Review: Unlawful Contact by Pamela Clare

Author: Pamela Clare

Title: Unlawful Contact

Series: I-Team #3

About the Book: When a young woman disappears, journalist Sophie Alton investigates and is led to the woman's brother, a convicted killer who is running from the law. Together, they follow a dangerous path toward the truth-and unforgettable passion.

My Thoughts:

Definitely the best of the I-Team series so far. I really don't know why I put off reading it for so long, despite all the assurances from my friends that I would love it. Go figure.

Shy, bookish, orphaned Sophie Alton lost her virginity to her high school secret crush one starry night at a school party(?) the first time he deigned to speak to her. The next day he was off to military school. They lost touch until twelve years later. By this time, Sophie is an investigative journalist who's covering/interested in the story of a drug addicted young mother who suddenly vanished with her baby during a supervision. she gets an anonymous to that leads her to question a prison inmate, who happens to be Hunt, the high school secret crush/cherry picker and also the brother of the young lady who pulled the vanishing act. He uses her to orchestrate his jailbreak, and what follows is a race against time to find the sister before the bad guys can get to her, and also avoid the cops, to keep Hunt from being sent back to jail.

I loved Sophie!! I didn't like Tessa from book 2, but really liked Kara from book 1. Well Sophie has none of the annoying traits of Tessa and had all the good bits of Kara magnified. She was a good balance of all girly (hot pink vibrators), slightly silly (not wearing boots in winter because they didn't look good), sensible, and smart. Marc Hunter was....awesome. Move over Reece, I think I just found a new favorite I-Team guy! I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed myself with this one.

As stories go, this one was a teensy bit syrupy, with none of the over-the-top cheese from the previous books. Ms. Clare erred on the side of cute with this one. Me likey.

Hmm... I wonder if we're ever going to have an I-Team Peep's Children Grew Up and Are Having the Hots for Each Other series, what with all the kids these people are popping about. I for one am gunning for Kara's son with Julian's daughter and Kara's daughter playing older woman to Hunt's son, LOL!!!

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

1. Extreme Exposure - 4/5
2. Hard Evidence - 3/5

 

Quickie Review: The Next Always by Nora Roberts

Author: Nora Roberts

Title: The Next Always

Series: Inn Boonsboro Trilogy #1

My Thoughts:

It took me four months to finish reading this book, smh. I do think an excellent rating is a bit more than the book deserves, but it did a u-turn on me, so the rating stands.

It took a loooooong time to finally start to enjoy the book, and even after that, there were quite a few facepalm-ing moments, but I was too well-ensnared by Ms. Roberts' magic to not enjoy it.

OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES:

 

Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare

I-Team #1
Extreme Exposure by Pamela Clare
★★★★

For some reason, the series name, I-Team, had me expecting an Elite Ops/SEAL/mercenary sort of romantic suspense. So I was confused for a moment there when I realized we were dealing with the Investigative team of a newspaper and not hot men who are trained killers, heh. But once that was cleared cleared up, I started noticing a few things.

The book is a lot more romance than suspense, so much so that you could take the suspense part out, and you still pretty much had a solid romance going on. Speaking of romance, this one was as steamy as you could get without making it erotica.

I liked Kara and Senator Reece. They were solid characters who behaved their age - both in their thirties, not too much angst, hiding information leading to big misunderstanding, no TSTL moments...it felt age appropriate.

It was a very quick read. It didn't feel like 300+ pages at all, which is a very good thing, right?

The epilogue was HELLA cheesy! But it was all good.

Overall, it was a nice evening's escapism, and a good introduction to romantic suspense for someone used to reading romance. I am adding this series and Ms. Clare to my TBR list.

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A Lot Like Love by Julie James

A Lot Like Love by Julie James
★★★★★

I don't have too much to say, except that I enjoyed this novel enormously. The humor, the characters, the plot...everything blended perfectly, just like good wine, I guess. Teehee.

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If You Hear Her by Shiloh Walker

If You Hear Her by Shiloh Walker
My rating: ★★★★

My first Shiloh Walker, and it certainly won't be my last. I only realized that this wasn't a stand-alone novel after I'd begun reading it, and I was initially worried the whole suspense bit was going to be too thin to stretch over three books.

Well, it wasn't stretch out at all in this book.

I liked the story, and the mystery. Lena is a very unusual heroine in that she is blind, and it was fun to spend time with her. I liked Ezra too. And Law; and Hope; and Remy. Enough to look for the other books in this trilogy.

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Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs

Alpha and Omega #2
Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
My rating: ★★★★★

Anna Latham Cornick mate of Charles Cornick, Omega of the Aspen Creek Pack. Wolf. Sister. Daughter. Lover. Beloved

Anna: You are a remarkable man Charles Cornick.
Charles: I know. And often underappreciated by those who don't know any better.

You know, on an aside, if Bran, Charles, and Samuel were real, I'd be so jealous of their mates.

I loved this one even more than Cry Wolf. Patricia Briggs' storytelling works wonderfully well for me. I love the gentle strength that characterizes Anna. and Charles. and Bran. and Samuel, come to think of it (Samuel has nothing to do with this book, but I can't talk of Charles and Bran without mentioning him, lol!) You don't see it often enough in any genre.

The whodunit worked very well for me. Sure, it was predictable, but the execution of it was rather unexpected, quite flawless, and done for maximum effect.

Loved it! Now I have to go pre-order Fair Game

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The Return of Rafe MacKade by Nora Roberts

The Return of Rafe MacKade (The MacKade Brothers, #1) by Nora Roberts
My rating: ★★★½


This is the first book in a quartet that comes highly recommended by Lady Vale (and most of my other friends who have read it have loved it too). And no one writes contemporary romance quite like Nora Roberts. So with these two things in mind, I was sure I was going to love the book/series. Things didn’t happen quite like I planned.

I haven’t read a contemporary romance for some time, and it took a while, but Nora Roberts sucked me into the fabric of her story and made me care about what was going to happen to all four of the Mackade brothers. So I know that I am going to read all their stories.
Unfortunately, Regan and Rafe were not my favorite characters, even in their own story. Regan was so concerned by not being defined by her mother’s neediness/dependency on her dad that she defined herself in another way – the opposite of her mother: I don’t need help from anybody. It was annoying. Rafe, was way too “me man, you woman” for my tastes, especially in a contemporary. Mebbe in a parallel/fantasy world, it would have worked well (as it usually does), but not in a contemporary. I was not impressed with either one of them.
Hopefully the other three brothers are not as unnecessarily “macho”(hah!n ot quite) as Rafe, and their heroines are not as annoying as Regan.


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Fired Up, by Jayne Anne Krentz

Dreamlight Trilogy #1
Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz

My rating: ★★★

This the first book in the Dreamlight trilogy, which is part of the Arcane society novels.
I liked the main characters a lot. Jack Winters and Chloe Harper were well-rounded and interesting. The supporting cast was not too interesting, and neither was the plot. To be frank, I couldn't get into the whole dream psi thing. This is one novel whose paranormal element seemed kind of silly  (I mean, dreamlight? really?). That kinda made the whole plot a joke to me. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book, because I thought the characters were well-written. I did like the novel, and I would read the other books in the trilogy. But that's only if they come my way somehow. I won't go out looking for them.



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