Watchers by Dean Koontz

This book really read like an action/sci-fi movie and I was able to read it from start to finish without stopping. I truly enjoyed the story but I had a lot of trouble with the credibility of some things. One of the characters is a shut-in who was mentally abused by her dead aunt (and there are some not-so-subtle allusions to Great Expectations here) who within 2 months is completely over her trauma without any adverse symptoms. Yeah, don't think it really works that way, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief for this one.

I liked the idea of a beyond normal intelligent dog and the idea of the "Outsider" was creepy, but I was hoping for more than just the boiler plate action book.

Rating: 3/5

Pages: 352

The Fold by Peter Clines

  The Fold
 by Peter Clines
 Pages: 384
 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This was a great book. The characters are believable and relate-able. It is a stand-alone story but does have some tie-ins to Peter Clines' previous book 14. My husband and I both liked this book so much we're going to buy a copy of it and 14.  Mike seems like your average high school English teacher to his students and co-workers but one of his old friends knows better. He has been trying to get Mike to work for him and the government for years. Mike has always refused. But then he presents Mike with an irresistible mystery for Mike to solve and he just can't pass up the temporary summer job. He fully plans to go back to teaching in the fall but little does he know things will never be the same once he learns about the Albuquerque Door.

"In the Kill" by K. Sterling

Book 1 in the Lavender series is about a hit man and the artist whom he is sent to kill.  However, once he meets Sage Bradley, "Mr. Lavender" is sure that he's about to assassinate the wrong man.  Surely someone so talented who devotes his spare time to helping homeless teenagers and knitting hats for the elderly is not deserving of death.  Lavender must figure out who hired him to kill an innocent man and why before another assassin is sent to finish the job and him with it.  Although not a full length novel, it was packed with exciting scenes and kept me guessing how things would turn out.  109 pages (Kindle edition).

"If the Seas Catch Fire" by L.A. Witt

This excellent book about two hit men in the Mafia controlled town of Cape Swan, CA, is one of the best I have ever read.  Domenico “Dom” Maisano is the nephew of Corrado Maisano, the head of one of the Mafia families.  He's a "made man" and has few choices in his life as his uncle's hit man, which he has always hated.  When Sergei Andronikov saves him during a beating, Dom pursues a temporary, no-strings relationship with the man before Dom is forced to marry a woman to keep up appearances and appease his uncle.  He thinks Sergei is a stripper but he's actually a contract killer whose goal in life is to wipe out the Mafia families who destroyed his own family when he was a boy.

I cannot praise the writing, story line, and character development enough.  Dom and Sergei have tragic and emotional back stories which allow the reader to understand their motivations for doing what they do.  Full of action, tenderness, suspense, despair, eroticism, fear, thrills, and more, this story will stick with me for a long, long time.  Highly recommended.  451 pages (Kindle edition).

"Lover on Top: A Firefighter Romance" by Kristine Cayne

Another "later in life" coming out story, this one features "Hollywood" Wright, a firefighter who seems to love the ladies.  When he accidentally sets his kitchen on fire, he moves in with his best friend's younger brother, Chad, an out and proud paramedic.  Confusion, denial, and misunderstandings ensue along with a dangerous situation.  It doesn't help that Hollywood's father is a rabid homophobe who holds a high ranking position in the fire department.  Even though the two main characters acted like brats sometimes, I still liked the story.  292 pages (Kindle edition).

"Secrets and Lies" by Amanda Young

This is the first book in the Daywalker Legacy and features two brothers who are vampires.  Cadge won't leave his apartment due to his deep mourning for a dead lover, which leaves Teague to run their club alone.  Soon Teague's own lover stop seeing him, and he panics that nightfeeders may have gotten to him.  This was a different sort of story with gay vampire brothers fighting their own kind and nightfeeders to protect a human.  144 pages (Kindle edition).

"Salvation" by Sloane Kennedy

Book two in The Protectors Series features Seth Nichols, whose parents were murdered and he was tortured when he was 14.  Now 21, he's trying to run his father's shipping company and deal with his PTSD and self-doubt.  He once had an older brother, but he died while serving in the military.  Out of the blue, his brother's fiance, Ronan Grisham, appears and throws Seth's life into even more turmoil because he's had a crush on the man since he was a teen.  Now someone is after Seth, and Ronan will do everything he can to protect him even if it breaks both of their hearts.  Like the previous book in this series, there was a ton of angst, terrible traumas in both men's lives, guilt, and suspense.  I was annoyed at how often Seth and Ronan pushed each other away then changed their minds, but it was still an interesting story.  367 pages (Kindle edition.)

"Absolution" by Sloane Kennedy

This is book one in The Protectors Series and deals with three men who've all suffered some form of trauma.  Jonas was kicked out of his home at age 14 for being gay and spent several years as a teenage prostitute before having even more tragedy befall him.  Mace's son was kidnapped and murdered by a killer.  Cole faced the traumas of war before losing his sister, who was Jonah's best friend.  Now someone has hired Mace to kill Jonah for bogus reasons, and Cole gets involved.  This novel was full of angst and heavy and was not quite believable at times, but it was a compelling story.  356 pages (Kindle edition.)

Long Lost by David Morrell

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

His younger brother was kidnapped  by a cult family, raised for decade.  His life was bad, he did bad things.  He’s back and now he wants his brother's family and will kill to get it.

Audio:  7 hrs. 9 min.
Print:  384 pages

"Fish Stick Fridays" by Rhys Ford

Opposites attract in this romantic suspense novel about a biker dude trying to do right by his eight-year-old niece and a wealthy bookstore owner in small town California.  Deacon Reid is trying to raise his dead sister's foul mouthed daughter away from the chaos they were both born into.  He buys a garage in Half Moon Bay and rents a house from Lang Harris, who owns a bookstore just down the street.  They both feel attraction when they meet but are wary of getting too close to each other due to mistrust in past relationships.  Then things blow up, people get shot, and craziness ensues.  But who is the target?  Unusual characters and a whodunit make this an above average read, but the little girl cussed so much that it was a distraction for me.  204 pages (Kindle edition).

"Cover Me" by L.A. Witt

Nick Swain is a paramedic answering a call in a bad neighborhood where several people have been shot when he has a gun shoved in his face and threatened with death for trying to treat one of the victims.  Although he makes it through the call, the friend of another victim who died at the scene labels him a racist and threatens to kill him, too.  The media then steps in to publicize all of this, and Nick's normal life is turned upside down.  He begins to have panic attacks and feels like he's being followed.  Andrew Carmichael, a police detective whose wounded partner Nick treated at the shooting, tries to help him cope while tracking down the two men who threatened Nick.  But Nick is becoming unwound, and when a bullet is left on the dashboard of his car, he feels doomed.

This was an exciting and well written story, especially the descriptions of Nick's anxiety and fear when he has to go back into the bad neighborhood to answer another emergency and is nearly mobbed.  He and Andrew connect with their high stress and dangerous jobs, and the author did well in explaining the helplessness both men feel in their situations.  I'd like to read more since this is the first book in a series.  325 pages (Kindle edition).

"The Company We Keep" by Kay Simone

The Company is a gang run by A.R. Carrow and his handpicked family of criminals.  They pull off dramatic heists around southern California for themselves and others and have stolen billions in the process.  When their demolition expert is killed, they must find a replacement who not only won't blow them to bits but will fit in with their family of outcasts and misfits.  Enter Dustin Wrenshall, an explosives professional who seems to pass all of their tests and who pushes the self control of Carrow with his fearless flirtation.  However, Dustin is really Charlie Judge, an FBI agent who's been trained to infiltrate and take down The Company.  (No, this isn't a spoiler; it's in the book's description.)

This is the best book I have read in a quite a while.  Everything the author did was spot on, and she seamlessly went back and forth between past and present, including Charlie's and Carrow's childhoods.  I was totally hooked not just by the suspense but also the characters and their relationships with each other.  The struggle that Dustin/Charlie has with working the case and his feelings for The Company nearly tear him and everyone else apart.  It was a really unusual and well written story, and I can't wait to read more by this author.  271 pages (Kindle edition).

A Bloodhound To Die For by Virginia Lanier

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

JoBeth leaves her ex, Bubba.  JoBeth and her dogs hunt for a woman in the swamp.  JoBeth hunts for an escaped prisoner.  JoBeth hunts for one of her dogs.

The Promise by Rober Crais

Posted for Paul Mathews

Elvis Cole looks for Amy, who lost her son to a terrorist bomber. She disappears with money and her expertise of explosives.

Audio:  8 hrs. 6 min.
Print:  416 pages

The Gangster by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

The Italian American gang the Black Hand will attempt to kill President Teddy Roosevelt in 1905 and almost succeed.  387 pages.

"Part & Parcel" by Abigail Roux

This latest installment in the "Cut & Run" universe finds Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder reunited again, this time on a quest left by their fallen comrade Elias Sanchez.  Nick O'Flaherty is recovering from injuries sustained in the book "Crash & Burn" with boyfriend Kelly Abbott trying his best to help.  With lots of down time, Nick decides to go through storage boxes and discovers letters from Sanchez addressed to the Sidewinder team, so he gets the guys together for a cross-country adventure that turns out to be more emotional than any of them had anticipated.

I was so glad to see Ty Grady and Zane Garrett again; they are the heart of the "Cut & Run" universe since the actual "C&R" series was about them.  This book focuses on Nick and Kelly's relationship but also gives us more insight to the other two Sidewinder members, Digger and Owen Johns.  Another plus - Ty brings along his two new kittens (which really wasn't plausible but still fun to picture).  This story is another winner for Roux.  Hooray for team Sidewinder!  270 pages (Kindle edition).

The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Thirty year old murder is solved and revenge is enjoyed in France with food and wine; she may not be caught, hopefully.

Audio:  10 hours 54 minutes

Print:  384 pages

"Blood Kiss" by J.R. Ward

This is the first book in the Black Dagger Legacy, a spin off of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and centers on Paradise and Craeg, two of the newest vampires recruited by the BDB to fight the Lessening Society in their ongoing war.  Paradise is part of the glymera, the vampire aristocracy, and Craeg is a vampire commoner.  They, along with five other recruits, make it through a series of obstacles to begin their training with the Brothers Butch, Tohr, Z, Phury, and Rhage.  Although female members of the glymera are supposed to be protected instead of protectors, Paradise is determined to be a fighter.

Craeg has a different reason for wanting to fight; his entire family was killed in the raids made by the Lessoning Society.  He also hates the glymera because his father was working at an aristocrat's home when it was raided, and the commoners on the grounds were kept out of the safe rooms.  Craeg can't deny his growing attraction to Paradise, which he sees as a distraction to his training.  He also doesn't know that she's an aristocrat.

This book also focuses on the communication problems of mated pair Butch and Marissa and how the murder of a female vampire brings them closer.  It was good to read about the original Brothers and their shellans (mates) in addition to introducing new characters that will fight with them.  The scene where the ladies get together to watch Magic Mike was pretty funny.  This was a much smaller and tighter book than the last few BDB books, which I appreciated.  I am ready for the next installment! 399 pages.

"Between States" Trilogy by J.M. Snyder

This was an unusual set of novellas that feature two men who are bobcat shifters during the time of the Civil War.  Brance is a northerner, and Caleb is a southerner, but neither of them wants to be a soldier.  When they discover that they have the same involuntary ability to shift into bobcats during the full moon, they run away together and try their best to live as hermits knowing that their secret will cost them their lives if they are caught.

"Under a Confederate Moon" (Book 1):  This book details how the two men meet when Brance is captured by Confederate soldiers and how he and Caleb eventually desert their regiments.  49 pages (Kindle edition).

"Beneath a Yankee Sky" (Book 2):  This one describes a bit of Brance's background growing up as the eldest son of a cold Amish preacher as well as how he and Caleb escape to Pennsylvania but run into dangerous fur trappers.  50 pages (Kindle edition).

"A More Perfect Union" (Book 3):  Brance and Caleb are discovered by another shifter - a female who is pregnant and won't leave them in peace.  67 pages (Kindle edition).

The Redeemers by Ace Atkins

(Posted for Paul Mathews)

Sheriff Colson’s term is finished, but there's a botched robbery and stolen safe with secrets that can take down the local kingpin.

Audio:  13 hrs. 52 min.

Print:  370 pages