Beg For Mercy by Jami Alden

Dueling reviews by Dani and Teri Beg For Mercy by Jami Alden Rating:  B, HOT - Danie's rating 1st book in her new series Dani's Review: First of all let me say that even though I read romantic suspense, I was not prepared for a story this dark. Meagan is the heroine. She is in her late 20’s, a writer and court appointed advocate. Cole is a 37 year old Seattle Homicide Detective. The story starts with Cole and Meagan having a nice dinner at her apartment. Meagan feels that this is the night that they will have more than a heavy petting (making-out) session. Just as Meagan is finally getting what she wants, Cole’s phone rings. As Cole is taking down the address of the crime, Meagan realizes that it’s her brother’s address. Cole will not say anything more. Meagan drives to her brother’s house just as Cole is being arrested for the rape and killing of a young girl. Meagan has just visited her brother Sean in prison. In one of the most emotional scenes that I have read in awhile, Sean tells her not to come and visit him anymore. After his latest appeal has been turned down, the fight is out of him, meaning execution date will be set. Meagan begs her brother to reconsider but his mind is made up. Meagan is beside herself. Sean is her only family left. They lost their parents when they were teenagers and moved in with their grandmother. In her heart Meagan knows that her brother is innocent and now has a week and half to try to save him from execution. Even while Sean is in prison girls are still being murdered. Meagan gets a call from Devany, her advocate client, that she has found a dead body in an abandoned trailer. Meagan tells Dev to call the police and drives to Dev’s trailer park. When the police come one of the detectives is Cole. The one man that Meagan has never forgotten, in the three years since they were last together. Meagan begs Cole to help her prove her brother’s innocence. Cole still believes in Sean’s guilt he too has never gotten Meagan out of his mind. The race for Meagan to save Sean’s begins.  This book goes into detail on the gruesome death of the victims and may not be for everyone. I’m now hooked on this series and I look forward to reading Sean and DA Krista Slater’s story. ebook received from Net Galley for an honest review. ********************************************************************************** Teri's Review of Beg For Mercy, by Jami Alden Rating:  B+, Hot, with graphic murder scenes I will not repeat Dani's opening statements, but I will start out by adding that the story picks up two years after Sean's arrest and trial, with Megan's visit to Sean in prison.  Yep, I shed a tear or two over their emotional parting when Megan left that day.  All either of them have left is each other.  The world is convinced Sean is a cold blooded murder, and that Megan has a few loose screws for trying to prove his innocence. Cole shows up once again to investigate another murder, the one in the trailer park.  He and Megan meet up again, and after the years apart, to his chagrin, he's still got it bad for her.  As Cole tries to convince Megan to give up her fight for Sean, the killer is busy getting his mind wrapped around Megan, who has been his target all along.  But the killer can't stop his grisly killings, even now when Sean's execution is only days away.  It occurs to Cole that the murders are escalating, and maybe Megan has been right all along;  Sean may not be guilty after all.   Finally, three fourths of the way through the book, Cole and Megan finally get together.  After all of the previous interruptions I was honestly beginning to wonder if the magic moment would become reality or not.  After all, with  these murders going on, it was beyond time to throw in a few happy moments.  Cole deserved something for being kicked around, and for Megan purposely not telling him where she was off to when she almost came face to face with the grim reaper.  That was a TSTL  moment, and good for me that it was towards the end of the book.  Megan justifies her TSTL moment as "doing what she has to, and being prepared by having her cell phone on 911".   Of course her cell phone gets kicked across the room, so I will leave it to you to figure out if she makes out of this moment in one piece. I really enjoyed this book, and would compare the murder scenes to those of Beverly Barton, who is the queen of gruesome crime scenes.  They did not bother me at all, but I can see where some readers would be put off by the descriptive narrative.  The reason for the B rating is Megan.  She is and can be brave, but some things that others might see as brave, are really not smart decisions, especially when Cole made it clear he was willing to help her in her quest to save her brother from execution. Looking forward to the next book in this series, due out in October.   eBook courtesy of NetGalley for review purposes

Creed's Honor by Linda Lael Miller (Creed Cowboys #1)

This book is part of her Montana Creeds series.   This was not an easy review to write. I felt the book moved slowly and poof everything is wrapped up. Tricia has come to Lonesome Bend, CO from Seattle to sell her father's camp ground, drive-in and RV park. She is staying in an upstairs apartment of her great-grandmother Natty. Tricia used to spend her summers growing up visiting her dad who's property she now wants to sell. Tricia has a "boyfriend" in Seattle who she hasn't seen in awhile which is fine with her. What we don't find out till later on in the book is that Tricia is really just like her mother. Afraid to make a commitment and that's why she's happy the way she is with Hunter. Conner is a rancher who has a chip on his shouldaer with his estranged brother Brody. Conner's whole life is their ranch and I felt at times that Conner was jealous of Brody because Brody did leave the ranch and found a life on the rodeo circuit. Which Brody is very quiet about. Trish's best friend's 10-year old daughter stays with her while her parents our house hunting in Paris. This 10-year is wise beyond her years and I did come to love her in the story. Then we have Valentino -- a mutt who Tricia finds hiding under a table and who Tricia adopts and wins not only her heart but also Conner's heart. The storyline moved along slowly and even though there is instant attraction between Conner and Tricia they really do not get "together" until the book is almost over. Everyone can see it and they try to get the two of them together. I laughed out loud when Valentino ran away from Trish and ran to Conner's ranch to try to get them together. There is a secondary storyline regarding Caroline and Brody whose story is next. We find out that Caroline and Brody had a little fling and then broke Caroline's heart. Conner and Brody finally sit down and settle their differences. My grade -- a solid B. eBook received from Net Galley for a honest review

Kiss of Snow By Nalini Singh

One word can really describe this book and that is WOW!! I loved this book and if you are a fan of the Pys/Changeling books you will love this book.

The book is finally about Hawke and Sienna. Since the series has started these two have a had a thing, she has felt he is the one and he can't really understand what is going on because he lost his mate years ago in a accident. Hawke is the alpha wolf of the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna is a defector from the PsyNet along with her family. The thing is Sienna is a X Psy one of the strongest psy out there and none of them have lived past the age of 19. Their powers can be so strong that they burn themselves out or are taken out before they can cause major damage. Sienna knows this about herself and is very careful, there are plans in place to take her out if need be. The relationship between her and Hawke is very slow to start, and slowly builds to the point where Hawke knows she is the women for him, but doesn't understand because he had already found his mate.

I loved how they built up the relationship, they didn't just jump into bed, they went real slow and he knows about her psy and how everybody is trying to find a way to save her. You also have a secondary romance going on between Sienna uncle Walker and Lara, the SnowDancer healer that is very sweet.

I have always loved Hawke, something about that man just draws you. I love when he would give Luc a hard time about Sascha. How sweet and loving he is with the other pack members. This is a very strong alpha male who is not afraid to show his emotion, and I loved that.

This book was so much and more. I have really enjoyed the Psy?Changeling books and this one lived up to everything that we wanted.

Ripe For Pleasure by Isobel Carr

This is the first book in Isobel Carr's League of Second Sons series. This book has everything that I love -- a good love story and a hero and heroine who you will come to love and care for. The story is about a missing royal treasure that Lord Leonidas Vaughn and his cousin Charles grew up hearing about from their grandfather. Neither one of them believe of the treasure until the grandfather dies and they find a bundle of letters regarding the treasure. From reading these letters they find out where the treasure is hidden. At the home Mrs. Viola Whedon a courtesan who is in the process of writing the second book in memoirs. Charles and Leo come up with a plan. Leo will seduce Viola while Charles searches the house. Viola wakes up and hears intruders in her bedroom, she thinks the intruders were sent by her ex-protector. She tries to leave the room as she is being chase by the intruders she runs in Leo who she thinks is her savoir. This starts the relationship of Leo and Viola. Leo takes Viola to his estate thinking that Viola will be safe there. We get to see the relationship grow between the two of them. I really enjoyed the jealousy of Leo's cousin Charles (who I think went totally mad in this book), the secret that Leo is hiding from Viola, the happiness of Leo falling in love with Viola and Viola finally finding love a second time. I laughed out loud when Leo's mother kidnaps Viola and whisks her away to her home in Scotland. I enjoyed the secondary characters in this book as much as I did the hero and heroine. Beau, Leo's younger sister who is used to scandal, the duchess who always gets her way, Pen the mongrel dog who works his way into Viola's heart and Leo and Leo's friends, all second sons. This author is Kalen Hughes writing now as Isobel Carr and I'm so glad that she's back as an author. ebook received from Net Galley for an honest review.

Treasure Me By Christine Nolfi

I have to say again thank you to Kim over at SOS America for the chance to review this book for her.

At first I was a little put off by the story line for this book. I really don't like reading books were the heroine is a thief. But since I told Kim I would give this book a honest review I jumped right in. I am so glad I did! I really enjoyed this book. I loved the town, the characters and just everything about it.

The book is about Bridie, she is a 31 year old pick pocket. She has been raised this way all her life with her own mother using her in some of her scams. She left her mother when she was 16 and has tried to go straight a few times. It just isn't the easiest of things to do. She get a letter from her mom that shows a article about a small town called Liberty, Ohio. She has always been told that there is a buried treasure somewhere that was was given to a free women by her great great great grandfather. It seems that he really loved Justice and gave her the means to build a life without slavery and he had always planned to join her. So after almost being caught Bridie decided to go to Liberty to see if she can find the treasure because after all it is part of her family.

The hero in this book is Hugh, he is a investigative report and things have not been going to well for him. He had written the original article about Liberty because one of the young girls who was dying and needed a bone marrow transplant. Because of this girl got the money for her

transplant and is doing very well. It looks like the web site were still up and the money was still coming in so Hugh went back to Liberty to expose the father as being a crook. He is a little hesitant about this because he doesn't want to make things worse for this family. He really doesn't want to see the dad being a crook, there has to be a reason for the web site still being up, but if he doesn't expose the family he will lose his job. Hugh has some moral issuues he needs to work out.

Bridie and Hugh end up sharing a apartment together and things really start to heat up. Hugh has to write this story and Bridie just want to find what is hers. You have some others things going on in this book and by the time ends comes around they are all tied together nicely.

I loved the supporting characters in this book. I loved Finney who ran the dinner. And what can you say about Theodora, what a women!! It was great to see Bridie find herself and to face all of the things she has done, yes she stole from the people of Liberty, but she never spent the money and was really starting to have feelings that she could really fit in somewhere. And when the whole story comes out she faces it instead running away.

This book was a wonderful read! I read it in one day, once I started it I could not put it down. I will be honest there were times I really could of bashed Hugh's head in, but it did all work out in the end. I would love to read more books about this little town.

I also would like to thank the author for sending me the print version of this book because right now it is only available on ebook through Amazon for the Kindle. If you want just a really good book, some laughs and just to see someone finding themselves, this book is it.