt did a good job with infliction and I was able to listen at 1.75x's the speed without her voice "chipmunking" out.  The mystery of who was killing the preppers was pretty good as well although there weren't many viable suspects. The intrigue of Mercy's background and why she left her family and the town she grew up in 15 years ago without looking back was actually more compelling than the current murders. Now that we know all about her history I'm wondering what is in store for future Mercy books.

The Bad: While I think Schnaubelt did a decent job there wasn't much voice difference from one character to another. Luckily the writing was done so well I never was confused as to who was talking. As I mentioned earlier there were not a whole lot of viable suspects and the bad guy was pretty easy to determine. If you are looking for a book that will test your sleuthing abilities this probably isn't the book for you. As far as this being a romantic suspense there is not a whole lot of romance. It definitely takes a back seat to the mystery which is why I labeled this a mystery firstly and a romantic suspense secondly. Last thing, although there isn't graphic rape within the book there is rape. If rape is a trigger for anyone please be warned as this might not be the right book for you.

In a Nutshell: I thought this was a good first book in the series and I'm going to move on to the second book soon.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

Title: The Bride Test
Author: Helen Hoang
Series: #2 in the Kiss Quotient series
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: LLC Dreamscape Media  (May 7, 2019)
Source: Library Find
Rating: ☕☕☕☕

Synopsis: Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions—like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better—that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships, his mother takes matters into her own hands and returns to Vietnam to find him the perfect bride.

As a mixed-race girl living in the slums of Ho Chi Minh City, Esme Tran has always felt out of place. When the opportunity arises to come to America and meet a potential husband, she can’t turn it down, thinking this could be the break her family needs. Seducing Khai, however, doesn’t go as planned. Esme’s lessons in love seem to be working…but only on herself. She’s hopelessly smitten with a man who’s convinced he can never return her affection.

With Esme’s time in the United States dwindling, Khai is forced to understand he’s been wrong all along. And there’s more than one way to love.

My Thoughts: This was a pretty great book that had my feelers all over the place.

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: Esme was a strong independent woman who just wanted better for her child. Better, meaning America, rather than the poor side of Vietnam.  I liked Esme quite a bit but I fell in love with Khai. Over my lifetime I spent 1/4 of it working with people with developmental disabilities some of whom had Autism. I felt Helen Hoang did an amazing job fleshing out Khai and his traits.

I wish Esme would have researched Autism when Khai brought it up. She looked up Accounting when it was mentioned. Her character seemed curious and needed to learn so this oversight seemed odd. Had she researched she would have understood the things Khai did much sooner. Of course the book would have ended a lot sooner without the major epiphany Khai had towards the end. I also wished Esme would have told everyone about her daughter way sooner. As much as she loved Jade I'm just not sure why she would have hidden her. Especially once she determined her and Khai were not suited.

I enjoyed the audio version of this book a lot. Emily Woo Zeller was the narrator and to date this book is the first one I've listened to that she has done. I don't speak Vietnamese and the proper way to pronounce the various names would have tripped me up a lot. I was able to listen at my regular speed which is not quite 2X's the speed.

In a Nutshell: Although this book is the second book in the series, it's the first book I've read by this author. Reading out of order didn't spoil my enjoyment and there doesn't seem to be much connecting the books other than a theme and family. I would definitely recommend this book and will go back and read the first book myself.