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jbarr5's review
5.0
Carina Press Presents: Editor's Choice Volume I
ISBN: 9781426893834
3 short novels in this collection: I was only familiar with one and loved all the stories in this selection.
Kilts and Kraken by Cindy Spencer Pape,
Magnus has attempted to slay the beast but has been overpowered.
Dr. Geneva MacKay was to go north to heal Magnus.
Love time frame of King Arthur days and love learning about methods used in heal and wound care.
Ginny is one of the best bone setters and she needs to realign his pelvic bones if he is to ever walk again. Luckily he's still unconscious.
Love how descriptive the location is, the castle and what the laird was doing with steam power, makes me feel like I am there.
Magnus has a magick aura about him that the women healers are there to find out about.
THe women were to bring him back to his island when the others came for him, it was his only wish when he was awake for a minute.
After he is semi recovered others come to their aid on the island as the kraken is still attacking them because of all the modernization going on.
Ginny's sister and other relatives arrive in the airship and help in killing one of the squids. The explanation of how it explodes is truly a work of genius.
They all try to help to figure out who wants him dead and his magick powers gone.
When Ginny is missing Magnus sets out to search the whole island and to get down to why she was summoned away from the castle.
They find other clues to solve the mysteries.
.
Negotiating Point by Adrienne Giordano
Gavin is a kidnapping negotiator and hopes to find out where his bosses wife is being held. The bad guys had sent her husband Mike an email with the link stating one of their own was unjustly accused and in jail and they need to not only release him but put it on the front page of the paper she works for.
Mike and Gavin wanted the tech geek Janet Fink along in solving this and Roxanne, Mike's wife was pregnant.
Using Facebook updates they are able to understand about the kidnappers and Gavin and Janet move into a house across the street from where Roxanne is being held hostage.
They have a lot of surveillance on the house and are able to stay on top of things 24/7. They also have a lot of time to get one another better.
They track down some leverage to use so maybe the kidnapper will give up and walk out without harming anybody....
.
.
Slow Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacey
Cameron Mayfield lived at the camp in New Hampshire year round. He enjoyed his cable TV, drinking beer at the end of his dock and sleeping and eating. He had promised Jim Frasier, the neighbor with the cmap next door that he'd look after his granddaughter Anna while she was there.
Anna Frasier had worked in NY, finance district but she was downsized out of a job and now at her grandparents cabin in the woods. Man next door had helped to bring in her luggage but she had no idea what to do with herself.
She's already gotten on his nerves cuz she had no food and didn't drive so he'd have to do it, and on a Sunday.
He's got time on his hands so teaches her how to drive his truck. She is to start knitting classes at the library once her grandmothers bike is fixed. She starts to spruce up the place by planting flowers, painting trim, etc
Lots of laughs when he finds out she's a Yankees fan and he's a Red Sox fan!
They become very familiar with one another and then she gets a call about a job offer, in the city...
ISBN: 9781426893834
3 short novels in this collection: I was only familiar with one and loved all the stories in this selection.
Kilts and Kraken by Cindy Spencer Pape,
Magnus has attempted to slay the beast but has been overpowered.
Dr. Geneva MacKay was to go north to heal Magnus.
Love time frame of King Arthur days and love learning about methods used in heal and wound care.
Ginny is one of the best bone setters and she needs to realign his pelvic bones if he is to ever walk again. Luckily he's still unconscious.
Love how descriptive the location is, the castle and what the laird was doing with steam power, makes me feel like I am there.
Magnus has a magick aura about him that the women healers are there to find out about.
THe women were to bring him back to his island when the others came for him, it was his only wish when he was awake for a minute.
After he is semi recovered others come to their aid on the island as the kraken is still attacking them because of all the modernization going on.
Ginny's sister and other relatives arrive in the airship and help in killing one of the squids. The explanation of how it explodes is truly a work of genius.
They all try to help to figure out who wants him dead and his magick powers gone.
When Ginny is missing Magnus sets out to search the whole island and to get down to why she was summoned away from the castle.
They find other clues to solve the mysteries.
.
Negotiating Point by Adrienne Giordano
Gavin is a kidnapping negotiator and hopes to find out where his bosses wife is being held. The bad guys had sent her husband Mike an email with the link stating one of their own was unjustly accused and in jail and they need to not only release him but put it on the front page of the paper she works for.
Mike and Gavin wanted the tech geek Janet Fink along in solving this and Roxanne, Mike's wife was pregnant.
Using Facebook updates they are able to understand about the kidnappers and Gavin and Janet move into a house across the street from where Roxanne is being held hostage.
They have a lot of surveillance on the house and are able to stay on top of things 24/7. They also have a lot of time to get one another better.
They track down some leverage to use so maybe the kidnapper will give up and walk out without harming anybody....
.
.
Slow Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacey
Cameron Mayfield lived at the camp in New Hampshire year round. He enjoyed his cable TV, drinking beer at the end of his dock and sleeping and eating. He had promised Jim Frasier, the neighbor with the cmap next door that he'd look after his granddaughter Anna while she was there.
Anna Frasier had worked in NY, finance district but she was downsized out of a job and now at her grandparents cabin in the woods. Man next door had helped to bring in her luggage but she had no idea what to do with herself.
She's already gotten on his nerves cuz she had no food and didn't drive so he'd have to do it, and on a Sunday.
He's got time on his hands so teaches her how to drive his truck. She is to start knitting classes at the library once her grandmothers bike is fixed. She starts to spruce up the place by planting flowers, painting trim, etc
Lots of laughs when he finds out she's a Yankees fan and he's a Red Sox fan!
They become very familiar with one another and then she gets a call about a job offer, in the city...
cranberrytarts's review
4.0
All three stories brought something different to the collection. All three were extremely enjoyable.
beckymmoe's review
4.0
An interesting collection of novellas from two readers who are new to me and one I've read before.
Slow Summer Kisses was definitely my favorite of the three, and it's probably not a coincidence that Shannon Stacey is also the author I've read before. Slow Summer Kisses is a short, sweet summer read about Anna, a woman who is used to living life in the fast lane...until her job is downsized and she starts suffering health issues related to stress. She decides to move into her grandparents' summer camp temporarily, just until she can refresh, recharge, and get another high-pressure job. She barely remembers Cameron, the boy who was two years older and who she hasn't seen since she was last at her grandparents' camp at the age of ten. Cam too used to live a fast-paced life, until his father's death from a heart attack caused him to rethink his life choices. He left his career as a big-city lawyer and now does carpentry and odd jobs, and is one of the few people who live on the lake year-round. Anna and Cam get on each other's nerves from the start; neither can (or wants to) understand the other. Is it possible, though, that they just might be able to give each other what they didn't even know they needed? What will happen when Anna gets called back to the big city?
Negotiating Point is a novella in the Private Protectors series, but it's not necessary to have read the books before it to appreciate this one. Though be warned, it will probably make you want to! In this story, the wife of the owner of the security firm, Roxann (introduced in an earlier book in the series, Risking Trust), has been taken hostage. The time frame of the story is essentially the single day stake-out of the farmhouse in which the HTs (hostage takers) are holding her. The main characters are Gavin, a former top negotiator in the FBI, and Janet, the firm's computer specialist. The two had apparently shared a fairly heated kiss a few weeks before the action of the novella takes place, and were still feeling its effects as they entered into this highly charged situation. Out of the three stories, this one definitely felt the most rushed to me. I did like their story, but it could have benefited from more character and relationship development. Still, it had me looking up the other books in the series, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've already purchased one on my Nook, Man Law. It's just moved up on my "to read" list. :)
Kilts & Kraken was a pretty good story, and though of the three my least favorite, I did enjoy it overall. I'm not sure steampunk is quite my "thing", but it is hard to tell with such a short sample. I did enjoy the characters, though I felt as if our relationship was unnaturally brief. It was fairly easy to figure out "whodunnit" in this one--I pretty much had the culprits pegged from the first scene that they were in--and overall the issues in the story were solved pretty darn quickly. Again, it's a novella. I wouldn't mind reading more from this author if the opportunity arose.
Overall, this anthology achieved its purpose--introducing readers to a nice selection of genres and authors they might not have read before and encouraging them to read more.
Slow Summer Kisses was definitely my favorite of the three, and it's probably not a coincidence that Shannon Stacey is also the author I've read before. Slow Summer Kisses is a short, sweet summer read about Anna, a woman who is used to living life in the fast lane...until her job is downsized and she starts suffering health issues related to stress. She decides to move into her grandparents' summer camp temporarily, just until she can refresh, recharge, and get another high-pressure job. She barely remembers Cameron, the boy who was two years older and who she hasn't seen since she was last at her grandparents' camp at the age of ten. Cam too used to live a fast-paced life, until his father's death from a heart attack caused him to rethink his life choices. He left his career as a big-city lawyer and now does carpentry and odd jobs, and is one of the few people who live on the lake year-round. Anna and Cam get on each other's nerves from the start; neither can (or wants to) understand the other. Is it possible, though, that they just might be able to give each other what they didn't even know they needed? What will happen when Anna gets called back to the big city?
Negotiating Point is a novella in the Private Protectors series, but it's not necessary to have read the books before it to appreciate this one. Though be warned, it will probably make you want to! In this story, the wife of the owner of the security firm, Roxann (introduced in an earlier book in the series, Risking Trust), has been taken hostage. The time frame of the story is essentially the single day stake-out of the farmhouse in which the HTs (hostage takers) are holding her. The main characters are Gavin, a former top negotiator in the FBI, and Janet, the firm's computer specialist. The two had apparently shared a fairly heated kiss a few weeks before the action of the novella takes place, and were still feeling its effects as they entered into this highly charged situation. Out of the three stories, this one definitely felt the most rushed to me. I did like their story, but it could have benefited from more character and relationship development. Still, it had me looking up the other books in the series, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've already purchased one on my Nook, Man Law. It's just moved up on my "to read" list. :)
Kilts & Kraken was a pretty good story, and though of the three my least favorite, I did enjoy it overall. I'm not sure steampunk is quite my "thing", but it is hard to tell with such a short sample. I did enjoy the characters, though I felt as if our relationship was unnaturally brief. It was fairly easy to figure out "whodunnit" in this one--I pretty much had the culprits pegged from the first scene that they were in--and overall the issues in the story were solved pretty darn quickly. Again, it's a novella. I wouldn't mind reading more from this author if the opportunity arose.
Overall, this anthology achieved its purpose--introducing readers to a nice selection of genres and authors they might not have read before and encouraging them to read more.
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