Review: Breaking All The Rules

Breaking All The Rules by Amy Andrews
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Bea(trice) Archer loses her well-earned promotion to a man who is by far her inferior she's had enough of California, the egg-white omelettes, the turmeric lattes, and the incessant need to be totally groomed. She's spent her entire adult life working hard, giving the proverbial 110%, giving up on friends and relationships, for what? The old boy network., that's what. So she throws a dart at a map and ends up in the small town of Credence, Colorado where she starts to binge-watch TV series she never had time for before whilst generally throwing the California rulebook out of the window. Yep, that means beer for breakfast, not washing her hair, living in baggy sweats and bunny slippers, and eating pie every day.

When a concerned citizen spots Bea ambling into the pie shop dressed (it has to be said) like someone a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, the local law officers are called, enter Officer Austin Cooper. Now Austin might very well be a junior police officer in a small town, but he did his training in Denver, he just always wanted to be a police officer in his home town. He might be a stickler for the rules, but he has a wicked sense of humour, and he likes what he sees.

After the slightly grittier third book, this is a return to the Goldie Hawn-esque romantic comedy of the first two books. I particularly enjoyed the way in which Austin cited imaginary laws that Bea was breaking (for example by wearing her days of the week panties on the wrong days). Maybe Austin was just too perfect to be true, especially for a younger man - but this is romance for crissakes, and why can't we have a perfect hero?

Loved it. BUT I really want Arlo's story, there's a teaser for it, and I want it STAT!

I received an ARC from teh publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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Review: The Christmas Express: An Out of Time Christmas Novella (Book 3)

The Christmas Express: An Out of Time Christmas Novella (Book 3) by Monique Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's Christmas Eve and the Cross family (Simon, Elizabeth, and their daughter Charlotte) are just playing a competitive game of Scrabble when a knock at the door precedes their latest mission. The writer Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) has unknowingly acquired one of the time travelling watches and the Crosses must somehow replace it with a harmless replica before Mr Clemens' natural curiosity leads him to play with the buttons at the wrong time.

Hence the Crosses travel back to 1898 and board a cross-country train on which Mr Clemens is a passenger bound to San Francisco. The family have numerous scrapes and adventures, but it will take all their charm and ingenuity to part Mr Clemens from his watch before the next eclipse.

I had no idea there were Christmas novellas and I can't believe I've missed them all this time. This one was discounted to 99p and such a bargain.

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Review: The Great Christmas Cook Off

The Great Christmas Cook Off by Helen Buckley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

For Christmas the TV producers have decided to put on a week-long celebrity chef cook off. Each day the chefs will be asked to make one traditional Christmas dessert (eg mince pies, Christmas cake etc) and the one with the lowest score gets voted off. Among the celebrity bakers are Beatrice Wodehouse, the upper-class woman dubbed the Queen of Chocolate (think Nigella Lawson) and the council-flat clean-eating fanatic Charlie Simmonds. Charlie and Bea had a falling out on national TV and have been sniping at each other on social media ever since. She thinks he's a killjoy and he thinks she is promoting an unhealthy lifestyle that can lead to obesity and other health issues. This competition is the chance for each of them to prove their baking is superior.

As the competition progresses there are a series of unfortunate accidents which precipitate each baker leaving, could there be a saboteur amongst them desperate to win at any cost? Of course Bea and Charlie each believe the other is to blame.

I enjoyed this, much more than the previous book Keeping Up with the Kershaws, which I have yet to finish. However, I did think the food descriptions did go on too long, Charlie's recipes seemed to have had all the joy sucked out of them and Bea's were just one-dimensional, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate. Moreover, the identity of the saboteur was pretty easy to guess given all the clues and I thought the reason was a bit weak. (view spoiler)[I would have preferred a gambling problem or something along those lines. (hide spoiler)] Also, there was a bit of accusation, the apology on both sides one too many times. If you have wrongly accused once, and also been wrongly accused yourself, would you do it again? I think this book also suffers because this is not the first, or even the second, romance I have read which is an homage to The Great British Bake-Off.



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Review: Santa Grint

Santa Grint by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first Time Police holiday novella.

It's Christmas and Commander Hay is watching the news which ends with a heart-warming story entitled The Time Police Officer with a Heart, which of course is exactly the opposite of what Commander Hays wants people to think about the Time Police.

As usual, Jodi Taylor delivers a rollicking (dare I say firetrucking?), holiday novella. It features all our favourite Time Police characters, a Christmas party for 30 orphans, a carefully planned 'kidnapping', £6.5 million or thereabouts, a toad, and (of course) illegal time machine shenanigans.

Loved it.

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Review: One Enchanted Evening

One Enchanted Evening by Katie Fforde
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book set in the 1960s loosely based around a group of young middle-class women who attended a cookery class in London. As I've said in my reviews of the previous books in this 'series', the historical setting works well for Katie Fforde's genre of romance which almost always features an artistic, slightly virginal (ie either a virgin or only ever had one lover, possible a deceased husband) young woman, and a taciturn man who turns out to have been secretly in love with her all the time. Think a modern Emma and you won't go far wrong.

Meg has been interning in London restaurants and has managed to get some good experience, despite the endemic sexism of the time. Then her mother, who is the live-in housekeeper at a stately home turned hotel in Dorset begs her to come and help out. The owner has gone to France to try to settle his father's will, leaving her alone to manage the hotel. There is an annual dinner held at the hotel and the irascible chef has fired all the local staff, preferring to use agency staff instead, who have cancelled at the last minute. As soon as Meg arrives the chef also quits and leaves her totally in the lurch. With the assistance of some of the locals and a long-term resident of the hotel, Meg manages to make a good start on preparing the meal, substituting some of the former chef's packet ingredients for more season-appropriate fresh ingredients from the extensive kitchen gardens. But just when everything seems to be under control a very rude young man comes into the kitchen and starts throwing his weight around. It's Justin, the owner's son, a chef in his own right, who seems determined to find fault with everything Meg has done.

The hotel's owner and Meg's mother are involved romantically, but he and his brother are locked in battle over their father's will and the hotel may need to be sold, especially since it is losing money. Meg loves the old hotel, even if it is looking a bit shabby, but it is losing out to a modern hotel close by, which has a celebrity chef and a swimming pool, as well as en-suite bathrooms, so she will do whatever she can to reinvigorate the hotel and bring in new customers.

I think this is one of the best Katie Fforde romances I have read for a while. The 1960s setting, and his ambivalent feelings towards his father, totally explains Justin's attitude to Meg and her mother, yet it is also quite clear to the reader fairly early on that Justin is also quite smitten by Meg and finds any excuse to visit the hotel. Sure you have to suspend disbelief a little bit to think that a coat of paint, a bunch of flowers, and a few new cushion covers will miraculous make the hotel more inviting, but much is made of the homely (in the good sense) atmosphere, more of a home-from-home than a hotel, somewhere the aristocracy can stay while attending social events in the area.

Anyway, loved it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Dueling Duchess

The Dueling Duchess by Minerva Spencer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second in the new series about a group of extraordinary women performing in an all-female circus called Farnham's Fantastical Female Fayre in the early 1800s. This novel features Cecile, the French sharp-shooter, and Lord Guy Darlington. The events of this book crossover with the events in the previous book (as indeed will the third book) but it isn't necessary to have read that to enjoy this.

In the first book the Fayre travelled to France on tour with Darlington and two of his aristocratic friends (Sin, the Duke of Staunton and Elliott) in attendance, disguised as workers. During their time in France Cecile and Guy became lovers, but agreed that their liaison would end once they returned to England. Guy needed to marry an heiress to rescue his destitute family and he could never marry a penniless circus performer.

It's a year later and things have changed drastically for Guy, a long-lost cousin, and the rightful heir, has returned to claim the dukedom and all the entailed property. Suddenly at one fell swoop Guy has lost his wealthy fiancé, his title, his home, and most of his so-called friends. But strangely Guy finds it liberating, free from his duty, and secure in the knowledge that his mother and unmarried sisters are well-provided for, he can follow his heart, if Cecile can ever forgive him. So he signs up to be one of the workers at the Fayre (again), secure in the knowledge that Cecile will make him suffer before she even contemplates forgiving him.

I really enjoyed this, as with the first book there are a myriad of storylines interwoven in the book, including: the strange romance between Elliott and Josephine Brown (better known as Blade for her skills in throwing knives); an orphan child; a missing heir; a white marriage; a governess in disguise; and a raven.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

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Review: Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner

Nobody Puts Romcoms In The Corner by Kathryn Freeman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sally is a hopeless romantic, she loves every romcom ever made and owns a coffee shop called the Love Bean (which I thought meant something completely different LOL) which carries cards in the window of every successful romance which has started with a date in her café.

Harry is Sally's opposite. A burly builder, he doesn't believe in romance AT ALL, and doesn't plan to fall in love. After he found his girlfriend 'entertaining' her boss, he left the house he lovingly restored and moved into Sally's spare room. At first the two of them are like ships that pass in the night, keeping their separate shelves in the fridge and only crossing paths in the hallways, then one night after a few too many glasses of wine, Sally tries to explain the iconic Dirty Dancing lift to Harry and they end up trying to recreate it - with predictably hilarious failure. However, when Sally loads the video into TikTok they become an overnight sensation with thousands of likes and comments clamouring for them to (fail to) recreate other iconic romcom scenes.

This was funny and referenced so many of my favourite romcom films, but there were a few I didn't recognise so I may have to watch them. I suspect that this book would be of little interest to someone who hadn't seen the majority of these films, but then I guess you wouldn't choose to read a romance unless you liked the genre in the first place.

I felt that the book lost a bit of focus in the middle, but in some ways that also helped to cement the growing romance between Harry and Sally, you get to see them falling in love gradually rather than it all happening way too fast.

I've enjoyed Kathryn Freeman's books in the past, although I am currently struggling to finish another of hers. This is definitely in the thumbs-up pile.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Cassandra in Reverse

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cassandra Dankworth is a woman of structure and routine. The same thing for breakfast every day, the same lunch at the same time every day, a place for everything and everything in its place. But she struggles to understand social interactions, like how long to look someone in the eye before it becomes creepy, or sarcasm.

In a cataclysm of disaster Cassandra manages to get dumped by her boyfriend, fired from her PR job, and her favourite café has no banana muffins. Overwhelmed by the events of the day, and by being swept up in a protest march, Cassandra accidentally travels back in time. At first she doesn't realise what has happened and thinks her boyfriend Will has had second thoughts, or perhaps she misunderstood his intentions.

Soon Cassandra discovers she can travel back in time but no longer than a few months earlier, certainly not long enough to save her parents from dying in a car crash a decade ago. so she uses the time to curate her relationship with Will, trying to fix whatever it was she did to make him break up with her. Time after time she relives brief moments trying over and over again to say the right words do the right thing.

So far, so standard romantic time-travel comedy right? Wrong. Cassandra is obsessed by the Greek and Roman gods, practically everything is likened to an ancient myth. She also 'sees' emotions as colours, unfortunately colours mean different things in different circumstances and with different people, so she can't just see a fuchsia emotion and go 'ah, he's irritated'. Her narrative reminded me very much of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, she takes things literally, she doesn't understand other people, she has to 'translate' their words and actions to try to decrypt a language she doesn't understand.

Not a romance, not a time travel novel, I'm not sure how to categorise this, other than very quirky!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: The Love Wager

The Love Wager by Lynn Painter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Following a harrowing 'I don't think I ever really loved you' breakup, Hallie decides to step away from romance and concentrate on paying off her student loans and building up some savings by working three jobs and apartment-sharing. However, when an old school 'friend' talks about her being a Hot mess shit show when Hallie is bartending at a swanky wedding she realises her sensible plans might look a bit different from the outside. So when she accidentally gets drunk and has a one-night stand with the bride's brother she decides she's through acting like a college student. Hallie decides to get back into the dating game, get her own apartment, give up her part-time jobs, and dress more like the grown-up she really is.

Jack seems to have everything he could ever want on paper, rich, good-looking, highly-successful, but he's lonely. He almost made the terrible mistake of proposing to his latest girlfriend until her ridiculous (and unfounded) jealousy together with her atrocious behaviour towards the bartender at his sister's wedding brought him to his senses. His sister signs him up on a dating app - but his first match is none-other than his one-night stand from the wedding.

Hallie and Jack agree that they shouldn't date, but they get on so well that they decide to meet up after each date to discuss how it went and hone their dating techniques over tacos. Oh, and there's a side bet as to which one of them will find love first. Of course we the readers can see that they are totally right for each other but the two of them are oblivious, until Hallie finds a serious boyfriend and Jack gets jealous.

This was a pleasant read, good banter, and lots of sparks. The only problem is I didn't write a review and then couldn't remember anything about the book after only a couple of days. Ideal beach holiday reading.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: In Love with Lewis Prescott

In Love with Lewis Prescott by Sarah Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Harper Ellorza is a high-flying architect in San Francisco. She has decided to completely renovate her grandparents' home in Half Moon Bay and achieve all the things with it that they wanted but couldn't afford. She has resigned her job and plans to spend a year overseeing the renovations, but after her plans were slightly delayed by a family illness she arrives to find that the contractor has completely messed up her careful plans (painted the walls the wrong colour, laid the floor the wrong direction, fitted the kitchen doors badly, etc). Now, I let this go for artistic licence, but who pays their contractor for work without seeing what it looks like? Also, apparently this means that she will lose all her savings and won't be able to afford the reno, despite the fact that she is letting family stay rent-free in her apartment in Nob Hill, and that she is taking a year off work unpaid. It seems to me that she was the architect of her own problems, but hey artistic licence.

Feeling deeply unhappy about the contractor fiasco, Harper accidentally runs into a man outside a coffee shop who turns out to be TV hunk Lewis Prescott who has recently been fired from his show, dumped by his model girlfriend, and shouted obscenities at the paparazzi. Lewis is hiding out in a local grotty motel for a few months until the fuss dies down. When Harper tells him her woes he offers to renovate the house for free, if he can stay at the house while he's working.

Anyway, as they work side by side renovating the house they feel the attraction but at first try to resist because - awks - but eventually they can resist no longer. But what chance is there of this romance surviving the reno?

This had so much potential, but it got bogged down in not very much plot, trying on wedding dresses etc, and it seemed as though there was a nothing plot scene, followed by a sex scene, followed by a nothing plot scene over and over again. So, at this point I was thinking three stars, maybe three and a half depending on the ending. Then the author basically stole the ending of Notting Hill as the big finale, just set in San Francisco - I know that film practically off-by-heart, as I suspect do many other people and it was such an obvious lift that I knocked another star off.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review,

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Review: The Stranger Times:

The Stranger Times: by C.K. McDonnell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hannah once had a superficial but very wealthy life in London. Then she found out her husband had cheated on her multiple times. She may have got a leetle angry and accidentally set the house on fire. It was an accident, she swears. Now she refuses to take any money from him and is trying to stand on her own two feet, but having dropped out of university to be a trophy wife there aren't many job openings. So she finds herself 'interviewing' for a job at a backstreet Manchester newspaper called The Stranger Times which, for the Brits amongst us, takes over where The News of the World and other sensationalist newspapers left off. Headlines usually feature Elvis, aliens, and/or ghosts. Her co-workers are an eclectic group of misfits, conspiracy theorists, broken hacks, and truculent teenagers who subsist on copious quantities of tea and biscuits. The editor is a alcoholic who likes to fire people multiple times a day.

When an aspiring reporter is found dead at the bottom of a tall building under construction the police are quick to classify it a suicide, but nothing seems to add up - could it be that one of the fantastical stories they print week-in, week-out might be true?

This has Rivers of London vibes, but less serious, maybe more like the Brentford Trilogy. It's funny and an interesting read. On to the next in the series.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Doc Showmance

Doc Showmance by Zoe Forward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What happens when your college nemesis gets a job at your place of work and a reality TV producer thinks it would be a good idea to manufacture a romance between you?

Amber is an emergency vet, specialising in surgery. She is just one year from residency and is one of the stars of a reality TV programme about the practice. Ian presents a wildlife TV show which seems to necessitate him stripping off his shirt at regular intervals, but when a snafu with the producer's wife gets the show dropped he is blackmailed into coming on board Amber's veterinary show.

Amber and Ian were at veterinary college together, competing at every turn, until Ian humiliated Amber on Valentine's Day and his friends posted the evidence online. She's do absolutely anything to avoid Ian, but her foster-brother owes a loan shark $30,000 and she desperately needs the money.

But while Amber and Ian think they are enemies, the viewing public (and the canny editing of the footage) sees something completely different. But can this be an opposites attract, enemies to lovers, romance?

Zoe Forward is new to me, I liked Amber's feisty spirit and potty mouth. Also I liked that the veterinary scenes weren't all smooching cuddy cats. Ian's douche-y family were deliciously OTT villains and Amber's foster-siblings were each great characters. I liked the way Amber and Ian subverted the producer's plans. However, I did feel that the novel started to tread water about halfway in and could have done with more everyday reality TV activities (rather than the Pretty Woman-esque trip to San Francisco to see Ian's parents at Thanksgiving).

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: Deadly Christmas

Deadly Christmas by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's Christmas time in Birmingham and the team are hoping to get away for Christmas. Rhodri is going home to Wales, Connie's brother is home from uni, and so is Zoe's son.

On Sunday morning one of the street cleaners at the German Market in the city centre finds the body of a homeless man behind one of the cabins. At first the death just seems to be a tragedy, due to the cold, but the post-mortem indicates that the man has been poisoned ... with Thallium. Can DI Zoe Finch crack the case before Christmas?

This is a rather pleasant halfway house between a full-on detective novel and a holiday novella. There's a nosy neighbour, a homeless shelter and Zoe has to make a big decision soon. (BTW, can I just say I would much prefer Zoe and Adi as a couple).

Read on my Kindle Unlimited.

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Review: Deadly Reprisal

Deadly Reprisal by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

After the (literally) explosive events of the last book, this is a return to police procedural. When two college students enter another student's room, they are looking to catch them taking drugs or in bed with someone, they didn't expect to find him dead. At first it is thought to be a drug overdose, but the forensics suggest someone may have forced the victim to ingest the drugs. There are rumours that the victim was a recluse, a creep, and possibly a rapist. The college warden is being obstructive (in the nicest possible way), and DS Ian Osman's corruption trial is looming.

A good solid detective story, with some good misdirection to divert attention from the killer.

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Review: Deadly Terror

Deadly Terror by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Birmingham New Street station is rocked by a nail bomb, killing the female bomber and the police hostage negotiator sent in to speak to her. Shortly afterwards, a bomb explodes on a plane landing from Pakistan, killing most on board. Is Birmingham the latest area to be subject to terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, lovely Sofia is at the airport to meet her sister from a plane arriving from Bulgaria. Her boyfriend's men who are escorting her ask her to help them collect seven young children from the plane, with the roads in chaos and the phone networks down her boyfriend Titi's men don't know where to take them so she suggests taking them to the large house they share, bringing herself into contact with what Titi really does for a living.

This is both a cracking good mystery about the bombings but also progresses the overarching story arc about police corruption A LOT. Absolutely gripping and I have already started on the next book.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Deadly Desires

Deadly Desires by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

DI Zoe Finch investigates when the bodies of two men are found mutilated in a bar in Birmingham's gay village. One died and one survives but has life-changing injuries and is unconscious. is this a homophobic attack? Who are these men? Why did the attacker mutilate the men like that?

This series is definitely starting to feel its feet, each book is a separate investigation but there is the overall police corruption and connection to organised crime arc which continues. The series walks the narrow line between cosy crime and what I term slasher serial killer crime with a diverse team of investigators, each with their own stories.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: A Hard Day for a Hangover

A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

The finale to the Sunshine Vicram trilogy. I guess it is possible to read this as a stand-alone (I haven't read the first book), but I wouldn't recommend it.

Sunshine Vicram is the sheriff of her small hometown, a single mother of Auri, a precocious teen who insists on trying to investigate mysteries on her own. (view spoiler)[Sunshine has recently discovered that Auri was not as a result of her abduction and rape as a teenager, but instead the result of a night of passion with Levi Ravinder. She has also discovered that she was effectively press-ganged into taking the job as sheriff by a cabal of local people (including her own parents) who secretly run the town (although not very well given previous events LOL) and has been co-opted as the leader of said secret society. (hide spoiler)]

A call comes in that a young girl has been found half-way down a ravine by a hunter, badly beaten and barely clothed, Sunshine and her team have to mount a rescue, assisted by the mysterious Levi Ravinder, Sunshine's long-term crush. No-one can identify the girl, who is in a coma, but Auri recalls the school mean girl mentioning a cousin who was supposed to visit and never arrived - could this be the girl? Then Sunshine hears of two other girls who have either gone missing or been injured near the ravine - are they connected?

I haven't looked back at my review for the second book, but I suspect it says something very similar to this one. There is just too much going on, it's unnecessary and, in my opinion, not very funny. First off, the secret society - totally unnecessary. Second, the 'humorous' signs which start each chapter - funny once, thereafter irritating and bear no resemblance to the plot. Third, the rivalry between Levi and his no-good uncle and his other uncle being in prison for a crime he didn't commit - should have been resolved in the previous book and ended in a totally ludicrous OTT scene. Finally, would a precocious child, like Auri, really get words confused all the time?

I suspect that this sort of thing works a bit better in Darynda Jones' paranormal series Charley Davidson where characters are expected to be OTT and enigmatic - doesn't work so well for a small-town businessman. I see that Darynda says this series was intended to be Gilmore Girls meets Fargo, I think the issue with that is that the Gilmore Girls was all about the dialogue and the plot was quite gentle, trying to smash it into a decade-old abduction mystery, a romance, several disappearances, and a family feud is just manic.

In my opinion this would have benefitted from a few plot strands being ditched, maybe just leaving a wise-cracking sheriff?

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.


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Review: Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices by Rachel McLean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zoe Finch is acting SIO in a kidnapping when Alison Osman takes her two children to Cadbury World; she turns her back for five minutes to get them a snack and they disappear. Alison's husband Ian is a serving police officer, could the kidnapping be a grudge from an enemy?

This twisted and turned as suspicion fell on lots of different people, especially when Zoe discovers that the same building firm is doing the roof at the Osman house as were working on ACC Jackson's house, could Ian Osman be connected to the Canary investigations?

This was both a self-contained kidnapping story and progressing the overarching Canary investigation. Very enjoyable.

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