Carries Book Reviews

Perfectly Seduced by Lacey Silks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Perfectly Equipped gave us a look at Sean and April’s first meeting in Hawaii. Now with Perfectly Seduced we pick up their story after they’ve returned home from the resort having been separated from each other. April has been searching for Sean but little does she know he already knows who she is because he’s been assigned a case that in which she is the main focus. When the two meet again the sparks are definitely still there but there is a lot more to their story.

This book was a rather pleasant surprise to say the least. There was so much going on with the plot in here it quickly had me hooked and dying to know how it was all going to turn out. April’s late husband’s death had been ruled a suicide but there are hints that it could’ve been murder and there is a matter of 50 million dollars in insurance payout that is missing.

While I enjoyed Sean and April in Perfectly Equipped they were given much more depth in this story and the relationship really began to sizzle too. Millie was her ever hysterical self too, will be looking forward to the next book in the series featuring Millie.

Steamy, hot and suspenseful. Great read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Killing Among Friends by Toni Morrow Wyatt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Killing Among Friends starts off with a mysterious man killing a young girl at a pond. From there we meet Sennie Lacefield , a teenager without a care in the world and her best friend Reatha Alcoker. As the girls are watching the firework show Reatha needs to run in to the restroom promising she’ll be right back. After the show is over and Reatha still hasn’t returned everyone begins searching. Reatha is not the first missing girl, there have been two others and people are starting to get frightened.

When the body of one of the missing girls turns up with a satanic symbol carved into her forehead and the local sheriff Warford Cackley doesn’t seem concerned, Sennie panics about Reatha’s disappearance and decides to team up with Reatha’s boyfriend Milo to help find the killer.

While this isn’t necessarily a bad read in my eyes, there are a lot of things I question about the story. The setting seems to be a modern small town in Arkansas and not being from the south or a small town myself I can’t say for sure how people behave there but often this would seem like something from the past. Sennie and others interactions seemed a bit off for the present. Characters are referred to as “Miss Sennie”. The old men in the story sit in their chairs on the front porch of the general store spitting tobacco. Just had a weird feel of not being sure what era I was reading about.

The sheriff in the story is the worst excuse for law enforcement I’ve ever read about. He does absolutely nothing with all the killings and disappearances so that was a rather odd thing. Plenty of stories have the teenage protagonist chasing clues but being the only one in the book concerned with solving any of the crimes it’s kind of like what??? Glad I don’t live in this town.

Sennie spends the story chasing down clues and details and while there are a lot of characters that could be involved I also figured out what was going on fairly early. Not necessarily a bad thing but I prefer when I get to the end and end up shocked.

In the end I’m not sorry I read the story but I’m not jumping up and down over the whole read either. Kind of an average mystery in my eyes.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Until Death by Cynthia Eden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While riding on a Mardi Gras float, Ivy DuLane witnesses what at first looks like two lovers in an embrace in the crowd. That is until she sees the man with a knife as he begins to stab the woman. Jumping from her float Ivy tries to get to them to help the woman but they have disappeared into the crowd. A police officer comes by the frantic Ivy and immediately assumes she’s been drinking since there is no evidence of a crime.

Detective Bennett Morgan shows up just as the police officer is arresting Ivy and has the officer let her go. Bennett is Ivy’s ex who has just returned to town after a break up years before that neither have healed from or gotten over. Bennett believes Ivy and the two return to the scene to find the body of a young woman who looks remarkably like Ivy.

Once I picked up this book I had a hard time putting it down to do anything else. A wonderful romantic suspense read that kept me guessing all the way to the end. At one point I wanted to just yell at Bennett that he was looking at the wrong guy and with bringing out that much emotion and being caught up in the story I can’t find one thing to complain about with this book.

Great characters in Ivy and Bennett. Took a while to get their back story but it seemed like they should obviously be together. Ivy was a strong female lead. She has her PI license and wants to help find the killer even though she’s become his next intended victim. Also, loved getting the point of view of the killer without knowing who he was, made for a great ending.

Great combination of romance and thriller. Would recommend this to any fan of a good suspenseful read.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laying Claim to the Soul: Book Two of the Fantasy is Alive Series by Trinity Blacio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Laying Claim to the Soul is the second book in the Fantasy is Alive Series by Trinity Blacio. This one picks up with Tabatha about to be claimed by her 3 mates, a wolf shifter, a demon man, and a dragon-alien enforcer and of course all is not going well for the ceremony as expected in a book by Trinity Blacio.

I haven’t read the first book in this series myself but I have picked up a couple of others by the author. It took me a few chapters to figure out what was going on in the story having not read the first book but eventually it got into the familiar grove of the other books I’ve read. The characters always have a relationship of one strong female lead with multiple male partners as in this case being three men.

The stories are always action packed with a lot of fantasy/supernatural elements tossed in. Definitely an interesting erotic story with all the abilities and elements of the supernatural world.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Antidote by Taylor Hondos
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lena Alona has lost both of her parents. Her father was working on a cure to save the world from a deadly disease known as Dermadecatis before his death. Dermadecatis attacks the body from the inside causing anyone who has it to rot. When a new doctor shows up claiming to have the cure for the disease Lena is a bit skeptical and things quickly go out of control. Lena puts her trust in Jared who has shown up out of nowhere claiming he can save her and that she is the answer to a real cure.

I really had to debate on how to rate this book. There are a lot of issues with it but I also got really interested in the plot as it went along. It seemed to really start off rather shallow leaving out things that should have been better described and not giving much depth to the characters. The story seemed to pick up more though when the point of view switched from Lena to Jared.

There are a lot of holes in the story that just seem to get glossed over to keep the action going. Lena’s parents seem to be murdered in the start but not much is even said about what happened other than they are found laying in pools of blood. However, things seem to become clearer the further you get into the book and start finding out more about the disease and where it came from.

Overall the book is a fast paced, quick read with an interesting plot but the story and characters were lacking a lot of depth to them. I would be interested in seeing where it heads though as it ended on a cliffhanger so for now I would give this 2.5-3 stars.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.