Book Reviews

Better Homes and Corpses (Hamptons Home & Garden Mysteries #1) By: Kathleen Bridge

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Better Homes and Corpses (Hamptons Home & Garden Mysteries #1) By: Kathleen Bridge

Plot:

After Meg Barrett found her fiancé still had designs on his ex-wife, she decided it was time to refurbish her life. Leaving her glamorous job at a top home and garden magazine, she fled Manhattan for Montauk, only to find decorating can sometimes lead to detecting…

In between scouring estate sales for her new interior design business, Cottages by the Sea, Meg visits the swanky East Hampton home of her old college roommate, Jillian Spenser. But instead of seeing how the other half lives—she learns how the other half dies. Jillian’s mother, known as the Queen Mother of the Hamptons, has been murdered. Someone has staged a coup.

When she helps a friend inventory the Spensers’ estate for the insurance company, Meg finds herself right in the thick of things. Cataloging valuable antiques and art loses its charm when Meg discovers that the Spenser family has been hiding dangerous secrets, which may have furnished a murderer with a motive. As Meg gets closer to the truth, the killer will do anything to paint her out of the picture…
Review:

I didn’t read the whole of Better Homes and Corpses, I got to sixty percent and then skipped to the last few chapters. It just was not my preferred cozy mystery. It had everything there, for the most part, I could have done with more character development of the male characters and less antiquing stuff, but it had everything else. I think that’s honestly why I didn’t like it as much, Meg’s career was just not something I have more than a passing interest in so all the little info dumps about antiques and refurbishing stuff was just boring.

Meg was an alright protagonist, she wasn’t too perfect, and she was interesting enough. There were editing issues, though. Too often I had no idea who was talking in the large cast of characters. The men all sounded the same and the other women in the story were all a bit off. One minute Meg was internally complaining about how sheltered and “introverted”(the author used introverted as basically a synonym for shy which bugs me a lot)  Jillian was and the next she was ordering for her like she was a child. Meg would also just randomly show up places with absolutely no indication to the reader except vague suggestions that you were just supposed to understand.

I’m not going to rate this book, even though I read about 75%, maybe someone else with different hobbies would enjoy this more. For me, I’m going to pass on the series.

No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished (Heartstrikers #3) By: Rachel Aaron

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No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished (Heartstrikers #3) By: Rachel Aaron

Plot:

When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn’t part of any proper dragon’s vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling Council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place.

To keep his clan together and his skin intact, Julius is going to have to find a way to make his bloodthirsty siblings play fair. But there’s more going on in Heartstriker Mountain than politics. Every family has its secrets, but the skeletons in Bethesda’s closet are dragon sized, and with Algonquin’s war looming over them all, breaking his clan wide open might just be the only hope Julius has of saving it.

Review:

Damnit why is the next book not out already? There is so much still left up in the air that I want answers too. Things that I want characters to realize so that I can see what the big deal is about it.

What the hell Bob? Did he just do what I think he did cause Chelsie is going to kick his ass and rightfully so if he did.

The ending was great, clearly, the rest of the book was good but it took a while to pick up steam. There was a lot of, not build up, but kind of boring stuff. You learned a lot about the Heartstrikers, and it was necessary, I guess, but it made the beginning slow. I wouldn’t quiet say it dragged, but only because at this point I’m emotionally invested in the world and characters so I wanted to know more.

Really excited for the next book.

4/5

One Good Dragon Deserves Another (Heartstrikers #2) By: Rachel Aaron

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One Good Dragon Deserves Another (Heartstrikers #2) By: Rachel Aaron

Plot:

After barely escaping the machinations of his terrifying mother, two all knowing seers, and countless bloodthirsty siblings, the last thing Julius wants to see is another dragon. Unfortunately for him, the only thing more dangerous than being a useless Heartstriker is being a useful one, and now that he’s got an in with the Three Sisters, Julius has become a key pawn in Bethesda the Heartstriker’s gamble to put her clan on top.

Refusal to play along with his mother’s plans means death, but there’s more going on than even Bethesda knows, and with Estella back in the game with a vengeance, Heartstriker futures disappearing, and Algonquin’s dragon hunter closing in, the stakes are higher than even a seer can calculate. But when his most powerful family members start dropping like flies, it falls to Julius to defend the clan that never respected him and prove that, sometimes, the world’s worst dragon is the best one to have on your side.

Review:

There was a ton going on in this book, lot of immenent death, and seers manipulating the future, and dimensional travel. There was a new dragon introduced that was fun, she wasn’t as evil as the other dragons seem to be. I like the dragons that aren’t as one dimensional, but so far it seems like most of them are, though Justin isn’t bad. He’s just young and stupid so you kind of expect him to act the way he does. I really hate Bethesda, she’s just so stupid. I don’t think I’m supposed to think she is, but that’s all I can think.

Julius was still great and while Marci isn’t growing on me I don’t hate her. She had some small development this book but still not too interested in her.

Bob is awesome.

Didn’t really see the end coming so that was nice. I’m curious to see how things are going to turn out with what happened at the end. I doubt it’s going to be pretty.

4/5

Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers #1) By: Rachel Aaron

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Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers #1) By: Rachel Aaron

Plot:

As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: keep quiet, don’t cause trouble, and stay out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn’t fly in a family of ambitious magical predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.

Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ–a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit–Julius has one month to prove that he can be a ruthless dragon or kiss his true shape goodbye forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are considered monsters to be exterminated, he’s going to need some serious help to survive this test.

He only hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons…

Review:

I’ve been going through books I’ve downloaded but not read and I discovered this one. I remember reading the sample for this and liking it but for whatever reason I didn’t read it as soon as I downloaded it.

I love when I find a good book I’d forgotten about. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the world created. It was fun and interesting and I loved that Julius was nice, basically a goodie two shoes, but life was so hard for him. I hate when people say it’s easy for the people that always choose good to be good. You can see how much Julius suffers because of it but it doesn’t make his character boring, you feel for him and it’s fun to see him start to stand up for himself.

The side characters were hit or miss for me. I liked the dragons, but I thought that Marci was just eh. She wasn’t annoying or stupid she just didn’t really do anything for me. She’s got potential so we’ll see what happens.

Really liked the book and I’ve already started to next.

4/5

Truth or Beard (Winston Brothers #1) By: Penny Reid

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Truth or Beard (Winston Brothers #1) By: Penny Reid

Plot:

Beards, brothers, and bikers! Oh my!

Identical twins Beau and Duane Winston might share the same devastatingly handsome face, but where Beau is outgoing and sociable, Duane is broody and reserved. This is why Jessica James, recent college graduate and perpetual level-headed good girl, has been in naïve and unhealthy infatuation with Beau Winston for most of her life.

His friendly smiles make her tongue-tied and weak-kneed, and she’s never been able to move beyond her childhood crush. Whereas Duane and Jessica have always been adversaries. She can’t stand him, and she’s pretty sure he can’t stand the sight of her…

But after a case of mistaken identity, Jessica finds herself in a massive confusion kerfuffle. Jessica James has spent her whole life paralyzed by the fantasy of Beau and her assumptions of Duane’s disdain; therefore she’s unprepared for the reality that is Duane’s insatiable interest, as well as his hot hands and hot mouth and hotter looks. Not helping Jessica’s muddled mind and good girl sensibilities, Duane seems to have gotten himself in trouble with the local biker gang, the Iron Order.

Certainly, Beau’s magic spell is broken. Yet when Jessica finds herself drawn to the man who was always her adversary, now more dangerous than ever, how much of her level-head heart is she willing to risk?

Review:

I read this sample a while ago and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately the price of the ebook was outside of my normal price range, thankfully this went on sale a few weeks ago and I was able to pick it up.

Anyway, this book is set in a part of the US that I’ve lived in, which was fun. While I haven’t lived in a town quiet that small, it seemed pretty accurate.

I liked the Winston brothers a lot, Cletus was definitely my favorite. Duane was kind of boring, even though he was supposed to be kind of a daredevil. He was honestly like a normal man from that area, in my opinion.

I was concerned about Jessica at first. Scared that she would completely give up on her dreams, but that thankfully didn’t happen.

All in all, I liked the book, however I felt like it was kind of long. It took Duane too long to get past certain things and there was a lot of introspection that I could have done without. I liked the book and really liked the brothers, but I’m not in a rush to read the next in the series.

3.5/5