Laura Freeman's Blog, page 12

The Color of Memory

The Color of Memory by Julianne Maclean 2014 Women’s literature

Maclean weaves a story that appears to go in one direction and then takes an abrupt right turn into something unexpected only to fly off into a total surprise. She keeps the reader guessing until the final pages and doesn’t disappoint.

ER nurse Audrey is swept off her feet by Alex Fitzgerald, a firefighter who arrives in the ER with a broken foot along with his best friend David. He flirts outrageously with Audrey and wants her phone number, but she has doubts, and when Melanie, “an old girlfriend” arrives to take him home, Audrey counts her blessings not to fall for the handsome firefighter.

Alex doesn’t give up easily and keeps pursuing her. During the same time, she finds trash on her lawn and her home broken into. Melanie has turned into a stalker. When Melanie burns down her home, she moves in with Alex, and everything seems happy until tragedy strikes, and secrets are revealed.

For writers who have trouble plotting or adding surprising twists to a story, this is a book to read and an author to follow. Each event builds into another, and all the pieces fall into place at the end. I recommend giving Julianne Maclean a read.

#Mystery #womenslit #JulianneMaclean

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Shell Game

Shell Game (Aloha Romance Series #8) by Chris Keniston

A good romance story requires manly men, beautiful settings, and a woman who tries to tell herself she isn’t ready for marriage. Keniston delivers all in Shell Game.

Luke “Brooklyn” Chapman is a Navy seal sniper and his buddies are introduced in the beginning since they make up the heroes in the other books in the series. Sharla Kramer is the widow of a police officer who swears she will never marry a man in a dangerous occupation. She lives with her grandmother, Sophie, in Florida. Sophie and her grandfather and many others in the family were grifters or con artists. Sharla does not share her grandmother’s skills and has to bail her out when she practices lifting wallets.

Luke has joined the CIA and is recovering from a knife wound when his boss makes him take a cruise. On the same boat is Sophie and Sharla. Sparks fly for the younger couple, but Luke is a confirmed bachelor and Sharla doesn’t want a husband whose work could kill him. A con game plays a major part in the plot and adds just enough danger to let the characters rise above their past fears.

A writer needs a reason for two people to stay apart even though they have a strong physical or emotional attraction. Keniston accomplishes this with the danger factor and keeps the reader turning the pages to find out if and how the couple will resolve their problems.

Another great part of this story is the setting. A cruise ship provides a limited space, so people are thrown together over and over again. It also introduces new characters to enhance the story. And the best part is the cruise ship stops at exotic locations for descriptive passages that can set the mood for the story. When choosing a setting, think how it can enhance your story.

#mystery #romance #ChrisKeniston

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Death Under The Mistletoe

Death Under The Mistletoe by Ashantay Peterson 2013 Mystery

Lily plays the role of Maid of Honor to bride Alexa who won a multi-million-dollar lottery. Alexa’s cousin, Gray Bronson, is best man. Lily has a catering business and brings in the wedding cake with a little help from Gray. Together they find the groom, Rad, hanging in the conservatory.

Like many cozy mysteries, the victim was not liked and although there appear to be several suspects, Lily becomes the main one, which spurs her to investigate the crime herself and look more guilty to the police. Rod dated Lily before dating Alexa. In addition, Gray was Lily’s first serious boyfriend but after a one-night-stand, he left town.

Not only does Lily have to proof her innocence, she has to work out her relationship with Gray.

#Cozy #Mystery #romance #AshantayPeterson

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Tea & Comfort

Tea & Comfort by Andrea Hurst #2 in The Madrona Island Trilogy

This book can be read independently of the others in the trilogy. I first thought it was a cozy mystery. It had many of the elements of a cozy with cats, dogs, recipes, and a quaint setting in a small town on an island, but it was a cozy romance with two people finding their way to each other.

This was my first cozy romance, and I looked up the definition. It is a new genre where there is little internal conflict. The two main characters love each other, but external conflicts keep them apart and any sex is off stage.

Personally, I like internal conflict in a romance with the couple growing together by solving the external conflicts before realizing they are meant for each other.

Rich Luke falls in love with supermodel Darcy and proposes only to have her disappear. Darcy is really Kayla who has been diagnosed with Lupus. She leaves her stressful modeling career and goes to live on Madrona Island, working in a shop that sells herbal teas, medicines, candles and other items. She is Irish and her mother and grandmother were healers, which she kept secret.

The story explores the differences between the rich and poor and how that affected Kayla’s decision to leave Luke. When he arrives on the island after buying a vineyard, they must face their past and the reasons that kept them apart. Luke must come to terms with his father and stepbrother’s while Kayla must tell Luke the reasons she left.

The book is filled with beautiful descriptions of the scenery, food, and holidays to create the experience of living on the island, an element in a cozy romance. Writers can learn from these passages and bring all the senses into a story. The setting should play a part in the story but limit descriptions to shorter passages to set up action in other genres. Long passages are often skipped over by the reader.

This cozy romance, like cozy mysteries, had the bonus of recipes included at the end of the book.

#romance #AndreaHurst

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Living On A Spare

Living On A Spare by Shannon VanBergen ; A Glock Grannies Cozy Mystery 2020

Nikki is living with her grandma, Geraldine and her group of elderly friends, Hattie, Virginia, Irene, and Greta. She broke up with two boyfriends, Bo and Joe, and Joe is now engaged, making for some awkward moments.

The Grannies have a rival bowling team of Bernice, Edna, Mavis, and Frieda. Bernice covers Hattie’s car with tin foil and Hattie returns the prank by cutting holes in her pockets. When Bernice turns up dead in the bowling alley, Hattie is a prime suspect.

The Glock Grannies kick into action to solve the mystery before reporter Savannah Storm beats them to it. Detective Owen joins them because Savannah was a former girlfriend and wants to humiliate him.

This has plenty of cozy mystery elements with cute cats, plenty of food, and lots of friends. VanBergen adds plenty of humor and keeps the reader guessing who the real villain is until the end.

#ShannonVanBergen #Cozy #Mystery

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Masked Intentions

Masked Intentions – Unmasking Prometheus #1 by Diana Bold

This romance novel takes place in 1879 and involves three brothers, Lucien, Earl of Hawkesmore, and twins Adrian and Morgan Strathmore. They are abused by their stepfather and stepbrother, Roger Croft, Earl of Winters. Roger blames them for his father’s death.

Adrian was scarred from a fire his father died in and hides from the world. He wears the mask of Prometheus to help children and prostitutes escape abuse. Roger has several whorehouses, and Adrian targets his places, but Roger has caught on to his identity and tries to capture him.

Adrian takes his young charge, Gabriel, and hides in the actress Vanessa Bourke’s apartment. He has used the family box at the theater to watch her perform and is secretly in love with her although he doesn’t believe any woman can love him with his damaged face.

Vanessa wants a husband and family, and when Prometheus bursts into her apartment with Gabriel, she helps him, bandaging his gunshot wound and delivering Gabriel to an orphanage run by Fiona. Vanessa and Fiona become friends and she visits Gabriel daily. Prometheus also visits her, but she won’t let him bed her unless he removes his mask, which he refuses.

The love story might be enough for most writers as Vanessa and Adrian struggle to work out their relationship, but Bold adds Roger as a villain worthy to hate. There are several secrets hinted at but not revealed in this book, which is the first of a series. Roger isn’t killed and will return, which is worth reading to find out how justice is served.

Bold is a talented writer who knows how to weave secrets into the storyline as two wonderful characters struggle to overcome past abuse and find the person who can make them whole. She also adds some shocking surprises in her story that leave you gasping.

#Romance #thriller #DianaBold

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

All That Was Left Unsaid

All That Was Left Unsaid by Jacquie Underdown

Underdown lives in Australia and the language, locations, and descriptions take you to the Land Down Under with the story set in Gladstone. She tells the story through three women, Tina, Maddison, and Isabelle whose lives are tied to each other. Each chapter begins with one of the women, usually. Although point of view bounces around a few times, it is still clear.

The story begins with the murder of a woman in a car which was run off the road. She was brutally beaten to death. Another woman is found a short distance away, covered in blood, but confused and incoherent.

Underdown takes us into the past and weaves the lives of the three women together over that time period. The reader isn’t sure who is telling the truth and who is manipulating the others. She also adds a twist to the end.

Each woman is a study in abuse, heartache, and broken love with ties to Chris. Tina was abused as a child and a rape causes her to shut down, and Chris divorces her when her life takes a downward spiral, yet they remain friends. Isabelle had her daughter, Juliette, when she was 17 and has remained single until she falls in love with Chris and marries him. She soon discovers she is pregnant but is jealous of any attention he gives his first wife, Tina. Maddison is married to Ben, Chris’s brother and punishes him for his infidelity.

The story is an emotional trip of blame, guilt, and accusations as each person comes to term with their own demons. The two detectives assigned to figure out the murder are minor characters as motives are revealed and suspects arrested. This is not a who dunnit but why did they do it.

#Underdown #mystery #thriller

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Never Say Duke

Never Say Duke: A Regency Christmas Romance (12 Dukes of Christmas #4) by Erica Ridley

Ridley has a knack for creating interesting characters that fall outside the realm of what is expected in a romance. She pairs the hero and heroine perfectly and the reader roots for them until the final page.

Virginia Underwood collects strays and takes care of cats, birds, and wounded soldiers. Wounded veteran Theodore O’Hanlon, Viscount Ormondton, has secretly gone from the battlefield in France to Christmas, a remote town in northern England to recover from his wounds. He has always tried to please his father but has fallen short. He is planning to marry Lady Beatrice Munroe upon his return. It is a loveless match but expected.

Virginia is determined to help him recover from the wounds on his face and the damage to his knee that prevents him from walking. They both want to be useful. He helps her conquer her fears of trying to fit into society. Her parents were so embarrassed by her inability to read or write and her strange behavior in her first season, they shipped her off to an asylum so her three younger sisters could find husbands. She escaped and has been living in Christmas ever since. Virginia has autism in a time when no diagnosis or treatment was available yet has managed to make friends and a place in the small town.

Virginia’s poetic phrases and open honesty create an enduring character. Theo finds her courage in a hostile world contagious. They also have her cat, Duke, who adds plenty of excitement and challenges to their lives.

As Theo heals, they must face the inevitable end to their friendship, or do they?

#Regency #EricaRidley #Romance

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

Pieces of Our Past

Pieces of Our Past by James Hunt 2021

Hunt reunites Missing Persons detectives Kerry Martin and Jim North but not in the way expected. Kerry is on a leave of absence after taking help from kingpin Cutter, who helped her in the Greek case. Even her father, a corrupt cop in prison, thinks she has made a deal with the devil and warns her to watch out.

Jim has his own problems following the rules when his old friend Nate contacts him about his son Tim being missing. They grew up in foster homes, and Nate once saved his life. Tim is not legally his and other secrets surface as Jim tries to find the boy.

Hunt is good at taking one case and morphing it into another more complex case. What begins as a missing child turns into a pedophile arrest. That leads to Cutter and his complex world of crime and corruption. Kerry and Jim eventually join forces with another member of the force and tensions ramp up, exploding into the final confrontation.

When writing a mystery, it is a good idea to have one case lead to another with layers peeled back as secrets are uncovered. Jim and Kerry also work independently in the beginning and then their individual cases meld into one that both can work together on. This technique can be used in other genres where key characters appear to be on different storylines but come together into one toward the end.

#Crime #Mystery #JamesHunt

More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com

The Viscount’s Tempting Minx

The Viscount’s Tempting Minx by Erica Ridley – Dukes of War #1

This novella provides a fun holiday story with Amelia Pembroke, nearly 30, deciding it is time to marry. She realizes her brother, the Duke of Ravenwood, needs an heir but won’t marry while she is managing his household, a job she does efficiently. Ridley reveals her special skills in the opening chapter with her handling a crisis with the staff and a replacement for an afternoon musical with foresight and ease. She begins to look for a husband in the Debrett’s Peerage but realizes a better face-to-face selection of a husband could occur at Lord Benedict Sheffield’s 37th annual Christmas Ball.

Unfortunately, Benedict has canceled the ball because a fire destroyed the venue. Amelia visits him and presents her plans to take over planning the ball and finding a new venue. Benedict, 35, is not in the market for a wife but is intrigued by Amelia’s proposal.

He agrees to go along with her ideas with his full participation and soon realizes she doesn’t allow any time in her busy schedule to have fun. He works twelve hours and then parties for twelve hours, which has gained him a rakish reputation. Their own goals work together to bring them together.

She takes him to three venue choices, the Royal Theatre, Almack’s, and the Vauxhall Gardens with historical descriptions but none of them makes Benedict happy. He then realizes she has manipulated him into agreeing to her original suggestion.

It is a fun romp with chaste kisses and well-developed characters who bring out the best in each other.

#EricaRidley #romance #Regency

More book reviews are available at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com