This book is almost 50 chapters and if the chapters weren’t short I’d probably faint at that number. You know long books are not my thing, but this is actually a quick read. But although unfair, I had to take a point off because it just failed to hold my attention without me becoming easily distracted. By the time, the story hits its second victim the hero and heroine have spent no considerable time together or even had a conversation. This story is slow burn, to say the least. But I think it’s normal for the genre. Or at least, I feel I’ve encountered this before in other like-minded novels. So for me, the story really kicks off when our couple starts working together. This is also a Christian novel and I felt like all the moments with God were genuine and realistic. Now, theirs a romantic subplot with the sister that was rather cute overall, but one moment really threw me off. Her cop love interest was warning her about the unknown boogeyman. The thing is that’s an everyday fear for most women, and his advice just sounded like giving in to fear to me. It just hit a nerve. But nothing touched my heart better than the heroine’s struggle with her perception. Ie, she knew she had changed, but that hadn’t registered with the people around her, and that hurt. Been there done that. I don’t think the romance part is that great, but this story has a lot of positives going for it. The ending was action-packed. I rolled my eyes at the hospital scene, I’m kinda over characters causing a scene out of love, but this was a good read overall.

Available: Google Play

Off the top of my head, I’m sure these books wormed their way into my TBR because of the great covers. I love all the covers for the Christian romantic suspense genre. But let’s talk about the story. First, I have to mention that I’m reading this from a BLM perspective, not the organization, but the movement. So, I’m not going to take kindly to people being wrongly accused no matter the reason. But I tried my best to give Landon the benefit of the doubt from his perspective. I also need to warn others like myself that this book does not acknowledge the injustices in the justice system. For example, blanket statements like, the law or evidence is always impartial are made in the book and clearly just wrong.

But let’s hop into this story. The second book is Piper and Landon’s story. If Landon frustrated you in book 1 it’s going to be unbearable by book 2. She has almost died three times and this man still can’t say I love you. Now on the investigation side of things, I also have to be fair and say that Landon is trying to find evidence of another killer. He’s also shown pushing back on his chief boss that wants to skip some steps and rush things. His hedging just kills ya as does the tow-the-line attitude that he claimed was unbiased, but mostly just seemed to be: the man is guilty until I find proof he isn’t. And this story genuinely has me hooked, wrongly accused, I’m all in. But knowing what I do about the justice system there is no way to genuinely enjoy this without your stomach being tied up in knots. So, I took a point off. Lots of Christians in the comments of Goodreads were offended by some of the themes, but it seemed fine to me. Nothing disrespectful to God. The difference is, Piper is Christian and everyone else is questioning, but everyone ends up on the good side by the end. I saw no piety issues, but I did see Landon treating Piper like an utter child. Or worse like he was her father and it was hard to count that as love. So I took a point off for another less than developed romance. This story also felt too long for me.

Available: Google Play ↗

I’ve read quite a few novels by this author at this point. I think I can safely say that they are all generally very sweet. The sex scenes never overwhelm the story and take up more scenery than they should. It’s just a romance about a woman falling for an alien whatever that might look like. This story is no different. Lmao, the book opens with just the right amount of well-meaning overstepping to make you laugh and want to throat punch somebody at the same time. I felt the character’s frustration. There is also a galactic pet in this one. I’m not an animal lover, so I liked these scenes less and found the toe thing weird. But my imagination ran when we meet the alien and he could shapeshift into whatever the heroine desires. After much research, he decides to resemble an actor from her favorite movie. Omg, I would fall out if this happened to me and a Patrick Swayze lookalike walked in. I’d only have one question, can you dance? Now, there is a scene between the heroine and the hero where the author seems almost apologetic that he’s white. I only say the author because I don’t see the necessity for that scene at all, explaining why he’s not black instead of white. Your favorite movie had a white lead that’s where he comes from. No need for a diatribe on how you would have accepted black. And oh, this book is light on the Christmas element. Overall, four-star read.

Available: Amazon ↗

Health and fitness were frequently mentioned in this story, but far from it feeling natural it came off as preachy and empty like they had nothing going on outside of it. I took a point off for the awkwardness that this added to the story for me. On the same note, alternate coin, the author ain’t never seen a hockey game in her life to say the hero has perfect teeth. None of those players have perfect teeth lol. The first real thing I came across was the hero’s inability to read. It instantly endeared me to the character. This book is also more Christmasy than most books on this list. I also had to begrudgingly admit that the hero did deserve points for not pushing boundaries. Especially coming off a book where the hero was doing just that making the couple’s coupling impossible to believe. I DNF’ed that one. This book isn’t perfect by any means, but if you forget all that and just read it for what it is then you have a good read on your hands. Expect some excessive cussing in this one.

Available: Amazon ↗

My first thought was wow look at the world-building and the thoughtful building of the scenery by the author. 😃Two pages later, also me, wow so much scenery when does it stop. 😑This story drops us on to a reservation and we’re slowly getting to know one Native Canadian family tribe. We also get two povs, the husband and the wife. And it’s through them that we learn that the electricity is slowly going out, but as this is somewhat of a normal occurrence no one knows any better. Outside of that, I kept wishing for this not to be true. In case of emergency, I hope the rez has some sort of communication so they know what’s going on with the rest of the world in case of disease, nuclear disaster, or lol zombies. Story-wise, we don’t find out what’s going on with the outside world until ch 15, aren’t dystopian novels supposed to move faster than that? Now, when the white man showed up, my stomach dropped. This story would have you believe that with some well-placed promises, one white man could take over a tribe after years of abuse throughout history. I don’t know any Natives, but this doesn’t sit right with me. Now the setup for this to happen is completely plausible, but I don’t even think it should’ve been written this way. The ending very much gives me, we just let him wind up until we had no choice. But anyone with a brain, could’ve figured out that he was the wrong white man to kumbaya with. So, why is it 4 stars? My stomach was in knots for the latter half of the book. Will you read book 2? Nope, prefer a man vs nature story to a man vs man story.

Available: Google Play ↗

This is just the best interracial cover ever and was one of the reasons I gave this a chance. This romance finds an unlikely pairing when the heroine falls for her ex’s brother. Now the setup of the swap feels a bit like you’re thrown into the middle of the action. Of course, it took me over 90% of the book, despite the repeated mentions of Belize, for it to click they weren’t in the US. I was about to take a point off for the betrayal of social workers that was just too loose goosey to be true for the US. But perhaps this is true for that island. Now, I do think, there should have been flashbacks or more exposition explaining the heroine’s feelings and connections to the immature brother, Leon. But I warmed up to the hero and the subplot of the adoption. Cole just seemed like an all-around good guy. I had all the feels when he was asking for a kiss/a date/ and a wedding all in one. But their actual first kiss wasn’t short stopping on the butterflies. Neither was his repeated proclamation that he had found his wife. Theirs also another pov of the sister and the beginnings of her romance and this was interesting as well. Even if she came off as a tad immature in her thought process. Girl, vibrators exist, stop trying to make mistakes. Overall, I had a good time reading this one.

Available: Amazon ↗