Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 322

Review: CAUGHT UP IN US by Lauren Blakely

An old romance may be rekindled when two people are thrust together for a business mentorship. Kat just wants to learn the ins and outs so she can grow her homemade jewelry business. She hopes to make enough money to pay off her student loans and help out her struggling parents. Her plans don’t include Bryan, a guy that broke her heart five years ago.
Strictly in the POV of Kat, who goes on and on about Bryan—how he was the first love of her life, how he could’ve been the one, how he totally destroyed her, blah, blah, blah. Mostly it’s about her fawning and pining over Bryan, who is as hot as he could be. Yadda-yadda-yadda. It becomes tiring, and the fact that the two pretend there’s nothing going on is typical and uninspiring.
This is the classic story of mixing business with pleasure with the business end taking precedence and leading the story nowhere.

My rating: 2 stars

Review: THE PA’S REVENGE by Diana Fraser

Cassandra is looking for revenge for the death of her father and son. Who does she blame? Dallas McKenzie. What is she going to do by playing the part of his PA? Well, since money seems to be all he cares about, she plans to ruin him and bankrupt his company.  Dallas is no fool either. He knows his new PA is hiding something, and he aims to find out.
But there seems to be one small snag in the plans: the two are instantly attracted to each other from the start. What happens when the two let their guards down? An explosive, sexual passion emerges.
As the two spend more and more time together, Cassandra wonders if there is more to Dallas than his “profit at any expense” mantra.
A quick, sensual, lovely romance.

My rating: 4 stars

Review: REINVENTING MONA by Jennifer Coburn

Mona is a dull drone that just wants “to be seen, to be known, to matter.” She feels insipid, vacuous, and plain vanilla. Her goal is simple: Marry Adam (her dream guy), have his children, and live a life of marital bliss and happily ever after. How very Donna Reed.
Right away, Mona strikes me as very naïve and neurotic. I mean, I wouldn’t have quit my job for trying to become the woman of some guy’s dreams and to transform her life into the “wonderful life.” I mean, it be interesting to see how she’d go about doing something like that. But I agree with Judy that Mona should really focus on loving herself rather than aim to be “disgustingly married” to Adam by next Christmas.
Narrator Mona deviates often with her inane ramblings and goes off tangent often. One minute, she’s an adult talking about her “plans” and, the next, she’s a teenager reliving her past. WTF?! Who cares!
Bulk of the story is on Mona yammering on and on over senseless, useless stuff. She’s basically a student of dating and was aiming to convince (or voodoo) Adam into thinking that she was perfect for him.
A fruitless story with no end.
Best quote: “Changing yourself into who you think someone wants is hurting yourself. It’s a rejection of who you are…[it’s] emotional suicide.” (LOC 449)

My rating: 2.5 stars

Review: TALES FROM THE CRIB by Jennifer Coburn

From the cover and the title, you know that this is a story with a baby, which, already made me not look forward to it, but I was hoping it would have some of that Baby Boom humor.
The lady that is having marital problems is yammering on and on, which was a bore. Then she gets knocked up by this husband.
Like the other book, character recounts the past, talking incessantly and relentlessly.
It’s all about babies!

My rating: 1 star

Review: TALK TO ME by Stephanie Reid

Emily Simon is a pro at reading body language. Well, she would have to be in her line of work, which is counseling and therapy.  One day, her brother rooks her into counseling a police officer friend with possible PTSD. Turns out he was the hottie she spotted at the coffee shop. Oh, boy!
To Emily’s refusal, her brother and sister-in-law, nonetheless, believe she’s the one that will get Mac to open up about what happened during the hostage situation. Not sure if you can do that by dating him, but Emily might consider giving it a try because he is a cutie. But she has this no-dating-a-cop rule because of her fear of losing people she loves (all started with her parents’ death in a car crash – she was driving).
Both have their issues and personal demons, and it was nice that they could lean on each other for comfort, peace, and solace. The whole purpose of “Talk to Me” was to open up about your feelings and just letting it out, rather than let it consume you.
Story was well-written and characters were endearing and lovable.

My rating: 5 stars

Review: ALMOST ROMANCE by Kylie Gilmore

Kate runs into Ian, whom she’s had an on-again/off-again thing for years. Neither one of them can forget that night.

Kate is a cute, dorky physicist and Ian brings out her sensual side. In fact, he’s the only one that can short-circuit her brain. An MIT graduate, Kate is a very smart cookie, and she seems to lose all sense when it comes to Ian. She is very honest and scientific and, because of that, she doesn’t know the first thing about relationships. She’s like the female Sheldon, which made her a lovable character. As for Ian, well, “brains and manliness made him the total package.” Yeah!

A sensual, geeky romance!

My rating: 4 stars

Review: DEATH WORE BROWN SHORTS by Audrey Claire

Annie is a quirky, germaphobic, whodunit mystery writer. Brown Shorts is a UPS delivery driver with great legs that the neighborhood women swoon over. Then death takes Brown Shorts.
Annie is a likeable character with a strange name (Happy Holloway?) Her father’s in prison for murdering her mother, so she has a dark past. This is probably where her fascination with murder mysteries comes from. Of course, she thinks her biggest problem is her control issues (washing her hands 50 times a day, cleaning every nook and cranny, her lover and fear of chicken, etc.)
In hopes to alleviate her OCD, Annie makes it her mission to solve this murder. Of course, I don’t know how that would help any. With everyone in town being a suspect and with the help of a hot firefighter-turned-sleuth, Annie will tackle this case and possibly get an idea for her next book.
This is a quirky, cozy mystery, and it’s a quick read; however, the ending was just too easy and had no effort. I felt like the case sort of solved itself.

My rating: 3 stars

Review: SCRAPBOOKING SLAYING by Brianna Bates

After her dad's old truck finally dies, Missy must call the help of an old friend and someone who's not so friendly to come get her and all her scrapbooking supplies. When they arrive at the school, a dead body is discovered. Now, Missy is on the case. But how can you get anywhere relying on the memories of the Cuckoo Old Lady Club? 

Could the murder be linked to a picture meant to be in a scrapbook? Could someone have seen that picture on Facebook?

Missy is smart and relatable. Yeah, she might be a tad overweight, but she takes it in stride. 

Who would've thought that you could solve a murder through scrapbooking? A great, wholesome mystery!


My rating: 4 stars

Review: MEXICAN CAFÉ COZY MYSTERY SET by Holly Plum (Book 1-4)

Murder con Carne (Book 1 ): Mari Ramirez works at her family’s Mexican restaurant in Texas. One day, she finds the body of the town’s only meat delivery man under one of her dining room tables that held a plate of carne asada. Could this have been poison? No, he was stabbed? But who would want to stab him? The leading suspect was obviously Mari’s hard-headed father, who was the only one near the vicinity when it happened. Could the rival Chinese restaurant across the street have anything to do with it?

Mari’s was determined to find the killer to not only clear her dad’s name and save the restaurant, but to hear  her dad say, “I’m proud of you.” Let’s face it, he had the mindset of the “old Mexican ways,” where the man is the master and the woman does what she’s told.
A quick, quirky mystery, although slightly predictable.
I love how it gets right to the mystery.


Killer Salsa (Book 2 ): Mari enters the family’s famous salsa in the Chile Festival and aims to win that prize money. Suddenly, the event organizer drops dead at the event after eating her salsa. Naturally, they suspect her salsa may have had poison.
This was better than the first mystery because it had more suspects and kept you guessing.


Smothered in Lies (Book 3 ): A man has been shot and dumped near the porta potties at a food truck lot, where Mari’s brothers sell at.  This then sparks possible speculation of the Legend of Red Arrow. What? Suddenly, archeology comes into play. Weird. I also thought it was lame how these murders center on the Ramirez family being the culprit and how it somehow boosts sales for the restaurant. And it happens every time, too.


Rice, Beans, and Revenge (Book 4 ): An old high school classmate, who is now a famous celebrity, is murdered from a plate of rice and beans at Mari’s restaurant. Could the culprit be someone from the old days looking to exact revenge? Again, this follows the same pattern from the previous books, but this one had more suspects and more allure to the mystery.

Overall : The first four books in the series were, overall, pretty good. Best ones were Book 2 + 4. Books tended to follow the same plot pattern and writing had some typos that could’ve been fixed.

My rating: 3 stars

Review: COOKIES AND BURIED SECRETS by Amber Crewes

Meghan hasn't been in Sandy Bay very long, but she has already been involved in 2 murders in this sleepy, little town. Celebrating her old friend's birthday, she is suddenly thrown into trouble again when the estranged daughter waltzes into town with a crazy ex on her trail. Suddenly, the ex turns up dead.
How could Meghan prove the innocence of the best friend's daughter when the gun was found in her purse?
This was a nice, easy, cozy, little mystery with a scattered plot.
My rating: 3 stars