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Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Wrong Man by K.C. Willivee







The wrong man was tried, convicted, and incarcerated for the vicious murder of Natasha Gwynne’s twin brother. But could sexy Patrick O’Roarke be the right man to win her heart? Freed when DNA evidence conclusively proves his innocence, O’Roarke immediately seeks Natasha out. His only thought is protecting her from the conspiracy that killed her brother and framed him for the crime. The more time he spends with the strong but vulnerable woman, though, the more he’s in danger of falling for her. And as the two flee for their lives across the southern United States, they are forced to confront unexpected betrayals, unspeakable grief, and unquenchable passion....


I received a copy of this novel in return for an honest review
My first issue with this book is that in the In Death series by JD Robb there is a very bad man named Patrick Roarke, so every time I see that name in this book that's who I think of, the author may want to change the first name, at least, as JD Robb is a super popular mystery/romance novel author. 

The writing wasn't bad, though the formatting in the .pdf I got was kind of wonky. There is good story telling here, good character development and a strong plot line.  I however had issue with the subject matter more than anything else. The guy is tried, convicted and incarcerated for the murder of the MC brother, but goes out of his way to meet her, save her and eventually fall in love with her? Only in the world of romance is this romantic, personally I found the idea semi creepy. 

Roarke and Natasha are interesting characters, each with their own positives, negatives and quirks, you can tell the author spent some time thinking about how to write them best. 

The book is a  short, fast paced read, which I liked. A ton of action without dwelling on anything too boring, though it does lead to insta-love. However, in the world of the romance novel (which this definitely is) this is more than acceptable, it's actually preferred. The chemistry between these two characters is HOT! 

The ending is very sweet and the hopeless romantic is me went, "squeee!"  So I recommend this novel if you are looking for a quick, steamy, fun, romantic read. Especially if you have some travel coming up for the holidays. 







The Telling by Alexandra Sirowy
















Lana used to know what was real.
That was before when her life was small and quiet.
Her golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.
Then came after.
After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: Love, blood, and murder.



I loved The Creeping  gave it five stars. I was disappointed in this novel. The mc, Lana was dull and her inner thoughts didn't make me interested in her. In fact I was more interested in the side character Car than anyone else and didn't get enough about her.

The book starts out with a bunch of kids drinking at a swimming hole, I can count at least five novels I've read recently that either started this way or had a similar scene, so apparently it's becoming a new YA trope. I maybe did something similar once or twice as a teen, but never some super special "secret" spot adults didn't got to.

It was hard for me to relate to the characters because they were pretty much all either a) mean b) super popular c)genius level smart d) really rich or e) dead f) all of thee above.

I had HUGE issues with how the cops treated the kids in this novel. No cop interviews a kid, especially a rich kid, without a lawyer or a cps worker with them. Not without some conversation about rights waiving. Nor does the main detective involved info dump on a 17 year old girl all the garbage they dug up about a possible suspect or victim.

The dark stories from Lana's step-brother Ben were interesting, a little creepy and creative. Lana's relationship with Ben was also a high light of the story, however I guessed the twist pretty early in, which was disappointing.  Though, Lana is at her most interesting when she has less than charitable thoughts towards the asswipes (her new current friends) who used to bully her.

There is some interesting stuff in here about how mean kids can be to each other, Lana get's hard core bullied. My issue, as a girl who was bullied pretty badly... I could NEVER be friends with the girls who said hateful mean things to me...Pretend to be nice for a little while sure, but like my new best friends? Not unless they apologized and ate some SERIOUS crow. (Which these people did not.) There are still girls who could be on fire on the side of the road that I would drive by and not feel bad about.

The writing was good, and when the novel finally picked up, around half way through, I did enjoy it more and couldn't put it down.  I would still read a third book by this author, but this was sad in comparison to her last novel.