ARC REVIEW After She's Gone by Lisa Jackson

My mother-in-law got me into Lisa Jackson books and one of my all time favorites fall back reread books is one of hers, unfortunately this is not going to be one of those books. I enjoyed the mystery it's what keep me reading the book instead of just DNFing it. The first half of it is whiny and a mishmash of other Lisa Jackson books updated. Cassie is annoying, her heart is in the right place but the poor me attitude got old real quick. It did get better when Trent showed up and took control of Cassie. The detective wasn't any better, it alluded to a hard past but she was just to annoying for me to care about her past. Allie evidently suffers from affluenza, she thinks everyone owes her something and nothing his her fault; she's a narcissistic bitch who got off lightly in the end. Trent is the only main character I liked.

After She's Gone is the third book in Lisa Jackson's Northwest series, it is a direct sequel to her 2005 release Deep Freeze which centers on actress Jenna Hughes and Sheriff Shane Carter. Cassie and Allie survived the events of the previous book only for it to screw up their lives. Cassie tries to escape by moving to L.A. to become an actress only to suck at it. Allie fought for her mother's attention and was jealous of all the attention Cassie got after the attack and growing up the daughter of Jenna Hughes she felt she was in constant competition with both her mother and sister. But after she moved to L.A. at Cassie's insistence Allie became famous. Cassie jealous of her sister's easy ability to act, gave it up and found screenwriting was more her thing. Because of Allie's easy start to stardom Cassie felt jealous and became even more self conscience with anything pertaining to Allie, especially when it came to Cassie's own husband.

There is an accident on set, the actress who was shot was originally supposed to be Allie. But now Allie is missing and Cassie had a nervous breakdown and admitted herself into a psychiatric hospital. But the longer Allie is gone the more worried Cassie gets and an ominous visit from an old timie nurse gives Cassie the kick in the butt she needs to find out what's going on. The longer Allie is gone the more police think Cassie did it especially after she is seen with an actress the night before she was murdered. Two dead, one almost paralyzed and one still MIA and Cassie is at the top of the suspect list. Thankfully she has her mother, stepfather, and Trent to lend a hand and support her in her need to find Allie. But what they discover is even more shocking than anything they had to deal with before.

Overall, I kept reading because the mystery was good, I was only half right in my initial guess. The characters, except for Trent, Jenna and Shawn, were all so shallow you just didn't care what happened to them.            

ARC REVIEW The Princess Wore Plaid by Karen Hawkins

This is an in between novella for the Princes of Oxenburg series centered on one of the Princes' cousins. I love Karen Hawkins she always has a witty cast of characters who get pushed into unlikely situations and fall in love.

Princess Tatiana was on her way to her cousins wedding there was an accident and when she came too could remember nothing, she fled the scene and wandered for a couple of days before coming to an inn where she was offered a job. When she finally regained her memory she had no way to prove her identity to anyone, and the proprietors of the inn, the Drummonds, didn't believe she was a Princess of a country they never heard of. Tatiana learned as she went to earn her keep at the inn waiting for her cousins to come and find her.

Lord Darrac Buchan was injured while in service during the war with the French. His leg was damaged so bad he almost lost it; now riddled with scars and damaged muscle tissue he walks with a cane. Embarrassed by his impairment he stays at home the only time he leaves is for his Friday night dinner at the local inn where the innkeeper's wife is a much better cook then his own estates cook.

One particularity rainy night Buchan and Tatiana meet. For her own safety and because the Drummonds are worried that she's a bit daffy told Tatiana not to talk to anybody. Buchan knows right away she's no ordinary maid her forthright manner and the lack of callous' on her hands says she is something more and that intrigues Buchan. It is three weeks before Tatiana serves him his meal again. In this second meeting Tatiana says something that let on she is more with little convincing she tells him the truth. Buchan doesn't really believe her at first but with a little bit of reading he soon believes her.

Of course Tatiana and Buchan fall in love, but they both feel likes it's doomed, they both know as soon as her cousin shows up she will go back to the Royal life. Overall, this was too short I just enjoyed the characters that much, but really, as it was I don't think it could have been turned into a full length novel. I loved this one, it is a great addition to the series.  

ARC REVIEW City of Light by Keri Arthur

First in the new series by Keri Arthur, City of Light, it gave me that same feeling I had when I first picked up a Kate Daniels book; the feeling of daaammmnnn this is gonna be good. I am very happy with this book. I am very picky when it comes to first person urban fantasy, especially when the series revolves around one person, after a while the series gets repetitive. So I generally like series that focus on new people every book. There are few I make exception for, this is going to be one of them. Okay now for the reasons I liked this... tortured strong heroine with a hubris of saving children and can talk to ghosts, sexy angry alpha cat shifter who as much as he doesn't want to feels strongly protective toward the heroine, vampires that are more like zombies and wild animals put together, mysterious killer magical entities with an agenda of their own. And not to leave out the awesome writing style of Keri Arthur who ended the book with a conclusion but just enough to have you begging for more.

The story starts a hundred years after the end of the race wars. A war started by the shifters and one that the shifters ended by dropping bombs. The bombs unfortunately were strong enough to rip a holes to another place a magical place where ethereal beings can cross over and kill. This is what stopped the war the shifters and humans finally had to set aside their problems and protect each other from the vampires who come out at night and the wraiths who are the only ones who can cross the rifts and kill whoever they pass, or are they?

Tiger is the only left of her kind, she is a genetically engineered dechet; a humanoid crossed with shifter and vampire DNA created to defeat the shifters. She lives alone in the underground bunker where she lived and where she should have died. Her only companions are her little ones, the ghosts of the children who did die the day the shifters gassed the bunker. Tig's life is about to be turned upside down. Finding a child and a half dead shifter in the outskirts of town at dusk wasn't her idea of fun, she would have left the shifter if it had not been for the little girl's insistence. In doing so she sets off a series of events she can't stop she can only plow forward and hope she survives. The little girl, Penny, is a survivor of a wraith attack, it killed bother her parents leaving only her and her Uncle Jonas. Penny however was taken by the wraiths and changes somehow when Jonas finally found and saved her. Penny isn't the first she is only one of twelve children taken by the wraiths. An earth witch, Nuri has told Tig that she is the only one who can save these children. But Tig is a dechet, the most hated species to shifters and Tig has a hard time trusting this band of mercenary shifters. But agreeing to help because it's children, and she vowed never to let any more children die if she can help it. The only shifter half willing to help her is Jonas, but his hatred of her kind keeps her quiet about who and what she really is. Which only confuses her more because in all her years she has never felt this way about a shifter before. But things only get worse when she discovers she is not the only dechet still alive and that her old friend and lover may have a hand in the disappearance of the children.

Overall, I loved this book, action packed, emotional turmoil, sex. I can't wait for more.          

REVIEW Closer Than You Think by Karen Rose

Ok so I popped my Karen Rose cherry with an awesome book! Goodreads is always recommending her books but I rarely listen to book recommendations, I should have listened. Closer Than You Think is disturbing, creepy, exciting and hot! I was glad that this was the start of a new series, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if it jumped in midway in the series. I love Faith she is a strong and tortured woman. Deacon, well wow for one, strong alpha male with the need to protect those he loves and those in his care and his uniqueness of white hair and two toned eyes adds to his attractiveness. The story was disturbing, but it was about a serial killer so of course it isn't going to be all lollipops and bubble gum, it was raw and exciting and scary I didn't want to put it down. Honestly I was hesitant to read this at first because I have never read anything of hers before but Deacon and the POV from the Killer won me over. The switching back and forth from the killer's POV and everyone elses was tantalizing! It kept me on my toes constantly trying to figure out who the eff it is. The character development between Faith and Deacon was nice the slow revelation about their pasts slowly pulling you into their world exposing their weakness and vulnerabilities so that by the end of the book your are wholeheartedly addicted.

Faith Corcoran is hiding from a stalker, a man who attempted to kill her by slitting her throat open. She has gone as far as changing her name and moving away from all the trauma. Faith is trying to put it all behind her, her bad reputation and a psychiatrist to sexual offenders her ex-husband who belittled her to his cop buddies and spread rumors that she was unstable and that her stalker was just her overactive imagination. But Faith's stalker isn't just a production of an attention grabbing loon her stalker has attempted to take her life multiple times in just the last month and attempted break in, her boss getting shot when they were meant for her the last straw was her apartment getting set on fire. So she changed her name and moved to Cincinnati to the old house her grandmother left her.

Two college girls went missing only to have one show up on the verge of death on the long deserted road going to Faith's family home. Faith finding the girl was just the start of a long couple of days. Deacon is determined to keep Faith safe and find the missing woman. The secrets of the old family home reveal a numerous amount of shallow graves dating back over ten years. The killer has targeted Faith as the person whose name is on the deed and it just may be that her stalker and the killer are connected. Despite it all Deacon and Faith have an undeniable attraction and are perfect for each other if only they can get through this alive.

Overall it was a great book and I really look forward to the next.