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melsbookshelf's review
3.0
2.5 Stars
There is something about a good romantic suspense. The thrills and danger puts you in a certain frame of mind, so that when the romance hits, when it is done well, it’s breathtaking… I had to give these short stories a go after I saw the cover.. But the cover was a bit deceiving, I would read ANYTHING Sandra Brown writes, but she only edited it and did a brief sentence or two to introduce you to all the stories. I guess they did the cover for suckers like me who see Sandra Brown and go “OK IM READING IT!”. Having said that though, some of the stories were really good, however others were not so good.
I’m not going to go through all the stories as there were WAY too many of them to review one at a time. So I will mention the stand outs. I really enjoyed “Hot Note” even though it was more a paranormal story. Last Shot was another stand out about a very special scanning machine. Again more paranormal, but it was a great story! I also enjoyed Without Mercy, far from a romance I thought, but a great story… I guess the better ones for me were actually the ones with a better story and less romance. I felt a bit let down by the quality of the stories to be honest.
I can see how it is difficult to develop romantic suspense in a short story. After all it takes tension to get a good romantic build up. Therefore the majority of the stories involved two people who already know each other, and have been apart for a while, only to come back together. This is fine and lovely, but it got old after a while. The only story I feel that got a good new romance blossoming with an original story was the first one, Diamond Drop. I felt this was extremely clever compared to the others. Otherwise the story was about a couple who were already an item and something else happens to bring them closer together. These stories got old fast too.
I just didn’t love it enough to rate it higher. The good stories did not outweigh the average ones in my opinion, and for a compilation of romantic suspense stories, I felt a lot of suspense, but was totally let down in the romance department!
And that last story?? WTF was that Lee Child?? That was the first Lee Child writing I have ever read and its not making me want to pick up any Jack Reacher books any time soon!
The narration however, was superb! How fantastic were Christopher Lane and Shannon McManus! They totally salvaged this book for me! I am so glad I had listened to the narration rather than read it, because I don’t know if I would have made it through otherwise!
Would I recommend it?
As I said, a few of the stories were good, however mostly It was a bit of a let down. If you are interested, the audio version was really well done and made it much more enjoyable.
For more reviews visit my blog
www.booksbabiesbeing.com
Find me on Twitter
www.twitter.com/BBB_Mel
There is something about a good romantic suspense. The thrills and danger puts you in a certain frame of mind, so that when the romance hits, when it is done well, it’s breathtaking… I had to give these short stories a go after I saw the cover.. But the cover was a bit deceiving, I would read ANYTHING Sandra Brown writes, but she only edited it and did a brief sentence or two to introduce you to all the stories. I guess they did the cover for suckers like me who see Sandra Brown and go “OK IM READING IT!”. Having said that though, some of the stories were really good, however others were not so good.
I’m not going to go through all the stories as there were WAY too many of them to review one at a time. So I will mention the stand outs. I really enjoyed “Hot Note” even though it was more a paranormal story. Last Shot was another stand out about a very special scanning machine. Again more paranormal, but it was a great story! I also enjoyed Without Mercy, far from a romance I thought, but a great story… I guess the better ones for me were actually the ones with a better story and less romance. I felt a bit let down by the quality of the stories to be honest.
I can see how it is difficult to develop romantic suspense in a short story. After all it takes tension to get a good romantic build up. Therefore the majority of the stories involved two people who already know each other, and have been apart for a while, only to come back together. This is fine and lovely, but it got old after a while. The only story I feel that got a good new romance blossoming with an original story was the first one, Diamond Drop. I felt this was extremely clever compared to the others. Otherwise the story was about a couple who were already an item and something else happens to bring them closer together. These stories got old fast too.
I just didn’t love it enough to rate it higher. The good stories did not outweigh the average ones in my opinion, and for a compilation of romantic suspense stories, I felt a lot of suspense, but was totally let down in the romance department!
And that last story?? WTF was that Lee Child?? That was the first Lee Child writing I have ever read and its not making me want to pick up any Jack Reacher books any time soon!
The narration however, was superb! How fantastic were Christopher Lane and Shannon McManus! They totally salvaged this book for me! I am so glad I had listened to the narration rather than read it, because I don’t know if I would have made it through otherwise!
Would I recommend it?
As I said, a few of the stories were good, however mostly It was a bit of a let down. If you are interested, the audio version was really well done and made it much more enjoyable.
For more reviews visit my blog
www.booksbabiesbeing.com
Find me on Twitter
www.twitter.com/BBB_Mel
pandemoniumpizza's review
What an amazing short story anthology. After finishing this book it’s going to be hard to find a book with one great author in it let alone the 30 odd in this one.
The book obviously has some very high calibre authors many of them are names I know very well and usually when I read a short story anthology by various authors I find some that aren’t very good but in this book I loved every single story. They are all extremely well written and well thought out. They’re all absolutely brilliant.
I really liked Sandra Brown’s commentary before each story. It was short and to the point and peaked my interest in ever story.
This being the third anthology and the third I read I feel as though it was even better than the previous two anthologies.
Oftentimes it’s hard to talk about short story anthologies because some of the stories are bad, some are good, you’re not sure whether to talk about each individual story and what you thought of it. As I was reading this one I was trying to figure out this for myself but every story I came upon was amazing.
If there was one thing that I got out of this book was entertainment. I feel as though every single story had entertainment value. Some of the stories I thought they were a little odd to start with but once I had gotten to the end it all made sense and it wasn’t awful anymore.
All that being said, just go read this book. I don’t care if you don’t like short stories, this is one anthology that is definitely worth reading.
The book obviously has some very high calibre authors many of them are names I know very well and usually when I read a short story anthology by various authors I find some that aren’t very good but in this book I loved every single story. They are all extremely well written and well thought out. They’re all absolutely brilliant.
I really liked Sandra Brown’s commentary before each story. It was short and to the point and peaked my interest in ever story.
This being the third anthology and the third I read I feel as though it was even better than the previous two anthologies.
Oftentimes it’s hard to talk about short story anthologies because some of the stories are bad, some are good, you’re not sure whether to talk about each individual story and what you thought of it. As I was reading this one I was trying to figure out this for myself but every story I came upon was amazing.
If there was one thing that I got out of this book was entertainment. I feel as though every single story had entertainment value. Some of the stories I thought they were a little odd to start with but once I had gotten to the end it all made sense and it wasn’t awful anymore.
All that being said, just go read this book. I don’t care if you don’t like short stories, this is one anthology that is definitely worth reading.
natalea's review
3.0
Short novella, a prequel to the first book in Lucy Kincaid series. Sweet and readable, not a masterpiece in any sense but an hour's relative fun. Obvious killer and a bit larger than life but not the worst crime story I ever read either :)
imzadirose's review
3.0
i don't enjoy short stories, but i wanted to read the stories of the series i do read. there were some short stories i didn't read in this book, i don't read all the authors.
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