Unearthing Cole (Discovering Me #1) by A.M. Arthur (4.5 Stars)

Jan1

This was not an easy book to read from the standpoint that Cole has not had a pleasant life. His parents were hoarders, and now that they both passed away, Cole has to clean up the mess. He finally escaped a physically and mentally abusive relationship, but even years of therapy haven’t completely freed his mind. Jeremy was the best thing that ever happened to Cole, and their relationship seemed so natural and easy. We only get Cole’s POV in this story, but I’m looking forward to Jeremy’s in the next story. The story ended with an HFN, but with a little imagination, I could see it as an HEA if you didn’t want to continue the series.

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Diversion (Diversion #1) by Eden Winters (4 Stars)

Dec31

Enjoyable suspense with Lucky and Bo working undercover to find out who is selling expired drugs. Lucky is a very quirky and entertaining character. He hasn’t had a charmed life, but he’s managed to make the most of it. The story lagged a bit in some parts when it became too focused on the drug trafficking. Instead, I would have liked to have seen Bo and Lucky spend more time getting to know each other better.

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The Two Gentlemen of Altona (Playing the Fool #1) by Lisa Henry and J.A. Rock (5 Stars)

Dec29

With plenty of brilliant and enjoyable dialogue, the beginning of this series was a fast-paced, suspenseful romance.

Con man Henry Page just witnessed a murder. He reports the crime, but then quickly leaves the scene as opposed to becoming the next body in the bag. Unfortunately for Henry, Special Agent Ryan “Mac” McGuinness really needs his testimony and makes it his mission to bring Henry in. As these two play cat and mouse games, they slowly start to get to know each other better. Can their relationship survive the fact that they operate on opposite ends of the legal spectrum?

Henry’s non-stop chattering was fascinating. Although he likes to quote Shakespeare, Henry’s own thoughts and behaviors were much more charming and interesting. He has a mysterious background which we don’t get to learn too much about in this story. Mac was a strong cop who doesn’t always do everything by the book. He lacks friends, mostly due to his standoffish nature, but he’s a good cop who wants to protect the innocent.

Henry and Mac develop a smoldering connection while trying to keep Henry alive and finding a mole at the FBI. Although there wasn’t any kind of resolution to this budding romance, I was left with a feeling of hope that they would figure it out in the next book.

I really enjoyed this first story in the series, and having been fortunate enough to read all 3 books back-to-back, I can say that the excitement continued.

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Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.

Winner of The Romance Reviews Readers’ Choice Awards
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Racing for the Sun by Amy Lane (4 Stars)

Dec28

Even true love can take a great deal of time to bring a relationship to fruition, but it’s worth winning the battle to get there.

Jasper “Ace” Atchison is a Staff Sergeant in Afhganistan who takes Private Sonny Daye under his protection. Although they are just friends, Ace hopes that one day it will be more than that. Ace goes home first and begins to put their dream of owning a home and car shop into action. Sonny has some demons from his past, and it will be up to Ace to help him move on with his life.

The story is told from the POV of Ace who was a strong character, but very simple in his needs. He just wanted to make Sonny’s dreams come true and hopefully spend the rest of his life with him. Sonny was a unique character who spoke very little and wanted even less out of life. He had his dreams, but the most important one was belonging to Ace. As they fumble their way through forming a loving relationship, they must deal with owning a business, the dangers of car racing, and Sonny’s past which comes back to haunt him.

Every friend of Sonny and Ace needed help in some way. It was hard seeing so many people desperately in need of being treated better. Since the story took place over several years, the relationship was very believable. The author’s writing style always has a way of making you feel like you’re part of the story. Unfortunately, the story had a sad undertone to it the entire time, but at least all of the angst was outside of the relationship.

Overall, this was an interesting story filled with characters that needed to be loved.

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Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
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