I always struggle with Sharon Sala/Dinah McCall. Some of her books I've enjoyed others I've not even finished, -all have a high cheese factor. This onI always struggle with Sharon Sala/Dinah McCall. Some of her books I've enjoyed others I've not even finished, -all have a high cheese factor. This one had a great premise, a follow through that I wasn't expecting (and not in a good way) with main characters becoming secondary and an over the top maniacal bad guy. Some of the dialogue in this was also laughably old fashioned and or just plain ridiculous with love scenes the same. The following being almost unreadable.
"When they began the dance of love, time stopped. All sense of themselves as individuals became lost in the act of making love. The room stood in darkness but was tempered in warmth." *Gag*
She also had her heroine spout sexist comments like "I feel really terrible for being such a burden to everyone. I haven't lifted a finger to cook or clean since I entered the house."
The heroine has just survived a plane crash, spent days lost in the snowy wilderness being chased by the bad guy, had surgery to remove part of the plane from her back and, it’s not even her house! But hey, come on, she didn't cook or clean!
And then with about 50 pages to go, just when I thought I was going to make it to the end she killed the dog. Note to authors Don't Kill The Dog! They must know it infuriates and alienates readers, I threw the damn book. Outside. So anyways this was a DNF and I'm done with McCall/Sala.
For some reason Sharon Sala is always hit or miss with me, this one was a near miss. It started out really good, very suspenseful with a tornado takinFor some reason Sharon Sala is always hit or miss with me, this one was a near miss. It started out really good, very suspenseful with a tornado taking out the heroine’s house (and family) only moments after she`d stumbled across her ex-fiancé burying a body in a shallow grave. We then have her swapping identities with her deceased and near identical cousin and fleeing to Baton Rouge.
These opening chapters were excellent unfortunately though the rest of the story kind of petered out and a lot of times I just had to just go with it and not ask too many questions as to why the heroine was doing what she was doing; her motives were all over the place.
When she wakes up in the hospital (instead of going to the police) our heroine decides to continue living as her cousin while attending her own funeral, burying the family dog, flushing out the killer and having an insta-romance with her alternate identity`s boss –a near perfect southern gentleman who quickly susses out she`s not who she says she is but decides to help her anyways. Yeah things got a little silly. The romance angle was okay except for the falling in love in a couple days thing but Mike was definitely swoon-worthy, maybe even a tad too perfect.
Surprisingly my favourite character here was the bad guy, he wasn’t just your stereotypical villain and I enjoyed watching him trying to salvage the mess he`d made of his life while panicking and making mistake after mistake.
There are 2 more books in this series and both of the storylines have been started here during the tornado. I have to say I enjoyed the southern setting so I’ll probably check them out. Cheers 398jb2 ...more
Opening Line:"It was a cold day in hell for Tech Sergeant Wade Rocha--standard ops for a mission in Alaska."
I struggled through this and ultimately gOpening Line:"It was a cold day in hell for Tech Sergeant Wade Rocha--standard ops for a mission in Alaska."
I struggled through this and ultimately gave up about half way in. It's not that it's all that terrible, it just that it was so average on all accounts and I couldn't have cared less about the romance between Sunny & Wade. Honestly I just I couldn't be bothered to finish, I knew it was only ever going to be a 2 star read, very meh.
I've read lots of Catherine Mann stuff before and she always seems to hook me in with a great opening before settling into mediocre-ville.
Opening Line: " Everyone's heard the story about Marshall Silas Quinn and the infamous Gunfight at the Red Rock Saloon."Opening Line: " Everyone's heard the story about Marshall Silas Quinn and the infamous Gunfight at the Red Rock Saloon."...more
Sadly this was a DNF for me. That’s not to say at all that it’s unfinishable because iOpening Line: "Oh god, Abby. Don't panic. Just...don't...panic."
Sadly this was a DNF for me. That’s not to say at all that it’s unfinishable because it appears that some reviewers really liked it. It was more ICBBTFT (I can’t be bothered to finish this) when I have so many other books waiting for me that I know I’ll enjoy more and won’t have to force my way through.
I really hate not finishing a book though (especially when it's been sitting on my shelf for 2+ years and I’ve already bought the second and third ones in the series.) But at 120 pages in I was still struggling to care about the characters and the weak plot, to find something engaging to stop my mind from wandering from the page. Even when I started skimming for the juicy parts I was left under whelmed. (“Youza” really?!) It was then that I realized even if I managed to slog through till the end this was only ever going to be a 2 star read, so I gave up.
WHEN DARKNESS COMES is the first book in the Guardians of Eternity series and a lot happens in the first couple of chapters, maybe too much because I found myself going back several times, thinking I’d missed something.
Abby Barlow is working in a mansion owned by an older woman named Selena. -I never did figure out what her actual job was but she seems to spend her days polishing (breaking) vases and flirting with Dante -I’m not sure his job position was ever identified either? None of that matters though because before long there’s an explosion, Selena is dead and Abby has been infused with the "Phoenix". As the physical holder of the chalice Abby also now has her own personal vampire bodyguard in Dante. He’s willing to protect her at any and all costs, which is a good thing because Abby is clueless (see annoying) and demons are now trying to kill her.
Forced on the run it doesn’t take long for Abby and Dante to start bumping uglies, (minus any form of sexual tension I might add) it does however take ages for Abby to come to terms with paranormal world she’s been thrust into. Honestly by this point (other then the introduction of Viper) I had lost interest completely. Both the hero and heroine remained vague characters and the immature dialogue was driving me crazy.
Dante as the “sexy” vampire just never did it for me, as far as vampires go he was very vanilla. And as I mentioned I had to keep backtracking, there were holes just left open in the story; Abby’s terrible background which was mentioned over and over again but never revealed, why she was working for Selena in the first place. I think at one point Dante even says she was trapped or tied to Selena like he was. I never understood that, Dante was assigned to protect her Abby was what? A maid and she couldn’t leave?
Anyways I hope others have better luck with this then I did. Cheers...more
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