BEA'S BOOK NOOK "I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." C. S. Lewis “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Showing posts with label Garwood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garwood. Show all posts

Monday, July 21, 2014

Review & Quote-Tastic: Fast Track by Julie Garwood


Join us every Monday and share a favorite quote that's grabbed you for one reason or another. Everyone's welcome to join in - authors, bloggers, readers. The more the merrier! Just grab the button and put up your post :) Don't have a blog? No worries, just leave your favorites in the comment section. Quote-tastic is hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup.

"Fast Track" is a romance, with a mystery sub-plot. Aiden and Cordie have known each other for years, and she's had a crush on him all that time. In this scene, Cordie is recovering from some injuries while staying at Aiden's place; in her boredom, she's taken to watching a show about fishing. I could completely relate to poor Cordie and this scene made me laugh.

"I have to get out of here for a little while."
Aiden shook his head at her. It wasn't the thing to do at the moment. She turned to him and grabbed hold of his shirt. "I'm losing it," she said. She let go of him and took a step back. 
"Stop smiling. I mean it. I'm really losing it." She raised her hand in front of his face and put her finger and thumb close together until they were almost touching. "I'm this close to writing Larry a fan letter, for God's sake. This close Aiden."
"Who the hell is Larry?" Alec asked.
She whirled around to face him. "Larry the fisherman." Her tone suggested he should already know that.



Publisher: Dutton Adult
Series: Buchanan-Renard #12
Format Read: eGalley
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: July 29, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A corrupt congressman, a mother’s secrets, and a sizzling romance ignite passion and suspense in the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood.

Cordelia Kane has always been a daddy’s girl—her father raised her alone after her mother died in a car crash when Cordelia was just two years old. So when he has a serious heart attack, Cordelia is devastated, and the emotion is only intensified by the confusion she feels when he reveals the shocking truth about her mother.

Cordelia can’t suppress her curiosity about the woman who gave birth to her, and when she discovers the answers to her questions lie in Sydney, Australia, she travels there to get them.

Hotel magnate Aiden Madison is Cordelia’s best friend’s older brother. He’s oblivious to the fact that she’s had a crush on him for years. When he gets railroaded into taking her along to Sydney on his company jet, he unknowingly puts her life at risk. He’s recently angered a powerful congressman by refusing to purchase overvalued land. Congressman Chambers is not a man to let such an offense slide, and he has the resources to get even and to get what he wants.

In Australia sparks are flying between Cordelia and Aiden, but multiple attempts on Aiden’s life are made while Cordelia is with him, and he realizes he must put a stop to the madness before he loses the thing he values most.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Review of Hotshot by Julie Garwood

Publisher: Dutton
Series: Buchanan-Renard #11
Format Read: eGalley
Source: The publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: August 6, 2013
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*
* affiliate links; clicking & purchasing results in a small commission for the blog.

Blurb from goodreads:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood returns with a novel of family drama, suspense, and—of course—romance. 

 Peyton Lockhart and her sisters have inherited Bishop’s Cove, a small, luxurious oceanfront resort, but it comes with a condition: The girls must run the resort for one year and show a profit—only then will they own it.

A graduate of a prestigious French culinary school, Peyton has just lost her job as a food critic. Out of work and in a bad place personally, a year doing something completely different sounds wonderful.

There are countless challenges and too many people who want to stop the sisters from succeeding. Among them are Peyton’s contentious cousins, who are outraged that they didn’t inherit the resort, as well as a powerful group of land developers who have been eyeing the coveted beachfront property.

It’s soon apparent to Peyton that their efforts are being sabotaged, but she refuses to let the threats scare her—until she’s nearly killed. She calls on her childhood friend and protector, Finn MacBain, now with the FBI, and asks for his help. He saved her life once; he can do it again.

Julie’s previous two titles, The Ideal Man and Sweet Talk, both debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list.
 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Review of Sweet Talk by Julie Garwood

Publisher: Dutton Adult
Release Date: August 7, 2012
Buying Links:  Amazon    Barnes & Noble     The Book Depository

Book blurb (from goodreads):

In the new contemporary romance from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood, a detective and a lawyer are falling in love— and making a federal case out of it.
 
When FBI agent Grayson Kincaid first encounters Olivia MacKenzie, she makes quite an impression.


The beautiful, tough, young attorney has stumbled into the middle of an FBI sting operation and has reduced it to chaos. Months of surveillance and careful planning down the drain, Kincaid’s partner is furious and lets Olivia know that she’s ticked off the wrong guy. After all, he’s FBI.

 Olivia isn’t intimidated by his partner’s bullying because she’s something even scarier . . . she’s IRS.

And working for the IRS isn’t for the faint of heart. She’s on the trail of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, one that threatens to ruin the lives of naive and unsuspecting victims, and one she has personal reasons to be angry about. But after she asks questions of the wrong people, her life is suddenly endangered. She’s accustomed to fighting for the underdog but being vulnerable herself is a very different story. Smart enough to know when to call for reinforcements, she contacts Grayson Kincaid.

Together they make an excellent team to fight corruption but Olivia is also fighting the immediate and intense attraction she feels for Agent Kincaid, and that may be a battle she is bound to lose.

Reviewed By: Bea

Bea's Thoughts:

I wanted to like this book, I've liked most of the books I've read by Garwood, but this one was a disappointment. It got off to a fast start, after the prologue (more on that in a bit) then slowed down to a crawl. It was filled with subplots, most of which were unnecessary and one was utterly predictable; it was drawn out and could easily have been been cut by one fourth to one third. There were things brought up that were then dropped; for instance, in the prologue, we meet Olivia as a young teen when she's hospitalized with what we're led to believe, but never told, is cancer. She meets other girls who become her best friends, one of whom has the aforementioned predictable subplot. It was obvious from the beginning what was going and who was to blame. It wasn't obvious why it was there in the book at all; I do wonder if we might not see one or more of the other girls get a book of their own. Garwood also does a lot of telling, not showing in this book; I don't recall her doing that in previous books.

A friend of mine and I were talking about the book on facebook and she had this to say, among other things:

So much telling and so little showing. The illnesses could've been played up more. It's like it was vital in the beginning, but then totally disappeared only to show up again at the end. And it was never clear what type of illness it was. And why did only the heroine's blood help? And not anyone else's? That was a dropped plot point.

And speaking of illnesses, I'm going to get cranky and nitpicky so feel free to skip this paragraph. So, as an adult, Olivia has asthma, a common illness and one which I have. That's probably why I'm so cranky, because, hey, I actually know about the topic! Garwood seemingly does not. How hard would it have been to do some research? Odds are good she knows someone with asthma, she could have asked for their help; she could have gone to any of the numerous websites about asthma, including the American Lung Foundation. Hey, why didn't her copy editor or fact checker do that? There is no excuse for the inaccuracies. For example, Olivia frequently uses her rescue inhaler but there's no mention of any maintenance meds or treatment plan; you can not control asthma if all you do is use a rescue med when you have trouble breathing. If her asthma is as bad as Garwood portrays, then her doctor would have her on a treatment plan. Also,how does Kincaid get his hands on one of her rescue inhalers? He tells her that he now carries one of hers at all times because she forgets (Oh so stupid but I know peeps who do this; I don't get it) but those are prescription so how did he get it? We're told that she didn't even know he had it so she didn't give it to him. And so on. I did like that a main character had a health problem that wasn't actually vital to the plot; many books don't do that which isn't realistic. People have health issues, whether it's high blood pressure, asthma or cancer. But the portrayal was inaccurate and Garwodd couldn't seem to decide if the asthma should be important to the story or not. It was another inconsistent plot point. /end rant.

And speaking of illnesses, Garwood makes a big deal out of Olivia's reluctance to be in a serious relationship due to her childhood illness and her belief that it may return. Now, with some illnesses, a return could be a legitimate concern, but since Garwood chose to be stingy with details about the illness we don't know if it's a legitimate concern. Now, I don't mean that someone couldn't have that fear, regardless of the likelihood of a recurrence; fear is not always rational. BUT, it never felt like a real fear on Olivia's part but something the author manufactured as an excuse to keep the lovers apart.

On that note, the romance felt weak; there was no passion, no depth and it happened very quickly. Plus this makes the second book recently I've read where an FBI agent disregarded procedure to get involved with a woman who was either a victim or a suspect. Hello! Not appropriate. I've read some books where that happened but the author made the romance believable and I could buy into it, despite it's inappropriateness.

There's also a subplot involving the reaction of Olivia's family to her childhood illness that continues into her adulthood and it didn't feel believable either, but manufactured solely to make certain events happen. I know that some people view illness as a weakness but this was over the top and all too convenient for the story's purposes.

Overall, this book was, as my friend said, and I agree, "a hot mess".

I received a hardcover from the publisher for review.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Review of Ideal Man by Julie Garwood

Publisher: Dutton Adult

Release Date: August 9, 2011

More Info:  Amazon     The Book Depository

Book Blurb (from Goodreads):

Dr. Ellie Sullivan has just completed her residency at a large urban hospital. While jogging in a park nearby, she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of wanted criminals, a couple identified as the Landrys. The only person to see the shooter's face, Ellie is suddenly at the center of a criminal investigation. 

Agent Max Daniels takes over the Landry case. A no-nonsense lawman, he's definitely not the ideal man that Ellie has always imagined, yet she's attracted to him in a way she can't explain. 

Ellie heads home to Winston Falls, South Carolina, to attend her sister's wedding. Shortly after she arrives, though, she receives a surprise visitor: Max Daniels. The Landrys have been captured, and she'll be called to testify. But they've been captured before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence-or disappear before they can take the stand. Max vows to be Ellie's shadow until the trial, and it isn't long before sparks fly.
 
My Thoughts:

"Ideal Man" is a pleasant, easy to read romantic suspense. It's heavier on the romance, since we know early on who the villains and we know that they will be trying to kill Ellie; the real questions are when and how they'll attack, and will they be caught first. Still, it's a quick, fun read, perfect for vacation or sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office.

Ellie has had a challenging life, with being a childhood prodigy and the difficulties that that entails, being sent away when she was only twelve to keep her safe (I can't say more without giving too much away) and a broken engagement two years ago that has put a strain on her relationship with her sister Ava, as well as the whole family. Now, she's witnessed a murder and her life is in upheaval again. She copes fairly well, and is determined to keep her family in the dark for their own good. Ellie is compassionate, confident, loyal, smart, and tries to do the right thing. She's been hurt in the past and lets that hurt rule her. By the end though, she's managed to move on emotionally. At times, Ellie is too perfect, but overall she seems like she could easily be the girl next door.

Max is also good at his job, intimidating to look at, also loyal, devoted to his family, and has had his share of troubles (really though, who hasn't?). He has been after the Landrys for years and is determined that nothing will go wrong this time. He doesn't count on being attracted to the witness, Ellie.He's leaving as soon as this job is done so at first, they try to resist the attraction. Also, Max doesn't seem like Ellie's type at first or so she thinks

He was definitely out of her comfort zone. The man had so much testosterone, he made her nervous.

And,

An intimidating man who was built like a monument and could melt iron with his menacing glare - this was what she was attracted to?
 But, as they get to know each other, they build an emotional attraction to go with the physical attraction.

Max and Ellie make a likable pair, the plot holds together well, and it moves at a good pace. There are a few cliches and some unlikely coincidences but overall, a good story.It's worth a read and would also be worth re-reading.

I received an eGalley from NetGalley.