Book Review: Secret Enemy (Red Stone Security #16) by Katie Reus

FIVE STARS

It was good to read another book in the Red Stone Security series. It’s been too long since I’ve read one. The best news is that any of these books can be read as stand-alone novels. Characters from other books make appearances and play parts in the stories, but I wasn’t lost or struggling to keep up with them. In other words, they didn’t upstage the main characters and were great complements to the story.

This particular book is a friends-to-lovers trope. Mila first meets Lyosha (I love his name. It’s so different and even sexy) when he brings in a kitten to the animal shelter where she works. I loved that he is an animal lover and treats the cat with love and affection. That makes a great man, in my opinion. Mila was immediately attracted to Lyosha and it escalates from there.

Lyosha and Mila spend so much time together under the pretense of friendship, but the attraction between them is simmering just under the skin. I kept waiting for it to erupt and when it did, it was fire! But Lyosha thinks he’s not good enough for Mila–not as a boyfriend or a husband–friends, yes. But that bell couldn’t be unrung. Throw some mystery into this and a twist at the end and you’ve got yourself a five star read.

This book was a quick mover. I had it read in a day and enjoyed every minute of it.

*I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily left a review.

Pre-order from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3cnV04v

Available June 22, 2021

Book Review: Writing the Rake (The Bluestocking Scandals Book 5) by Ellie St. Clair

FOUR STARS

I was hoping to enjoy this book much more than I did, but I think a lot of it is on me because I probably should have read the prior books in the series. There were more than a few times that I felt lost with the secondary characters and their stories or wished I’d known about what they’d gone through before reading this book, especially since several of them had a major part in this book.

Aside from that, the story was actually pretty good. Alice writes serial romances based on real couples and, as writers are wont to do, she wants facts in her fiction and asks lots of questions. Well, she got in over her head and somebody is trying to hurt, scare, or kill her. That brings Benjamin Luxington into the situation.

Benjamin and Alice knew each other before all of this, but were merely friends. He friend-zoned every woman he ever met because he thought he wasn’t worthy of marriage and a family. But he saw another side to things with the evolution of his relationship with Alice, but he was so hot then so cold so often, I wasn’t sure how she hung in there.

Ultimately, this is a story about faith and love-conquers-all mixed in with a nice mystery. I did enjoy it overall.

Purchase at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3i49IkC

Book Review: Annie’s Song by Catherine Anderson

FIVE STARS

Annie Trimble is a misunderstood wild child that’s been allowed to roam around the woods without any supervision, nobody bothers to take care of her hair, she unkempt, wears kids clothes when she’s a grown woman, and she’s abused and neglected by her parents. Her mother thinks she’s gone mad while her father wants to keep her hidden because she’s a detriment to his future career in politics. My heart went out to her. She was a deaf-mute and everybody thought she was mentally challenged, called her names like “moron”, “imbecile”, and “dummy”. It was just so sad. She was such an innocent, having lost her hearing at a young age. Nobody ever tried to work with her on any level. They just wanted her out of the way. She was unpredictable and an embarrassment.

She was at some waterfalls one day when Douglas Montgomery and a few of his friends came upon her. Douglas teased her and tormented her and eventually raped her, while the others tried to stop him. Douglas was an arrogant, sadistic thing and had no remorse. When his older brother, Alex, found out about it, he was furious and that’s when the story really takes off. (Note: The rape scene is not graphic. It just says he raped her.)

Alex Montgomery is probably the most sensitive hero I’ve ever read. He stepped up to the plate and married Annie, knowing how she was, but instead of trying to hide her or beating her, he wanted to know her. He wanted to help her. He wanted to be a part of her; to understand her. He knew he had a long, hard road ahead of him, considering how she’d been so misunderstood and mistreated, but he was all about making her happy. He went to such extremes to make her feel worthy, to earn her trust, and even to love him, although falling in love was not part of the plan. Her innocence knocked him out, too, and he was put in the role of her protector and advocate. Somebody had to stand up for her and who better than her husband?

This was a beautiful love story. There was a lot of angst, but there were laughs and cheers, too. The last few chapters had me teary-eyed and the epilogue made me want to give Alex a high-five.

I loved everything about this book. The plot was tight, the characters were memorable and well-defined, and even though it is fiction, I can see something like this happening. 

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Book Review: Let Go: The Trials & Triumphs of the First Indian to Finish The Race Across America (RAAM) by Srinivas Gokulnath

FIVE STARS

This book is a short memoir of Srinivas Gokulnath’s (Srini) challenges and accomplishments to reach the finish line of the Race Across America (RAAM), the toughest bicycle race in the world. Most people don’t understand riding a bicycle for over 3000 miles in under 12 days. Not many people understand just how much time, effort, training, and money go into a single race on the part of the rider. Maybe they don’t understand just how important a good crew is. Your crew can make you or break you. What drives these cyclists to do such an insane race, knowing they are going to face some grueling challenges such as the heat of the desert, pedaling up mountains, wide open plains where the wind blows like crazy, rain, thunderstorms, even tornadoes? You’re exhausted, demoralized, and hallucinating from lack of sleep. What makes a person do this?

Let Go explains it all from Srini’s point of view. The book was a quick, easy read. I felt the heartbreak and the jubilation with him and his crew. I was drawn into his story from the very beginning and got caught up with the excitement at the end as he competed with another rider from India who was also going for the honor of being the First Indian to finish the Race Across America in the solo category. 

Even if you’re not a cyclist, you might enjoy this book. It’s not all about riding a bike across the United States. It’s also about the strength of the human spirit and the drive to do something that hadn’t been done before.

There are a lot of pictures in the book that add to the ambiance of the story and made this a totally enjoyable read.

Purchase at Amazon: https://amzn.to/33Ukphc

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

FIVE STARS

This is historical fiction at its best. I was drawn into the stories of Marie-Laure, Werner, and even von Rumpel, and Frederick. The stories are all different and have nothing to do with each other, except for von Rumpel and Marie-Laure and even that doesn’t come together until near the end. It was also near the end when the stories come together. All the stories take place during World War II in France and Germany and though the main characters are Marie-Laure, there are secondary characters in the novel that are interesting enough to keep the book moving.

Marie-Laure is a French girl who has been blind since she was six years old. Her father works at a museum and she often goes to work with him and hangs out with a scientist where she learns about certain types of sea life, despite her impairment. She and her father are very close and he takes such good care of her. He taught her the most important part of life and that was how to survive and be independent. She was such a brave girl and never once wished she wasn’t or whined about her blindness. She thrived despite it. She survived when I wasn’t sure she would. I couldn’t help but love her.

But I loved Werner, too. He was so young, small for his age, orphaned and living in a children’s home in Germany, looked after his younger sister who was there, too, knowing that when he was 15, he was expected to go to work in the coal mine in town. He didn’t want to do that. He had a gift for building and repairing radios, was self-taught, and eventually got the attention of a Nazi who got him in with the Hitler Youth. Werner had everything the group required; snow white hair, blue eyes, and intelligence. He was the embodiment of what Hitler was trying to create; a pure race, an elite race. Werner wasn’t exactly on board with all of that ideology, but he was desperate not to work in the mine and wanted to be a scientist. This youth group offered him that opportunity, but it also turned him into a soldier.

So much happened in this book that blew my mind. I wondered where it was going, especially when I got about half way through the book, but I had to know what happened next. The chapters are short, three pages at the longest with the majority of them being a page or so and they jump from character to character. The short chapters kept the book going. They were short but clear, concise, and had purpose.

I’m still kind of feeling a little sad at how it all ended. I usually go for books that have a happy ending and maybe this did, too, but I was more awestruck at how it all played out. Who woulda thunk it?

If you’re looking for a frilly book set in WWII, you won’t find it here. This is raw, gritty, and will make you think. I love books that make me think. 

*A friend lent me this book