Her Scandalous Pursuit

Her Scandalous Pursuit (Mad Morelands Book 7)- Candace Camp
HQN Books
Release Date: January 28, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Thisbe Moreland is used to men not taking her seriously. As a scientist, she’s accustomed to being the only woman at lectures and meetings, her presence met with scorn and derision. So it comes as a pleasant surprise when she sits next to a handsome young man who is actually interested in having a conversation about science.

Desmond Harrison cannot believe his good fortune when he sits next to Thisbe—she’s intelligent and incredibly beautiful. He longs to see her again—but he’s ashamed of his low birth. Not to mention his employment with the infamous Professor Gordon, a formerly respected scientist who turned to spiritualism and is now deeply scorned.When Professor Gordon demands that Desmond recover an artifact for him—an ancient object reputed to have terrible power, known as the Eye of Annie Blue—Desmond realizes that only Thisbe holds the key. Desmond must choose between his love for Thisbe and his loyalty to his mentor…but humanity’s very future will depend on his choice.

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Finally, Candace Camp has written the prequel to her Mad Morelands series! Thisbe and Desmond have been married since book one, but how did they meet?  Each of the Mad Morelands books (His Wicked Charm) has included a hint of the supernatural, but Desmond and Thisbe are both scientists who don't believe in ghosts or magic- just what they can see and measure.

Thisbe Moreland has had to be strong and stubborn since she decided to become a scientist.  She has several marks against her. One: she's a woman, and everyone knows women can't think rationally or analyze anything.  Two: she's the Duke of Moreland's daughter, and everyone knows aristocrats might dabble in things, but they don't have careers.  Three: she's the Duke of Moreland's daughter and everyone knows that family is odd at best, mad at worst. She's never felt a connection to a man before, but when Desmond Harrison sits next to her at a lecture everything changes.  They develop a sweet romance based on mutual respect and appreciation- and attraction- but Thisbe doesn't want to tell him she's an aristocrat and have him change the way he sees her.  Desmond is shy and lives in his head, always wanting to know the why's behind everything.  He doesn't want to admit to Thisbe his low birth, or that his father was sent to Australia for theft.  

All that could get straightened out if it wasn't for Desmond's work.  His mentor is determined to prove that ghosts exist and to do that he wants Desmond to steal a relic called Annie Blue's Eye.  Desmond doesn't want to steal anything- and then finds out that Thisbe's grandmother has the relic! Now he's afraid Thisbe will think he made up to her just for the Eye and he'd rather lose his work than Thisbe. But spiritualism can lead people down dark paths and when Thisbe is threatened, Desmond has to decide how to protect her- even if that means giving her up.

Her Scandalous Pursuit brings long-time readers back to the world of the Morelands, where romance and mystery blend with a hint of supernatural in a way that shouldn't put off too many readers of "regular" historical romance.  The writing and characters are strong and flow well, and emotions run high, making for a book you won't want to put down.     

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Almost Just Friends

Almost Just Friends- Jill Shalvis
William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
Release Date: January 21, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚


Synopsis: Piper Manning’s about as tough as they come, she’s had to be. She raised her siblings and they’ve thankfully flown the coop. All she has to do is finish fixing up the lake house her grandparents left her, sell it, and then she’s free.

When a massive storm hits, she runs into a tall, dark and brooding stranger, Camden Reid. There’s a spark there, one that shocks her. Surprising her further, her sister and brother return, each of them holding their own secrets. The smart move would be for Piper to ignore them all but Cam unleashes emotions deep inside of her that she can’t deny, making her yearn for something she doesn’t understand. And her siblings…well, they need each other.

Only when the secrets come out, it changes everything Piper thinks she knows about her family, herself…and Cam. Can she find a way to outrun the demons? The answer is closer than she thinks—just as the new life she craves may have already begun.

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Piper Manning has had to be an adult since she was 13, raising her two siblings and trying to keep them all together.  Now, just when she thinks she can have a life of her own, they're back home with their own dark secrets and a new neighbor has moved in with demons of his own.  Cam's learned too late what it means to be present in someone's life and he's not going to make the same mistakes again.  He's just not sure he can convince Piper that as similar as their pasts are, their futures can be even better.

Piper is a great heroine.  She's sassy, snarky, and hanging on to sanity by her fingernails.  She tries to control everything in her life with bullet point journals and office supplies (another reason I lover her- someone who gets my "inner office supply ho") and is afraid to let go, be surprised, and enjoy life.  She's terrified of letting people in, because that's when they hurt you the most.  And she's terrified of loving anyone because none of the people she loves have ever put her first.  Brother and sister Gavin and Winnie may be younger than Piper, but have managed to have life crisis at the same time and come home.  Because despite all the fighting Piper, and Wildstone, are home.  They may be trying to get themselves together, but by not sharing that with Piper, she feels like she has to continue worrying about them and putting her life on hold.

Cam is a Coast Guard, and does his best in high stress, no emotion situations.  When his younger brother dies, Cam goes home to their father and finds a life he never expected.  A life that includes Piper faster than he could have anticipated.  I loved the chemistry between them- both the slow burn and the firestorm varieties.  They manage to be perfect compliments to each other in ways they didn't know they needed, and they understand each other in ways that terrify them.  Neither one is perfect, and they (and Gavin and Winnie) make plenty of mistakes along the way, but they personify what making family work can be all about when you have love.

With characters dealing (or not) with the deaths of loved ones there is definitely some soul searching and tear-jerker moments in Almost Just Friends, but Shalvis mixes the serious and the emotional with just the right amount of humor and sarcasm to keep things going.  All the characters in Friends are deep, flawed, and completely human and relatable- no surface characters here.  Almost Just Friends was a great read, full of heart, and not to be missed!   

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Vanishing

The Vanishing (Fogg Lake 1)- Jayne Ann Krentz
Berkley/Penguin Group
Release Date: January 7, 2020

Rating:
📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Decades ago in the small town of Fogg Lake, The Incident occurred: an explosion in the cave system that released unknown gases. The residents slept for two days. When they woke up they discovered that things had changed—they had changed. Some started having visions. Others heard ominous voices. And then, scientists from a mysterious government agency arrived. Determined not to become research subjects of strange experiments, the residents of Fogg Lake blamed their “hallucinations” on food poisoning, and the story worked. But now it has become apparent that the eerie effects of The Incident are showing up in the descendants of Fogg Lake.…

Catalina Lark and Olivia LeClair, best friends and co-owners of an investigation firm in Seattle, use what they call their “other sight” to help solve cases. When Olivia suddenly vanishes one night, Cat frantically begins the search for her friend. No one takes the disappearance seriously except Slater Arganbright, an agent from a shadowy organization known only as the Foundation, who shows up at her firm with a cryptic warning.

A ruthless killer is hunting the only witnesses to a murder that occurred in the Fogg Lake caves fifteen years ago—Catalina and Olivia. And someone intends to make both women vanish.

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Jayne Ann Krentz (Untouchable) goes back to her paranormal romance/mystery genre with The Vanishing, although slightly different from what fans know and love.  In The Vanishing psychic powers come from the result of an 'Incident' decades ago at a hidden lab in Fogg Lake. Instead of the Arcane Society there is the Foundation, a shadow group that has been trying to help psychics (with mixed results) since the Incident.  Slater is one of the people who tracks down artifacts that potentially have paranormal provenance.  Recovering from an 'incident' of his own, he's not sure how stable he is or how ready he might be for another investigation, but things change when he meets Catalina.  He goes from investigating a potential cold case murder to helping Catalina search for her kidnapped friend and has to jump in the deep end when it comes to trusting his battered senses. 

Catalina is a sensible, cynical, investigator whose visions help read crime scenes.  She has no reason to trust the Foundation, but also has no choice since Slater is the only one who can help find Olivia.  Sparks fly between the two from the beginning and they work well together.  I found it enjoyable that every time Slater started getting worried about his altered senses and getting a little disturbed that Catalina wasn't panicking about him being a monster she would just shrug him off and tell him that she was too busy worrying about other things, but maybe later.  Her attitude worked well to help ground Slater, and for him  to realize that Catalina knows the difference between a real monster and someone whose powers are just a little different- and that 'different' doesn't bother her.  

One of the things I enjoyed most about the plot in The Vanishing was the personal aspect.  This wasn't an investigator in the course of a case discovering dark secrets that had nothing to do with her- this was Catalina's home town, her past, and her best friend on the line.  The urgency to find Olivia thrummed throughout the book, helped put a lot of things into perspective for Catalina and Slater, and kept the book's pacing moving quickly.  All the different characters and plot threads come together nicely at the end and still leave us with a few shadowy villains lurking for possible future books.  I was hoping for more details about the original 'incident' at Fogg Lake and the people there, but with luck some of those questions might be answered in the future as well.  Krentz's trademark dry humor runs throughout the book and keeps the reader smiling even in dangerous circumstances.  Readers of Krentz's Harmony series (Illusion Town) will feel right at home in the labyrinth of paranormal energy filled caves near Fogg Lake.  Overall, a fast-paced and enjoyable book that Krentz fans will be happy with, and a good introduction to her writing for new readers.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review