Genre: Romantic Suspense

All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles | Book Review

Posted March 27, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 0 Comments

All the Missing Pieces by Catherine Cowles
Narrator: Andi Arndt, Sebastian York
Published by Dreamscape Media, Sourcebooks Casablanca on January 7, 2025
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense
Pages: 384
Length: 10 hours and 50 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Libro.fm Influencer Program
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Sometimes the last thing you expect is exactly what you need, the final missing piece. And sometimes it comes in the form of a towering, broody sheriff, determined to get in your way at every step.

Ridley Sawyer knows what it’s like to miss someone, to feel like a piece of her vanished—because it happened to her the night her twin sister disappeared.

Now, Ridley channels that loss into hope, traveling the country covering cold cases for her true crime podcast. She might not have found justice for her sister but that doesn’t stop her from finding it for others.

Until Sheriff Colter Brooks gets in her way.

Colt knows what it’s like to have reporters descend on his town in the wake of a tragedy, and he’s not about to let a fiery podcaster stir up trouble. It doesn’t matter that her haunting blue eyes tell him there’s more to Ridley’s story or that he can’t stop imagining what it would be like to touch her.

But when Ridley’s cold case turns hot and she’s thrust into the crosshairs, Colt has no choice but to step in. Suddenly, Ridley’s living at his house, drinking his whiskey, and stealing his dog’s affections. But she’s also proving that she’s so much more than his first impression.

And as they get closer to the truth, the game they’ve been playing might just turn deadly…

**WARNING: This review contains spoilers. I don’t give away who the killer is or anything like that, but if you’re planning on reading this book you might feel like I’ve shared a bit more about certain parts of the plot than you’d like.**

I adore romantic suspense. It’s one of my favorite genres ever, yet it’s so hard to find really good ones. All the Missing Pieces started off great, and I quickly became invested in the story of Ridley’s true crime podcast and the search for her twin sister’s killer. But then everything began to fall apart for me, and I think the dialogue shoulders a massive piece of the blame for that. It was so, so cheesy. I really hate the main couple’s pet names for each other, “Law Man” and “Chaos”. If my man decided to call me “Chaos” as a term of endearment I’d be gone. Their dialogue read like a bad Hallmark mystery.

And then the writing… I cringed. It’s so bad. Colt talks all the time about how Ridley smells like burnt oranges. Ok so… let me just grab this orange and throw it in a campfire and that’s the smell that has him falling all over himself? He says her scent “clings to the walls”. I’m picturing how my microwave still smells like the popcorn I burned a year ago. Not so appealing. Ridley mentions his scent just as often: bergamot and cloves. Ummmm? I could identify a hint of cloves in the air because I love Thanksgiving, but bergamot? I had to google what bergamot smells like, and I don’t know many people, apart from fragrance enthusiasts, who could randomly identify that scent on a person. I read it smells citrusy. How could Ridley even pick out the bergamot if she smells like campfire oranges all the time? What man, who sees the same woman every day for several weeks, would notice that her hair looked blonder than usual because she’d been outside more? That’s the weirdest observation to me! It’s cold out and her lifestyle hasn’t changed since arriving in this town so why has her hair lightened enough to notice, seemingly overnight? Ridley is constantly lamenting her nipples. They stand at attention or harden whenever Colt so much as breathes, and those “traitorous peaks” sure do cause her trouble. She talks about them all the time. I’m cringing again just remembering it. But I think my final undoing with the writing was this quote:

“He understood the colors I painted my world with because he spoke the language of my pain.”

Ok, really think about that sentence. What on earth does it even mean? The colors of her world… the language of her pain… It’s so purple prose, yet it does nothing for the reader. That sentence is there for the purpose of making the reader gasp at its beauty(?), but it seriously means nothing. I rolled my eyes so hard they almost fell out of my head.

Moving on to the characters. They both lack personality. Colter needs to go to anger management. I’m a little worried about a cop who is so angry, and so filled with rage all the time. Seriously, all the time. He treats his adult younger sister like a child and is so overprotective that she’s scared to live her life. He was so unbelievably rude to Ridley at their first meeting (for no reason), and continued to be so for a long time. How could anyone trust him as a cop when this is his personality? He goes from pure hatred to all-consuming lust to… love? And then he becomes very controlling and smothering. Ridley has been living in a van for years, trekking across the country alone, interviewing potential criminals, etc. and yet Colter thinks her completely incapable of taking care of herself. He gets so mad if she does anything he deems unsafe. In his defense, Ridley does do a lot of dumb things. It’s hard to believe her experience level because she really is too stupid to still be alive. I mean, she showers behind a curtain outside her van. Colter manhandles her all the time, picking her up like a doll and placing her in his lap if ever he thinks she needs him. She must be the tiniest human being in the world for how easily he does this. Their romance is very boring. I felt nothing for these two. No swoons, no heart flutters, no nothing. The relationship went through no development at all and then, after knowing each other for only a few weeks (most of which were spent hating each other), the L-bomb was dropped during a time of intense emotional turmoil. I didn’t even believe it. The spicy scenes were awkward and one in particular seemed completely impossible.

There was no real suspense or actual investigation of the crime. I can’t see how Ridley has ever solved a cold case, with how little she does on the page with this one. She films b-roll and snippets for Instagram and she goes to the school library to look at old yearbooks. That’s about it. The book mentions that a lot of research has already been done, and there’s countless numbers of files and documentation of various crimes, but we’re told about so little of it. How did Ridley connect all these cases? How was she the one to figure out that this guy is a serial killer? I wanted actual information, not to just be told that there is information. I wanted suspects and stories and information about other victims. This murderer is a serial kidnapper and killer. He’s left at least 23 victims in his wake, completely eluding law enforcement for over a decade. And then everything is tied up neatly in a bow after one of the weakest revelations I’ve seen. I read some reviews where people were like, “I had no idea who did it until the very end!!” Well, that makes sense because the author gives no hints or information that would help anyone even begin to make assumptions as to who did it. There was no foreshadowing or setting up the framework for this murderer. And that’s because this is really a very flimsy case. If any clues were given, we’d know immediately how it was going to end.

Andi Arndt is one of my favorite narrators, and she did a great job. I loved listening to her. Sebastian York and I have a love-hate relationship. I’ve loved some of his narrations over the years, but I think his portrayal of Colter in this book was part of why it didn’t work for me. Sebastian has a very strong, gruff, sarcastic voice and that might have been when made Colter sound so mad all the time. The author made sure we knew how angry Colter was with her word choices (he was always grinding his back teeth together and seething and fuming), but Sebastian’s voice brought life to it and made me unable to use my own inner voice to keep Colter’s character calm in my head. He was just always so mad and I grew exhausted listening to him. There’s also gratuitous swearing, which was made more obvious by the audio version.

I know I’m in the minority, as this book is very highly rated on Goodreads and I have many friends who loved it. I should have DNFed, but I wanted to know who the bad guy was (and it wasn’t worth it). This was not my first Catherine Cowles book, but I do think it’s going to be my last. Unfortunately, her books just aren’t the right fit for me. And that makes me sad, because she’s a very prolific author with unique-sounding plots that aren’t either paranormal or all about SEALs/former military/security company owner male leads, as is the case with so many romantic suspense books. The hunt continues!

Do you have any romantic suspense recommendations for me?

Her Darkest Nightmare (and the Rest of the Evelyn Talbot Chronicles) by Brenda Novak | Audiobook Series Review

Posted July 1, 2021 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 4 Comments

Her Darkest Nightmare by Brenda Novak
Series: The Evelyn Talbot Chronicles #1
Published by St Martin's Paperbacks on April 30, 2016
Genres: Mythology, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 431
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER
Evelyn Talbot knows that a psychopath can look perfectly normal. She was only sixteen when her own boyfriend Jasper imprisoned and tortured her—and left her for dead. Now an eminent psychiatrist who specializes in the criminal mind, Evelyn is the force behind Hanover House, a maximum-security facility located in a small Alaskan town. Her job puts her at odds with Sergeant Amarok, who is convinced that Hanover is a threat to his community…even as his attraction to beautiful Evelyn threatens to tear his world apart.

BEGINS WITH AN ESCAPE FROM HER PAST
Then, just as the bitter Alaskan winter cuts both town and prison off from the outside world, the mutilated body of a local woman turns up. For Amarok, this is the final proof he needs: Hanover has to go. Evelyn, though, has reason to fear that the crime is a personal message to her—the first sign that the killer who haunts her dreams has found her again. . .and that the life she has so carefully rebuilt will never be the same…

It’s no secret that I love romantic suspense, so when I saw a romantic suspense series of books about serial killers set in a remote Alaskan town, I was extremely excited! I listened to the prequel novel, Hanover House, and then immediately dove into Her Darkest Nightmare. And then… I binged the rest of the series back, to back, to back. These books are pretty gargantuan and I read all 5 of them in less than two weeks. That’s monumental for me, considering I usually read about a book a week. So clearly, the story really sucked me in and I had to keep going until it was over. Because I read all of these books so close together, it’s a major struggle to review them all individually. I figured why not just lump them all together into one big spoiler-free review? As always, my main points are bolded.

1. This series starts off very strong. I flew through Hanover House, which I highly recommend. Prequel novellas (although, you can’t really call it a novella when it’s 244 pages long) tend to be a take it or leave it kind of a story, but I really think it’s paramount that you read Hanover House. It tells the story of Evelyn Talbot, her serial killer boyfriend from high school, and the reason she decided to make a career of studying the minds of serial killers. It sets the stage for the entire series and introduces you to a very important character named Jasper, who you really need to know. I also think it’s important that readers fully understand Evelyn’s past, because it sheds a lot of light on why she is the way she is in the rest of the books in the series.

2. Her Darkest Nightmare takes place about 6 months after the prequel. Evelyn has been lobbying to build Hanover House, which is a maximum security prison that houses the most dangerous serial killers, and it’s finally open. Its existence is the capstone of her entire career, and she is the driving force behind how it operates and who resides there. She works with a team of other psychiatrists, interviewing and running tests on these inmates with the goal of coming up with a cure or treatment program for psychopaths. She refers to them throughout the entire series as “the consciousless”. We meet Sergeant Amarok, Evelyn’s younger man love interest, in this book. He’s Hilltop, Alaska’s one and only member of law enforcement and has been against Hanover House since it was still a glimmer in Evelyn’s eye. He didn’t want his sleepy little hometown, which has been untouched by major crimes for over a decade, to become home to so many dangerous criminals. It’s out of his hands now, though, so he has to deal with it. And he was right. Hanover House brings a lot of death to Hilltop.

3. Evelyn… I have conflicting thoughts on her. She’s been through so, so much, and the resulting trauma would leave many unable to function, much less work with the very kinds of people who caused such trauma. In that regard, I saw her as strong and resilient. Her desire to make a difference and to help other people never experience what she went through is admirable. At the same time, though, she is also a little too stupid to live. Considering what she’s been through and all of her knowledge on serial killers, I feel like she should be smarter. She makes some very dumb decisions across this series. She says stupid things. She gets herself into situations that I feel could have been avoided if she had just thought a little first. Her stubbornness got on my nerves sometimes, and she has an unhealthy obsession with her work. She’s also incredibly hung-up on the age gap between her and Amarok, which is silly. It’s only 7 years and not a big deal. If the book were about a man dating a woman 7 years his junior, this would not have been a concern and that double standard has always bothered me. She talks like she’s robbing the cradle, and I found it to be pretty dramatic and annoying. Evelyn brings this up a lot throughout the series (even after the love factor is strong between them), and I got pretty tired of it. She is always trying to talk him into leaving her for someone else. Like it’s that easy. Give the man some credit. Either dump him for the shallow reason of being younger or get over it!

4. Amarok also gives me conflicting thoughts. On the one hand, Evelyn’s trauma matters to him and he is so patient and understanding. He gives her as much time as she needs to feel comfortable opening up and being more intimate with him. His sense of duty to his job and his dedication to keeping the people of Hilltop safe is great. I loved his dog, Makita, and their bond. But… he’s also very critical of Evelyn’s decision to study psychopaths. He, apparently, knows what’s best for her and has no trouble at all telling her on a frequent basis what a mistake she made choosing her career. I get it, Amarok. You want her to be safe and happy, and that’s great. But let the woman make her own decisions.

5. Hilltop, Alaska is isolated, dark for such a huge chunk of the year, and has no cell service. There’s a couple small businesses but for the most part it’s pretty empty. People come to Hilltop to rent hunting cabins and go off into the wilderness. The rest of the people have lived there forever. It’s really the perfect setting for a creepy series.

6. Her Darkest Nightmare was good for me! I rated it 4 stars, and was hooked on the story quickly. Each chapter starts off with a quote from a real serial killer, and those were creepy. This did not happen during the rest of the books, which left me both relieved and disappointed. Some of the quotes were upsetting so I was glad to not read more of them, but some of them were also interesting or just the right amount of creepy to set the stage for the chapter and I missed those ones as the books went on. The first half of the book is definitely better than the second half, but I was so intrigued by the over-arching mystery of Jasper that I flew through it anyway. The second half drags with Evelyn’s insecurities and repeated thoughts. The ending… left much to be desired. It didn’t go how I wanted it to, and felt a bit far-fetched to me.

7. I found a lot of the information on psychopaths interesting, and enjoyed reading it… until the author started re-using the same bits of info from previous books. Then it felt very repetitive.

8. Hello Again, book #2, also got 4 stars from me. This book centers on a serial killer named Lyman Bishop, who uses an ice pick to give his victims lobotomies and turn them into submissive vegetables that he can do whatever he wants with. He’s a brand new inmate at Hanover House, and Evelyn is eager to dive into his mind. He’s a brilliant cancer researcher, and claims he’s innocent. And new crimes show that he might very well be. Or is someone copying Lyman’s work to mess with people? Who knows? Is Lyman really a charming, wrongly convicted individual or is he also a brilliant psychopath who can play any part? There’s some triggery stuff surrounding his story and his past, including abuse and incest, so prepare for that. It was disturbing. Amarok’s ex girlfriend comes back in to town, and that added in some drama I didn’t like but oh well. Hello Again was pretty good!

9. Speaking of repetition… I do not recommend binge reading this series. You need to read a book, wait until you’ve forgotten most of it, and then read the next one. The author seems to think that her readers will not retain anything, even for a few chapters. Everything, and I mean everything, is repeated. Many times. Across all the books. What a psychopath is, what Hilltop is like, who various people are, what happened to Evelyn, etc. You will never ever be allowed to forget anything. I’m not pulling a direct quote, but this is the basic idea:

Guy at bar: I heard about a new inmate that’s been transferred to Hanover House. How’s that going?
Evelyn: Yes, we have Lyman Bishop at Hanover House now. I don’t know him very well yet.
Guy at bar: Wait. Lyman Bishop? The Zombie Maker? The man who performed ice pick lobotomies on his victims to render them vegetables?

…a few chapters later…

Evelyn: I spoke with Lyman Bishop today.
Amarok: You mean, the serial killer who used an ice pick to perform lobotomies on his victims and essentially turn them into shells of their former selves?

This kind of thing went on and on and on throughout the series, just about different people. There was constant repetition about who Jasper Moore is. This is not a spoiler. Readers learn very early on that Jasper Moore is Evelyn’s high school boyfriend who kidnapped her, killed her best friends, tortured her for three days, slit her throat, and left her for dead. She survived and he was never caught. And you will never forget these facts as long as you live. Long after these books are in your rear view and you have read hundreds more, you will hear the name Jasper and your mind will tell you who he is, verbatim, because you will read it so so many times in this series. Here’s another example of what I mean, although these are not direct quotes either. But they’re pretty close.

Evelyn: I’m concerned this could be Jasper’s doing. That he’s found me and is messing with me.
Secondary character: Wait. Jasper as in Jasper Moore? The man who kidnapped you, killed your friends, tortured you for three days, slit your throat, and left you for dead?

…a few chapters later…

Amarok: Evelyn thinks Jasper might have surfaced in Chicago.
His assistant: Are you serious? The man who kidnapped her, tortured her for three days, and left her for dead might be killing again?

…a few chapters later…

A serial killer: I see you have a scar on your neck. Is that from when your high school boyfriend, Jasper Moore, slit your throat and left you for dead after kidnapping you and torturing you for three days?

…a few chapters later…

A detective in another state: We’re looking for Jasper Moore, the man who kidnapped then 16-year-old Evelyn Talbot, killed her friends, held her in a cabin for three days while he tortured her between school and baseball practice, slit her throat, and left her for dead. He was never caught.

I’m not even kidding! It was this bad! Every person, every event, every thing that could possibly be deemed important information is repeated over and over again as though the author expects that nobody paid attention or remembered anything. I don’t know how this made it through editing! These books could have been so much shorter if things were not repeated so often.

10. I’d like to do a keyword search to figure out how many times “the lower forty-eight” is said across all five books, but oh my gosh. It’s like there’s Alaska and then the rest of the United States is just one big blob. People move there from “the lower forty-eight”, people want to move back to “the lower forty-eight”, people come on vacation from “the lower forty-eight”, Jasper is somewhere in “the lower forty-eight” killing again. It. Is. Constant. I dated a guy from Alaska. We had a long distance relationship while he was living there. Never once in our 6 years of dating did he ever say “the lower forty-eight”. I was very close to his family. None of them said it. I flew out to visit him. Nobody there said it. I’ve been on an Alaskan cruise and met many people who live and work there. Not one person said it. But EVERYONE says it in these books.

11. Face Off, the third book in the series, got three stars from me. I liked the overall storyline, but I can’t share much because I’d be spoiling a lot. Don’t even read the synopsis for this one without reading the first two books in the series because you’ll be spoiled. The suspense and the big moments were what I’d been waiting for, but it all came to a head so easily for me. And I can’t explain why because spoilers!

12. The romance didn’t do anything for me. I didn’t feel the love and the swooniness from Evelyn and Amarok that I needed. I never believed their story. She kept pushing him away for various reasons, and I felt like that made him want her even more. She was something to be won. Her fear of intimacy was a hurdle to be conquered. I never felt like she trusted him, and I never felt convinced he loved her and not just. the idea of her. The romance took a backseat to the crimes and the psychopaths, neither of which is a very romantic plot element. I would have preferred it if there was no romance in these books at all.

13. Blindspot, the 4th and final book of the series also received three stars from me. After 5 (if we include the prequel) books filled with repetition, Evelyn’s insecurities, Amarok’s poking and prodding, recycled info on psychopaths, and all the exact same characters, I was worn out. I just wanted to be done and see how everything ended. I can’t say much about this book because I don’t want to spoil anything, but Evelyn is abducted right at the beginning and the bulk of the book surrounds her being in captivity once again. I will admit, I was pretty invested. I had to know how everything ended. The person who abducted her is very creepy. Amarok furiously has all of Alaska hunting for her. It’s intense, and a bit disturbing. Again, though, the ending was just too easy. It all worked out so easily and perfectly and I couldn’t help but be disappointed after all the time I’d invested in this series.

14. There are some surprisingly disturbing passages in all 5 books in this series. Violent crimes are described in detail. Trauma is described in detail. I wasn’t expecting these books to be like this, and I think it would have been better for my own mental health if I had read them more spaced out (for multiple reasons). I found myself weighed down and feeling a little dark and depressed. I think that’s why I flew through the books so fast. A huge part of me wanted to read them all in order to resolve the dark in my mind and move on. Once things ended, I could stop thinking about them. There was also quite a bit of language, which surprised me coming from Brenda Novak.

Well. This review is a mess. LOL. Honestly, I read these books because I had to know what happened and not necessarily because I was enjoying them. Hanover House was enjoyable and I was so excited to continue. Her Darkest Nightmare didn’t resolve things that happened in Hanover House that I needed resolved, and my obsession grew. I have never read anything this fast, which I have to hand to Brenda Novak. She got me invested, in spite of all my reservations about these books. She had me tearing through the pages and staying up until 4 AM multiple times even though parts of them drove me bonkers. I became obsessed. That’s why I rated them higher than makes sense for what I’ve said here. But this was not a good obsession for me. lol. I should have slowed down and taken the story in smaller doses. Perhaps then I wouldn’t have felt so dark. I still would have noticed the repetition, though, so… who knows? All in all, I honestly have no idea if I would recommend this series. My initial gut reaction was, “Yes! I was obsessed! I’ve never read so fast!” but then… I remember all the little things that grated on me and the overall dark feelings I felt, and I think… I’ve read better romantic suspense that was actually romantic and not so upsetting. So I’m just going to leave my thoughts here and let you decide what they mean.

Uncharted by Adriana Anders | Book Review

Posted June 10, 2021 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 3 Comments

Uncharted by Adriana Anders
Series: Survival Instincts #2
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on August 31, 2021
Genres: Romance, Romantic Suspense
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
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Hotshot pilot Leo Eddowes is afraid of nothing and no one. So when she's asked to evacuate a man from the wilds of Alaska, she doesn't hesitate. But with enemies in close pursuit and the weather turning sour, what should have been a simple mission quickly shifts to disaster.

And there's only one way out.

When Elias Thorne disappeared, he was America's most wanted. Now he's spent more than a decade in one of the most remote places on earth, guarding a dangerous secret. Leo's arrival, quickly followed by a team of expert hunters, leaves him no choice but to join forces with her—and run. Neither is prepared for their reluctant partnership to flare into something as wild and untamed as the frozen world around them...but as desperately cold days melt into scorchingly hot nights, Leo and Elias must learn to dig deep, trust in each other, and forge a bond as strong as the forces of nature.

Stranded together in a frozen wilderness,
There's nowhere left to run...

I love romantic suspense, and I’m always on the hunt for another amazing one that’s not paranormal or erotica. Do you know how hard those are to come by? I absolutely adored the first book in this series, Whiteout, which ended on a cliffhanger. I was eager to get my hands on Uncharted for a resolution to that story… and there wasn’t. lol. There’s some info and some… movement? I’m not sure movement is the right word. It hasn’t been that long since I read Whiteout, but I struggled to remember some things and people that maybe would have helped me piece this story together a little better. Definitely don’t read this one without having read Whiteout first. You’ll be even more confused than I was, because something important happens in that story that they refer to in this one.

Anyway, moving on! I loved the setting. The Alaskan wilderness is always an amazing setting, but it’s particularly exciting in romantic suspense because it’s so treacherous and dangerous. I also loved the dog, Bo! I panic when dogs or cats (or any beloved pet, really) appears in a suspense novel because many, many authors decide that killing or torturing that pet would be a good idea for a plot point. I blacklist those authors. Animal abuse and deaths are a huge trigger for me. As soon as I got attached to Bo and began to fear for her safety, I wrote to Adriana Anders and begged her to tell me if I needed to stop reading this book. She wrote back within an hour and assured me that it was safe to continue. That email meant so, so much to me, and yes. She was right! I’m sorry if this is a spoiler for anyone reading this book, but I think it’s one worth mentioning. And that’s all I’ll say!

I LOVED Bo. She was so, so sweet and my favorite character in this book. She was the very best good girl in so many ways. Leo bugged me a bit with her stubbornness, but I grew to like her more as the book went on. Elias is a gruff and surly teddy bear, and I really liked him. There was less tension and suspense in this book, compared to Whiteout, which was a bit disappointing. The romance was sweet and well-balanced between two people who want to be tough alphas but are willing to be betas sometimes.

My biggest issue with this book was the dialogue, which I can only hope will be changed before publication. All the characters seem to hate speaking in complete or normal-sounding sentences. Here are some spoiler-free examples:

“Today we do the summit. Hopefully before the helicopter arrives.” He pointed straight up. “Hope not to break our necks in the process.”

That “hope not to…” sentence is weird. Like maybe “Let’s hope we don’t break our necks in the process.” just sounds better.

The ringing in her ears continued. Not a good sign.
“You walk?”
No. “Yes.”

What about “Can you walk?” It just feels better.

“You’re burning up.”
She huffed out a weird sound that felt like a laugh. “I mention I had a stomach thing? Food poisoning. I thought. Maybe it was a bug?”
“He paused, eyes wide. “Kidding me?”

Maybe… “Did I mention…” and “Are you kidding me?”

Then there’s a bunch of little sentences all throughout the story like these:

“Leo your real name?”
“Way you’re looking at me. I’ve gotten a lot of that.”
“Know you’re awake.”
“Time is it?”

I could excuse it if they came from one person. Maybe it’s a weird character quirk or something, but these kinds of sentences came from both Elias and Leo, as well as a secondary character or two. I could also excuse it if it happened only once in a while. It’s very common for people to speak like this on occasion. Like, “you ok?” is commonly used without the “are” at the beginning and nobody cares. But people do not talk like this allllll the time, almost every time they say something.

So often when Leo and Elias talk to each other, it’s back and forth with one- to three-word sentences. The dialogue is very short and choppy (this is not a quote, but explains my thoughts because this is how it felt: “You ok?” “Yes. You?” “Yes.” “Good.” “Let’s keep going.” “Ok.”). As evidenced in the examples above, there are frequently missing words, but there are also the bare minimum of words. Elias even sometimes only talks in grunts or other inaudible noises. The quality of the dialogue was so frustrating to me that I nearly DNFed multiple times, but I really really wanted to know what happened so that I can continue with this series (if there are more books coming. I haven’t seen an announcement yet.). I also really like the author and was so touched by her caring attitude towards me that I wanted to love every single thing about this book! She’s so nice, she deserves to have her book loved! And I almost, almost loved it. But the dialogue made me want to scream. It did improve a little in the last third or so of the book, which made it even more obvious to me that this kind of dialogue was not a character quirk. The dialogue wasn’t like this in Whiteout, so I don’t think this is just how the author writes. I keep trying to figure out why these choices were made for this book, and I can’t come up with an explanation.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on way too long about the dialogue. I’ve been purposely vague in most of my review because it’s easy to spoil thrillers. Overall, I’m hoping there’s more books in this series. As I mentioned before, I loved the first one. This one wasn’t as great for me (even though I did really enjoy parts of it), but I’m eager to read another one that wows me again!

Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle | Book Review

Posted January 3, 2018 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 5 Comments

Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle
Series: Search and Rescue #1
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on April 5, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense
Pages: 365
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...

As the captain of Field County's ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise "Lou" Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he's never felt more alive...even if keeping her safe may just kill him.

Lou's new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she's determined to make it on her own terms...no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themselves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou-and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.

I am a huge fan of romantic suspense, and I’ve been on the hunt for amazing ones all year. When I asked for recommendations on Twitter, Quinn suggested I give Katie Ruggle a try. I flew to Amazon and read the synopsis for Hold Your Breath and immediately became very excited. Each book in the Search and Rescue series focuses on a different branch of the search and rescue team in Field County, Colorado. Hold Your Breath features the dive team, and I think setting a story about a dive team during the cold Rocky Mountain winter was the best choice ever. I also just love wintry settings for romantic suspense because they seem so much more exciting to me. Less daylight, colder temps, quieter nighttimes. And search and rescue? YES. I went in with high hopes and wasn’t disappointed one bit. As always, my main points are bolded.

1. Lou and Callum were very fun to read about. She’s spunky and hilarious, with a bright personality and he’s quiet and surly. He’s also very loyal and intuitive and caring. Such a sweet guy, and I fell in love with him a little as I read this book. The mixture of the two of them was pretty funny. I picture her bouncing off the walls and him sitting there glaring for being disturbed. But the chemistry and heat between these two is amazing. Such a fun couple!

2. The banter between Lou and Callum is wonderful and will make you giggle. He’s just so grumpy and she’s so sunshiney!

3. Hold Your Breath is quite a page-turner. So much action and excitement! Lou becomes the target of someone, and Callum moves in to her remote cabin to protect her. We get to jump inside the head of her stalker, and oh my creepy. I’m already scared of having my curtains open after dark, but even more so now.

4. The book is written in dual perspectives, which I enjoy if done right. And it was done right! I liked hearing from both Lou and Callum and getting their takes on the situation.

5. So swoony! So romantic!

6. Not only does each book in the series center on different rescue units in the county, but there’s a mystery that appears to flow from book to book. Lou discovers a body in this one, but the mystery continues in the next book and so-on. I think it’s a fun way to set up a series, but I’m slightly worried I will forget important elements as I read other books in between.

For fear of giving too much away, I’m going to quit here. I’m super excited to read book two, Fan the Flames, about Ian the firefighter. I got to meet him in this book, and I like him a lot. I like everyone, actually, and am excited to read all their stories. Definitely pick this one up if you like romantic suspense. It was refreshing to find a suspenseful, romantic storyline that isn’t erotica and doesn’t include paranormal aspects like so many do. Highly recommended!

Till Death by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Book Review

Posted August 10, 2017 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

Till Death by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Published by William Morrow on February 28, 2017
Genres: Mystery, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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In New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout’s gripping new novel, a young woman comes home to reclaim her life—even as a murderer plots to end it. . .

It’s been ten years since Sasha Keaton left her West Virginia hometown . . . since she escaped the twisted serial killer known as the Groom. Returning to help run her family inn means being whole again, except for one missing piece. The piece that falls into place when Sasha’s threatened—and FBI agent Cole Landis vows to protect her the way he couldn’t a decade ago.

First one woman disappears; then another, and all the while, disturbing calling cards are left for the sole survivor of the Groom’s reign of terror. Cole’s never forgiven himself for not being there when Sasha was taken, but he intends to make up for it now . . . because under the quirky sexiness Cole first fell for is a steely strength that only makes him love Sasha more.

But someone is watching. Waiting. And Sasha’s first mistake could be her last.

I really, really love romantic suspense and was looking for a great one to read on my cruise a few months ago. Problem is, I’m pretty picky. I don’t like romantic suspense that’s super gory, erotic, or paranormal. I don’t feel like I’m asking for too much here, but apparently romantic suspense isn’t romantic enough if the love interest isn’t a werewolf trying not to eat the beautiful lady. Anyway… I LOVED Till Death. It’s my new favorite romantic suspense, and I’ve been scouring the Internet to try and find other titles like it. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. It’s super scary and creepy and ominous without being over the top and unrealistic. I’ve been reading a lot of mysteries this summer, and they’ve been pretty disappointing as a whole just because they totally would not happen in real life. This would!

2. The characters are so well developed, and I loved them all. Sasha is so strong and well adjusted after suffering at the hands of the Groom. She was the only one of his victims to escape, so obviously she’s resourceful, thinks well under pressure, and is driven to do what needs to be done. I really loved reading about her past and how she recovered and moved on from it. I also liked her best friend Miranda and her mom a lot. And Cole… the sexy FBI agent… I love this man.

3. The story has so many layers and characters that are intertwined. And it’s such a complex plot! I could not read fast enough.

4. I loved the setting. The inn is super cute on the surface, but it just feels unsafe and creepy underneath. The perfect setting for a mystery.

5. I had no idea who the Groom was until we were told. I was completely taken aback by who the culprit was. And that’s all I will say because I don’t want to spoil it.

All in all, this is the book that I will use to judge all other romantic suspense. And honestly, I haven’t found anything that has even come close yet. All those 1-star reviews I’ve been posting recently? Yeah, those were my attempts. I hope Jennifer Armentrout writes more books like this one! She’s got a knack for the genre!