Month: March 2019

Murder In Just Cause by Anne Cleeland

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

Murder in Just Cause: A Doyle & Acton Mystery (The Doyle & Acton Mystery Series Book 9)Murder in Just Cause: A Doyle & Acton Mystery by Anne Cleeland

Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Doyle and Acton Mysteries #9
Publication Date: 2/24/19
Number of Pages: 251

I am always excited when a new addition to the Doyle and Acton Mysteries series is released. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It is well written, well plotted and the characters are complex and interesting. You can read this as a stand-alone book, but to get the real flavor for the characters, you really need to read at least the first couple of books – but why not read them all, they are all good, fun and quirky.

Scotland Yard has been through scandal after scandal over the last several books and many – if not most – of the higher-ups are either jailed or removed from their jobs. They are working short-handed, but hopefully, all of the bad actors and the scandals are behind them so they can concentrate on protecting the citizens and providing justice.

It is Doyle’s first day back from maternity leave and the powers-that-be have decided to ease her back into the routine by having her assist DS Munoz on her cases. They are almost immediately dispatched out to the scene of a dead body that they assume is an overdose. It is in the slum area that is riddled with drugs, so the assumption is a reasonable one. However, when they arrive, they discover that it is not self-induced – not accidentally nor purposefully. They have a murder on their hands.

Acton quickly arrives on the scene because he’s not happy that Doyle has been sent into that neighborhood. To say that Acton is a determinedly protective husband would be putting it very mildly. Not long after he arrives, he realizes that there is more to this scene than meets the eye. He quickly comes to understand that it was a set-up as a way to ambush DS Munoz and the only reason it didn’t go as planned was that Doyle was there also.

We soon learn that the last of the corruption isn’t yet out of Scotland Yard and that if things aren’t handled with finesse, there will be yet another scandal. As usual – Acton is behind the scenes manipulating things to work out the way he wants – and he keeps poor Doyle in the dark. Doesn’t matter, she always figures him out and calls him out on it.

This is a lovely, fun, quirky, and interesting read

This Scot of Mine by Sophie Jordan

On By TracyIn Georgian Era (1714-1837), Regency Era (1811-1820), Scottish/Highlander, Tracy's ReviewsLeave a comment

This Scot of Mine (The Rogue Files, #4)This Scot of Mine by Sophie Jordan
Tracy’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series: The Rogue Files, #4

Release Date: March 12, 2019

The Lairds of the MacLarin clan are cursed – doomed to love but not to live. And for five generations this curse has held, all the previous lairds have died before their firstborn child took it’s first breath.
Laird Hunt MacLarin has spent his life avoiding the curse – he will not marry and will not father a child – but his carefully laid plans turn to dust when a chance encounter brings Lady Clara, sister of the Duke of Autenberry into his life.

Lady Clara is ruined, she has escaped an unwanted betrothal, but the price was exile. She leaves London with her governess/companion Marian and travels to Scotland to live with her brother Marcus and his wife Alyse. She “meets” Hunt when he starts a brawl in the inn she stops at on the way to her brother’s house. She is intrigued by the handsome highlander, but at the same time appalled. He is equally taken by her, but puts her out of his mind, as they will never cross paths again.

But fate has other plans for these two, they meet again at her brother’s home – and when Marcus tells Hunt that Clara is ruined and with child, Hunt thinks he has found a way around the curse – he will marry Clara and raise her child as his own without any danger to himself! But there is a catch – Clara lied, she is not, nor has she ever been, pregnant. She refuses Hunt’s offer, but after her family and Marian press the issue, she reconsiders.

They marry and truths are revealed – Hunt is angry and tells Clara she has killed him. Clara thinks the curse is nonsense – but is it?

I liked this book, but I feel like it could have been so much better, there were a lot of things left unsaid that I think could have added to the story. Hunt and Clara are both likeable leads and have an immediate chemistry, but sadly, I felt like that fizzled out a bit by the end and she never tells him she loves him, which was disappointing. On the upside, there was quite a bit of amusing banter, some warm to steamy love scenes and wonderful secondary characters that helped the story along. I must note that there were a lot of title/formal address errors and some inconsistencies in the story, but this was an uncorrected arc, so it is possible that those will be corrected by publication and therefore, I didn’t take them in to consideration while rating this book. This is the fourth book in the series, but it can definitely be read as a stand alone with no problem.

*I am voluntarily leaving a review for an uncorrected eARC that was provided to me by Edelweiss and the publisher.*