AFTERSHOCK
Dr. Jessie Teska Mystery, #2
by Judy Melinek & T.J. Mitchell

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

A steel band cover of “Don’t Fear the Reaper” makes for a lousy way to lurch awake. Couple of months back, some clown of a coworker got a hold of my cell phone while I was busy in the autopsy suite, and reprogrammed the ringtone for incoming calls from the Medical Examiner Operations and Investigation Dispatch Communications Center. I keep forgetting to fix it.

 

Oskar had nervous eyes under bushy brows, small nostrils in a mousy nose, and bluish stubble against a complexion like an altar candle. He impressed me as a man who climbed out of bed every morning wound up three turns too tight.

 

My Review:

 

This was an active, nonstop, wryly written, and superbly crafted tale that was shrewdly paced, cunningly plotted, and cast with a wide variety of curiously compelling characters. I had great difficulty putting my Kindle down for those senseless interruptions that dared to interfere with my perusal such as thirst, hunger, dying batteries, and need for sleep.

The busy storylines were written from the first-person POV of the brilliant and hard-working medical examiner Jessie Teska, M.D., and were taut with intrigue and pernicious conflicts with arrogant and egregious detectives and lawyers who didn’t have the good sense to listen to her sagacious theories and perceptive observations. I wanted to kick them in the shins for her. Lashing of amusing and clever wit cropped up to balance the emotional tone, which I always appreciate. This is my second time reading this dynamic duo’s exceptional wordcraft and I am so enamored with their mad skills that I have added them to my list of favorites and will be eagerly awaiting Dr. Teska’s next case.

Escape With Me
(The O’Callaghans #3)
by Kristen Proby 

Keegan O’Callaghan has been told he’s married to his pub. It’s true. He’s happiest when he’s pulling taps and filling drink orders, so long as he can keep an eye on his family and ensure that all is well. Bringing a woman into his life for anything but a pleasant, short-term romp isn’t even on his radar.

Until she comes running through his door, soaking wet and in a princess gown.

Isabella Harris ran out on her wedding, and she’s not even a little bit sorry. She may have loved her groom a long time ago, but standing there about to take her vows, she realizes it’s not right. And that’s all she needs to know. Four hours later, she finds herself on a tiny island outside of Seattle, walking into a random Irish Pub and locking eyes with the sexiest bartender she’s ever seen. But now what? She’s alone and broke, with only a wedding dress to her name.

Despite the undeniable attraction between them, Keegan can see that Izzy’s scared and alone. The job offer he extends is only until she gets back on her feet–he has no intention of keeping her.

But sometimes Fate has other plans…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

… you don’t deserve to be the back-burner girl…You’re a front and center, rolling boil kind of girl.

 

Women. I can’t go a day without her, yet sometimes, I want to tumble her right into the sea.

 

“I can totally keep a secret,” she says, but I know better. “If you tell anyone, you won’t be my favorite anymore.” The smile leaves her face. “Well, that’s just mean.”

My Review:

 

This was a fun and engaging read while pleasantly low on conflict or angst. I enjoyed the delightful respite! The characters were endearing and hard-working and the storylines were relatable, easy to follow and detailed with amusing descriptions and scenarios.   I have enjoyed the books in the series I’ve been lucky enough to obtain, although I am a fairly recent convert to Ms. Proby’s coven, I have a lot of catching up to do!

 

 

About the Author

Kristen Proby has published more than forty titles, many of which have hit the USA Today, New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. She continues to self-publish, best known for her With Me In Seattle and Boudreaux series and is also proud to work with William Morrow, a division of HarperCollins, with the Fusion and Romancing Manhattan Series.

Kristen and her husband, John, make their home in her hometown of Whitefish, Montana with their two cats.

Connect with Kristen

 

Website: https://www.kristenprobyauthor.com/

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CHASING THE SUN
(Angel Sands #7)
by  Carrie Elks

 

The German Girl
by Lily Graham

One Hundred Mistakes
(Aspen Cove #16)
by Kelly Collins

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He’s not a keeper… He’s a catch and release.

 

“The only exciting thing that happened since yesterday was that Mrs. Brown’s cat went missing, but he was easy to find, seeing as how she’d dressed him in a clown costume. He was hiding out behind the bakery. I’d hide too if I had to wear some of the outfits she puts him in.” Merrick had caught a glimpse or two of the poor animal. Last week he found him skulking around the alley wearing a fish head hat. That gave new meaning to catfish.

 

… feeding a man’s ego was like feeding a tapeworm; they were never satisfied.

 

“Tell me about your first love?” “I was nine, and she sat next to me in class. I brought her bags of Skittles, and she dumped me for a Snicker’s gifting guy.”

 

I’m more likely to kill someone than be killed. I mean … I work with idiots.

 

… women aren’t presents. They are more like onions, and you have to peel back the layers and hope they don’t make you cry.

 

I once read about an airline dumping the waste from a plane, and it came down in a shitsicle and killed a man watching Oprah. My point is, life is dangerous.

My Review:

 

I adore this sweet and steamy small-town series, the humor is always giggle-snort worthy. Kelly Collins has a sharp wit and a gift for snark and knows how to put it to good use. I was well entertained by the featured couple, who were both newcomers to the developing little hamlet of Aspen Cove.   I learned something new that I had to Google; living wine labels are a real thing. How clever! My future alcohol consumption could actually be educational, what fun!

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

 

  Goodreads  / Website  / Amazon /

Every summer camp has its campfire stories, and that’s all they are: stories. But not here.

On the surface, Boys Club Camp is just like every other British summer camp: strict officers, woodland games, and night-time pranks.

But Tommy remembers that summer in ’97, the year he turned thirteen when he was the only one plagued with those little niggling questions: Why does the sound of howling cut through the cold night air? Why are the officers so obsessed with the legacy of Boys Club’s long-dead founder? Why aren’t boys allowed in the east woods?

A scream heard in the night led Tommy and his friends on a journey of discovery, to solve a mystery a hundred years in the making: what is the real purpose of Boys Club? The answer could only be found in the dark heart of the woods: the Forbidden Zone.

Now an adult, Tommy needs to understand what they found there. It is his last hope of saving their lives.

 

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I remember sitting rapt as my brother told us all about the mongees and “skids disease”. I believed them then because I was a little brother, and everything my big brother told me was gospel. They claimed the older boys had told them when they started just the same, passing them down through the generations, but I was pretty sure they had made them up themselves. I knew for certain that they invented skids disease when one of the juniors was found with skid marks in his pants.

 

I felt like I had stolen something, done something naughty, and every time I did something naughty it was followed by ten minutes of panic as I worried someone would find out. And for the rest of the day there would be the occasional stabs of further panic whenever someone said my name or started a sentence with something like “Can I talk to you?”

 

We arrived back at Camp all clean and fresh-smelling. This was the real reason we went swimming on a Tuesday afternoon: so that we were all presentable for visitors evening, and so that the juniors didn’t go home looking feral.

 

Even at thirteen I had noticed the irony that children always wanted to grow up, whereas grownups always wanted to be children again.

My Review:

 

Tom Trott has the uncanny ability to deftly weave a tale so thoroughly and smoothly that it flowed through my cranium like a well-cast movie. And BTW, this story would make an exceptional film. The storylines were eventful and somewhat complicated and of a genre I rarely dabble in, so it required a bit of thought to keep it aligned but was well worth the effort when it began to gel.

The tale was cunningly paced and mainly narrated by the character of Tommy with the self-centered observations and musings of a curious and whip-smart pre-adolescent boy who did not particularly enjoy the old fashioned summer camp for boys he was sent to each year.   Tommy wore glasses and was a reader and observant thinker with a quick wit and the marshmallow center of a tender soul. He was soft and not at all interested or well suited for the physically demanding activities, oddly contrived athletic challenges, and fierce competitions the micromanaging camp directors instituted.

Tommy’s observations were laced with wry humor, a relentless curiosity, dread, and tween angst while enduring a week of constant group activities and the peculiar personalities of his fellow young campers and oddly disconcerting camp officers. This was not your typical summer camp coming of age tale nor was this a campfire story, although a few creative ones were included.

Mr. Trott’s memory must be exceptionally keen as he appears to well recall the allusive fine details, feelings of insecurity, futility, powerlessness, and the discomforts and confusion of early adolescence, as he has captured that tension well while embedding it within a slowly building and intriguing mystery.

Anyone who has experienced summer camp, whether ill-fated or nostalgically triumphant, will relate to at least a few the indignities found in this engaging missive. And as a bonus, I have learned the vast importance of an extra-secret handshake..

 

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Bugglas Booker is awake,” she said with a sniff. “I think he’s a bad baby, Auntie Flora. He is very cross.” “Douglas,” said Flora for the nine hundredth time. “His name is Douglas.”

 

“Turkey is ’orrible! Is huge dry chicken! Huge dry unhappy chicken!! … Do not eat unhappy animals!! Is unhappy! That is why”— he paused for emphasis—“ so many fights at Christmas.”

 

“Who is that new chap anyway?” said Mrs. Brodie suspiciously. “I’m just saying. He’s a bit of a ride and no mistake.”

 

They hadn’t had quite such an entertaining evening since Wullie Stevenson had gotten his false teeth stuck bobbing for apples at Halloween and scared the living death out of all the children by taking them out, apple and all.

 

“She is being the brattiest brat in the history of terrible brats… Would you like another kid? You’ve already got one, it shouldn’t be too much trouble.” “Most people wait till after eight A.M. on Christmas morning to try to give their children away,” said Flora… “Seriously, you don’t even have to keep her, you can sell her to pirates,” said Eilidh…

 

“But you make me not want to be a jerk,” he said. “Well, I’m not sure it’s working.”

My Review:

 

It is still close enough to Christmas with a nip in the air, so I see no reason to stop reading Christmas stories, and this one was good fun and hit all the feels from the lows of grief and humiliation to the highs of a freshly acquired sense of purpose and pride as well as new and deepening love affairs. Plus, I adore Jenny Colgan and I will read her any chance I get, regardless of the season. The cleverly constructed storylines were engaging and relatable and packed with wry levity and amusing observations from a large cast of compellingly quirky and complex characters. I giggled-snorted and gleefully laughed aloud several times during perusal and cannot recall ever enjoying a nativity scene as entertaining as this one.

And as a bonus I have a new addition to my Brit Words and Phrases list with blowsy; which Mr. Google tells me is course, untidy, and sluttish. Score! I have plans for that word, big plans…