Known – Kendra Elliot

July 25, 2018July 25, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

25596593 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: After a brutal snowstorm in the Cascade Mountains, Chris Jacobs discovers two things he never expected to see: the charred shell of a cabin, and Gianna Trask and her sixteen-year-old daughter huddled in an SUV, having barely escaped from their burning vacation rental.

Still scarred from a childhood ordeal, Chris knows there’s something sinister about the scene—it’s the stench of burned flesh.

Forced to wait out the blizzard in their rescuer’s retreat, medical examiner Gianna Trask wonders if her hidden past has finally caught up with her. When a body is found in the destroyed cabin’s ashes and a forest ranger is brutally murdered, both Gianna and Chris must confront their secrets if they want to escape the violent threat lurking outside.

In the fifth book in the Bone Secrets series, Kendra Elliot leads readers on a dangerous, twisting journey of two lives forever changed by a fiery snowstorm in the mountains.

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My thoughts: Out of the five books in this series, this one is certainly the weakest. Off course I’m happy for Chris, since he is the character who have suffered the most and certainly deserves a HEA. We met Chris for the first time in the third book “Buried” which is also my favorite in the series. Known however, I found predictable, with halfhearted twists and somewhat stupid plot. I like medical thrillers but this is nothing like that. It is more or less some bad stuff happening to good people and together with the police, they are waiting it out until the bad guy does something wrong and messes the whole thing up. Somewhat dull, gray and fleeting. No real depth. A meek try on a heavy, hard to predict, mystery.

There is no real suspense either and it is pretty boring actually. I think it is my connection to Chris that made me actually read the whole thing and in the end find it “okay” but not so much more. And the bad guy in the book was so stupid and embarrassing that I’m surprised Elliot let it go on for as long as she did in the book. There was not ONE smart decision buy either crook or author through out these 348 pages. Just saying.

This was for now the last book in the Bone secrets series and I don’t know if Elliot is going to publish more. If so, I will probably read them to. The series as a whole is really good and I don’t want to let this bad apple destroy a potential fantastic follow up.

Adult fiction/Erotica · Contemporary · Romance

Badd Motherf*cker – Jasinda Wilder

July 21, 2018July 23, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

32757849 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Your wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of your life, right? That’s what they say, at least. I went into that day hoping I’d get the happiest day of my life. What I got? The worst. I mean, you really can’t get any worse of a day without someone actually dying. So…I may have gotten just a little drunk, and maybe just a tad impetuous… And landed myself in a dive bar somewhere in Alaska, alone, still in my wedding dress, half-wasted and heart-broken.

***
Eight brothers, one bar. Sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, yeah? I kinda think so. Wanna hear another joke? A girl walks into a bar, soaking wet and wearing a wedding dress. I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. She was hammered, for one thing, and heartbroken for another. I’ve chased enough tail to know better. That kinda thing only leads to clinginess, and a clingy female is the last thing on this earth I need. I got a bar needs running, and only me to run it—at least until my seven wayward brothers decide to show their asses up… Then this chick walks in, fine as hell, wearing a soaked wedding dress that leaves little enough to the imagination—and I’ve got a hell of an imagination. I knew I shouldn’t have touched her. Not so much as a finger, not even innocently. But I did.

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My thoughts: Reading is subjective and since this one has as high rating as it has, clearly it is a likable book. It just didn’t work for me. I do not see my self as a prude or in any other way abashed when it comes so sex. But when the sex scenes actually bore me out, which is clearly suppose to be the highlight of the book, I just can’t take it.

To be honest, the story around the sex-scenes is just weird. It started of good and I can understand the reaction when you find out that your fiance is sleeping with the bridesmaid on the day of the weeding. But it is the rest that irks me. It is the same thing in another cover. The Hero is an total asshole who suppose to be the most grownup and the oldest of 8 brothers. The heroin is suppose to be this strong, kick ass girl, no one piss on, and she does the complete opposite. It is to cheesy, to blah and to over the top for my taste. It is more like a porn-video, where the story is just to give you some time before the sex starts. But we all know that it is not the story that matters. As same as we know men do not read naked magazines “for the articles”.

Maybe i’m greedy that way, but I do need more in the books I read. I need some real depth, some real character development, some real story and something that is believable if it is in the genre Contemporary Romance Erotic. I’m an emotional person and to find the erotic part of a book interesting or enjoyable, I need a connection to the characters or the story it self. Otherwise I just get bored.

Oh and one last thing. The books is written in a neck breaking speed. Everything that is happening, is happening in just three days. THREE DAYS! It is rushed and there is more introduction to the other 7 brothers, than the main characters actually talk to each other. It is like an introduction book on the next 7 character/books that will be released. And the explanation in the end! WHAT? I do not get it. How can that even be an alternative? It is just weird and wrong and not suitable. If I had any hope for a good ending, that totally trashed it for me.

So, No. Nope. Not happening! This is not a series for me to continue. The whole thing was just a bad experience. And if Wilders books are all like this, she is not an author for me.

Contemporary · Mystery/Crime · Romance · Suspense

The Collector – Nora Roberts

June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 Book Chick1 Comment

18668066 | GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: When professional house-sitter Lila Emerson witnesses a murder/suicide from her current apartment-sitting job, life as she knows it takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, the woman with no permanent ties finds herself almost wishing for one. . . .

Artist Ashton Archer knows his brother isn’t capable of violence—against himself or others. He recruits Lila, the only eyewitness, to help him uncover what happened. Ash longs to paint her as intensely as he hungers to touch her. But their investigation draws them into a rarified circle where priceless antiques are bought, sold, gambled away, and stolen, where what you possess is who you are, and where what you desire becomes a deadly obsession. . . .

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My thoughts: What a utter disappointment this book was. It is sad that I had that “total waste of time” feeling after finishing it. What the heck happened? I should have DNF it and if it wasn’t for the fact that I had to spend 10 (!) hours at the emergency room, I would probably have done it to.

It is the same predictable, old, boring plot as usual, with to much details and information. It was impossible to connect with the characters and it is a long, rambling story with a lot less excitement than there should be. The characters are grey and bland with really no personality, difference or depth. There is no tension in the mystery. Nothing that makes my heart beat extra hard, the adrenaline pump through my system or giving me the feeling of “I need to know more”.

There is predictable and there is predictable. Just need to be clear about that. Because if the story and plot itself is well written and exciting it doesn’t matter to me that the story is predictable. It is the ride there who matters, not the destination. But if the story is boring, unconnectable or in some other ways just not catching me, the easy predictability will just make it worse.

I’m surprised to see that the book have such high score with so many bad reviews on Goodreads. I’m happy that i’m not the only one feeling this way but still sad because it’s Nora Roberts. I’m suppose to like her books. I’m not suppose to force myself thru it an later on describe it as one of 2018 most painfully reads.