Slumbering (Starlight Chronicles #1) - C.S. Johnson

This is the first book in a 7-book series.  It's also the first book I've read from this author.

Hamilton is a selfish 16-year-old popular kid who thinks he's better than everyone else.  Anyone that gets in his way is immediately thought of as inferior and only worthy of his disdain.  A meteorite hits his town, and his life is changed forever.  Suddenly, people in his town are coming down with strange illnesses and demon attacks are on the rise.  Hamilton gets involved when the girl he likes is in danger, but he eventually learns that there's much more to life than himself.

Other than saving the girl he's interested in a few times, Hamilton isn't a likable character.  In fact, I hated him for the entire book.  I kept reading on, waiting for some kind of growth or change in him, but he seemed to be the same horrible person that he was at the beginning.  Since this is a series, maybe he changes later on, but I'm not really interested in spending any more time on the series.

I enjoyed the writing style, but the story didn't appeal to me at all.  It had potential, but I needed more (any) transformation on the main character's part to care about his story.  Just not for me.

Diamond in the Rough (American Heiresses #2) - Jen Turano

This is the second book in the series.  The first book was Flights of Fancy, and I really enjoyed that one.

Poppy is supposed to be enjoying her first season, but so far, it's been a disaster.  Strange things keep happening to her, and her grandmother isn't happy.  She wants Poppy to become a 'diamond of the first water' and find a rich, titled husband.

Reginald is in town to help his cousin find a rich bride.  He's hiding the fact that he's actually the son of a duke, and somehow ends up teaching Poppy how to become successful in society.  Even with his lessons, Poppy seems to attract trouble, something Reginald isn't used to.  These two start out on the wrong foot, but soon come to appreciate each other's better qualities.

My favorite thing about Turano's books are her characters, and this one isn't different.  Each character has their own personality, and I felt invested in their stories.  My only minor complaint is the 'villain.'  I can't really get into my reasoning without giving spoilers, but something about that part of the book seemed odd.  It's a minor issue and didn't prevent me from enjoying the book overall.

As usual, there's links to other books, but you can read them out of order and not feel lost.  I'm hoping the third book will be about Beatrix, and I look forward to it.  Good Book!

*I received a copy of this book from Bethany House through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Shine Like the Dawn - Carrie Turansky

Maggie's parents and older sister are dead.  She now lives with her younger sister in her grandmother's home.  They own a hat shop in town, but Maggie never seems able to escape her past.  When her younger sister is injured by a car, Maggie meets up with an old 'friend.'

Nate is pleased to see Maggie, but he's confused by her attitude toward him.  She's cool and distant and won't tell him why.  He wants to set things right, but it takes a while before she's willing to listen.

The hat shop burns down, and Maggie is without a home.  Nate takes her back to his house, but she still doesn't trust him.  She has suspicions that Nate's stepmother may have caused the death of her family, and she uses the opportunity to snoop.

This book was okay.  The beginning was depressing, and the end dragged on a bit too long.  I can get past those issues, but my major problem was Maggie.  I never really liked her very much, even at the end.  The way she treated Nate bothered me.  The story was overly preachy at times, and that interrupted the flow of the story.  I really enjoyed this author's Edwardian Bride series (The Governess of Highland Hall, The Daughter of Highland Hall and A Refuge at Highland Hall) and recommend those over this one.

Strands of Truth - Colleen Coble

Harper is working with mollusks when someone tries to abduct her.  Her mentor is also attacked, and his life is hanging by a thread.  She’s got other things on her mind, but Ridge seems to be around a lot, and she’s not sure she can ignore the attraction she feels for him.

Ridge resents Harper’s relationship with his father, but now that she’s in danger, he wonders if he’s misjudged her.  Finding out the truth of the abductions/attacks will take them down a road of DNA tests, half siblings, mermaids and flashbacks.  But will they learn the truth before it’s too late?

I liked the characters in this book.  Mostly Ridge, but Harper was interesting as well.  The one issue I had was the flashbacks.  They annoyed me.  Unnecessary flashbacks are a pet peeve of mine, and I truly believe this book would’ve been better without them.  They interrupt the flow of an engaging story and are jarring.  They also didn’t really add anything to the plot.

Overall, I still enjoyed this book and give it four stars.

I received a complimentary copy of this book.  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The Spice King (Hope and Glory #1) - Elizabeth Camden

This is the first book in a new series.

Annabelle is a naïve but caring soul from the farmlands of Kansas.  She’s in Washington with her sister and trying to make a life for herself.  She has a temporary assignment at the Smithsonian, but she’d do just about anything to make it a permanent position, even seek out the unapproachable Gray Delacroix.

Gray distrusts the government and swears that he’ll never give any of his precious plants to the Smithsonian.  Annabelle has the persistence and the charm to make her way into his heart, but it’s not going to be easy for them be together.

When Annabelle is forced into a no-win situation, you can tell that it’s all going to blow up in her face.  I won’t elaborate.  I don’t like giving spoilers.

Gray’s sister works for the first lady, Mrs. McKinley, and his brother, Luke, seems to be a dark horse.  Their characters show up just enough to make you more curious about who they are, but not enough to steal the spotlight from Gray and Annabelle.

I never thought I’d care so much about food labels, wheat, and vanilla.  It’s strange to type out that sentence, but it’s true.  I don’t know how the author does it, but she finds obscure things in history and makes them interesting.  I finished the book and went straight to the author note at the end.  I wanted to know what inspired her, and you can tell that she does her homework.  It would be easy to slog through technical details and historical information, but since the characters cared about this stuff, I ended up caring.

I think we’ll be reading more about Luke and Caroline in the future, and I can’t wait!  Good Book!

*I received a copy of this book from Bethany House through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island: Maude's Mooring - Carrie Fancett Pagels

I dabbled a bit into this "series" when I read My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains: Carmela's Quandary back in 2017.  There are more books that have similar insane-length titles, but I didn't really have any desire to read them.  The books aren't connected by character cross-over, and they are all written by different authors.  They just have long titles and the same general cover.  It's...interesting.  I picked up the book because when I was a kid, we spent a week every summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and visiting Mackinac Island was a treat I always looked forward to.  Anyway, about the book...

Maude lives on Mackinac Island and wants to prove that she's capable enough to run the inn, but her father is keeping things from her.  In an attempt to prove that she's capable, she takes a job as a maid at the Grand Hotel.  She's not really cut out for that kind of work, so it's a bit of a disaster, and she's trying to keep away from Friedrich, a man who is stealing her wounded heart.

Friedrich/Ben isn't what he appears to be.  He's a reporter working under the alias of Friedrich to get a story.  A big promotion is promised if he delivers, but it's the kind of story that could destroy lives, and he's not sure he can do it.  He's also interested in pursuing Maude, but his lies could make that impossible.

This was a good book, and I liked it.  Nothing extraordinary plot-wise, but it was nice to read about the places I visited as a kid.  It was like riding a horse down memory lane (because cars aren't allowed on Mackinac Island).  Something I appreciated about this book is that the author didn't add a bunch of nonsense to make it longer and hit the 320 page mark that seems to be so common among this genre.  It's on the shorter side (at 258 pages), so it's a nice, light read.  4 stars.

The Killing Tide (Coastal Guardians #1) - Dani Pettrey

This is the first book in the Coastal Guardians series.  I was excited to start a new series by one of my favorite authors.

Gabby is on the run.  A drug lord is trying to have her killed, and she ends up staying with the man whose heart she broke last time she was in town.  She chose her career over love, and now it’s like she’s getting put in the same situation.  When people are murdered, Finn’s team has to investigate the deaths, including a few of their own.  Two investigations are going on at the same time, and it seems like they will intersect at some point.  With Gabby disappearing to investigate on her own all the time, keeping her safe is a hard job.

Gabby disregards anyone who wants to protect her to the point of wandering off for coffee with a “friend.”  I put the word friend in quotation marks because she takes the woman for coffee to pursue an “angle” (her words) for a story.  The friend is 7 months pregnant and has just lost her husband to murder.  How low can Gabby go?  Pretty low.  I never understood what Finn saw in her.  She’s already chosen her career over him once before, and she’s clearly willing to do it again with no hesitation for most of the book.  She resents people trying to keep her safe and readily puts herself and OTHERS (including a pregnant woman and her sister) in dangerous situations with no regard for their safety.  She’s literally like that for almost the entire book, and I hated her character.

My final review is 2.5 stars.  If the story were only about Gabby and Finn, it would probably be lower.  The saving graces for the book are Noah and Rissi.  I ended up hating Gabby’s character so much that even when she has her “changing moment” at the very end, it didn’t affect my view of her.  I was also disappointed in the ending.  I don’t mind antagonists that act like Bond villains, but if they don’t hesitate to kill everyone in their way for most of the book, it doesn’t make sense later on if they suddenly change and put people in a rescuable situation.

This is the first book of Pettrey’s that I haven’t liked, and I’m sorry for it.  Her stories are normally so great that it hurts to say I don’t like it.

*I received a copy of this book from Bethany House from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.