Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 283

Review: MURDER ON THE MENU by Nancy Skopin

Nikki Hunter is a P.I. with most of her cases being cheating husbands and bad employees. But this time she has something different: a murder case.


Nikki is very thorough and has keen observational skills. She finds no reason why a rich college student could’ve been murdered. After all, the kid read romance novels, slept with Shrek dolls, and watched Disney movies. On the other hand, she also got automatic deposits from a nudie bar. So the girl was a part-time stripper, too.


It takes a thief to catch a thief. Thanks to Nikki’s past life of transgressions and misdemeanors, she’s able to use her thievery skills to hunt the bad guys and bring justice to order. Her compulsion to fix the world makes her good at what she does. I thought she was a pretty cool chick.


I thought this started off pretty enjoyable because you just fall into this mysterious case, but, most of the time, Nikki got WAY TOO descriptive, especially about her dumb boats. And because of this, it was much too slow for me. Must she describe every little thing? At 25% of the book, this started to REALLY bug me how she would describe EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. I think she even describes the same people. If I have to hear one more time about how so-and-so had strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes, and a vanilla complexion, I’m going to scream.


The mystery could’ve been good if it hadn’t choked me with all the describing. If this is the rest of the series will be, I think this will be the only book I read then.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: JUST ONE PIECE by Katie Graykowski (Book 3)

The PTO girls once again veer off topic in this book. When do they find the penis? Really, the chopped appendage was the only alluring quality of the book. Although the penis shows up at the end of chapter 1, it still felt like forever to get there. The girls are all-over-the-place whacked.


This was SO BORING. I was really looking forward to it.


Such a disappointment.


My rating: 1 star

Review: CATS, CANNOLIS, AND A CURIOUS KIDNAPPING by Cheryl Denise Bannerman (Bk 1)

Anna Romano was a lonely Italian lady from the Jersey shore. At 37, she was an old maid, unmarried with seven cats. She's often asked why she hasn't found "the one." Her answer: "It could be (A) from a lack of trying, (B) my sarcasm and independence is a turnoff, or (C) I find most men annoying and harder to clean up after than my cats." (10) Right on, girl!
The only fulfilling part of her life was her work as a mystery author. She was known as "The Author Cat Lady."
Ever since her book signing in NY, she's been getting strange calls and messages from an unknown sender. "Silence is golden." What did that mean?
Since the police seemed to be no help, Anna decides to investigate on her own in order to protect herself and her cats. She comes to the realization that her stalker might have some similarities to a character from her book. Then she gets kidnapped.
The character is witty with a good sense of humor. I liked how relatable she was with her down-to-earth persona and candid remarks, which were sometimes funny. Girl tells it like it is even in the face of danger. The plot can get a little chaotic with the different character perspectives (Anna, stalker, and the police,) but the track is fairly stable.
Will the police get to Anna in time? That's the question since Anna's kidnapping is the main event in like 80% of the book. I didn't quite see the connection between Anna's story and the kidnapper, but still, this was quick, little mystery that I found overall amusing.
My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: A BLOODY STILETTO, COLD LASAGNA, AND A BESTSELLER by Cheryl Denis Bannerman (Bk 2)

Anna Romano is back!
What better way to entertain a cat lady than with a cat fight at the supermarket? Somehow Anna gets involved in a case concerning a scorned wife and a cheating husband. She figures she might as well score an interview with the wife for her next story. The last thing she expected to find was the wife dead on the bathroom floor at some fancy party. Death by a red stiletto. It was a bloody scene. Although how much force would you need to be able to drive a stiletto heel through a human skull? Ouch!
Now the question: Who could've wanted her dead? "This poor woman was being cheated on by her husband, is attacked by her husband’s mistress, and then murdered the same night." (56)
This story doesn't have just one murder; it has TWO murders. And, of course, Anna would be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Once again, Anna charms readers with her witty and candid commentary. This was definitely a juicier case than the last one.
An entertaining mystery!
My rating: 4 stars

Review: KILLER REMEDY by Julia Rohatyn

Betsy was in low spirits, and her friend, Miriam, was hoping a trip to Italy would help; Emma was a grieving widow.
From the looks of it, these women were battling their own inner demons, however, their story is so scattered that it's hard to pinpoint the issue. Needless to say, I didn't fall into this story. It was too boring and complicated.
My rating: 2 stars

Author Review Program

Readers can sign up to read and review books by amazing authors.  

Sign up and we will send over a list of the books in the program. Below is a sneak peek.


BONUS: Each Amazon review will enter you for a chance to WIN $50 in an Amazon Gift Card or Pay Pal cash by the end of the year. Whoever submits the most reviews will win! Amazon links must be emailed to enter. 



Powered by[image error]EMF Free Form Builder

Review: TIME CHANGE by Elyse Douglas

1948: Rita, a Hollywood actress, was tired of the spotlight. Tired of playing the mysterious femme fatale, she wants actually meet a nice man—her knight in shining armor. “But I’ve never really lived. I’ve never had the time to be truly in love… to really care about somebody other than myself…I haven’t fallen in love.” (18)
2019: Clint was a struggling novelist. Ever since his wife died, he became distant and withdrawn. “His heart was stone cold. He felt nothing.” (22)
Book relays two different stories—the stories of these two characters. After a violent attack from her agent, Rita flees a murder scene, trying to cover her tracks. What would she do if the cops found out? Would she get jail time? That would surely end her career and any possible hope of finding a husband and father for her daughter. Entranced by the classic beauty of one of the era’s leading actresses, Clint decides to learn more about Rita Randall and the scandal that had befallen her. Oddly enough, one of his neighbors seems to be the spitting image of Rita.
Two characters, lonely and unfulfilled, lost in deep and dark despair. Living decades apart, the characters, connected by the same soul, only see each other in captured images. How could they appear in each other’s lenses? What was this strange phenomenon? A time portal connecting the past and present? But what happens when one accidentally stumbles through the portal? Talk about Alice of Wonderland down the rabbit hole.
Story become topsy-turvy as each character swaps time. Characters are constantly trying to find each other in this strange time warp.
Time Change transcends across space, geography, and…time. A well-crafted and overall enjoyable read!
My rating: 3.5 stars

Review: DARK JUSTICE by Angela Smith

Twelve years ago, Luke was tried and convicted for murder. If only someone believed that he didn’t do it.
Lauren thought Luke killed her sister. Luke was once the man she loved with all her heart. But now he was nothing more than a killer set free. How could she forge that he killed her sister? But how could she ignore the desire she still felt for him? Even now when she had the pistol aimed at Luke, she couldn’t hide the longing she’d kept for him.
The trust was broken, but the fact remains: the true killer was still out there. Could Lauren know him? And could she protect her daughter—a daughter belonging to her and Luke—from him?
Story was well-written, painting a nice scene of the arid Texas landscapes. Plot often shifts between present and past scenes, depicting the events of the trial and the mystery surrounding the unsolved case. At times, the scenes could be somewhat lagging (like the court scenes, for instance,) but the story was, overall, full of mystery and suspense.
A pretty good read.
My rating: 3 stars

Review: WOKE UP DEAD by Nadia Gilkes

“The day I woke up dead was the day my life changed forever.” (3)
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead” was a mantra she overused and now it would seem ironically fitting.
How odd, right? I mean, how does someone wake up dead? I guess it all started when she woke up in bed to blinding lights and an earthquake. I didn’t really understand this particular transition or what exactly was going on here. Turns out she was at her own funeral. Then off to the ER she went.
Story was merely describing the “process” of waking up dead, which wasn’t very stimulating. I honestly expected it to be funnier. Instead I felt that this was going all over the place. The plot wasn’t straightforward and clear.
Not what I expected.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: FOCUS LOST by Doug Cooper

Levi Combs and Emily James—two up-and-coming Hollywood stars—caught being photographed in flagrante. She was one of the biggest teenage star and he…was not.  
Easy to read. Various characters from the Hollywood scene are interlaced in this simple yet twisted plot. The characters have their own personal agenda. At times, I wondered what the ultimate goal was in all this. Was it to make some easy money on some cheap photographs? Was it to ruin the careers of the celebrities? Or was there something more sinister lurking here?
Although I wished there were fewer characters and the plot was quicker, story was, overall, a decent read.
My rating: 3 stars