nikkisbooknook's reviews
4946 reviews

 Charlotte ala Lottie has finally found the courage to leave her narcissistic, abusive boyfriend.  There is no way he's ever going to harm their son.  They are on their way to make a fresh start on Rosehaven but before they even get these Lottie has a disastrous encounter with a local cop.

Elijah was having a bad day when he pulled Lottie over, he'd never usually treat anyone that badly but he's the kind of man who takes failure to heart and he just descended to petty! When it is revealed that Lottie has quickly made friends with both his brother and sister and secured a job in his favourite coffee shop, Elijah soon realises that there is no getting away from this beautiful woman, or her adorable son.

Elijah has the shell of tough perfection but it hides a core of trauma he's never really dealt with properly.  He has a drive to protect everyone and takes responsibility for both the town and his family.  Charlotte is a strong woman to upend her life and run with Theo, to keep them both safe.  But the strength she finds in her new found family and friends strengthens her resolve.

Sadly Theo's sleaze of a father hasn't given up on finding them yet and there is a layer of danger throughout the book. The attraction between Charlotte and Elijah is beautiful to watch evolve and they really bring out the best in each other, whilst allowing them to be their flawed, imperfect selves.  It is so refreshing that it's Elijah who ends up with the cutesy nickname rather than Charlotte.

I'm so excited to see what is in store for the Weatherston siblings (I've a suspicion that even Mama Weatherston may get a HEA!) 

Gina is settling into her new houseboat.  She has a new friends or two in Dot and Erik and she's still managing to have an adventure or two!

This time Dot has managed to set her up as the companion of an elderly couple who had just moved to France. Meredith and Dot seem to have crossed paths before and Dot is worried that she is writing her in to her memoirs. Can Gina inveigle her way into the couples good graces while snooping for her new friend?

The description of the French countryside really let my mind wander and get immersed in the story. There are plenty of laughs and the humour has a very sarcastic British vibe.  The mystery moves the story along and it was well paced.  The very gentle possible-romance with Erik gives us something to look forward to. (P.S. I loved seeing old Dennis get shot down in flames - Go GIna!)

This is a great illustration of why older characters are still worthy of being main characters and not just the secondary character or comedic sidekick.  I'm really looking forward to their next adventure!

An intense, stuffy, closed off emotionally bookseller has his life flipped upside down when a sunshiny, effervescent newbie bookseller opens a shop opposite his!

Kate fled from London after her mother died and her boyfriend showed his narcissistic colours. She loves the thought of opening a bookshop in the building that once housed her family's café.  But Sebastian, the snobby bookseller already established in Wychwood, is not making life easy for her and she has had enough when she learns he's frozen her out of a book festival he's organising!

Kate is like walking sunshine compared to Sebastian's gloomy, brooding demeanour.  He's living under a family "curse" and he's determined to avoid the fate of his forebears - but that means swearing off love. 

OOh these two are like oil and water!  Kate is determined to make a success of her business and uses all the modern social media platforms to get information to her readers.  Bas however is stuck in an intellectual (and pricey) books only loop. Seb really was an acquired taste to begin with - his attitude really did need a major adjustment. His one saving grace is his friendship with gp buddy and that inconvenient, intense attraction to Kate.  But are they the first star crossed lovers the town has seen?

I loved the mystery of the love letters and finding out what had happened to their authors.  Kate was never meek and mild and stood up for herself but she was also prone to not fighting for what she wants!

I would have loved a longer epilogue, or a second one, showing Seb and Kate in the future - how they've melded their lives and businesses together, But otherwise it was a great bookish romance read.

 

A new to me fantasy author and I'm hooked. A brilliant blend of the paranormal with a smidge of Japanese mythology/traditions/culture to hook you in to the story.

Eira and Ryu may be fated mates but fate is not making it easy on them. They have a ticking clock to cement their relationship. The seer Rya speaks to isn't exactly clear about the path he has to take.

Eira is tougher than she thinks and i thought she was a great partner for Ryu. She has walls a mile high around her heart but somehow Ryu manages to get under her skin. The revelation of the catalyst of Eira's nightmares was fantastically well told.

The romance is passionate but fade to back and slow burn. Ryu gives off those "touch her and die" vibes so well! Great read and I'd happily read more from this author in this world. My only gripe is that I'd like to have more Japanese Mythology within the story.

 

 Torben's mentor and friend, Dame Charlotte was found at the bottom of her stairs.  But did she fall or was she pushed?  The evidence may be tainted either way since her Irish Wolfhound, well he a little nibble on her whilst trapped in the house with the body!

At her funeral Torben observes a swathe of suspects; former colleagues and competitors, former students and some decidedly "Spyish" folk!  What in the world was this Art academic involved with during her long and eccentric life?

Torben is once again relying on his oldest friends, including his crush, Leyla. She really doesn't want to be involved in another murder but she really can't pass up the chance to help Torben and picks up another refugee to save along the way.

There are some amazing twists through the book, and whilst I loved the vintage feel of the mystery, the story is very modern, although with roots in the Cold War. Charlotte was a woman ahead of her time, LGBTQ and partaking in thrupples before it was trendy.

Torben is once again his witty, awkward, slightly out of sync self.  His brain sometimes leaps 3 steps ahead and he doesn't always get the right end of the stick.  His crush on Leyla sometimes clouds his judgement but I really enjoyed the way he kindly folded his new friend, and new police officer, into his fold.  I really felt for her, death messages are not the easiest thing in the world to do.

The baddies were definitely in for the long haul! It was a really inventive way to commit an untraceable murder.  A superb whodunnit with a Danish flair! 

 Lost her job, carrying out a research mission for a friend's wedding, pressured into carrying out a protection spell on a tropical hideaway and to top it off she gets mated!  Felicity is about to have an epic adventure!

Water dragons call Pahaohuna home and they are determined to save it.  They call on the local witches to save it but they need an influx of power, and Felicity fits the bill.  But it would seem she's not the only witch called to the island and there may be another family squabble to endure.  

At this point I'm thinking these dragons are less "accidentally" mating their mates and more their dragon halves just take over when they recognise their mates. Kai and his fellow dragons take their duties of securing the island seriously; however, it seems that someone is about to betray them! I really enjoyed trying to figure out who the bigger threat was; a particular Ember witch or a dissatisfied islander. 

 Gavin and Autumn have been friends since they were kids.  Her parents pretty much adopted him and his twin when their home life took a downward spiral.  But just before he left to enlist in the Marines, they had one night which changed everything.

They've remained in each other's lives, always there when the other needed them but always with that little bit of distance between them.  Her daughter regards Gavin and Tristan as her uncles and he was wary of ever wanting more than that.  He could do irreparable damage to their relationship or worse, completely screw up the life of her daughter, after all he didn't have the greatest role models.

Now he's free of his Marine commitment and he's made a big decision - no more procrastinating - it's time to see if this attraction is one sided or if they could actually have a future as a family.  They just have to get through a local summit, a demonstration and a close to home trauma.

These two really are the right person/wrong time.  The love and attraction was always there, just neither of them had the bandwidth to face the possible rejection.  Autumn feels so much easier at her big revelation knowing that Gavin had already wanted to make a family with her and Carly.  The wider, extended family at CPS all take it in their stride and they love having another couple of family members.

The interwoven suspense with the dissatisfied demonstrators, the enigmatic TJ and the danger Carly finds herself in was brilliantly paced and I loved trying to figure out if TJ was going to be a good guy or a bad guy! It's great getting to see all my favourite previous couples and even the odd mention of characters from other series. The romance is spicy and intense but not over the top. 

Mark Pierce is a CIA agent with a conscious, he will no longer follow orders blindly. He'll ask tough questions to himself and others rather than be blindly obedient.  Which obviously the chain of command don't exactly relish. 

He's asked to assist in the extraction of a lawyer from Pakistan who wants to defect to India. Married to someone high up in the counter intelligence structure, she is a prized acquisition. Roshini's husband has been playing with some very unsavoury characters and he's managed to turn a DARPA scientist and she has the proof in her possession.  

Mark really is a great character.  He's intelligent, loyal, skilled and seems to power through on sheer determination.  He doesn't know the meaning of the word quit. Roshini is a wonderful foil to Mark; she loved her husband but when she learned the truth he was hiding, all her dreams turned to ash and she can no longer stomach him.

There are wonderfully technical and character driven scenes interspersed with full-on, action scenes. Mark is still such an enigma though - the little snippets of his previous life (and identity) are still so fragmented, we really still know next to nothing about him.  

Now to await the next adventure.

 

Bob continues on his vagabond journey, hiding in plain sight from the CIA that is hunting him.  When he fell off the wagon a local cop, Mike Schultz, in Portland, Maine, helped get back into an AA group and he continues to take strides to hold onto his sobriety.  But now it seems that it's Mike who is in a bit of a pickle.  It would appear a body from a crash site has disappeared! 

Bob soon finds himself up to his neck in espionage, sleeper cells, and he has "acquired" an assistant of sorts. One with a very personal stake in solving the riddle of the missing body.

I really enjoy my outings with Bob and Co.  He's a man fully aware of his failings and is finally happy to use his skills in the name of good.  He'd rather not get back onto the radar of the CIA doing it, however. Dawn and Marcus continue to be his cornerstone, the people who keep him grounded and remind him of what a long way he has come.

There were plenty of twists and turns and I really did feel for poor Mike. Even one of the sleeper agents managed to elicit some sympathy from me.  The lies, fibs and half-truths are flowing freely and Bob is left wondering if he'll ever sort out the mess. 

 I feel I've waited as long for this book as Logan has for his revenge, lol!

Logan has been lurking about this series for a while.  He's been the morally grey frenemy, a former friend of Kale and anti-hero.  But has Logan finally slipped so far into his revenge plot that he's gone full villain?

Jill has gone from being a bratty teenager, to a helpful young adult to being claimed by a vampire.  The last was to mess with her family, especially her adoptive father, Ephraim.  But she never thought that to save her they'd actually hand her over to the Sentinels.  But she never makes it into their custody, someone has sent an assassin after her!

Poor Jill.  She's literally going through the wringer in this book but she does get that well deserved and completely worthy HEA.  Logan - he kept me guessing.  Just when I thought he'd left his shade revenge plot behind, he dropped breadcrumbs that just maybe he was feeding us a line of poop! However, the absolute scene stealers for me were the rescued shifter kids; Shane, Caleb and Emma are completely adorable and justifiably make all the adults do their bidding. Shout out to Tomas too - greatest babysitter in the world.  That man was brave to face glue, glitter and six year olds!

The book takes place over almost a year, with a couple of glimpses into the past.  So this was a real slow burn romance.  There was a bit of receptiveness with dialogue tags, adverbs, etc. However, I'm a reader who goes mainly by how a book makes me feel rather than how literary high-faluting it is.  This book made me shout, swear profusely (at the bad guys and occasionally Logan!), sniffle and laugh.  This series involves a family, biological, found and otherwise that knows the power of humour and insults to get through the tough stuff.  I really hope the next book ensures that we find Tomas amongst other things.

TW: Memories of child emotional/physical & sexual abuse, trauma, injury, kidnapping, child endangerment and confinement.