Review: Lady & The Vamp by Michelle Rowen

Product Description:

She fights.

Janie Parker’s a supernatural assassin - not by choice, but what’s a girl gonna do? The only thing standing between her and decapitation at the hands of her hellish boss is a magical artifact called The Eye. To get it, all Janie has to do is find a dark, broody vampire named Michael Quinn and take it. Easy, right? Except if Quinn keeps kissing her that way, she just might lose her head…in more ways than one.

He bites.

Former vampire hunter Michael Quinn is determined to become human again. If he grabs hold of The Eye and makes a wish - then boom, everything’s good with the world. But now Quinn has a sassy tagalong with a long, delectable neck and orders to stake him on sight. He just hopes his first bite won’t be Janie’s last moment on earth…


My Review:

I thought this third book in the Immortality Bites series was a perfect addition to the series. The book lived up to the previous two books Bitten & Smitten and Fanged & Fabulous with fun characters and a great in-depth story line. It does stand alone if you haven’t read the previous two books but I highly recommend all three for paranormal lovers.

Review: Lady & The Vamp by Michelle Rowen

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/04/review-lady-vamp-by-michelle-rowan.html

Review: The Rivers Run Dry by Sibella Giorello

Courtesy of Thomas Nelson

Author's Website

When Special Agent Raleigh Harmon is called in to assist the local police with a routine missing person case it quickly escalates into a special circumstances case when the mission girl is revealed to be the daughter of a rich and powerful Seattle couple. Using her forensic geologist background Raleigh gathers clues but can’t quite seem to piece everything together.

Suddenly things take a difficult turn when a ransom note arrives and suspicion turns to one of her fellow agents. Being new to the Seattle bureau she doesn’t know who to trust. To make matters worse, at home her mother’s mental condition is deteriorating and her aunt has called in her clairvoyant friend in to “help” Raleigh which only leads to more frustration as she tries to track down the kidnapper before its too late.

The Rivers Run Dry had a very slow start but after about the first quarter of the book things started to pick up nicely and I quickly finished the rest of the story. The kidnapper was a complete surprise and I love that in a mystery book. To me it shows that Giorella took her time with the plot and not just rushed through it to complete the book.

I also loved all the characters in the book. Raleigh was a tough agent but clearly still a woman and there are plenty of quirky characters thrown in to make the suspense book a lot of fun. This is a must read for suspense/thriller lovers.

Review: The Rivers Run Dry by Sibella Giorello

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/04/review-rivers-run-dry-by-sibella.html

Review: Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man by Steve Harvey

Comedian Steve Harvey of the nationally syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show shares with us his ideas on how a woman can catch and keep a man. He gives us a heads up (in case we didn’t already know this) that most men are out for one thing only. There are tips on how spot a mama’s boy, how to train your man and even answers the questions you’ve always wanted to ask a man but never did.

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would. A lot of woman who’ve read this book have been offended or turned off by his thoughts saying that he’s sexist. First of all he’s a comedian not a relation ship guru but second of all there’s a lot of truth to what he shares. If you start a relationship by letting the man run all over you that’s what he’ll do the whole time but if you put your foot down in the very beginning he’ll either shape up or ship out. And no one knows this better than Steve Harvey… his wife did it to him when they first got together.

Nothing I read was new to me but seeing it laid out like this by a man just kind of gives you a refreshing take on it. Harvey is direct at times but he’s always honest with humor thrown in. And the book is not just for single women in the dating world but for any woman in a relationship or not. I was reminded of a few things I could do to improve my own marriage and I recommend this to anyone who wants to understand men better.

Review: Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man by Steve Harvey

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/04/review-act-like-lady-think-like-man-by.html

Review: Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

Sixteen-year old Hailey Trosclair’s family is going through a tough patch in the midst of a tough life in a lower class neighborhood in New Orleans. Recently her mother had a miscarriage and her father lost his job.

After the miscarriage her mother turned to religion to heal her family but neither Hailey nor her older brother Cyrus could embrace it as fully as she did. In fact Hailey questions why her family has to face so many hardships if her mother is praying all the time. The answer she gets comes from an unlikely source, failed preacher and ex-con, Moses. He tells her that sometimes things have to get worse before they can be saved and what unfolds from there definitely proves that point.

Dirty Little Angels is a dark and gritty story with characters so real I swear Tusa is writing about people I know. He captures Hailey’s voice along with her growing angst perfectly and the secondary characters are remarkable and I especially loved the way the title ties into the story. The writing flowed perfectly chapter after chapter but the reason it’s not rated higher is that I wish the story had more depth. There was no build up or intensity and although there is a shocking conclusion the book didn’t have the page turning affect I expected from such great writing.

A recommended read for fiction lovers

Review: Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/04/review-dirty-little-angels-by-chris.html

Review: Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman

Reviewed for I Just Finished

When freelance insurance adjuster Fifi Cutter accepted her latest job she thought completing it would be a piece of cake. She never expected a simple debunking of a workers comp claim would turn into a murder investigation.

The person in question was employed as a document clerk by the law firm of Wong, Wu & Chu when he filed the claim. In the middle of her investigation he is murdered and Fifi’s best friend who also works at Wong, Wu & Chu recommends her as his replacement when they begin a high profile case against the charter jet company that hired the ”crazy fool” that kills five.

Crazy Fool Kills Five was a fun read that I zoomed through in just one day. Freeman brings us an absolutely hilarious character in Fifi. She cracked me up from the very beginning and kept up the witty exchanges throughout the book.

This is also book two in the Fifi Cutter mystery series and a couple of incidents that I assume appeared in Murder... Suicide... Whatever... were briefly mentioned in Crazy Fool Kills Five but it’s definitely a stand alone read. I don’t see any more books in the series on the horizon but I hope I’m wrong. Fifi is too good of a character to go away. I highly recommend this one to mystery and cozy lovers.

Review: Crazy Fool Kills Five by Gwen Freeman

https://www.readingwithmonie.com/2009/04/review-crazy-fool-kills-five-by-gwen.html