The title, oddly, has nothing to do with the book, but the romance is familiar.
In the first of a new series of romantic thrillers, chaps-wearing rancher Kade Logan meets his "darlin'," undercover agent Eleanor Bowman.
Near the small town of Coffee Springs, Colorado, is the Diamond Bar, Kade Logan's 19,000-acre cattle ranch. Eight years ago, someone murdered Kade's wife, Heather, and though she was frequently unfaithful to him, Kade still wants to find and punish her killer. So he hires undercover Denver agent Ellie Bowman, though he really didn't want a woman, to get him the answers he needs, and Ellie, who was brought up on a ranch, goes undercover to work as his cook's assistant. The first part of the book is more about the protagonists' increasing attraction than the unraveling of a mystery, but Martin seems to know her way around a working ranch, and she fills her romance with an interesting tutorial on what a well-run ranch does battle with each day. As Ellie investigates Heather's murder, a trespasser begins to sabotage the ranch: poisoning the water, killing cattle, wounding cowboys, shooting the beloved dog. As Ellie tries to figure out who hates Kade, she also gets into the saddle to help with ranch emergencies, rounding up 4,000 cows and fighting a forest fire. And as she moves into Kade's four-poster bed for the kind of wild, satisfying sex she's never known before, Ellie shows him gentle kindnesses he's never known, either. Martin repeatedly explains their conflict: Kade doesn't want to be hurt again, and independent Ellie doesn't want a possessive lover who doesn't trust her loyalty. But after Ellie's life is threatened and the murderer gets his just deserts, they find a way to work it out, with a ranch wedding Blake Shelton would have enjoyed.
The title, oddly, has nothing to do with the book, but the romance is familiar.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4967-3679-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.
A vampire and an Alpha werewolf enter into a marriage of convenience in order to ease tensions between their species.
As the only daughter of a prominent Vampyre councilman, Misery Lark has grown accustomed to playing the role that’s demanded of her—and now, her father is ordering her to be part of yet another truce agreement. In an effort to maintain goodwill between the Vampyres and their longtime nemeses the Weres, Misery must wed their Alpha, Lowe Moreland. But it turns out that Misery has her own motivations for agreeing to this political marriage, including finding answers about what happened to her best friend, who went missing after setting up a meeting in Were territory. Isolated from her kind and surrounded on all sides by the enemy after the wedding, Misery refuses to let herself forget about her real mission. It doesn’t matter that Lowe is one of the most confounding and intense people she’s ever met, or that the connection building between them doesn’t feel like one born entirely of convenience. There’s also the possibility that Lowe may already have a Were mate of his own, but in spite of their biological differences, they may turn out to be the missing piece in each other’s lives. While this is Hazelwood’s first paranormal romance, and the book does lean on some hallmark tropes of the genre, the contemporary setting lends itself to the author’s trademark humor and makes the political plot more easily digestible. Misery and Lowe’s slow-burn romance is appealing enough that readers will readily devour every moment between them and hunger to return to them whenever the story diverts from their scenes together.
Sink your teeth into this delightful paranormal romance with a modern twist.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780593550403
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
Demands a careful reading and knowledge of the Victorian lady detective’s history.
A mystery that unwinds in reverse adds new twists to Thomas’ Sherlock Holmes–inspired series.
The new Charlotte Holmes novel continues the tense chess game that the gender-flipped Sherlock is playing with Moriarty and an incarcerated acquaintance turned villain. The events are narrated as a series of flashbacks interspersed with an interrogation in which Charlotte is under suspicion of murder. While her friend Inspector Treadles nervously observes, a senior policeman grills the unflappable detective about her recent movements. Even as she gives him a bland account of why she’s crisscrossed the English Channel in recent weeks, readers get drips of information about what she and her family and friends have been up to, all building to a reveal. Two other seemingly unrelated mystery subplots enter the picture, but it’s evident that new events and characters are connected to familiar ones from the past. With allusions to previous novels in the Lady Sherlock series and hat tips to Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem” and the Guy Ritchie movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the plot can be hard to follow, especially for new readers. The consistently well-drawn characters serve as an anchor, and the occasional glimpse of Charlotte’s love for her family and her lover, Lord Ingram Ashburton, adds a needed touch of warmth to the clever but clinical jigsaw structure of the mystery.
Demands a careful reading and knowledge of the Victorian lady detective’s history.Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780593640432
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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