ARC REVIEW Black-Eyed Susan's by Julia Heaberlin

Black-Eyed Susans is a psychological thriller by a local author (for me) Julia Heaberlin. I have read her debut novel Playing Dead and loved it. Black-Eyed Susans screwed with my mind way more and that just the way I like 'em; the creepier the better. Julia Heaberlin has a wonderful, intelligent and informative writing style; she infuses just the right amount of history to her setting to give you as a reader a feeling that you know the place as well. You can tell a lot of research went in to the book and even the format of how the book is written feeds into the your feelings of the characters. The majority of the book flips flops between seventeen year old Tessie, and her grownup self, Tessa. I love how it does that you get to know her post-trauma and at the same time who she is as a person now,a mother of a teen-age daughter herself. I have been known to complain about flashback scenes, but these are not exactly flashbacks she's not remembering them. It's done right it with two separate POVs clearly marked. If she had written it chronologically with Tessie's story first then skipped ahead it wouldn't of had the same impact when you got to the "what a twist" moment. I really enjoyed all the characters, they all have their place in the story they are well written and very believable.

Tessa is the lone survivor of a serial killer. The last thing she remembers is buying a few thing at the gas station before going on her nightly run; the next hing she sees is a black bird trying to peck out her eyes. Years later Tessa still doesn't remember what happened in the missing time, she testified her story and never really knew if it was the right man or not, she just hoped Terrell Goodwin was. Now with the execution date getting closer Tessa has enough doubt that she joins forces with William "Bill" Hastings, the lawyer working pro bono for Terrell Goodwin; and DNA Forensic scientist Joanna Seger, to try and get an appeal for Terrell. Joanna works the scientific angle while Bill tries to help Tessa remember.

Tessie is happy and lucky to be alive, she was left in a ditch surrounded by black-eyed susans with dead bodies to keep her company. Tessie after getting rescued and in the hospital suffered a set back, she suddenly went blind; clinically called Conversion Disorder laymen terms hysterical blindness. Now she has to visit one last psychiatrist before testifying. She works reluctantly with him to get past her blindness and remember what happened. Her rock through it all her best friend Lydia plays a big part in keeping her normal and sane.

The story progresses on Tessa starts remember more as Joanna discovers things they didn't have the technology to find all those years ago. Tessa is haunted by the other Susans and tormented by out of season black-eyed susans being planted out side her window. Tessa and Joanna start up an unlikely friendship while Bill tries to start something more than friendship with Tessa. Tessa is just trying to get through he days without losing her mind or driving her daughter crazy or vise versa. The pieces start to fall in to place as the clock ticks closer to Terrell's execution.

Overall, it was a great book, I couldn't put it down.        

ARC REVIEW Lady Beresford's Lover by Ella Quinn

Book Seven in Ella Quinn's Marriage Games series. Ella Quinn is good about writing books in a series but also they can be read as stand-alone. I liked it it was entertaining and witty; the characters are great I love them but the story just okay. I liked the secondary story of Silvia and Nick more than I liked Vivian and Rupert story.

Lady Vivian, The Countess of Beresford, is glad her husband is dead and that her mourning period is finally over. She has plans of owning a house away from her late husbands family and the embarrassment that comes with being his widow and having one last season in London before her self imposed seclusion. She doesn't think that finding a lover is a good idea because her husband deep scorn and has disillusioned Vivian; she thinks her body to be deformed and thinks that no man will want her after they see her deformity under her clothes. So when Rupert the Earl of Stanstead shows interest she can't help but return his flirtation.

Rupert doesn't care that everyone says he is too young to settle down, he is ready. He inherited his title young and everyone still thinks him young and they keep bringing that up. (I thought, up until they said Vivian's age, that Rupert was quite a bit younger than Vivian; that is how often they they brought it up.) Rupert was interested in one young lady but she made the decision to marry someone else, and even thought his feelings were hurt he wasn't heart broken. His father told him he would know the right woman when he sees her. When he sees Vivian across a crowded room he believes what his father told him. He won't let Vivian go now that he has found her. Sporadically through the book and so little of it and it doesn't really affect the story is a young twat who is determined to trap Rupert into marriage. I think the only purpose is to set up for another story, but I could have done without it.

The secondary story is between the new Beresford, Nick, and Silvia is a second chance story about deception, lies and manipulation. I kind of wish it was a stand alone book but it ties in so perfectly with the main story. Vivian is oblivious she decides she wants to overcome her fear of intimacy due to her "malformation" and seduce Rupert under the guise of Cleopatra. At a masquerade, coincidentally, they dress as Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Vivian doesn't realize he knows it's her and she becomes jealous of her own alter ego. Rupert works hard to prove that Vivian is the beauty he sees and her husband was a fool and everything is good until Vivian's idiot of a father tries to marry/ sell her off to another bastard.

Overall, it's not one of my favorites so far but it is a good book.

     

ARC REVIEW Dark Embrace by Angie Sandro

OMG!!! Okay so this is  book four of the Dark paradise series but it is the start of a new story arc. The first three were centered around Mala and Landry, this one is all about Dena and can be read as a stand alone but I really recommend to read the first three and get sucked into the drama and mystery of Paradise Louisiana. Angie Sandro weaves a fantastic tale of hoodoo, ghost, zombies, and Death himself.

Dena Acker was brought back from the dead, well technically. Dena was beaten by her father and was brain dead. Her soul trapped in purgatory and continually tortured by her father. Mala brought her back but was determined to keep that little fact from Dena. But Dena has a secret of her own ever since coming back to the land of the living she has been able to see when people are about to die a black fog surrounds them. She learned fast that she could not change it so she just learned to ignore it until one day a lunatic verbally assaults her at work and then after work tries to kill her and almost succeeds if not for the black fog. Dena fought for her life she fought back wounding the mad man. On the verge of passing out she sees a black vortex open up and an entity come from it and kill the mad man. It also saves Dena licking her wounds. Dena is aroused by this man like entity and when she wakes later in the hospital all she can think of was his kiss on her lips and his emerald green eyes.

Detective Michael Anders is in charge of finding who is responsible for burning alive people from the inside, so far his only clue is Dena and he can't decide whether to slap the cuffs on her or kiss her. Dena in a moment of weakness confess to him what she really saw but like she assumed he doesn't believe her. Dena becomes more and more aware of the entity that is killing people, burning them from the inside out, but is it really bad when it is targeting the hit men sent to kill Dena. The more Dena learns about Ashmael, the entity, death the more she becomes confused by her feelings for both Michael and Ashmael. The truth about Mala comes out and like always everything hits the fan at once.

I love this book. Dena so cynical and dark. Angie Sandro does not disappoint with this follow up/ continuation it is intense and sexy and even caught me by surprise.      

ARC REVIEW Over the Top by Rebecca Zanetti

Sigh, finally Dawn and Hawk's story! Over the Top is book four in Rebecca Zanetti's Maverick Montana series. Through the previous three books Dawn has not hidden the fact the she is love with Hawk Rain and it's fairly obvious he loves her too but he has his secrets and is using his secrets to keep her and her family safe from his over all mission. Not to mention he is afraid to loosing the closest thing to a family he has ever had should the relationship between Dawn and him fail. I love Rebecca Zanetti, she is a great story teller and this book is all kinds of steamy hot and action.

Hawk is back in Maverick for the time being before he rushes off to fulfill a promise he made in the mean time he is going to try and stay far away from Dawn Freeze as he can, but the little siren is calling him and he can not stop the lure of the one woman he can't stop let go of. Dawn is determined to get over Hawk, no matter how hard she tries he is still there in her mind and in her heart. It's not helping that the meddling old biddies in town have their minds made up to match the pair.

When the two finally get together it's better than either of them ever expected, but Hawk's wishy washy attitude about them just pisses Dawn off and all to soon the secret Hawk is keeping from his friends comes rushing up and Hawk has no choice but to accept the help the Freeze/Lodge family has freely offered. They even accept the fact that Hawk and Dawn have slept together well, after one of them punched Hawk the face they did. All together they face the secrets from Hawk's past.

Some of the things I love, that Rebecca Zanetti does very well, one is a damn good Alpha Male. They are over protective, loyal to no end, love deeply, and when the shit goes down they know know when to bend. Another thing I love is the humor just the right amount of funny to break up the hot sex and heart pounding action, especially when it's elderly ladies making inappropriate and embarrassing remarks and suggestions but have hearts of gold.    

ARC REVIEW Wanted by Dee Tenorio

A Deadly Secrets novel by Dee Tenorio, I believe is the second book in the series. The first book Convicted, which I have also read. I liked this one a bit more then the first and aside from being painfully predictable it was a very good romantic suspense. This is a dark romance I need to throw that out here now it deals with some pretty bad things in Whitney's past. There is a nice flow to Tenorio's writing style and even paced suspense that doesn't slow down. The characters have tortured pasts that really make you route for them and want to smack them when they are being stupid.

When we first met this small California town it was over run with a horrible biker gang. Rick Terlane returns home and is determined to clean it up and with marine buddy Cade Evigan and undercover DEA agent and hometown girl Katrina Killan to help they successfully wipe the gang out. Now time has past and the residents are still trying to move on past their past. Cade and Kat happily together and a clean run Deputy department and everything seems like it going back to normal until the one of the former corrupt Deputies ends up shot dead and all the circumstantial evidence points to one person Rick's best friend Whitney Peterson

Whitney has been in love with Rick since forever, but she can not share what she thought she had to do in order so protect her mother and her niece. I   t's her dirty little secret to carry around with her forever, or so she thought when the man behind it all ends up dead and she is the number one suspect. One more body shows up and Whit and Rick are stuck between a rock and a hard place as their feelings and sexual attraction get in the way of Rick trying to find out the truth. Whit knows she should trust Rick with the information but is afraid that when he finds out he will no longer look at her the same way again let alone be able to love her. Rick starts off not wanting in any relationship because of the incident that ended his military career but the more trouble points to Whit he grows more protective and realizes his feelings are stronger than he ever thought. But is the old adage right will the truth set you free? Or will Whit be right and it ruins everything she has worked for including her love for Rick.

ARC REVIEW Final Protocol by J.C. Daniels

One of my favorite dark romance/urban fantasy writers has written one of my top favorite genres, science fiction, to say I was happy is an understatement. When I finally stopped bouncing up and down in my chair and settled down to read it I was absorbed into a futuristic world of demented villains and tortured anti-heroes and strange alien races. I enjoyed it, I didn't love it but it was still a good read. One thing that kept throwing me off was all the alien words it was hard to keep track of what meant what. There was a lot of internal monologue, it is in first person POV so she tends to get overly depictive in describing the setting and how it made her feel. Some of it felt rushed, parts I wish there was more of and other parts I wish there was less. What I did love was the characters and the emotional strength of Silence. Silence is the quintessential Shiloh Walker/J.C. Daniels Heroine.  

*It is not for the faint of heart, if you feel rape doesn't belong anywhere in romance then don't read this.*

Silence was born ten years ago to lies, abuse, and rape; if she existed before then the memories only live in her dreams. Her owner, Gold, a disturbed man uses her as he sees fit and that usually means as an assassin. She was trained to kill and yet the one person she wants to kill more than anyone else in the world as rigged it so she can't. A biochip in her brain that he can tap into at anytime to track her down or strike her dead, Silence has no choice but to comply. Gold has spewed his lies to her over and over that it has her convinced that what he said actually happened and that the love of life used her to pay a debt. Her dreams have gotten more vivid; like her sub conscience trying to tell her something but she still only sees part of the story.

Silence has refused to carry out her last mission of killing an old man, instead of killing her Gold gives her an out, one last job and she is free and clear of him. The man who gave her up is her next target. Silence is no fool she has planned for the last few years a contingency plan whether she is free of him after this by his hand or hers she will be free she goes to complete her last mission. But Gold messed up he never should have underestimated Silence and Orion. An emotional revelation of truth and an all around love conquers all ending, even if it was kind of abrupt.      
   

ARC REVIEW Stolen and Forgiven by Alexandra Ivy and Carrie Ann Ryan

Alexandra Ivy and Carrie Ann Ryan bring you a new Paranormal Shifter Romance. This is a great two for one. One thing these ladies have in common is to take a tried and true genre and make it their own. I love these ladies they take something and make it dark, and twist it into an emotional mess that is so deeply entwined in the story it causes such a book hangover when you are done and beg for more. Much like in Kim Harrison's The Hallows a deadly virus has spread throughout the world the cure lies with the blood of the shifter and reluctantly they figuratively come out of the closet and save humanity, now here is where it deviates human instead of thanking them they freak out. They try to wipe them all out the creation of the SAU locked them up and, like in Jennifer Ashley's Shifter's Unbound, they end up collared even more they are branded like cattle. But shifter's are strong and can survive and they have had enough they are just bidding their time.

Stolen is Alexandra Ivy's perfect introduction for a new series. In this story you have Alpha of the River Pack, Holden Carter, who became Alpha at the age of fifteen and everything he has done everything in his power to protect his pack. Knowing how important his pack is he has refrained from claiming a mate until he finds one that his wolf wants but since all the wolf shifter are stuffed in one place it's hard for him to find the one for him. Ariel Sands grew up as an orphan in the post virus world where the government and SAU have spread propaganda and lies about the shifters. Everything is fine in her life until she gets kidnapped by SAU and experimented on, then on the verge of death dumped into the woods on shifter land. Holden finds Ariel before she dies and immediately his wolf claims her and breaking pack laws bites her and changes her. With that Holden changes everything and the secrets the SAU come out as well. Now the dangerous chess game between Shifter and SAU has begun.

Forgiven by Carrie Ann Ryan is Carrie Ann at her best. A second chance, shifter romance between the River Pack Beta, Soren Slater, and Cat Shifter Princess, Cora Wilder. As a punishment for keeping Ariel the SAU merged the dogs with the cats. Soren and Cora meet previously when Soren meet with the cat's several years ago. What started as an innocent flirtation ended in heartbreak, Cora's tiger morns for Soren since he left and chose to mate with another wolf to strengthen the pack. Soren has felt guilty over the death of his mate and the appearance of has rekindled the passion and love he has felt for her. Cora is hesitant still hurting from the initial heartbreak but with the sage advise from her father helps her see things from Soren's point of view. But the SAU has other plans and with the knowledge that they can change people and how to do it they target Cora and her Father. The Cat's and the Wolves, but specifically Soren, work together to change their plans.