Met Her Match (Summer Hill #2) by Jude Deveraux

Publication: September 17, 2019

Publisher: MIRA

Source: Publisher

In small towns, no one lets the facts get in the way of juicy gossip…

Set in the beloved fictional town of Summer Hill, Virginia, Met Her Match examines the tensions between the wealthy townspeople, the summer vacationers and the working-class people who keep the town and resort running. Told with humor and heart, Met Her Match is the perfect summer escape.

******

Review

Terri Rayburn has lived all of her life in the shadow of her mom’s supposed mistakes. Living in a small town everyone either knows your business or they attempt to find out your business. Terri has no desire to be the center of anymore town gossip so she stays at Lake Kissel and helps her dad run the resort there.

Life for the most part goes as expected for Terri until she comes home from a trip and finds Nate Taggert, a handsome, yet unexpected houseguest…

Despite their bumpy beginning, they come to a mutual arrangement and as time passes by at the lake, Terri and Nate develop an unexpected close friendship. The more time Nate spends at the lake, the more stories he hears about Terri and her mother. Nate being the curious sort decides to investigate the gossip and find out the truth behind it all.

Terri is easy to like. She’s resilient, smart, has a very thick skin, and is dedicated to her dad. She needs someone who is resourceful, independent, and warm. Enter Nate, her ideal man. The only problem with that is he’s already taken. Nate is engaged to the mayor’s daughter. Just when Terri thought the universe might be doing her a solid, reality tells her to think otherwise. Even though Nate is taken, could he still be the one for her? And what happens to their friendship when his fiancée comes back into town?

Nate is a people person. If someone spends 10 minutes in his company, they leave liking him. He’s smart, hardworking, and not afraid of a challenge. He’s had the opportunity to travel the world for work, but now that he is getting married, he’s planning on settling down in his fiancée’s hometown of Summer Hill. Even though future plans may be laid out for him, he isn’t completely sure of some things.

This was my first time reading a book by this author and I’m glad I decided to go for it. Met Her Match is a sweet and easy summertime romance to fall in love with. The author does a great job of writing a romance that held my interest from the very beginning and had unique and realistic characters that added to the overall story. If you enjoy small town romances, then definitely check out Met Her Match.

RATING: 3½-4 out of 5.

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Google

Books-a-Million | Book Depository | iTunes

Join the Addiction:

My Blog | Twitter | BlogLovin’ | Facebook | Instagram

Book Review: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Publication: July 29, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Source: Publisher

"I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she has her dry cleaning done, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will." Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, at first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life. Colin's job was to abduct Mia as part of a wild extortion plot and deliver her to his employers. But the plan takes an unexpected turn when Colin suddenly decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota, evading the police and his deadly superiors. Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them, but no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter. An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, The Good Girl is a compulsive debut that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems….

The Good Girl is an interesting story about what happens when Mia, a once free spirited young woman is unknowingly stalked and kidnaped and the aftermath after she is found.

This story is told from the point of view of several different characters in the story, which gave it a unique and interesting feel; Mia, Eve (Mia’s mother), Gabe (the Detective, and Colin (Kidnapper).

The dynamics between Mia’s family was pretty interesting to see. Mia comes from a wealthy family, but Mia was almost like an outcast. She didn’t always do what her parents expected, but her mom Eve loved her a lot regardless. Here sister seemed to be a bit of a snob.  Her father however seemed to be a different matter all together. I was surprised at how he reacted during Mia’s disappearance. He didn’t even want to say she disappeared, just that she had run off somewhere. And once she was found, Mia suffered from psychological issues, and her father didn’t try to understand why she was like that, he just wanted her to be ‘normal’ again.  It’s obvious he wasn’t going to be winning a father of the year trophy.

Some people were saying it was in the same vein of Gone Girl, but to me they are both completely different. They do both keep you in suspense and have an ending you probably didn’t see coming, but those are where the similarities end…at least for me. I liked the pace of the story. Nothing seemed rushed or too slow. The characters were well developed and attention-grabbing. The more I read, the more suspense began to build and I just had to know how it would all end.

RATING: 3½ out of 5.

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon | B&N |  iTunes

Kobo | Book Depository | Google

Join the Addiction:

My Blog: | Twitter | BlogLovin’ | Facebook

Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn Blog Tour!

Thank you for stopping by my leg of the Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn Blog Tour! I was so excited to read this book. I hope my review piques your interest and you like the book if you read it.  Click the banner above to follow the rest of the tour!

Publication: September 30, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Source: The Publisher on behalf of this tour.

New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn returns with a Jazz Age tale of grand adventure On the verge of a stilted life as an aristocrat's wife, Poppy Hammond does the only sensible thing—she flees the chapel in her wedding gown. Assisted by the handsome curate who calls himself Sebastian Cantrip, she spirits away to her estranged father's quiet country village, pursued by the family she left in uproar. But when the dust of her broken engagement settles and Sebastian disappears under mysterious circumstances, Poppy discovers there is more to her hero than it seems. With only her feisty lady's maid for company, Poppy secures employment and travels incognita—east across the seas, chasing a hunch and the whisper of clues. Danger abounds beneath the canopies of the silken city, and Poppy finds herself in the perilous sights of those who will stop at nothing to recover a fabled ancient treasure. Torn between allegiance to her kindly employer and a dashing, shadowy figure, Poppy will risk it all as she attempts to unravel a much larger plan—one that stretches to the very heart of the British government, and one that could endanger everything, and everyone, that she holds dear.

I say it almost every time, but I do not know what it is about the 1920’s that I find so appealing to read about. It just seems like a fun and interesting time period to live in. 

“I say, if you’re running away from your wedding, you’re going about it quite wrong.”

From the beginning, I could tell this was adventure I would enjoy being apart of.  A Night of a Thousand Stars takes place in 1920, where Poppy is trying to escape out of a window on her wedding day.  She is aided by Sebastian, who she believes at the time is the curate.  She feels bad for leaving the groom (Gerald) behind, but she knows that she shouldn’t marry him.  She isn’t even convinced that Gerald really loves her, more like he is just  trying to accomplish things that any upstanding English gentleman should. 

I loved Poppy. She is headstrong, smart, and brave.  She isn’t content to have a title and be one of those stuck up society ladies who spends the majority of their time gossiping with other women.  Instead she  is looking for an adventure to shake things up and make life a little more lively.  And an adventure is exactly what she gets when she goes all the way to Damascus to track down Sebastian. The clues planted throughout the story kept me guessing all the way to the end. 

I had a good amount of fun reading this book. It was a fairly quick read and I happily discovered that it was filled with not just romance and mystery, but humor and adventure as well. I seen other works by this author before, but this was the first one of hers that I have read so far. It did not disappoint. Even though I don’t believe this is a series, I am hoping that there will more adventure and fun times with Poppy and Sebastian in the future.

RATING: 4 ½ out of 5.

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon | B&N |  iTunes

Kobo | Book Depository | Google

About the Author

A sixth-generation native Texan, Deanna Raybourn grew up in San Antonio, where she met her college sweetheart. She married him on her graduation day and went on to teach high school English and history. During summer vacation at the age of twenty-three, she wrote her first novel. After three years as a teacher, Deanna left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time.

Deanna Raybourn is the author of the bestselling and award-winning Lady Julia series, as well as, The Dead Travel Fast, A Spear of Summer Grass, and City of Jasmine.

For more information please visit Deanna Raybourn’s website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Join the Addiction:

My Blog: | Twitter | BlogLovin’ | Facebook

The Stranger You Know (Forensic Instincts #3) by Andrea Kane

Publication: March 25, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Source: Publisher

It begins with a chilling phone call. And ends with another girl dead. College-age girls with long red hair are being brutally murdered, posed like victims in a film noir. Each crime scene is eerily similar to the twisted fantasy of a serial offender now serving thirty years to life—a criminal brought to justice with the help of Casey Woods and her investigative team, Forensic Instincts. Call. Kill. Repeat. But the similarities are more than one psychopath's desire to outdo another. As more red-haired victims are added to the body count, it becomes clear that each one has been chosen because of a unique connection to Casey…. Now the Forensic Instincts team must uncover the identity of a serial killer before his ever-tightening circle of death closes in on Casey, the ultimate target. As the stalker methodically moves in on his prey, his actions make two things clear: He knows everything about Casey. And he won't stop until she's dead.

I went into this book not having read the previous two books in the Forensic Instincts serious, so the characters and their background were new to me. The synopsis caught my interest and made me want to read it.

When Casey Woods and her team are called to investigate the disappearance of the daughter of a dying man, they learn pretty quickly that this is no ordinary missing person’s case. They discover bodies of young women with red hair have raped and brutally murdered. Things start to pick up and get intense for Casey because not only do the women bare a close resemblance to her but the killer begins to call and taunt her about the murders including her own. From then on, it’s a race to find the killer before he strikes again.

Even though this is the third book in this series, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much backstory information regarding the characters. The mystery was pretty interesting and easy to follow. The characters were all unique and I felt like each one added something to the story. Though some of the choices made were questionable and not very smart. This was a little disappointing, especially since Casey and her whole team were touted as being very knowledgeable. All in all I enjoyed reading The Stranger You Know. It wasn’t too heavy of a mystery and it wasn’t too light. It was somewhere in between for me.

RATING: 3 out of 5.

BUY THE BOOK:

Amazon | B&N | iTunes

Kobo | Book Depository | Google

Join the Addiction:

My Blog: | Twitter | BlogLovin’ | Facebook

Hunted (The Profiler #1) by Elizabeth Heiter

Publication: January 1, 2014

Publisher: Harlequin MIRA

Terror stalks a small Virginia town. FBI rising star, criminal profiler Evelyn Baine, knows how to think like a serial killer. But she's never chased anyone like the Bakersville Burier, who hunts young women and displays them, half-buried, deep in the woods. As the body count climbs, Evelyn's relentless pursuit of the killer puts her career - and her life - at risk. And the evil lurking in the Burier's mind may be more than even she can unravel. Terror is closer than she thinks. The Bakersville Burier knows he's got an FBI profiler on his trail. He knows who she is and where to find her. And he's biding his time, because he's planned a special punishment for Evelyn. She may have tracked other killers, but he vows to make this her last chase. This time it's her turn to be hunted!

“Bakersville was never going to be the same. She'd been to other small towns where the residents all thought serial killers looked like monsters, that no member of their community could hide such dark desires. Once upon a time, she'd lived in one.

And the monster there had ripped her life apart.”

Evelyn Baine is a tough and skilled profiler. But past trauma from her childhood has affected her, so she has a tendency to throw herself completely into her work.

When the bodies of two females are found brutally murdered, Evelyn steps in to assist the local Bakersville Police with their investigation. Even though she is good at what she does, she definitely doesn’t get the respect and acknowledgment that she deserves.

Once more bodies start popping up, the FBI come into town to try and catch him.

This killer is not an amateur. He is smart, skilled, and determined to catch his next prey, which just so happens to become Evelyn.

Hunted, the first book by author Elizabeth Heiter was a decent beginning to a series.

I love a good thriller story, especially when one involves a serial killer. Some parts seemed to drag a bit, but I did find it to be an enjoyable and interesting story. I have become more and more fond of police procedurals type stories, so this was a plus for me. There were also a couple of moments when I got to see inside the head of the killer, which is something that I’ve always liked and found fascinating.  

Fan of FBI/Police Procedurals? Like Mystery and Suspense? Then you might be interested in taking a look at Hunted. Book two in this series, Vanished is expected to release on December 30, 2014.

RATING: 3 – 3½ out of 5.

**I received this book on behalf of the publisher in exchange for nothing but my honest opinion. Thank you.**

BUY:

Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Google | Book Depository

Join the Addiction:

My Blog: | Twitter | BlogLovin’ | Facebook