Month / December 2009

by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Witness by Sandra Brown

Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Hero:Dr. John McGarth
Heroine: Kendall Deaton
Date of Publication: May 1, 2007
Started On: December 12, 2009
Finished On: December 13, 2009

Kendall Deaton with her 3 month year old son Kevin is on the run for her life. Witnessing heinous murders committed by a group calling themselves The Brotherhood of which her husband Matt and father-in-law Gibb were prominent members of, Kendall has no choice but to disappear from the face of the earth so that the members of The Brotherhood, which had its members even in federal law enforcement agencies had no chance of finding them.

Kendall and her son are soon found by FBI agents Pepperdyne and John, who is assigned the task of delivering Kendall to the authorities as the key witness in the trial to convict the members of The Brotherhood. However, a fatalistic crash of the car they are travelling in lands John with amnesia giving Kendall the chance to once again flee and make her way to her originally planned hide out. In the process to waylaid the authorities, Kendall proclaims John to be her husband & John thwarts her plans of fleeing into the night when he demands that Kendall couldn’t leave her ‘husband’ to fend for himself especially while supporting a broken leg with the amnesia.

Amidst the mistrust between Kendall and John stirs the beginning of an attraction that the readers can’t help but feel to their bones. Sandra Brown does an excellent job of weaving the story of the magic that happens between Kendall and John while relating the horrific events that occurred  in Prosper, South Carolina where Kendall worked as a public prosecutor, that led to this tumultuous turn of events.

This is a highly fast paced read, one that I guarantee cannot be put down with engrossing characters and a great plot to keep you riveted to your seat till you read the last page.

This is actually a re-read for me. This was the second book that I read from this author and I have always remembered it to be the one that got me hooked on Sandra Brown’s books and I have to say the same magic wove itself on me this time too.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | AbeBooks | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard

Format: Paperbackkissmewhileisleep
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: John Medina, Book 3
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Hero: Lucas Swain
Heroine: Lily Mansfield
Date of Publication: April 26, 2005
Started On: December 5, 2009
Finished On: December 7, 2009

Lily Mansfield is a woman hell bent on vengeance & revenge against the powerful Nervi organization operated in Paris. Seeking justice for the assassination of her close friends Tina and Averill (both of whom had previously being contract killers themselves) and their adopted daughter Zia who had actually been found abandoned and starving to death, by Lily on one of her jobs to Croatia. Since Lily’s life as a hired killer didn’t provide the most stable environment to raise a little girl, Lily had let her friends adopt Zia, and the three of them had held Zia dearer to them than anything else.

Lily kills Salvatore Nervi, the head of the Nervi organization nearly killing herself in the process and goes into hiding in the one place Salvatore’s son Rodrigo Nervi wouldn’t think of looking for her. But as most powerful organizations in the world, the Nervi organization has their hands in all the important agencies of the world with pretty strong political ties with the richest governments in the world, which makes it quite easy to identify the woman who had deceived Rodrigo’s father and ultimately led to his demise.

The CIA dispatches their agent Lucas Swain to track Lily down and bring her down. With Rodrigo hot on Lily’s trail as well, Lucas befriends Lily & ultimately finds himself intrigued on what had actually lured Lily’s friends Tina and Averill out of their retirement into bombing one of Nervi’s laboratories, which had resulted in the murder of the whole family. Unearthing the secret that the Nervi organization was in fact producing a vaccine to combat a strain of the avian influenza virus that has the capability of human-to-human transmission, whilst mass producing the strain of the virus itself to unleash on the world to reap the benefits in millions of dollars, being the only organization having a vaccine at hand.

Things get interesting when Lily and Swain are hired by the same anonymous person who lured Averill and Tina for the initial attack on the laboratory, to destroy the lab and the scientist who is engineering the virus & the vaccine once and for all. As most of the novels by  this author, this too delivers a superb tale with a splendid cast of characters, with the right mix of intrigue, mystery, passion, love and family politics with a surprising twist at the end of the tale.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | BooksOnBoard

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Divorced, Desperate and Dating by Christie Craig

Format: E-bookdivorceddesperateanddating.jpg
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Divorced & Desperate, Book 2
Publisher: Love Spell
Hero: Detective Jason Dodd
Heroine: Mystery writer Sue Finley
Date of Publication: November 25, 2008
Started On: December 4, 2009
Finished On: December 5, 2009

Christie Craig is a new author, whose books I have never come across before. With a total of 5 novels out so far, 3 of them belonging to the Divorced & Desperate series, this author writes with the sort of dry humor that only few can pull off and entertain the reader as much as this book has kept me entertained.

This book can be read as a standalone although it is the second book in the Divorced & Desperate series, though after reading this, my interest has been piqued enough to consider reading the first book in the series Divorced, Desperate and Delicious and the third book which is to come out this month has definitely found a place in my never ending pile of to-be-read books.

The Divorced & Desperate series is centered around three women each with a bad divorce up her sleeve who vow to uphold a period of celibacy. They get together weekly to rant and rave about men, sex and everything to do with relationships and marriage in general.

Sue’s story starts when Lacy and Chase’s story ends in the first book of the series. Jason Dodd is Chase’s detective partner, Lacey being the first one to break the vow of celibacy of the Divorced & Desperate club and tie the knot with Chase.

The story kicks off when Sue, receives a dead rat via post, and the profile of a stalker who is copying the gruesome scenes from Sue’s own books starts to emerge, landing Sue in the awkward position of having Jason as her self proclaimed protector till whoever is playing havoc with Sue’s life is apprehended, whose earth moving kiss and a promise to call which was never fulfilled after a three month period had passed had prompted Sue to try and break her self proclaimed vow of celibacy and start dating.

The ensuing tale is hilarious with a quirky family on Sue’s side to make things more interesting. Commitment phobic Jason, a result of living in too many foster homes, each rejection making him vow never to let anyone close enough to hurt him, finds himself in a constant battle to tamp down the feelings of intense passion, tenderness and protectiveness that Sue effortlessly unleashes within him.

If dry humor, a good plot line with a little mystery thrown in to perk things up in between is your piece of cake then this book is for you. I guarantee you that this author definitely doesn’t disappoint in any of these departments.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Half.com | AbeBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Seduction by Amanda Quick

Format: E-book
Read with: Adobe Reader
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Bantam Books
Hero: Julian, Earl of Ravenwood
Heroine: Sophy Dorring
Date of Publication: March 1, 1990
Started On: December 2, 2009
Finished On: December 4, 2009

Found this book whilst browsing through FictionDB. I quite enjoyed this book, the story of how Julian, the Earl of Ravenwood, sophisticated and cynical about women in general after a disastrous marriage which ended up with his wife murdered and community folk in general whispering in corners that Julian had killed off his wife due to her nefarious ways, weds Sophy Dorring, brought up in the countryside, thinking that she would be the docile little wife that Julian wants, someone who wouldn’t get into all the trouble his first wife Elizabeth had always been found in.

Julian is in for a surprise when at first Sophy refuses his marriage proposal put forth through her grandfather. Shocked that someone who hadn’t impressed the ton during her coming out, who hadn’t got a single marriage proposal during the time, and quite past the age where the ladies of the ton got married, with very little inheritance to offer and just passable looks had the gall to refuse a godsend of an offer, Julian confronts Sophy on her trip back from an old friend of hers who grows medicinal herbs, a subject of much interest to Sophy.

Ultimately, these two wed, each of them having bargained for a set of conditions to be met, which Julian finds out to be unconventional and fascinating at the same time. Sophy’s conditions being that they wouldn’t consummate their marriage till a three month period during which Sophy and Julian should get to know one another better, her choice of reading material which is far and wide never be influenced by her husband and that she never be cast off to a home in the country side whilst Julian traverses in the city.

Julian quickly realizes the errors in his agreeing to the first condition, when he finds himself in lust with his new wife, whom he tries to seduce, but backfires on him in the most hilarious ways possible. I found myself laughing out loud several times whilst reading through bits of conversation between Julian and Sophy as well as the situations that Sophy tended to land herself in, not the docile and meek wife that Julian had bargained for at all.

To make things more interesting, upon realizing that trying to make Julian fall in love with her when to Sophy’s point of view that Julian had never got over the grief and pain caused to him by his first wife, pursues her little project of finding out who drove her sister to take the life of herself and the baby that she was carrying. With only a black ring of a crude design the only clue as to whom her sister had been holding clandestine meetings with, Sophy embarks upon a mission to make the man who made use of her sister pay for what he had done.

Things get interesting from this moment forward. Sophy and her quirky and eccentric friends help her in their ways to find out what the ring symbolizes, unraveling something far too dangerous that could cost Sophy her life in the end.

All in all, this was quite a fun read which I enjoyed immensely. With a surprising villain in the end, at least it was for me, this book proved to be a ‘seductive’ read which was hard to put down.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Smash Cut by Sandra Brown

Format: Paperback
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Series: Standalone
Hero: Derek Mitchell
Heroine: Julie Rutledge
Date of Publication: August 11, 2009
Started On: November 29, 2009
Finished On: December 1, 2009

Sandra Brown has always been a favorite author of mine. With her first book ‘Relentless Desire’ which was published in 1983, she started off her career as a romance book author as most of my favorite authors. Later with the book ‘Slow Heat in Heaven’, she started on the genre of romantic suspense, some of which have been pretty great stories. Smash Cut, her latest such thriller is no exception to this rule. With two great characters and a complex plot with enough twists to keep us going, Smash Cut delivers on all fronts.

Derek Mitchell is a criminal defense lawyer with a reputation well-earned for preventing society’s scum from ever having to see the walls of a prison. Julie Rutledge, the mistress of millionaire Paul Wheeler, is the owner of an art gallery who witnesses the murder of her lover right in front of her.

Entering the story that unfolds of course is the slightly off-balance family that every rich guy leaves behind. Paul’s brother Doug and his wife Sherry with their son Creighton Wheeler who is very rich in his own right without having shed a drop of sweat to show for it and spoiled rotten to the core has a passion for movies unlike anyone has ever heard of.

From the start, Julie accuses Creighton of plotting and executing the well-laid out plan of murdering Paul, as Creighton was the sole beneficiary of Paul’s will, though the motive seems to be a weak one in the face of all the millions that Creighton has already inherited from another set of his grandparents.

Derek is hired by Creighton’s father, in case the need for a defense lawyer arises, though Creighton has a rock solid alibi for the day of the murder. Julie, wanting to prevent Creighton from walking free of this heinous act, tries to prevent Derek from being Creighton’s lawyer, which somehow in the end backfires on her.

Creighton’s evil streak is slowly revealed, while Julie and Derek join forces to out run the brilliance of a plan well laid out by a master of evil planning, to free Julie from the knot that slowly seems to tighten around Julie, pointing all fingers at her for the murder of Paul.

Ultimately in the end, Creighton is caught in the act of ‘tying up one of the loose ends’, and with a huge surprise in the end, which I am not going to spoil for everyone here, ties things up.

Although this book is of the genre ‘Romantic Suspense’, there is actually very little romance involved, but rather a great story of how pure evil can thrive in the minds of people society never thought capable of.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

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