The sweltering month of August is ending, and we’ve been blessed with temps in the upper nineties this past week instead of over 100 every day. Maybe fall really is on the way!
If you didn’t get to view it last night, tonight is the official BIG blue moon that will not happen again until 2037. It’s gorgeous! Hope you get to take a look. In the meantime, I’m sharing my August book reviews. I only post 4 and 5-star reviews, and opinions are expressly my own.
I’m starting with a book that hasn’t been released yet. I was honored to read an early copy, and I hope my review will send you straight to Amazon to get your copy pre-ordered! While you’re there, take a look at the other Harbor Pointe Series books!
MY REVIEW:
The year is 1887. The setting is the rocky cliffs along the northern coast of California. Leviticus Sinclair is tormented by the fact that he couldn’t prevent the murders of his wife and brother. He carries a pocketwatch with the time frozen at the exact moment of his wife’s demise. That, along with a Bible, serves as daily reminders of his failures.
Now, he possesses the gift of seeing and communicating with ghosts and is on a life-altering mission. He spends his days traveling around the country with his paid assistant, Wyatt, seeking lost souls that have been unable to cross over into the other dimension following their deaths.
The setting when they arrive at the Harbor Pointe Inn is so descriptive and visual, the author made me hear, see, smell, and feel the location of the story. I could hear the crash of the waves and taste the salty air. Leviticus and Wyatt arrive by coach, tired after a long journey and covered in dust.
Before he can do his work, Leviticus must first gain the confidence of the Hawthorne family, who own the inn. He discovers they have secrets.
Then tension mounts when he encounters the spirit, and I held my breath, wondering if he will survive. I love the relationship between Leviticus and Wyatt. While Wyatt is an employee, he is more, continually monitoring Leviticus’ fragile health. He plays an integral part in the story.
All of the characters are three-dimensional and relatable. Etta is terrified she will lose her baby, Phoebe, and there is a surprise twist in that part of the story. If you love traveling back in time in a stunning setting and experiencing nail-biting paranormal activity, you will love this new story from Mae Clair. I highly recommend it!
MY REVIEW:
I had the pleasure of meeting Elle James at a recent writer’s conference and had to pick up one of her books. While this is the first one I’ve read from this author, it won’t be the last.
This romance is a quick and satisfying read.
Beckett Grayson is a volunteer firefighter in the small town of Hellfire, Texas. He’s on his way home from a training session when he sees a woman desperately trying to push a car off the road that has caught on fire. He’s shocked when he discovers that the woman is someone he grew up with, and she’s almost hysterical as she insists she has to hide the car and then herself. The tension mounts as she reveals that her boyfriend, an NFL football player, has been using her as a punching bag, and she’s finally escaped. Nothing will make her go back.
Beckett’s protective instincts kick in, and he insists that Kinsey accompany him to the family’s ranch. What he’s not prepared for is the sparks that immediately fly between them. But how can either dare to act on their feelings when she’s still bruised and battered from her last beating? Yet, the heat level is nothing they can ignore. This romance has a HEA ending that left me feeling hopeful for both Kinsey and Beckett. You’ll enjoy this book if you love a gripping romance with high tension and high stakes.
MY REVIEW:
Let me preface this review by saying I picked this book up when it was offered on KU.
With each new Colleen Hoover I pick up, I say it’s my new favorite, but this one really is. She has touched on some tough family issues with this riveting story.
Lily grows up in a home where her father is abusive to her mother. It’s a volatile environment, and there is no way to gauge what might set him off. As a result, Lily is a private teenager. She never has friends over and is never allowed to go to sleepovers at other houses. So when she sees a homeless boy has moved into the vacant house behind hers, compassion forces her to help him. It starts by taking him a blanket and some clean clothes. This boy rides the bus to school every day, even when he can’t bathe or have decent clothes to wear. The friendship grows, and soon, he is taking showers at Lily’s when her parents are gone, and they watch Ellen Degeneres together. Lily adores Ellen and writes letters to her in her diary that she never sends. So, the bond between the homeless boy, Atlas, and Lily grows strong and breaches the friendship level.
But then Atlas graduates from high school and joins the military. He’s gone, and Lily has no one. She’s fallen deeply in love with him, but will she ever see him again? Lily has dreams and goals, which include getting away from her father as soon as possible. She graduates from high school, then college, and lands a great job at a marketing firm. But her dream holds firm to open a florist shop in Boston. After all, her name is Lily Bloom.
I won’t give away the context of this story, but Lily is tested to the core when she finds herself in a relationship with a man who can’t control his temper. She refuses to be trapped like her mother was with her father, and eventually, Ryle crosses a line that can’t be fixed.
As I read this book, I thought about how deeply the author goes into the human psyche and how often we swear we will never be anything like our parents, yet we find ourselves caught in patterns. This story was sometimes hard to read because of the level of violent abuse. It carries a strong message to women everywhere who are caught in that situation and offers hope for escape. You’ll love this book if you love a steamy romance with strong psychological aspects!
MY REVIEW:
Oh my! Another compelling story that kept me turning the pages and staying up way too late to read more.
I met Nash and Lina in book one of the Knockemout series, but I never expected sparks to fly between the two.
Nash is the Knockemout Police Chief, and he takes his job and duties seriously. But he’s recovering from a shooting that almost claimed his life and has bouts of PTSD that leave him incapacitated. He’s a larger-than-life character—handsome, strong, stubborn, and single.
Lina has her own struggles and ironically, her job often has her working in tandem with law enforcement. She came into book one as Knox’s longtime friend. Nash is Knox’s brother.
The Morgan brothers have quite a reputation for being devastatingly good-looking, strong, and stubborn. I honestly couldn’t tell you which of the two I like the most. It’s a close race, with Nash pulling just ahead in this book.
Sparks do more than fly between Nash and Lina. They turn into a roaring fire that neither can control. The sex is often, and more than a little steamy. The deeply rooted character flaws are believable. The plot is compelling, with tension that is off the charts as it unfolds. You will love this book if you are a fan of hot romance mixed with a thrilling plot filled with angst. You don’t need to read the first book before this one, but take my advice when I say you won’t want to miss it. I rarely give five-star reviews, but if I could, I’d give this one more. By the way, both books in this series are currently available on KU. Grab ’em while you can!
This story opens in the 1500s with a horrific, unspeakable event when a greedy Spaniard wipes out John Nightwalker’s entire tribe. Serving to add salt to the wound, he witnesses the Spaniard slicing his wife, White Fawn’s throat. The anger and the need for revenge are so intense that he begs in his native tongue to the Old Ones, to be allowed to seek justice and end the Spaniard’s life, to make him pay for taking his beloved White Fawn from him.
From there, the story moves forward into modern-day times. John Nightwalker is now over 500 years old. He has spent lifetimes traveling the world seeking the Spaniard each time he reincarnates into a new human body, only to arrive too late. But now there’s another chance. Only this time, there is a woman whom he must protect in the process.
This story unfolds in a gripping, suspenseful way, with the odds stacked against Nightwalker and Alicia, as Alicia’s father is now the reincarnated Spaniard.
The Spaniard has learned nothing through many lifetimes and is still greedy and heartless. And he’s determined to end his daughter’s life for what he perceives as the ultimate betrayal.
The story is told in multiple POVs and gives the reader the inside thoughts of each character. At times I found that slightly off-putting, but I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know how this would all play out and how revenge would finally be completed and put to rest.
This is a very different storyline from anything I’ve ever read, and I loved all the Native American and paranormal aspects and the high-stakes suspense. Ms. Sala knows how to weave a tale that keeps the reader engaged. If you love a romance with a compelling plot, you will devour this book as I did!
That’s it from me this month. I hope you found something new you can’t live without!
