Tag: romantic

Contemporary · Mystery/Crime · Romance · Suspense

The Collector – Nora Roberts

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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.

Mystery/Crime · Romance · Suspense · Thriller/Horror

Shiver – Karen Robards

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13547386.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Samantha Jones is the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of a flashy new BMW is a different breed entirely.

Daniel Panterro knows he hasn’t seen the last of the vicious drug runners who kidnapped him from protective custody and left him for dead. His only recourse is to take his pretty savior and her four-year-old son hostage and force her to help him. With ruthless killers stalking their trail, Sam must trust this handsome, menacing stranger. But as she relinquishes control, she feels an unmistakable desire. What is the price of falling in love with a man who operates on the edge of danger—her heart, her life . . . or both?

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My thoughts: It took me a really long time to start reading this one. I kept seeing reviews where other “complained” about how bad the characters were and how Robards don’t have diversity in her way of building characters and plots. But I must say, I think this is one of my favorites so far.

I often find that a romantic suspense is to unrealistic for my taste. Either the plot is not believable and quite thin or the whole romantic part of it is forced and hard to not cringe or laugh at since it so often not realistic. I know it is fiction and often it is not supposed to be realistic, but that is just not the way I like it. Personally. But this book is great.

The plot seems realistic. I really like Samantha. You can really feel how much she hates her life and how she struggles and fights for her son. And when it all happen, the bad guys, the running and the fighting, it is just great. Believable, true and exciting. (Except the end part.) I fell and it captivated me, and that is just the way I like it. I love that the romantic part took some time, some build up and it was hot, hot and hot. I really liked the dynamic between the characters and how diverse they were. I do not feel at all that it is the same thing with a different plot.

Now I do not read a lot of Robards. I do believe that, if I had read several after each other, I would probably feel the same way as many of the other reviews.

If I’m going to complain I do have a couple of things to mention and they are the reason to why I did not give the book five stars. First of is Tyler. He is supposed to be four, soon five years old, but he is written so much older. More like seven or eight. It kept messing with my head and I actually had to remind myself all the time that he is only four. The other thing is how shallow Marco/Trey/Danny is. He is so focus on Sam’s “beauty” and thin body, and it gets tiresome in the end. And the third is that when they crash in the mountains, it is just too easy. It is snow, cold and they have freaking crashed, but no, they just stomp back down without a word of pain or cold. Miner details but stuff like that can drive me crazy.

Contemporary · Fantasy/Paranormal · Romance

Dance upon the Air – Nora Roberts

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59829.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: When Nell Channing arrives on charming Three Sisters Island, she believes that she’s finally found refuge from her abusive husband—and from the terrifying life she fled so desperately eight months ago… But even in this quiet, peaceful place, Nell never feels entirely at ease. Careful to conceal her true identity, she takes a job as a cook at the local bookstore café—and begins to explore her feelings for the island sheriff, Zack Todd. But there is a part of herself she can never reveal to him—for she must continue to guard her secrets if she wants to keep the past at bay. One careless word, one misplaced confidence, and the new life she’s created so carefully could shatter completely. Just as Nell starts to wonder if she’ll ever be able to break free of her fear, she realizes that the island suffers under a terrible curse—one that can only be broken by the descendants of the Three Sisters, the witches who settled the island back in 1692. And now, with the help of two other strong, gifted women—and with the nightmares of the past haunting her every step—she must find the power to save her home, her love…and herself…

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My thoughts: This was the first time I read something more supernatural, written by Nora Roberts and since I do like her other books, I didn’t expect anything less. Well I shouldn’t have expected anything at all. Because this was certainly not my type of book and a complete waste of time. So why didn’t I DNF it you wondering? Well I’m a sucker for the whole “woman on the run from bad guy, find a new home, new friends, new life, new love but her past comes back and hunts her.” plot. Some old school romantic suspense. Never fails me. So I thought.

I think it is the paranormal aspect with the book that bugs me the most. It feels so unrealistic and worn-out. No real excitement or suspense. Oh and the characters. I have never seen Roberts as any less than an author who stands for strong and independent females and good, great guys. But Zack in this book, is not a great guy. He pushes and pushes even though Nell has told him that she cant get involved with anybody not even him. Then he pushes some more, they gets involved and than HE gets mad because she has not told the truth about her history. Well F*** you! She was as honest she could be from the start and Zack didn’t listen. He kept pushing. He kept taking over. Not letting her find her footing and kept stearing her the way he wanted her to go. That is not her fault. And he didn’t make her situation easier.

Oh man. Do you see my problem here? It was terrible and I’m honestly disappointed on Roberts. This is not an series I will continue to read. And from now on I will probably stay with the other type of genres by Roberts and stay away from the paranormals. I do not feel that, that is her strong suit.

And the last thing I wish so complain about is the writing. It is written in a point of view way, for every character and the chapters are to crowded. It was hard to keep track on who is talking when. Overall the book is in such a bad quality that if I didn’t already know, I wouldn’t have though this was a Roberts book. That is how different it all is.

Chick Lit · Contemporary · Romance · Young, New adult/College

Finding Audrey – Sophie Kinsella

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23305614| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Audrey can’t leave the house. she can’t even take off her dark glasses inside the house.

Then her brother’s friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again – well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do the things she’d thought were too scary. Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable.

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My thoughts: It was…. okay, it was cute and sweet. A little funny, a lot heartwarming and a quick read. Something nice to occupy my mind with after the mind blowing good horror/thriller and mind blowing bad chick lit book I recently read.  It takes on a serious topic and also gives the reader a true and honest look into a young girls life while living with depression and anxiety. When I was a teenager, I had a lot of trouble with the same. I truly understands how it is and how bad it can be and how hard it can effect a family. But I also understands and knows that it isn’t the end of the world, you can get better, at least I did and life is worth fighting for. Kinsella did a great job with describing the feelings and actions in Audrey’s life. The one thing that bugged me the most was the whole Linus relationship. But that I can’t go into in detail without spoiling the story, so we will leave it at that.

The book is about Audrey who have a really ruff time and suffers from some severe anxiety. She is a young teenager who lives with her “crazy” family somewhere in England (can’t remember where). She has no friends, do not go to school and goes to therapy once a week.  What I love the most about the book is the family. They are loud and obnoxious but still a family who loves and would die for each other. I love the mother and her “old” ways of handling the family and the father who reminds me so much of Arthur Weasley (from Harry Potter series). I could really picture him in my mind. I love young Felix and his ways of playing messenger between Audrey and Linus oh and Frank. Come on, you got to love Frank. He is like the typical, modern teenager and so lovable. They all have their own character, traits and quirks and Kinsella has as always done a great job with describing her characters and I find no fault here.

I did like the book but didn’t love it. I find this whole “teenage love angst” a little too much over the top and I think i’m starting to get to old for that. And I also find the book a little too short and would have love to have some real confrontation or emotions not only from Audrey but other characters to. It is a hard topic to write about and I do think Kinsella tried to steer away so it wouldn’t be sad and depressing. But too much happy, happy, fluffy stuff, just makes it unrealistic. But maybe that is just me since I have personal experience and to this day still struggles with anxiety.

So over all a good story, quick and easy. But don’t go and expect to get to know what happened to Audrey, because that mystery is never revealed. You get hints and can pretty much build your own story from it, but it bugs me that I never got to know what “really” happened.

Chick Lit · Contemporary · Romance

The thing about love – Julie James

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27246123| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Two undercover FBI agents can hide who they are from everyone but each other in the latest novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Suddenly One Summer. 

FBI agents Jessica Harlow and John Shepherd have a past. The former lawyer and cocky Army ranger clashed during their training at Quantico, gladly going their separate ways after graduating from the Academy. Six years later, the last thing either of them expects is to run into each other again–assigned to work as partners in a high-profile undercover sting.

For both of them, being paired with a former rival couldn’t come at a worse time. Recently divorced from a Hollywood producer and looking for a fresh start, Jessica is eager to prove herself at her new field office. And John is just one case away from his dream assignment to the FBI’s elite Hostage Rescue Team. In order to nail a corrupt Florida politician, they’ll have to find a way to work as a team–a task that becomes even trickier when they’re forced to hole up at a romantic, beachfront resort as part of the investigation. Suddenly, the heat behind their nonstop sparring threatens to make the job a whole lot more complicated. . .

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My thoughts: Damn it, I went in the chick lit trap again. I was scrolling in my book list on my kindle (I have like 70 books on it) and stopped at the title. It was one of those titles that I have had in my kindle for a long time and just kept scrolling past and now I thought that “Now I have to get it read”. I wouldn’t had bought it if I didn’t want to read it at some point. Often when I do that, read a book that I have had for a long time but never really come to read, I just do it and more often than not, find the book wonderful. Well not this time.

James is a new author for me. Never read anything by her but several of my GoodReads friends have and many of them have given her books high scores. So I was not prepared for the boring hours to come. The book is about Jessica and John, who hated each other in the FBI Academy, and now six years later have to work together in an short undercover ploy. I had extreme problem with connecting to the characters and already two chapters in the book, I was bored. But it was too early to DNF it so I kept going. There is nothing exciting with the story and it’s pretty predictable. They hate each other and then they don’t. They do their work, not much is happening, it is a pretty boring case and then the work is done. No suspense, no angst or heavy love. No history or old girlfriends/boyfriends who come forward. No great writing or a story that you think about while not reading. It was quite a relief when I was done and I was so ready to move on.

I did finish the book instead of DNF it and that was only because of the one thing I liked with the book. The banter and jokes they kept throwing back and forth. When they talked to each other or other characters, it actually was pretty funny and I liked the way those parts was written. But it was all the other things in between that totally ruined the book. SO, I give it a one star rating. As a whole, I did not like the book at all, but bits and pieces I did and that saved the book from a DNF. That has to count for something. Now that I’m done with the book, I do however, realize that I should have DNF it. Just a waste of time in my opinion but done is done. Time to move forward.

Chick Lit · Romance

Marrying a SEAL – Summer Hines

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51JallO8lpL| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Only a month out from a special election for State Senate, focused and ambitious Anna Kelly can’t make her numbers budge. Until she meets Chris Webb, a laconic Navy SEAL with a crazy idea. Maybe he could help her out: a brief engagement, she wins the election, he ships out, and they divorce. Easy as apple pie.
Two people on very different courses, they don’t expect to have much in common, but as circumstances contrive to keep them together, they realize they might be getting more than they bargained for.

Summer Hines delivers another story with all the best ingredients of a traditional romance, with sharp dialogue, fully-realized characters, real stakes, and–best of all–fiery chemistry between her whip-smart heroine and brooding SEAL.

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My thoughts: The full title of the book is Marrying a SEAL, Marrying a stranger but felt it was to long, so just for this review post I have shortened it to Marrying a SEAL. I received this book from the author for free, against a honest review.

This is such a fun, quick and soft romantic book, perfect for this late summer nights when you do not want to strain your head with something heavy. Or this is one of those perfect books to read when you have a book hangover to get rid off. But be careful, because I loved it so much it even gave me a small hangover.

Anna is an ambitious, young woman who is running for state senate. Due to that she is a woman, young and according to a lot of people, inexperienced, the polls do not look so good. And with only one month left to the election is over she need to do something drastic. In walks Chris with his asinine idea that they should get married, pretend for a while and after he has shipped out, they can just get an divorce. Easy peasy, right? Well …. no. Not exactly.

I love Anna. She is such a great character and Hines has really done a great work with writing her so that I can connect. Had it a little harder to connect with Chris but I think that is because most of the book is written from Annas point of view. I do love Chris to and I love how slow burn and soft romantic this book really is. But I do miss some more depth and would have wished to see Anna and Christ together more than they where. I would have liked to read more about the growth of there relationship. Have them realize some stuff a little earlier, have some hot 18+, adult rated, chapters before some stuff in the end. And the ending was a little to quick and forced. Other than that, this is a wonderful book and I’m so happy that Hines took contact with me and gave me a chance to read it.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

For you – Kristen Ashley

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10813480| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt’s heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town.

Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there’s so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they’ll never get back together.

Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb’s life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe.

As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.

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My thoughts: This is one of those first eBooks I bought when I first bought my kindle. I went on a buying spree at the time and had over a hundred books on my kindle. Did not buy all of them tough. Several of them was free and thanks for that, because I don’t think my wallet would have survived otherwise.

Anyhow, so I have had this book in my library since early 2016 and never got around to actually read it. But since it is on my “30 books before 30” list and I couldn’t choose what to read, I went for it.

This is a great book, but I do have a couple of issues with it. First of, it is to god damn long and at some points even slow. Kristen Ashley is one of those authors who really can write a long, slow burn book and I have never had it tick me off before. But this time it just didn’t do. I do not have patience for something like that. The second thing is, 22 goddamn years? Are you kidding? That reason for the “bad blood” between Alexander and February was not what I had expected. And it really ticked me off because I feel that 22 years is just toooo long for a reason like that.

Other than that, great book. I really liked the plot with the killer, feds and how everything was linked. The mad man with the killings and his reasons really felt believable and at some degrees it was even quite terrifying and it gave me the creeps. Ashley is the queen when it comes to character buildup and it was easy to connect with them. There is a lot of character in this book and at first it was quite hard to keep track but that eventually went away and was not a problem. This is also the first book in a series. I have read the synopsis of the second book and so far it seems like they are stand alones, because the names in the second do not ring a bell and probably did not appear in this book.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense · War/Military

Blind Ambition – Gwen Hernandez

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25156320.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: IT’S ABOUT TO GET HOT IN THE JUNGLE

Rescuing a kidnapped aid worker from St. Isidore’s dangerous rebels is just another day at work for former pararescueman Dan Molina. But his mission falls apart when the woman—who once shattered his heart—refuses to leave the island.

Alexa Alyssandratos can’t return to her life as a nurse on the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean island, but she won’t leave until she’s certain the orphans she cared for—especially one sick little girl—are safe from the rebels. Denied their ransom, a would-be dictator and his soldiers are hunting Alexa, and Dan is the only person who can protect her. Old passions reignite as she and Dan race to save the children before they disappear forever.

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My thoughts: Okay, So I’m going to make this review short, because I have a feeling that if I think about this book to long, the more fault I will find with it. And I enjoyed the book and do not wish to make it worse in my mind than it already is.

In many ways this is a hot story. We meet Alexa, who have devoted her life to other people. She is a nurse in a corrupt and broken society on a little island outside of Haiti. When she is kidnapped by the rebels, her estranged father calls in the only man she regret she ever left, but she (in her mind) had her reasons and due to that, had to hurt him. Bad! Dan, who have spent the last three years getting his life back on track after the whole Alexa catastrophe, reluctantly takes on the mission to go in and save her. But she has a mind of her own, refuses to follow the plan and leave without the one person she has allowed into her heart. And Dan has no other choice than to help.

It was a great story and I really like those plots that’s are about a couple, running from bad guys, in the jungle and uses what they have with and around them to survive. I find it highly exciting and I love to sit in my couch, safe and sound, reading about that couple running for their life and do MacGyver tricks to survive. Unfortunately my biggest problem with this book is that constant rant about how she hurt him, how he hurt her, how she doesn’t deserve better, how he doesn’t deserve someone like her and it goes on and on and on. All the reasons are legit but I do however feel that Dan maybe have been overreacting and all that happened after is entirely his fault. And that Alexa’s reasons may be a little too far fetch but hey, what do I know? But done is done and I do understand that. However it was tiring and tedious to read it over and over. There was no end. Not even at the end of the book, but it is still somewhat of an Happy Ending.

So I give the book a three star rating. It is a good book but not a great book.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

Vigilante – Jessica Gadziala

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35101098| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: A new stand-alone dark romance from bestselling author Jessica Gadziala 

I’m a bad guy. I do bad things.
But I do them for the right reasons.
That’s why I can sleep easy at night even with the smell of fresh blood still in my nostrils. One more scumbag off the streets. One more righting of a wrong. That was all my life was about.
Until I came across her…

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My thoughts: Luce is probably one of my favorite characters of all time. Well, at least he is up at the top with Renny, Eli and Isaiah. I starting to see a pattern that I like Gadzialas darker characters more. Those with a history or a torment that makes my heart bleed. Those who have had it bad but got them self-through it and rising above it but still feel/thinks that they don’t deserve more. They have walls thicker than the one Trump wants to build between Mexico and USA. They are funny, lovable, kind and fiercely protective over those they call family. It is feel good books with feel good characters in a hot as sin story and afterwards I just feel this calm happiness in my chest.

This book is no different. Luce is wonderful, funny, sarcastic and insanely observant and at sometimes, obnoxious. But he is easy to love and if he was a real person, I would totally have a crush on him. Evan, however, I did not feel for at all. I mean, nothing! I found her a meek and lamblike kind of character, that just took it all a little too easy. I missed some feelings. Some hard , punch in the heart, angst feelings that put some depth to her character and the story it self’s. Since that had such a big part of it.

But still, this is a really good book. I loved how they ventured out of Navesink Bank. Normally all the books is in that city. Nothing wrong about that. But I just liked that for this story, they actually left the city. And not only that. They actually left the whole country. That was cool and really put a nice touch to the story overall.

Contemporary · Romance · Suspense

The Fixer – Jessica Gadziala

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34942302.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: AVEN- There are a few things I don’t believe in. Like santa. An honest politician. And gut instincts. That was, of course, until I woke up with one. And I knew. This was the day I was going to die. The cops, thus far, have proven useless and uninterested in my issues. When you couldn’t get help from legal channels, what other choice did you have but to look elsewhere? That was how I came across Quinton Baird. A “fixer.” Whatever the hell that was. All I knew was, I had a problem that needed fixing. Hopefully, before it killed me.

QUIN- There were a few things I could put my faith to rest in. My team. People f*cking up, and needing my help. And my gut. So when my receptionist informed me that the woman in a case I decided wasn’t my kind of job was having a ‘gut feeling’ about being in desperate need of help, yeah, I dragged my a** across town to check things out.
Not only did I not bank on the fact that she was in trouble beyond what I could have anticipated, but she was not what I was expecting either. Beautiful, resilient, and one hell of a distraction I didn’t need. As the pieces of her case start falling together, I was left wondering if maybe this new, unfamiliar sensation in my gut was telling me that Aven was much more than just another name on a case file…

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My thoughts: What a cute story. Warm and fuzzy with a little suspense and angst. I felt I needed a break from the big chunk of book I currently reading and this was exactly what I needed. It is a nice story with a lot of nice characters in a new branch of the Navesink Bank universe. I pretty much knows what to expect from Gadziala so it always feels safe to read her books. They are not that long, I can easily read her books in one day, and I get pretty much everything I seek.

For you who are new to my blog, Jessica Gadziala is one of my favorite authors. She writes several series that intervene with each other throughout this fictive city, called Navesink Bank. Each series is about a different branch in the city. For an example, we got the MC club, the government hating military group, the hackers, the investigator, the loan sharks and now the fixers. This is the first book in her new series “The professionals”, who fix things. We meet Quin, who is the owner of this establishment of men and women. Then we meet Aven who are in trouble. No trouble of her own making but trouble still the same. She have tried the legal way to solve it but receives no help from the police and when the situation takes a turn for the worse, she turns to Quins team for help. With no money, no friends and no family her situation feels hopeless but Aven refuses to give up and does everything she can, to survive.

It is a really a nice story with a lot of new characters in the Navesink Bank universe. The side characters in this book, plays a big part, which is unusual for Gadziala. Normally the side characters are there and around but never so much involved like in this book and I really like it. That gives me some time to tie some feelings with them and now I can hardly wait to get my hands on their own books. But only Gunners book is written so far, so right not that is not as easy. Anyhow, good story, great characters and in the same Gadziala spirit as always. The only thing I didn’t like with the book is that I feel that Avens problem got solved a little too easy and quick. It went a little too fast and the suspense had no real time to build until it was gone and done. Which gave me an anticlimactic feeling. I would have wanted a little more.