Laura Freeman's Blog, page 8
September 1, 2022
Lola Is Missing
Lola is Missing by Alison James, crime thriller
The story is a police drama set in London with the titles and vocabulary of England. Rachel Prince is a Detective Investigator with her partner Detective Sergeant Mark Brickall. They are looking into the disappearance of Lola Jade Harper, 6, who was taken from her bedroom in May.
They are not the initial investigators but belong to the National Crime Agency and are added to the investigation in July to search for new clues. This allows James to already have Rachel and Mark jump into the middle of the case.
The parents are the primary suspects since they were in a custody battle over Lola, and they focus on them most of the story. In between investigations, interviews, and stakeouts, Rachel has to deal with her husband, which she hasn’t seen in fifteen years, deal with a torn ACL, and make eyes at several men.
The reader will enjoy the clues as they are slowly uncovered with each one adding a twist to the story.
Those who enjoy British stories, will enjoy the food, slang, and references to literature like Tiggywinkle.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#detective #thriller #mystery #AlisonJames
August 29, 2022
A Lord of Many Masks
A Lord of Many Masks by Jessica Scarlett 2020 Regency (Book 2 in Wycliffe Family Series)
This is a classic Regency novel set in 1814 London with a young miss looking for a husband in her first season. But Scarlett adds humor, a dashing rogue, and a dying mother into the mix.
Eliza Wycliffe is 18 and her best friend, Sir William Bentley, has caught her hiding in the curtains to avoid the three gentlemen she agreed to dance with at the same time. He is her protector and best friend of her older brother, Peter. But he wears a mask. He hides his true feelings from everyone and teases Eliza as she makes a list of potential suitors.
Her mother confides she is dying, and Eliza will have no dowry when she does, so there is an urgency for her to find a husband. She wants to marry for love, but Wiliam doesn’t believe in love. When the Duke of Allerton proposes marriage, she confesses her feelings to William only to have him want to remain friends.
Most women can relate to rejection, and this is a big one. What’s a girl to do when the man she loves doesn’t love her back?
This gives the reader and Eliza plenty of problems to sort through. Will she marry the duke? After all he is a duke. Most romances have a duke as the hero. What about William? Will he admit his feelings or lose Eliza? And what about Eliza? Will she give up love for a secure marriage?
Scarlett does an excellent job of taking us through Eliza’s trials, doubts, and decisions. Others try to help and hinder her with lies or truths. Who can tell? In the end she seeks out the truth herself and puts herself in danger. This story will satisfy any Regency fan.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#Regency #romance #JessicaScarlett
August 26, 2022
Incriminating Evidence
Incriminating Evidence by Rachel Grant 2015 Thriller
Readers should step out of their favorite genre once in a while and read something different. I normally don’t like a hero that’s a rich duke, billionaire, or military commando. But Alec Ravissant, a rich Army Ranger turned owner of paramilitary training camp in Alaska, is vulnerable enough to be human and likeable.
Archaeologist Isabel Dawson finds Alec bleeding and unconscious while surveying property in Alaska. She saves him before she realizes he’s the man who covered up the death of her brother, Vincent. Isabel is relentless in her quest to find justice for Vincent.
By setting up Alec and Isabel on opposite sides, Grant creates tension that is more than the sexual attraction they fight hard to acknowledge. Neither one trusts the other, but they soon figure out they are both victims of a sinister weapon that can torture its victims and leave them with no memory of the ordeal.
A thriller or mystery needs more than one suspect and Grant provides plenty of bad guys in the story and keeps the reader guessing who the leader is and the motive.
Grant writes similar stories in this genre so if you like this one, there are plenty of other romantic thrillers to read by her. She provides plenty of settings, lots of hot military special forces heroes, and the women have interesting jobs. Because Grant was an archaeologist, several of the women share that occupation.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#romance #thriller #military #RachelGrant
August 23, 2022
The Duchess and the Highwayman
The Duchess and the Highwayman by Beverley Oakley , Hearts in Hiding, Book 1
The story takes place in Norfolk, England in 1816. Phoebe has been married to Ulrick, an older duke of Drummond House for five years in the hopes she can bear him an heir. When he can no longer perform, he convinces her to have an affair with his cousin, Wentworth and pass the child off as his heir.
Wentworth at first seems charming but she comes to hate him as well as the other men in her husband’s circle. While Wentworth is forcing himself on her, news comes that Ulrick’s two brothers have died in a carriage accident, and Wentworth is next in line to inherit. He grabs Phoebe’s hand and forces her to stab Ulrick to death. She flees the manor house.
Oakley packs a lot of action and information in a few chapters so keep up. She shows how harsh life is to women in the nineteenth century, and Phoebe isn’t the only one to suffer.
While fleeing, her coach is stopped by a highwayman who takes her to his cottage. He is seeking revenge on Wentworth after he seduced his young sister, Ada. With everyone looking for the duchess to convict her of murder, Phoebe pretends to be the lady in waiting to the duchess and professes the woman’s innocence.
Phoebe has several choices to make to stay out of jail and free of the hangman’s noose. One of them is to seduce the highwayman, who is Hugh Redding, the younger son of a Baron. But she falls in love with him. Ada arrives and complicates matters. And when Hugh finds out the truth, how will he react? The danger ramps up when Wentworth finds her and has her arrested.
Oakley knows how to build layer upon layer to make a story more than a love story. She puts her heroine in real danger and has her act in a way that some would think unacceptable for a lady. She questions the strict morality of what women can do and challenges the reader to consider the choices women are forced to make.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#Regency #Romance #BeverleyOakley #historical
August 19, 2022
Cast Into Doubt
Cast Into Doubt by Patricia MacDonald 2021 thriller
For those who love figuring out whodunnits, this will keep you guessing until the final pages. The story begins with a shooting at a convenience store which seems unrelated to the story, but it is key. You just won’t find out until later.
The story begins with Shelby Sloan, 42, taking a vacation to care for her grandson, Jeremy, while his parents, Rob and Chloe, go on a cruise Shelby has paid for. Chloe is her daughter, and she seems to blame her mother for choosing work over her when she was younger.
Shelby has a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic mother, who is dying of liver disease, a cold sister, Talia, who keeps laying on the guilt, and a homeless brother, Glen. Other characters are introduced and have ties to Shelby.
It doesn’t take long for the story to take a dark twist when Rob calls and tells Shelby that Chloe is missing. She was drunk and fell overboard. Shelby doesn’t believe the story for an instant and flies to St. Thomas to talk to authorities. She and the police suspect Rob.
The story follows Shelby as she searches for answers. One door closes as another opens. She also questions how well she knew her daughter. The characters are easy to keep separated, and the writing is crisp and moves the story along at a good pace.
Shelby is an amateur sleuth but as the mother of the victim, her behavior is understandable and logical as she talks to those who may have answers. When she stumbles upon the truth, she is caught in a dangerous situation. She tries to rescue herself only to have it thwarted. Will she escape or meet an end similar to her daughter’s?
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#PatriciaMacDonald #thriller #mystery
August 15, 2022
Bundle of Trouble
Bundle of Trouble by Diana Orgain, A Maternal Instincts Mystery
Orgain gives the reader an original twist on a private investigator story by having not only an inexperienced detective but a woman with a new baby. The entire story takes place during the six weeks following her giving birth.
Jim and Kate Connolly are at home waiting for her to go into labor when they receive a call from the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office. A body has been found in the bay and bags belonging to Jim’s brother, George, were found on the dock. George has been in trouble all his life and is regarded as homeless. While they worry about him, Kate goes into labor.
The story is told from Kate’s POV and gives the reader all the anxiety, fears, and problems of being a new mother. She falls so much in love with her newborn daughter, Laurie, she doesn’t want to abandon her and return to work.
The body turns out not to be George but Brad Avery who is married to Michelle, a friend from high school. Kate visits her and is drawn into the mystery surrounding her husband’s death. For an amateur detective, the crime needs to be personal. Michelle confesses Brad was leaving her the night he was killed. When her car and Jim’s car are broken into, they report it. Each incident draws Kate into solving the crime.
It ramps up when Michelle is murdered. Jim is arrested when he gets into a fight with George and the PI hired by Brad’s mother has a heart attack. The reader will have plenty of action to follow as Kate replaces the PI, who is in the hospital, and combines motherhood with crime solving.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#mystery #motherhood #Murder #DianaOrgain
August 12, 2022
Penelope
Penelope, A Madcap Regency Romance by Anya Wylde, The Fairweather Sisters Series, Book 1
Madcap aptly describes this funny, enchanting Regency romp where Miss Penelope Winifred Rose Spebbington Fairweather is invited from the farm to have a season in London.
The Dowager Duchess of Blackthorne was a friend of Penelope’s mother Grace and promised to look after her in a final letter before Grace died. She is sponsoring her for a season but has her work cut out for her when the country bumpkin arrives with her goat.
Her daughter, Anne, who is in her third season and bored, finds Penelope entertaining but they soon become best friends. Her brother, Charles, the Duke of Blackthorne, wants her gone when he sees her dripping on his expensive carpet. She tugs on his ear, falls down his steps, chases her goat into his bedroom and causes chaos everywhere she goes.
Penelope doesn’t want to return home where her stepmother hates her and has plans for her to marry an old and ugly Lord Weevil. But the Duke hates her. He accuses her of faking a sprained ankle and trying to seduce him.
The dynamics between Penelope and Charles are perfectly balanced as neither wants to admit any feelings for each other. They have to join forces to help Anne and layers of problems need to be sorted out for the happily-ever-after ending.
If you like a spirited heroine and a reluctant-to-fall-in-love hero, this story will satisfy. The humor and fun-filled escapades take it beyond a simple romance to a belly-laugh adventure.
More reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#Romance #Regency #historical #AnyaWylde
August 8, 2022
Reforming Lord Neil
Reforming Lord Neil by Sally Britton, 2020 Regency romance
Most Regency romances are predictable with wealthy lords and ladies attending balls and being forced into arranged marriages to escape scandal, but Britton has provided us with a breath of fresh air in this story about a lord who finds himself with the help of a good woman.
The hero, Lord Neil, is the third son of the Marquess of Alderton who has political ambitions and disowns Neil for a scandal. He learns from his mother that the Marquess is not his father as he leaves with just the clothes on his back and his mother’s necklace and earrings. He soon finds out that no one will help him.
He comes across a farm, Bramble Cottage, where Teresa Chapham lives with her mother, Louisa, and her daughter, Caroline, 11. She is a widow whose husband gambled away her money. The house is inherited from an aunt. They have lived on the farm for more than a year, barely scraping by and can’t afford to pay a man to help out with the many chores. Neil offers to work for sleeping in the barn and meals.
Neil only spends one night before heading for a friend’s house and like others, he won’t help him. He returns to Bramble Cottage and Teresa. They are attracted to one another, but Teresa knows he is the Marquess son and will return to his family when they are reconciled. He has nothing to offer her and has never been in love before. He begins to examine his past behavior, especially toward women, and wants to help Teresa for her kindness and trust.
Another villain, her husband’s brother, adds more problems to the story. He proves to be the sort of bad man who becomes more dangerous as the story progresses which amps up the tension.
Neil is suspicious of the brother-in-law and repays Teresa’s kindness by looking into her husband’s financial history. This adds an important layer to the story that creates problems and solutions.
Britton shows the attraction between our two characters in sweet gestures and romantic behavior but keeps them at arms-length until the end. They both grow as individuals and in their relationships to others. The story was sweet and satisfying on every page.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#regenecy #romance #SallyBritton #historical
August 5, 2022
Die in the Wool
Die in the Wool by Katherine Hayton, 2019, A Knitty Kitty Cozy Mystery
This story is a good example of a cozy mystery with Tash Mallory, 39, working for grumpy Auntie Fran who owns The Tall Yarn store. Fran fires Tash for getting an order wrong even though Fran made the error. She returns the next day to get back her job and finds Fran dead in the shop with her kitten, Tangle.
Most cozy stories have a cat or animal in them, and Tangle is cute enough to steal several scenes. Fran is the typical victim. Others didn’t like her although she had some admirable traits. Her death is initially ruled a heart attack, and Tash is surprised to be named new owner of the store and adjoining house while Fran’s nephew receives everything else. He plans to contest the will.
Tash is poisoned while mixing a dye, and Fran’s heart attack becomes a murder. Her best friend makes a list of suspects, which is common in a cozy. Every amateur detective needs a best friend to discuss the crime and share trouble.
Tash also uncovers old secrets that may have been motives for Fran’s death. The police don’t appear to be doing enough, another staple for a cozy, and Tash gets into trouble trying to solve the murder. The amateur sleuth must aggravate the police who in turn give her a hard time and tell her to let them solve the crime even if she is a suspect.
When writing a story, study the genre you enjoy and want to write about. Every genre has elements that need to be included to satisfy a fan. Also, cozy stories tend to have fun titles and covers like this one.
More book reviews can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#bookreview #cozy #mystery #KatherineHayton
August 1, 2022
Victorian San Francisco Novellas
Victorian San Francisco Novellas by M. Louisa Locke
For those who have read other historical books by Locke, this is a nice filler about the minor characters in her stories. The main characters of Annie and Nate Dawson appear in all three stories, and the novellas occur shortly after their marriage in 1880 and 1881.
In the first story Annie and Nate head to his parent’s ranch in San Jose for their honeymoon and visit his brother Billy and his wife Violet.
Violet has a young baby boy and is pregnant. Her traditional 1880 role of a woman is contrasted against Annie who is independent and highly educated.
Violet has to deal with her younger brother Alec, who has gotten into financial trouble and not only could lose his job at the bank but could go to jail. Violet steps out of the supporting role and becomes the lead character as she comes up with a scheme to expose the bad guy.
In the second story the Dawson’s maid Kathleen is highlighted. The neighbor and maid Mary Margaret is turned out from her job a few houses down working for Mrs. Ashburton when her son arrives and sends her packing. She turns to Kathleen for help. Even though her boyfriend is a police officer, Patrick dismisses Kathleen’s concerns about Rafe Ashburton. This again highlights the way men treated women in the nineteenth century. Kathleen is helped by the other women in the boardinghouse Annie owns and uncovers the truth just in time.
In the final story Jamie, 10, and his friend, Ian, are highlighted along with Dandy, the Boston terrier. Ian is Kathleen’s youngest brother who is living with their Uncle Jack. When Ian disappears while delivering newspapers, Jamie goes with Kathleen to his home and sees the poverty and abuse children often endured during this time. With Dandy’s help, he searches for Ian.
Historical novels can sometimes romanticize the period and ignore the realities and harshness of the time period. A writer needs to balance an accurate account of life at that time while maintaining the mood of the genre.
More book reveiws can be found at http://www.authorfreeman.wordpress.com
#historical #SanFrancisco #mystery
