Review: Playing It Tough

Playing It Tough by Amy Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ronan Dempsey is an American rugby player who has joined the Sydney Smoke to hopefully get more experience and get selected for the US Olympic team. However, his partying hasn't gone unnoticed and could jeopardise his career, so he makes a bet with his teammates that he can remain celibate for the rest of the season. When his apartment block develops subsidence problems one of his mum's friends offers the use of her (luxurious) pool house as a temporary home.

Orla Stewart used to be a big party girl, then a cancer scare pushed her the other way. Now she's a walking talking celibate advert for clean living in all its forms and she uses her skills as a cosmetic tattoo artist to cover up scars. She is house-sitting for a wealthy Sydney resident while they are travelling.

When Ronan and Orla first meet he doesn't make a good impression, especially because Orla didn't know the pool house had been lent out. But the chemistry was palpable, if it wasn't for those pesky celibacy vows. Orla gets quite creative about her definition of celibacy (move over Bill Clinton you have a new contender), but can she let herself out of the box she has put herself in?

Amy Andrews and I have a love-hate relationship, and I'm afraid this one tipped the wrong way. I know Amy is all about the steamy smexy times, but I feel she may have over-compensated for the serious topic under discussion by throwing more sex scenes at it. For me, it just felt like the balance between plot and steam was off. Others will no doubt love it.

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

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Review: Blood and Money

Blood and Money by Rachel McLean
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A new series featuring DI Jade Tanner who has been tasked with managing a new investing team Scotland's Complex Crimes Unit. Alongside her are Dr Petra McBride (who we know from previous Rachel McLean series) and DS Mo Uddin (ditto).

Jade is a single mother whose husband died recently - I suspect there is more to uncover in future books on this point. Petra has a girlfriend in America but fears for her it is out of sight and out of mind, is she capable of a relationship? She is also receiving silent phone calls and believes someone is stalking her. Mo has trepidations about working for a new superior officer, he got on so well with Zoe, and moving to the countryside when he's used to be a city detective.

Their first case is a doozy. An American internet billionaire is shot and left to bleed to death on his remote country estate in Scotland which he visits once a year for his detox from devices. There are striking similarities to the murder of a millionaire property developer, another of Jade's cases which remains unsolved.

Obviously with a new series there is a fair amount of scene-setting and laying the foundations for what could be overarching story arcs (I really must find a better way of describing them I hate the 'arching' 'arc' proximity). However, I have to say I was left with a curious sense that not all the loose ends had been tied up, more importantly the breakthrough only occurred because one of the detectives overheard someone making an incriminating phone call. It felt like the crime was solved without actually understanding the motives until later - maybe that's the case in real life but it felt off.

Anyway, first in a new series and I'm keen to see where it goes.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

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Review: Kiss Hard

Kiss Hard by Nalini Singh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Danny Esera and Catie Rivers have been frenemies practically all their lives. Danny's older half-brother is married to Catie's older half-sister and so they are practically family, especially since Catie's father is an unreliable gambler and her mother is a cold career woman without a maternal bone in her body.

Danny is a star rugby player from a dynasty of New Zealand rugby players, Catie is a paralympic sprinter. The two of them are forever snarking on each other's social media, although never in a mean way.

When Catie sees Danny clearly under the influence at a bar in Auckland she knows something is wrong, Danny wouldn't drink that much he's very conscious of his public image and maintaining his personal fitness. It turns out that someone at the bar has slipped drugs into Danny's drink and Catie has to get him to the hospital with the help of one of his teammates. In order to misdirect people, particularly the press, Danny's friend pretends that Danny and Catie went off on their own to hook up, which normally wouldn't be a problem but with Danny being rugby's golden boy, if the two of them are thought to have had a one-night stand it would reflect badly on Catie and could cost her some of her sponsorships (double standards are still alive and well). Also, Danny has an ultra-conservative sponsor who might not view a one-night stand favourably. So the two of them agree to a fake relationship for six months, be seen publicly, attend a few events, post a few pictures on the socials, job done. Very close friends and family are told that its fake.

But of course, what they intend isn't what happens and soon the fakery becomes real. But can they make it all the way and how will love impact their career ambitions?

Loved it. Intelligent characters with integrity. None of the rinse-and-repeat angst of other authors. Going back to read the other books featuring the Esera brothers.

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Review: Going Dark

Going Dark by Neil Lancaster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Tom Novak is a former Royal Marine, and member of the elite Special Reconnaissance Regiment turned police officer. Originally from Bosnia, he and his mother fled the country when he was a child after his father's death in the Yugoslav wars. After his mother's death he was brought up by a foster family in the Cairngorns of Scotland. Tom is finding piloting a desk unfulfilling so when he gets approached to go undercover to infiltrate a gang of Bosnian Serb people smugglers he is delighted. His role is to collect evidence to convict the people smugglers themselves, the Branko family, who bring girls over from Sarajevo promising them good jobs in the UK then force them into working in their brothels and the corrupt solicitor Michael Adebayo who gives them fake Slovenian passports and then forces them to marry men who want to stay in the EU (this is pre-Brexit) to falsely obtain visas.

Things are going well until he is compelled to break cover to prevent the solicitor from raping a young woman, luckily he gets it all on camera but mysteriously both his written report and the camera footage disappear in police hands, when the girl is too scared to testify it looks like the case is dead in the water. Tom had saved another copy of the footage to his phone, but there is obviously at least one person in the police who is in the pay of Adebayo and/or the Brankos and he doesn't know who to trust on the taskforce. On the run with a CIA freelancer supplied by an old friend Tom must uncover the traitors before they succeed in having him killed.

I don't normally like the Jack Reacher type of character or the SAS style hero, all stunted emotionally and skilled in every known way to kill a person. But, I do like Neil Lancaster's police novels and this was available as part of my Prime Reading (and also now available on Kindle Unlimited) so I thought I'd give it a try. I really enjoyed it, obviously there were a few cliches/lucky coincidences such as the fact that Tom had saved the life of a man who had since gone on to be a senior person in the CIA with the ability to furnish Tom with guns and surveillance equipment, a freelance operative, and a plane at short notice. My only negative was that I thought the identity of the traitor was too obvious.

I have already downloaded the second book in the series - let's see whether Tom is more than a one-trick pony.

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Review: Murder in the Parish

Murder in the Parish by Faith Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

DI Hillary Greene is retired but has returned to the police to help solve cold cases. She has a remarkable solve rate. Her latest case is the thirty-year old murder of the Reverend Keith Coltrane in his own church in the Oxfordshire village of Lower Barton.

There were two suspects at the time, a businessman who was in dispute with the Reverend over a plot of land which the Reverend wanted to use as a cemetery and the businessman wanted to use as a glamping site, and the husband of a woman who was known to be chasing after the good-looking Reverend. Someone seems to think these two know more than they are letting on.

Was he a ladies man? Was he too friendly with the village youths? Was he hiding a secret?

This is the twentieth book in the series but the first one I have read. I found it easy enough to get into, Hillary's past was alluded to but you don't need to have read the other books to enjoy this police procedural. Having said that, the plot seemed quite familiar, but then there are only a few real motives for murder.

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

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Review: The Seven Day Switch

The Seven Day Switch by Meg Chronis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

When Becca Stratton's identical twin TV celebrity Gem runs into problems as always Becca comes riding in to the rescue, leaving her prestigious job as concierge at one of London's smartest hotels to return to South Africa where Gem was supposed to be doing seven days of community work at an animal sanctuary after tweeting some unfortunate remarks about an animal. Gem's had a meltdown and is in danger of losing her lucrative sponsorship deals unless she (ie Becca) can fix things with the surly vet Dr Sullivan Scott.

How hard can it be? Switch places for one week? Easy. Shovel manure? You should see the things Becca has had to clean when she was working her way up the ladder in hospitality.

The only trouble is, Becca's legendary prowess at fixing problems for her hotel guests has totally deserted her and it seems she can't take a step without mucking up, whether its crashing her car or practically drowning a dog. And then there's the inconvenient attraction to Dr Scott, especially since Gem is dating the captain of the Springboks (South Africa's national rugby team).

I'll be honest, I would have liked this better if Becca hadn't been such a walking disaster. It felt out of character and unrealistic. Why would Dully fall for a woman like that? Also, Becca was so totally indiscreet and talked about London so much that it felt contrived that Sully didn't put two and two together and guess that she was Becca when he learned that she had an identical twin sister. Especially since he commented so often about how different she was when she returned.

Overall, this felt like one of those Goldie Hawn frenetic romantic comedies (you know the ones where she runs about causing chaos and squealing a lot) which didn't really match with the vibe of the characters. I don't think I'm explaining myself very well, but if you are the type of woman who can pander to outrageous guest demands and do it with a smile on your face, why would you do so many stupid things? Ah, no I've just got it, very much like The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, although there's no reason to take Becca down a peg or two. So a four star knocked down by half a star.

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

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Review: Yours Truly

Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dr Briana Ortiz and Dr Jacob Maddox get off on the wrong foot. She thinks he's come to her hospital to get the promotion she's been working for, instead he's come to avoid his ex-girlfriend and brother who have got together and both work at his previous hospital. Briana's younger brother is in kidney failure and has slumped into depression, which means he's not looking after himself and is a frequent visitor to the ER where she works.

Jacob is an introvert and an over-thinker, very much like Briana's brother. On his first day at the hospital he had a series of patients die (none of them his fault) and now the nurses call him Dr Death and hate him. His large, loud family are constantly hovering over him, taking his side and throwing shade on his brother. It's all too much. Then a woman runs past him so fast she knocks his phone out of his hand and cracks the screen. Could anyone get off to a worse start? Well yes, they could follow the woman into a patient's room and then (see introvert and overthinker above) make some stupid comments when she is clearly distressed by the patient (Briana's brother).

Anyway, long story short, Jacob writes Briana a letter to apologise for his behaviour and explain why he acted the way he did. A proper letter on real paper with a pen. The letter means a lot to Briana and she understands his behaviour better because of her brother. So strikes up a pen-pal relationship as they leave each other letters around the hospital.

Jacob's mother received a kidney donation many years ago and the entire family were grateful because none of them were a match. In an attempt to pay it forward Jacob volunteers to be tested for Briana's brother and turns out to be a near-perfect match. He agrees to donate a kidney but insists on anonymity and for the operations to take place at another hospital, his introversion could not cope with everyone crowding around him, being grateful and loud.

When Jacob confesses that he is dreading dinner at his parents' house where his brother is going to announce his engagement Briana offers to accompany him as his fake girlfriend. She understands his anxiety and vulnerability and wants to help, just as she would help her brother. Indeed, she teaches Jacob a game she and her brother play at social events.

Things are going swimmingly, Briana and Jacob are getting on fine, they could even have something real, but when Briana finds out that Jacob in her brother's donor he can't tell if she's faking it out of gratitude. On her part, Briana is worried that Jacob is still in love with his ex and just faking it with her to distract his family. Can these two get over themselves?

I thought that this was the second Abby Jimenez book I had read, it's actually the fourth! This loosely follows from Part of Your World, which was a bit heavy on the woo-woo with a sentient Inn. The Inn features in this book, but only a cameo appearance.

What can I say, I loved it. Okay I felt both of them maybe harped on a bit too much about what they thought the other was doing rather than looking and listening to what they were actually doing, but hey that's the nature of the beast, there has to be some kind of conflict.

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

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Review: The Good, the Bad and the History

The Good, the Bad and the History by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.

First off, this is book 14 in a series. These books are not standalone. I barely can keep up and I've read all 14 books. Do not start here. There will be spoilers for earlier books.

At the end of the last book an unknown person had shot Commander Treadwell, the Time Police operative acting as Director of St Mary's whilst Dr Bairstow was being held by Martin Gaunt. As a consequence St Mary's is in lockdown whilst various military regimes investigate. Max no longer works for St Mary's instead she is a time traveller bounty hunter with Markham (who is officially on paternity leave), Pennyroyal and Smallhope. Because Max is wanted by various organisations for various things she is masquerading as Nicola Hay, librarian, while she recovers from Insight's attempts to assassinate her. Are you keeping up?

Insight appears to be a benign historical research organisation, however Max and Markham discovered that it was trying to alter the course of history by interfering in moments such as the signing of the Magna Carta. Max has infiltrated Insight and they have foiled three attempts to alter the timeline, but the recent attack means that Insight will soon find out that Max is a spy.

Can Max bring down Insight before she is caught? How far is she willing to go to get in with the real power at Insight? Why are they altering history? And given the need to time travel to the future to work for Insight and back to the past on missions, how is Max going to cope with her time travel sickness?

With all Jodi Taylor's trademark humour, this was a great book in the series, even Clive Ronan makes a brief re-appearance. Could it be the end? Who knows.

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

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Review: Summer at the Cornish Farmhouse

Summer at the Cornish Farmhouse by Linn B. Halton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Jess' husband leaves her for another woman she is devastated, so when her grandfather offers her the chance of a new life in his Cornish farmhouse she and her eight year old daughter Lola jump at the chance.

Jess is determined to restore the farmhouse and surrounding farmyard outbuildings and barns to expand the fledgling camping and holiday cottage business she has started, but her long-term goal has to be restoring Renweneth Manor, the derelict old house and gardens sitting on their land.

Jess has done most of the renovations herself, with some assistance from specialists like electricians, but when all round handyman and builder Riley offers to give Jess two days a week of his time she can really get going with the renovations.

This was pleasant enough, but there was no conflict, no drama, even the romance was low-key, and as a result when I got to the end I felt a little as though nothing had happened. Or maybe that this is the first chapter in a series? Anyway, a gentle romance where no-one is ever mean or unkind might just be your cup of tea on a bad day.

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

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Review: The Summer Skies

The Summer Skies by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Morag's family, more specifically her grandfather, runs a small airline ferrying people between remote Scottish islands. She has the flying bug, but her interest is larger passenger jets criss-crossing Europe, until a tragic accident puts her and the pilot on leave pending an assessment of their ability to continuing flying. Although she loves the remote islands, Morag's heart is definitely on the mainland and she has no intention of taking over the airline when her grandfather retires. Although Morag passes the tests with flying colours, and snags a date with the HR consultant assessing her to boot, she knows deep down that she is scared to take control of an aircraft and decides that she will take a sideways promotion, eschewing piloting European short-haul for being co-pilot on long-haul aircraft.

Before she takes her final test, in a flight simulator, Morag is called back to the Scottish Highlands, her grandfather is ill and she is needed to hold the fort. Even then, Morag manages to take the co-pilot role, ferrying locals to and from the larger islands and extreme sportsmen to the remote islands until a forced landing on a remote island and a freak storm leave her stranded with what might be the grumpiest ornithologist on earth.

This had an unusual, one might even say unorthodox, start. In fact I couldn't believe it was a Jenny Colgan novel because it was so far from what I've come to expect from her. And yet that isn't fair because she also covers some hard-hitting emotional issues in her other books, its just that they are wrapped up in the cosy small-town vibe that I forget it's not all home-made brownies, cute sheep, and lashings of ginger beer.

It's got romance, a goat, beautiful scenery, a hen party, home baking, flying family, and discovering what home really means. Oh! It's a Jenny Colgan book after all LOL.

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

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Review: He's My Cowboy

He's My Cowboy by Diana Palmer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall, a low three stars, I only requested it for the Rebecca Zanetti book.

THE HAWK’S SHADOW * Diana Palmer
Two and a half stars.

Gil is a new sheriff's investigator. When construction workers find a long-buried body near a burst water pipe he calls in someone from the state crime lab. At first their relationship is abrasive but soon they find they have more in common than most, but is it too much too soon?

Nemara finds it difficult to make friends, her family connections mean people always want her to get them to do favours for them, and her prickly demeanour puts people off.

This was okay, although I'm past being irritated by a man and a woman having exactly the same likes and dislikes and yet he is seen as a desirable mate whereas everyone thinks she's an oddball. Unfortunately, we didn't stop there. Nemara is a virgin (or course she is eyeroll) and has spooky powers which allow her to 'know' what happened to their corpse, but of course she can't tell anyone because it isn't proper policework!

Basically, anyone with any iota of common-sense could tell who had 'killed' their victim right from the start.

RESCUE: RANCHER STYLE * Rebecca Zanetti
Three stars.

Tara is a widow and a high school English teacher. Greg was her high school sweetheart and first love, until he dumped her and joined the Marines. Now he's back in town to care for his older brother's children and ranch after his brother's death. When his brother's second wife tries to get custody of the children (for their half of the ranch) she slings a lot of dirt, which seems to be sticking, until Greg's niece Hannah announces to the judge that Tara (a character witness) and Greg are engaged to be married. Now the senile old judge has married the two of them off and they have to live together for two months until the judge determines that Greg is a fit person to bring up three teenagers.

This has suspense, second chance romance, and what seems to be a wider arc - I must look out for this Cattle Club and see if there is another series.

Unfortunately, and this is the reason for the three star review, Greg insists his way is best with Tara and the children. He gives them all orders, won't listen to advice and basically insists its his way or the highway. And he doesn't learn the error of his ways. I'm over men who think they rule the world and its verging on controlling, do this, don't do that, stay here, etc.

A COWBOY KIND OF ROMANCE * Delores Fossen
2 stars.

A couple who broke up when he chose rodeo over her are reunited by interfering family and friends years later. He's had to retire after a nasty injury and she's just finished a stint in the military police. Their families and the entire small town are scheming to get them back together in the most juvenile ways possible - using their prom picture (without permission), doctoring it, and then plastering it on huge billboards around town to promote it as a romantic town for one example. To make it worse, his brother and her sister are getting married and forcing the two of them to do most of the heavy lifting.

This just felt juvenile from start to finish: the inability to stop accidentally kissing, I've read tweenager books with less accidental kissing; the ghastly families who are forcing them together; the lack of an actual plot.

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