Let me start out by saying that I have not read less than half of the authors in this anthology before picking this up, so I was very excited to get to sample some new authors! This anthology is more on the mystery side than the romantic suspense, even though there is a romantic undertone to all the stories. Just don’t go in expecting a lot of hot and heavy action. I’m giving the anthology in general a rating of 3 stars but there were some stories that stood out, which make this anthology 100% worthwhile. So lets break it down.
Pick Your Poison by Roxanne St. Claire – 3 Stars
The story was cute. I see it’s part of the Bullet Catchers series, which is a security firm basically. They are hired to serve as bodyguards to a politician but then get fired when they actually do their job on what seems to be a false alarm. Benjamin Youngblood is the agent that had followed a hunch and lost the client so he gets fired. In order to get his job back he wants to prove that he was right and keeps digging into the case. Then he stumbles across Callie Parrish and the pieces start to fall into place, now all he has to do is get the proof. This was pretty good until the ending then it got a little silly. But still very entertaining read.
Nightfall by Laura Griffin – 3 Stars
This story was extremely short. When it comes to stories that short is really hard to form an opinion on how good they are, especially when you don’t already know the characters from somewhere else. Basically Holly is at the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong vehicle. She is mistaken for a drug trafficking player and crashes her van loaded with flowers that she was supposed to deliver for a wedding. Now she’s in the middle of an investigation and she doesn’t even know it. I had a few eye-rolling moments with this story, especially when she gets rescued by a perfect stranger and when he leaves her alone at his house, she thinks its ok for her to “borrow” his car to make her flower delivery.
Above Reproach by Allison Brennan – 3.5 Stars
Dead Flowers by Lori Armstrong – 4.5 Stars
Blood and Roses by Sylvia Day – 3.5 Stars
Rebel Rose by Karin Tabke – 3 Stars
A Punishing Night by Sophie Littlefield – 3 Stars
Going back to college stories, there’s a dead body, male in an all female dorm. Joe Bashir is going back as a detective in the case after having dropped out of this same college a while back. I was scared there would be another cop-college girl romantic interest in this book so I was happy to see it wasn’t. While Joe is investigating, his knowledge of school rituals from before comes into play, even though he was originally called in due to his heritage and language skills. Muslim hate crimes rendered Joe’s dad pretty much an invalid, affected his own life and now have again shown up in this case. The romance in this story doesn’t even come into play until the end of the story but it was a nice addition.
The Housewife Assassin’s Bloody Valentine by Josie Brown – No Rating
I couldn’t get into this story and stopped about halfway through.
King of Hearts by Lorelei James – 4 Stars
This is a Rough Riders short story. A bad day in the life of Cam McKay as a cop. He’s called in to the scene of a murder/suicide on Valentine’s Day. He went to school with the husband. They seemed like such a happy couple just days before. Cam has to deal with the parents, the investigation, and the fact that the reason why this all might’ve happened is because the husband never recovered mentally after coming back from war. A lot of the issues hit home for Cam. But at the end of the day when he gets to go home, the love of his family pulls him through.
Bobbie Faye’s Whacked-Out, No-Good, Really Sucky, Hot Mess of a Wedding by Toni McGee Causey – 3 Stars
I can just let that title speak for itself! LOL This story was funny and a bit whacky but it was enjoyable if you like your heroines a bit eccentric, who can’t go anywhere without a gun, even their own wedding, and who almost everyone is scared of.
*Review copy provided by author
Sounds pretty interesting…I’m definitely looking forward to reading it!!!
Anthologies are a great way to read new authors. This looks like a great book to try. Thanks for the review.