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crystalstarrlight's review
3.0
Disclaimer: I have been reading and reviewing for over a decade, and in that time, I have grown and changed a lot. My views in the following review reflect the person I was when I wrote them and may not reflect who I am today - for better or for worse. While I would love to be able to reread and update my reviews to reflect who I am today, I think my time is better dedicated elsewhere. If you choose to read this review, please bear in mind this attitude.
NOTE: I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program
I Liked:
The story opens up very interesting, and pretty gripping. It dies off (see below), but, fortunately, resumes for the latter half of the book. Particularly after the 200 page mark, I found the story going much quicker, flipping pages, urgent to find out what happens next, what the heck happened to Sam and Forester (and getting a few answers too, instead of just more questions).
Credit must be given to Laura Caldwell, as she writes in a very clear, nice manner. She is definitely a good writer, able to create her scenes well. She sets up a very believable atmosphere and puts her characters right in. The scene I especially enjoyed was the one with Mayburn and Izzy sneaking into Forester's mansion. I was reading this part at night, and it spooked me, when Izzy spotted the flicker of light. Very good writing indeed!
My favorite character was, oddly enough, Q. Somehow, I just clicked with him. I liked how he (for the most part) bucked the stereotypical gay guy. I just felt for him, as he lost his boyfriend, his job, his purpose in life, and as he found a new partner.
Another character I didn't mind was Mayburn. The grizzled guy does his job without going too gah-gah over Izzy. Yeah, it's a little hard to believe he would really allow her to help him with his job, but at least the author attempted to make it believable why Izzy would be solving this crime.
And I know this is incredibly petty, but I positively adored the cover art. The rich red, pure white, the broken rose...absolutely stunning! And what drew me to the book in the first place!
I Didn't Like:
In my typical fashion, I'll number them to keep myself from going overboard or repeating myself.
1.Izzy McNeil. Honestly, I couldn't stand her. She is a red-head (what IS it with red-headed lawyers, anyway? Lisa Scottoline had one in Courting Trouble...is it a trend or something?), hot, sexy, young, talented, well-to-do, can learn how to PI in a single bound (and even go on to brag how easy it is to listen to two or even three or four conversations all at the same time), who dresses scantily and wonders why someone is glaring at her you know what's...shall we go on? If she has any flaws whatsoever it's either that she never wears a helmet when riding her Vespa or that she spends way too much time remembering things when she should be investigating. Seriously. The only people in the book who hate her are the Big BadsTM (namely her arrogant coworker, Tanner, whom she feels she can tromp without any repercussions any day). Forester loves her, Shane loves her, Q loves her, Maggie loves her, Sam loves her, Grady loves her, Mayburn loves her...I can understand that she has friends, a fiancee, and coworkers she gets along with, but this is just plain outlandish! She intense feelings for Forester are strange for a lawyer-client relationship, and the "adoptive father" angle is above and beyond weird. And then, she has to take these strange tangents, remembering when Bunny gave her deodorant, when Sam proposed to her...I kept wanting to yell at her, "Investigate already!" The last thing that really bugged me is when she is about to lose her biggest client, she complains a lot about going back to being a mere associate, acting as if she is getting fired. I understand it's gotta be hard to be "demoted", but girlfriend, you have a job, and a well-paying one at that. Don't complain that you aren't top dog, highest earning lawyer at Baltimore & Brown and are only making 80k a year. These were big reasons I could never really "root" for Izzy.
2.Forester Pickett. He started out fairly interesting, but I can only take so much of the "He loves everyone" motif. Being generous with benefits packages for his employees. Making friends within one day of meeting Izzy and then being a pseudo-dad figure (enough that Izzy goes to the hospital after he dies--what lawyer, who isn't working on the estate, does that?). Coupling up Izzy and Sam. Befriending Q AND his partner, Max. At least, Caldwell does give him some "faults" towards the end, the one being his affair with Victoria, but even with this flaw and the knowledge that people tend to over-inflate the goodness of someone at his/her death, I still had trouble stomaching it.
3.Slow pacing. S.L.O.W. A.G.O.N.I.Z.I.N.G. P.A.C.I.N.G. The story opens good enough (there has to be some backstory, some setting the stage, etc.). And then for the next 100+ pages in wades in little unimportant backstories, introducing all these meaningless characters (Izzy's wedding coordinator, her dress maker, her mom, Bunny, Maggie, her second cousin's step-sister's ex-boyfriend's pet poodle...). I don't really care about them, I want to get to the exciting part, the part where Izzy gets off her duff and starts figuring out where the heck Sam went. The book is marketed as a thriller, after all. Thank God the latter half is not that way!
4.Shift in person. When it's Izzy, the author writes in first person past. When it is Forester, Mayburn or Sam, she switches to third person past. And then the last chapter is written in first person present. I think it is rather jarring and really doesn't help the story out more (though I can see why she tried to use this method).
5.Conclusion. The reason Sam fled with the shares is stupid and made me not want to finish it. His reason is practically spelled out in the book, early on, with a Sharpie. And then the real bad guy, the one who killed Forester, is so stereotypical that I wanted to slam my head into a wall.
Overall:
I can't help review this without giving a shoutout to Lisa Scottoline's Courting Trouble. Both were about sexy, saucy, somewhat dippy, red-head lawyers who got messed up in some yucky business. Scottoline's red-head had more humor, but Caldwell's red-head seemed more grounded, a better lawyer, more professional. But both suffer from a few similar faults: über sexy female leads, whom everyone gushes over and adores, and a lagging plot at one point or another betwixt their pages.
Caldwell writes very well, that much is certain. And once Izzy starts actually investigating Sam's disappearance, the plot moves quickly, flows with ease. But ultimately, I have to rate this 3 stars and say I am not curious to read the next entry in this trilogy.
NOTE: I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine Program
Spoiler
Izzy McNeil is a red-hot lawyer with an important red-hot client, media guru, Forester, and is about to marry red-hot Sam Hollings, who works on Forester's finances. But things take a turn for the worse when Forester suddenly dies, Sam goes missing, AND 30 million in Panama shares goes missing from Forester's safe, implicating Sam. Can Izzy find Forester's murderer? Where did Sam go? And did he take the 30 million dollars worth of shares?I Liked:
The story opens up very interesting, and pretty gripping. It dies off (see below), but, fortunately, resumes for the latter half of the book. Particularly after the 200 page mark, I found the story going much quicker, flipping pages, urgent to find out what happens next, what the heck happened to Sam and Forester (and getting a few answers too, instead of just more questions).
Credit must be given to Laura Caldwell, as she writes in a very clear, nice manner. She is definitely a good writer, able to create her scenes well. She sets up a very believable atmosphere and puts her characters right in. The scene I especially enjoyed was the one with Mayburn and Izzy sneaking into Forester's mansion. I was reading this part at night, and it spooked me, when Izzy spotted the flicker of light. Very good writing indeed!
My favorite character was, oddly enough, Q. Somehow, I just clicked with him. I liked how he (for the most part) bucked the stereotypical gay guy. I just felt for him, as he lost his boyfriend, his job, his purpose in life, and as he found a new partner.
Another character I didn't mind was Mayburn. The grizzled guy does his job without going too gah-gah over Izzy. Yeah, it's a little hard to believe he would really allow her to help him with his job, but at least the author attempted to make it believable why Izzy would be solving this crime.
And I know this is incredibly petty, but I positively adored the cover art. The rich red, pure white, the broken rose...absolutely stunning! And what drew me to the book in the first place!
I Didn't Like:
In my typical fashion, I'll number them to keep myself from going overboard or repeating myself.
1.Izzy McNeil. Honestly, I couldn't stand her. She is a red-head (what IS it with red-headed lawyers, anyway? Lisa Scottoline had one in Courting Trouble...is it a trend or something?), hot, sexy, young, talented, well-to-do, can learn how to PI in a single bound (and even go on to brag how easy it is to listen to two or even three or four conversations all at the same time), who dresses scantily and wonders why someone is glaring at her you know what's...shall we go on? If she has any flaws whatsoever it's either that she never wears a helmet when riding her Vespa or that she spends way too much time remembering things when she should be investigating. Seriously. The only people in the book who hate her are the Big BadsTM (namely her arrogant coworker, Tanner, whom she feels she can tromp without any repercussions any day). Forester loves her, Shane loves her, Q loves her, Maggie loves her, Sam loves her, Grady loves her, Mayburn loves her...I can understand that she has friends, a fiancee, and coworkers she gets along with, but this is just plain outlandish! She intense feelings for Forester are strange for a lawyer-client relationship, and the "adoptive father" angle is above and beyond weird. And then, she has to take these strange tangents, remembering when Bunny gave her deodorant, when Sam proposed to her...I kept wanting to yell at her, "Investigate already!" The last thing that really bugged me is when she is about to lose her biggest client, she complains a lot about going back to being a mere associate, acting as if she is getting fired. I understand it's gotta be hard to be "demoted", but girlfriend, you have a job, and a well-paying one at that. Don't complain that you aren't top dog, highest earning lawyer at Baltimore & Brown and are only making 80k a year. These were big reasons I could never really "root" for Izzy.
2.Forester Pickett. He started out fairly interesting, but I can only take so much of the "He loves everyone" motif. Being generous with benefits packages for his employees. Making friends within one day of meeting Izzy and then being a pseudo-dad figure (enough that Izzy goes to the hospital after he dies--what lawyer, who isn't working on the estate, does that?). Coupling up Izzy and Sam. Befriending Q AND his partner, Max. At least, Caldwell does give him some "faults" towards the end, the one being his affair with Victoria, but even with this flaw and the knowledge that people tend to over-inflate the goodness of someone at his/her death, I still had trouble stomaching it.
3.Slow pacing. S.L.O.W. A.G.O.N.I.Z.I.N.G. P.A.C.I.N.G. The story opens good enough (there has to be some backstory, some setting the stage, etc.). And then for the next 100+ pages in wades in little unimportant backstories, introducing all these meaningless characters (Izzy's wedding coordinator, her dress maker, her mom, Bunny, Maggie, her second cousin's step-sister's ex-boyfriend's pet poodle...). I don't really care about them, I want to get to the exciting part, the part where Izzy gets off her duff and starts figuring out where the heck Sam went. The book is marketed as a thriller, after all. Thank God the latter half is not that way!
4.Shift in person. When it's Izzy, the author writes in first person past. When it is Forester, Mayburn or Sam, she switches to third person past. And then the last chapter is written in first person present. I think it is rather jarring and really doesn't help the story out more (though I can see why she tried to use this method).
5.Conclusion. The reason Sam fled with the shares is stupid and made me not want to finish it. His reason is practically spelled out in the book, early on, with a Sharpie. And then the real bad guy, the one who killed Forester, is so stereotypical that I wanted to slam my head into a wall.
Overall:
I can't help review this without giving a shoutout to Lisa Scottoline's Courting Trouble. Both were about sexy, saucy, somewhat dippy, red-head lawyers who got messed up in some yucky business. Scottoline's red-head had more humor, but Caldwell's red-head seemed more grounded, a better lawyer, more professional. But both suffer from a few similar faults: über sexy female leads, whom everyone gushes over and adores, and a lagging plot at one point or another betwixt their pages.
Caldwell writes very well, that much is certain. And once Izzy starts actually investigating Sam's disappearance, the plot moves quickly, flows with ease. But ultimately, I have to rate this 3 stars and say I am not curious to read the next entry in this trilogy.
beastreader's review
5.0
Attorney Izzy McNeil is about to get married. Izzy and her fiancé, Sam Hollings are finalizing all of their wedding plans, when Sam vanishes without a trace. Izzy can't figure out why Sam would up and leave without saying anything to her.
Forester Pickett is owner and CEO of Pickett Enterprises, a huge corporation. Recently Forester has been investing in real estate property in Panama. Izzy receives a phone call from Mr. Pickett's son, Shane. His father has passed away of a heart attack. Izzy can't believe it. Just two weeks ago, Izzy and Forester were talking about how healthy he was. He had recently had a bunch of tests done and the results were negative. Though Forester told Izzy that he had been recently receiving threatening messages. He told Izzy that if someone were to happen to him that she should suspect foul play.
Now Forester is dead and thirty million dollars worth of real estate shares have gone missing from Pickett Enterprises. Surprisedly, Sam was in charge of safe keeping the shares and we know what happened there. Obviously Sam killed Forester and took off with the shares. At first Izzy doesn't want to believe Sam could murder anyone but the deeper she digs, she realizes that she may not know Sam as well as she thought she did.
Izzy McNeil is one tough cookie. She doesn't give up till the job is done. No matter how high the stakes are stacked aganist her. Red Hot Lies has a interesting plot that will keep you on your toes till the very last page. When I first saw that ony of my favorite authors Laura Caldwell was releasing this new trilogy, I get knew I had to check it out. I am happy to report that this book did not disppoint. MS. Caldwell has such an amazing range of talent. Everything she writes is a winner in my book...from chick lit stories to international suspense thrillers. I can't wait to visit with Izzy again.
Forester Pickett is owner and CEO of Pickett Enterprises, a huge corporation. Recently Forester has been investing in real estate property in Panama. Izzy receives a phone call from Mr. Pickett's son, Shane. His father has passed away of a heart attack. Izzy can't believe it. Just two weeks ago, Izzy and Forester were talking about how healthy he was. He had recently had a bunch of tests done and the results were negative. Though Forester told Izzy that he had been recently receiving threatening messages. He told Izzy that if someone were to happen to him that she should suspect foul play.
Now Forester is dead and thirty million dollars worth of real estate shares have gone missing from Pickett Enterprises. Surprisedly, Sam was in charge of safe keeping the shares and we know what happened there. Obviously Sam killed Forester and took off with the shares. At first Izzy doesn't want to believe Sam could murder anyone but the deeper she digs, she realizes that she may not know Sam as well as she thought she did.
Izzy McNeil is one tough cookie. She doesn't give up till the job is done. No matter how high the stakes are stacked aganist her. Red Hot Lies has a interesting plot that will keep you on your toes till the very last page. When I first saw that ony of my favorite authors Laura Caldwell was releasing this new trilogy, I get knew I had to check it out. I am happy to report that this book did not disppoint. MS. Caldwell has such an amazing range of talent. Everything she writes is a winner in my book...from chick lit stories to international suspense thrillers. I can't wait to visit with Izzy again.
jaimel's review
emotional
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bxermom's review
4.0
This was a great book...I couldn't figure out who the killer was and that makes it a fantastic book!
I really liked the main character Izzy...I think she is a spitfire and I could actually see alot of myself in her. I think she handled the whole situation well and I am anxious to see where she goes next...
The twists in the book really surprised me...I definitely didn't see them coming. Really enjoyable read!
I really liked the main character Izzy...I think she is a spitfire and I could actually see alot of myself in her. I think she handled the whole situation well and I am anxious to see where she goes next...
The twists in the book really surprised me...I definitely didn't see them coming. Really enjoyable read!
dhilderbrand's review
4.0
Fun summer read - bought it for 25 cents at a book sale. Loved it - even lost sleep to read it. I am looking forward to the series with the same character although I am going to take a little break so I don't get sick of the writing. It was pretty basic - definite easy read
ssbookworm's review
3.0
It is a great book for those that like a mystery. The author has based the story on one main character so it is easy to follow. The book ended very different from what I expected-it was a good read!
tonimcl's review
4.0
This review will be biased because I liked Laura Caldwell tremendously after meeting her at a local book signing. Never say author appearances aren't good marketing! I read this book in under 24 hours; the pacing was tight and the details of my favorite city, Chicago, were as spot-on as they were fun. Caldwell crafts believable characters you can relate to (with zero schmaltz in the relationship department, lest the cover mislead you) and knows how to build edge-of-your-seat tension. A fun read if you like a fast-paced mystery where the setting plays one of the lead characters.
moondance120's review
3.0
Good action packed novel. Izzy shows extreme strength after her fiance disappears with a larger sum of money belonging to a mutual client/friend who is found dead on the same night. Lots of intrigue. 3.5 stars
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