Better mystery than romance!
350551
This book is a fast read and a relatively good mystery. I have read several of Sandra Brown's romantic-suspense novels and have become a fan of this genre. The story line moves along quickly and has similarities to a made for TV movie. Since Sandra usually draws me in quickly and makes me really like and empathize with the main characters, this novel disappointed in that aspect. I had a little trouble believing the "love at first sight" element of this book. For me, the characters were not well enough developed to find their strong emotional ties believable after only a few brief encounters. It is obvious that Hammond and Alex were both very conflicted, but how did they fall in love when they barely knew each other - lust yes, but love? ...And for being a big city prosecutor, Hammond sure seemed to signal his emotions frequently  - maybe that was a fraility in his otherwise "alpha male" persona! The other discrepancy that I couldn't understand was what kept Hammond in a prior one year relationship with the other female character in this book (a truly obnoxious person) when Alex was the complete opposite. The ending was a surprise, which is good because I thought I had it figured out. Not a bad read, but Witness and French Silk are better.
632502
Although I did really like this book, it fell just shy of being as good as the first one for me.  I consider this book to be a more "serious" cozy mystery, not goofy or lighthearted like others I have read.  There are many characters involved in this one, so I would recommend reading slowly and carefully (not things I am good at!).  I was disappointed at the "romance" aspect for Megan and the doc - we have been getting a build-up from the beginning of the series, so I expected a little more than I got - it was basically just a one sentence booty call with no mention of it for the remainder of the book.  Yeah, I know this isn't a romance book, but in my opinion it could have been handled better and added a bit to the storyline.  The book was a good read and I am looking forward to #3 in the fall of 2017.
4404305
REVIEWER'S OPINION:
This is primarily a mystery.  There is a developing relationship, but it's not romantic.  She has her visions and is tired most of the time.  He is emotionally distant.  All of a sudden they have sex.  There was no personality, chemistry, interesting interaction or romance.  I wasn't emotionally drawn in.

The mystery was not that good.  Cassie has psychic connections to killers and to victims.  But for most of the story, her visions don't help catch or prevent anything.  She is in the mind of the killer while he kills, but she can't tell the police enough so they can stop or catch the killer.  However, she is always able to tell them where the body is afterwards.  I was frustrated with all these partial visions that never worked.  In one case, they gave Cassie the victim's glove, and Cassie was able to tell where the body was.  Why didn't the sheriff give the glove to Cassie as soon as he knew who was missing?  Cassie couldn't see through the killer's mind, but she could have used the glove to see the location sooner and maybe something else through the victim's mind.  I prefer mysteries with someone doing smart and clever things to catch a killer.  No one did anything smart here.  They just waited for Cassie to have more informative and more timely visions toward the end of the book.  Characters and dialogue were ordinary.

STORY BRIEF:
Cassie is a psychic in California who helps police catch serial killers.  She can enter others' minds and describe what they are thinking, feeling and seeing.  Her visions take a lot of energy and make her tired.  Cassie's Aunt Alex dies and leaves her North Carolina home to Cassie.  Cassie moves there and hopes to have a break from killers.  Unfortunately someone starts killing women in the area.  Cassie tells Sheriff Matt about her visions, but he doesn't believe her.  So Cassie goes to Ben the local judge and tells him.  After further incidents, Matt starts paying attention to her.  Cassie and Ben become attracted to each other.

DATA:
Story length: 356 pages.  Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words.  Sexual language: mild.  Number of sex scenes: 2.  Total number of sex scene pages: 2.  Setting: 1998-99 California and North Carolina.  Copyright: 2000.  Genre: mystery suspense with minimal romance.
611056
This is the second in a series by Bartal which I think is best categorized as a Romantic Mystery. By that title I designate those books which are essentially Romances with a mystery thrown in as a minor theme both to allow the book to straddle two of the most popular themes in fiction among women who comprise the majority  of book-buyers of those genre and to provide an element of suspense beyond Girl loves Boy, Girl Loses Boy,  Girl Gets Boy, the standard plot line of most romances.
In this second book of the series, our heroine, now a very wealthy young woman, asks one of her two suitors to accompany her to the wedding of her sister to the man to whom the heroine had been engaged until he broke it off in order to marry the younger woman. Since then,  our heroine has never had confidence in herself as a lover nor a wish once again to put herself in a position of being hurt by a man. When her first choice among the suitors is forced to stay at home for business reasons, she turns to the second suitor, a police officer, who eagerly accepts the chance of a week-end alone (except for most of her family) with his lady.
Most of the remainder of the book is devoted to the relationship between the two as they come closer to each other while trying to cope with the antics of her sister's in-laws-to-be.
Along the way, a murder is committed and solved by the heroine with the help of her suitor. It is is not much of a murder and not much effort is put into the details by the author.
I find this, as I did the first in the series, a lightweight but pleasant reading experience with no dark side to force reflection . The heroine is congenial and both suitors are "right-guys". How long the author can continue without adding more substance to the main characters and  more complexity to the plots, I don't know, but I can commend both this and the earlier work to any regular reader of Cozy Romances with a Spot of Mystery.
612556
The book was fine. I am not sure why I was recommended this book - I had hoped for more mystery than romance novel. If you are interested in romance / mystery books, I am sure you will find this enjoyable - the writing is good, the mystery part was engaging, characters were good. The romance was a distraction from the mystery - almost out of place.
782406
This is basically a romance novel with a mystery....both are rather weak in the plot department.  Moriarty provides the reader with a somewhat alternate ending which made the entire book worth reading.
1629149
Mr. Brett has chosen to split his beloved investigating duo of straight-laced Carole and free-spirit Jude. Unfortunately,  it isn't as successful a mystery as other novels in this series has been. Without the 2 distinctly different personalities, the story revolves around heretofore mysterious, new age Jude, but winds up portraying her as flakey, odd and immature.
Having an affair with an older, silver-haired fox, Jude finds herself sucked into his (Peter) obsessive hobby of real tennis. While the description of this very real sport did intrigue me to research it further, the descriptions quickly went from informative to instructive; that is to say, over the top for background info to a novel. I found myself rather like Jude--either unable or unwilling to grasp the arcane rules & scoring. It also turned me off many of the characters introduced in this novel & found them to be nobs with too much $$, too little sense.
I eagerly await the next installment in the series, however, and fervently hope our middle-aged heroines are united in solving the next murder.
841426
I liked the characters. But guessed the killer right away and never considered another suspect.  Plot was more involved with romance than mystery.
3527853
This is more of a romance, and less of a thriller.  Well-written, easy read, but not my type of book
4286215
SPOILERS....

First and foremost... the blurb here and on the jacket is misleading.  There is no "returning... to supernatural territory" here. There is no "paranormal" twists, there are science fiction twists.  Paranormal activity and the supernatural are not time travel, at least in my "book."  Really, no pun was intended, it just showed up!

That said...

I only gave it three stars because:
Some of it left me wondering what happened.  There are a few mysteries left unexplained, or glossed over too quickly.
The romance between our characters is too expected, too predictable.  There is a pretty graphic sex scene which is totally unnecessary to the story, or to the progression of the relationship.
I never buy the old "search the old homestead" decades late and find boxes still in the garage.  Either heirs (estranged wife in this book) or vandals would have taken care of anything left in a garage for that long!  But, there's the mystery solving items.  And if their very existence was reason for someone to 1) dig them up 2) hide them 3) kill yourself after accomplishing 1 and 2, then why not destroy them?
The protagonist (man) is a jerk.  We are given the idea that he needs to protect the "little lady," even though she is a Federal agent (higher on the law enforcement ladder than he is!) with super-duper weapons.
2846060
*I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.*

I just couldn't connect with this story. I can see it being a good book for mystery book lovers, but it just dragged on for me and it was easy to lose focus on. I'm guessing it's because I like my books to have romance as the main focus, not the mystery being solved. There were a few parts that kept me on edge with unexpected twists. I think an animal acupuncturist being the main detective for different mysteries was a bit far out of the norm for me, as well. I love Grayce's boyfriend, Davis! He was such a protective, alpha male. Even when he was mad at her, he couldn't leave her unprotected. I needed more interaction between Davis and Grayce, especially through steamy scenes. I did like Grayce's independent side. It was so nice to see a girl take a stand, not letting her lover walk all over her or make every decision. I really liked that aspect! Overall, I wanted to like this, but it ended up not being for me. As I said before, I can see others, who are more for mystery than romance, really enjoying it!
1923796
This is one that I didn't really care for, although it was a good story, just too much of a Romance novel for me...I prefer Brown's mysteries, they're always great.
4363108
I loved the mystery and all the double- and quadruple-crossings, trying to figure out who to trust. I thought it worked great as a sci-fi/fantasy/mystery sort of story. As a romance? Not so much. Jake starts out with puppy love, they spend almost no time together for years, then Trace dies and Jake gets the Sim chip. Arguably he develops a relationship with the Sim over the next five years, but... I dunno, it just didn't quite work for me as a romance. But as a rolicking mystery romp set in the future? Hell yeah!
2476064
Kidnapped when she was two, Olivia Sealy has no memory of her captivity or the murder of her parents. Raised by her grandfather, her entire life has been devoted to catering to him, occasionally at the risk of her own happiness. When the skeletal remains of a 2 year old girl is found in a wall and has a third thumb like other members of the Sealy family, Olivia is forced to question whether or not the right child was returned to the Sealy family. Heading the investigation is Dallas Detective Trey Bonney, Olivia's first love whom she dumped to appease her grandfather since Trey was from the wrong side of the tracks.

But who is the child in the wall, and what is her relationship to Olivia? Only a DNA test will shed light on the convoluted situation. When attempts are made on Olivia's life, it is Trey who steps in to protect her, providing the opportunity both need to reconnect.

While the plot was intriguing, McCall's execution was below average. The dialogue was pretty hokey - Olivia is nearly 30, yet talks like woman twice her age (with the exception of calling her grandfather "grampy"). The big mystery of the kidnapper's identity is pretty easy to guess, and ultimately plot points introduced were never fully developed or concluded. However, the romance is written well, the main protagonists have obvious chemistry. McCall has written better (check out "Perfect Lie").
834977
I'm wavering between three and four stars. This was a pretty good mystery, though I figured out key elements of the solution quite early in the book. The detective was not particularly original (a widower who can't settle down is a private eye cliche).

The author didn't convince me that the story really was taking place shortly after the American Revolution, even with all of the harnessing and unharnessing of the hero's long-suffering horse. (An anachronism early in the book, where the spring house was described as being cool "in the fifties" as if Fahrenheit thermometers were in common use, broke the illusion for me.) The author could have included a little bit of 18th century language, especially forms of address, without slowing down her story.

I would have given this book 4 stars if it had included a map. Geographic relationships were prominent in the plot, and figuring out where things were diminished my enjoyment of the story a lot.

The author did a good job of depicting life in the Shaker community as seen by a skeptic, but she omitted any mention of the hero's own religious background or views. In New England in the 18th century, he would definitely have had a strong religious element in his upbringing, for better or worse. so this omission is puzzling. It is true that the Shakers were detested and even persecuted by many mainstream New Englanders; the records of the local Shaker community in my part of Massachusetts make that plain.
1157022
I'd say there is way more "intrigue" than romance in this story, but I enjoyed reading it and liked the characters although the heroine could have used a spine.
3027976
A little bit different than the first two books in the series Trouble in Paradise seems to focus a bit more on Madisons love life rather than her crime solving abilities.  Yes, there are some of those as well which are another sore subject for me.  She jumps from case to case almost every chapter while the main case, Cosmos murder, felt largely ignored until its suddenly resolved near the end.  It felt more like a romance novel than a beachy mystery to me.