RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

5* JD Robb is back to her best with this one. Loved that we got more of a certain character's past... With some of the more recent Eve Dallas books, they've felt as if the author included extremely minor side characters from Eve's posse of 'friends' - using the term loosely - whether they were organic to the tale or not, just to be able to delight readers who've come to expect to hear about them. It felt copied and pasted, and a bit off-putting.and down-dumbing. Here, there was barely a mention of them, which made for a more solidly relevant tale that had surprising depth and intrigue.  Though the death at the start is sad, it reveals a world of years past that Eve always knew Summerset was involved with, and boy, did we get to see him and his bunch of fellow retiree Urban War fighters come into their own. Not by way of the physical but by working as a team to give Eve and her team vital insight into the mind of their fellow member turned betrayer and avenger. I...

3* If you can suspended disbelief that a 2024 self-employed, roughly 9m pregnant businesswoman can go off on a job without her phone, this sort of works. For me, believing that Katie could leave her phone, her business and personal lifeline behind when driving to a job to meet a virtually unknown client, didn't really work. Who doesn't think about the dangers? Who doesn't worry that she's days from giving birth and wonder about the sanity of her decision? Plus, most modern cars habe tracking devices these days, so for me, this tale required a huge suspension of disbelief. It had not-as-horrible shades of Misery. Minus the cutting of limbs. It sadly wasn't very believable but it was quite predictable. The Zoe character with Katie's husband wasn't very believable. She's a Glenn Close type at the start and middle, then a meek kitten at the end. Hmm. And the supposed twist on the airline? Just asking for too much suspension of disbelief from me. It's not...

3* Decent for the most but it gets bogged down in trying too hard to make it interesting.  I don't think this author's a natural, sadly. The book, set in England, started off refreshingly enough but got bogged down in minutiae. I wasn't sure if every single detail was going to tie in, but for the most it did. There were just too many characters and too much happening, and sadly, justice over the romance scam aspect didn't go very far. I think the tale had good intentions but there was just too...much of everything. It tried too hard to be PC and a little woke, too. And the cop thing was just too obvious. Editing needs to be more brutal and needs to ignore that JV's a 'name'. Still, the characters were decent and it ended in a good place for most of them. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers, for my reading pleasure. 

5* This took me from being sad about both guys' lack-of-love with 'their guys' to smiling and feeling warm by the end.  I've never read a Barbara Elsborg book that hasn't made me smile, even when, like this, it starts in a double dose of humiliation and sadness so tough that you want to grab her guys and give them a hug. And kick 'their guys' hard enough where it matters to make their eyes water. Seriously, Diego and Grant deserve each other in the dirty-exes stakes, but unlike other 'anti-heroes' of BE' that she's managed to turn into reformed decent guys (think Conrad from Falling, who went on to get his on book, Breaking, and Jasim from Give Yourself Away, who meets his match in Waiting For Ru) these can't be redeemed. Oh no, they deserve the comeuppance that the bad guy from last year's Xmas offering The Mission gets (my Scorpio heart loves it when that happens muhahahaha!!), though sadly, there wouldn't have been an organic e...

3* Tired and rinse-and-repeat. Not even a rare mention of Sam Kage saves this. You're not going to get a literary masterpiece from this author, but you do expect a fun read. Normally. This was tedious, sadly. A rinse-and-repeat of pretty much any of her books, without real chemistry between the leads. Reading reviews, it's a short story that she's expanded, but the filler is just there for no reason - I'm talking about the visit from the estranged dad - and it adds nothing to the tale or the leads' relationship. The sex is too convenient, with the GFY guy declaring that they're both tops, so who's on the bottom. Really?? Your first time with a guy and you know you're a top?? Sigh. Glad this was a KU offering. 

4* Sad but lovely read. A journey back in time in some ways because of the music. This is my first, but won't be my last, read by this author. It's a sad, and all too sadly believable, story of a young man growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, with lies and prejudices because he was gay, with religion forced down his throat by his mother and stepfather, and his eventual escape to London, except without the love of his life, Conor. Lives wasted. Cut short. Deprived of happiness and joy, but underneath this, there's a 30-odd-year friendship that's reactivated, another almost-friendship that blooms, and there's love and support that on a way, 'had' to be taken from Billy out of fear of being punished, of being ostracised from church and community. It's sad but there are also lol moments due to the expressions and because of Aine who's 50 bit still with her 17yo head on at times. The ending is uplifting. Satisfying, sad but also sweet becau...

4* Not a nice book - Maura reminds me of the female character in Stephen King's Misery. How apt, seeing as Misery Hill is where Maura lives... This is an enthralling read, though the blurb is misleading. Whether that's deliberate or not, I'm not sure, because this is a dark, unpalatable tale with evil spanning more than one generation. I likely wouldn't have picked it up had I known exactly what it entails, despite having enjoyed this author's work before. I'm glad I read it, and certainly the end was just twist upon twist, reveal upon reveal, manipulation upon manipulation. Was some of it well-intentioned? Not sure, although I thought there was perhaps some chink or two in the thick skins worn by a couple of side characters. I'm glad of the ending for at least 2 people, but it's freaky that the evil I mentioned is free to dwell unchecked. Or perhaps justice might catch up with them one day. I hope. I hope too that another innocent life doesn't get s...

2* Uncomfortable over Angel 'perving' over Marcy.  This is my first book in the series but I wasn't lost. The storyline was pretty good, with the identity/race/gender of the baddie concealed quite nicely without faux artifice, and the tale for the most worked. What I didn't like is how these cops didn't seem to mind sharing info, like Angel with his girlfriend that he's probably just stringing along - he admits to himself that he has feelings for Marcy, and when he thinks she's broken up with Frank, his heart skips a beat. Ick. And Marcy shared stuff with her brother. They also talked about questioning one victim's daughter, but never get round to it. The policing felt lax. Chevenet felt like he was being clumsily set up as a future potential love interest for Marcy. To talk about him, like the female cops did, wasn't OK and wasn't PC. A guy would've been pulled up for it. It wouldn't happen out loud in 2024 UK, but hey, This Is America, ...

4*I didn't, couldn't like Emma, but this was a well-orchestrated tale. It's not often that you get a book like this told mostly from a guy's perspective. And, goodness, what a well thought-out one, with a well-orchestrated baddie who remained off my radar until 'they' - not going to Spoiler here - started appearing just a tad too much. Sadly, I suspected them quickly at that point, as they blew an often mentioned, not-on-page character out of the water, no pun intended. But, Emma. Ugh, what an unlikeable user of a person. A multiple cheater, a liar, a user, selfish, a pleasure seeker. Why marry 'doughy guy' if she couldn't even be faithful for a couple of years? I mean, he really was too sweet, too decent, too good for her.  It's a book worthy of a read, as there's clever storytelling and a decent dad, as well as in-laws who start out as judgey but come to have his back, and at the end, they're a family of 4, forged through Emma's act...

4* Wasn't expecting this. It's sad and it made me sad as well as angry at some of the adults in this book.  This book hits hard, and it feels like the mother who's lost her daughter is being dumped on by karma/fate/the universe. You can't help feel for her, because on top of this loss, she was widowed really young, and her youngest is a brat. Kind of understable where the latter is concerned, because Clio has always felt like she's less than her big sister, Isla, who wasn't as squeaky clean as everyone thought.  There's another mother you feel for, and again, I understood her, with what she came from and why she wanted better for her son. Unfortunately, out of wanting to protect him and give him the best chance at a better life, she nearly scuppered his chances through dishonesty. Thank goodness for an educator who actually really did care, despite appearing at first to be more concerned about the school's rep.  Then there's the mother who had me fee...