Sadistic Sherlock (Ward Security #4) Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliot

?Reviewed by The KimiChan Experience?

TITLE: Sadistic Sherlock

SERIES: Ward Security # 4

AUTHOR: Jocelynn Drake, Rinda Elliot

PUBLISHER: Self Publishing

RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2018

BLURB: Ten years ago, Dominic Walsh faked his own death. With no true identity, it wasn’t hard. But if he’d stayed, he would have been drawn further into a life he’d never chosen. He has friends and family at Ward Security now and has managed to escape his dark past. There is only one thing he truly wants.

Abraham Stephens.

When Dom was first tasked with watching over his friend’s father, he didn’t expect to fall so hard for the gorgeous silver fox. But Abe is interested in friendship only. He’s at a point in his life where he wants something permanent, not a romp with the sexy redhead who happens to be the same age as his son.

But Abe finds himself drawn deeper into Dom’s life when cryptic messages start appearing—ones that frighten the skilled security specialist. The more Dom tries to hide what’s happening, the more Abe wants to help him.

And maybe, just maybe, he’ll find a way to trust the strength of the bond Dom understood from the start.

REVIEW: This series gets better and better with each installment. The storyline and characters are brilliantly written. Abe and Dom are so perfect together and they’re one of my favorite couples in the series thus far.

So let’s start with Abe. I loved him in Dante’s Unglued. He was so sweet, caring and strong, supportive and loving and I wanted him to follow his son Shane’s advice and find love for himself. Abe was some what content with his life: he has his great relationship with his son, his son’s happy and in love and his woodworking business is doing quite well. But he’s found that while he’s content with his life as is, he wants to give in to the budding feelings he has for Dom. The only thing holding Abe back is the age gap.

Dominic Walsh, or Dom as he’s affectionately known by his co-workers and friends, is deeply smitten with the sexy older man but Abe wants to remain friends.

The romance aspect of the book aside, the action, suspense and mystery of these books are always perfectly balanced. The characters are very well written, the plots and storylines always exciting. The dialogue goes from serious to funny in zero to sixty and is really creative as it keeps the reader on their toes. I absolutely adore this series, the series and its characters. This book will keep you engaged from the first page to the very last.

Highly recommended indeed.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

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Wild Retaliation (Seaside Shifters #1) Ethan Stone

Reviewed by Kiwi

TITLE: Wild Retaliation

SERIES: Seaside Shifters #1

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

RELEASE DATE: September 7, 2016

BLURB: Chief of Police John Dakota is in a world of trouble. His peaceful town of Seaside, Oregon, has been rocked by a wave of unsolved murders. The bloody deaths are eerily reminiscent of ones that occurred in Seaside years ago. Back then John worked hard to make sure the truth about the killer was never revealed. Now he’s afraid the past is coming back to haunt him.

Trevor English, the nosy reporter who occasionally shares John’s bed, is demanding information about the crimes. He also wants more of John’s affections. But John can’t afford to give in to either demand without risking the revelation of Seaside’s biggest secret: the town is a haven for shifters, and John is one of them.

To solve the crime—and prevent more victims—John must delve into the past. Many members of Seaside’s shifter community are involved, but it’s becoming harder and harder to tell which residents can be trusted. Even John’s family isn’t above suspicion. The body count is rising, and it looks like John is the killer’s next target.

REVIEW: I’m not a fan of mysteries in general, murder mysteries in particular but every now and then, one will pique my interest. This story just happened to have been one of them. This is due to it having one of my favorite things: shifters.

This is the second book I’ve read from this particular author and I must say that I really enjoy the way he tells his stories.

John is a bear shifter, chief of police in the peacefully little town in Oregon when a series of murders rocks the town.

Trevor is an ambitious and pushy reporter who determined to be the one to get the scoop as to who is exactly behind the murders and why. And because of this, he starts demanding answers.

I love the dynamics between the two men in this story. You have John who’s trying to balance trying to catch whoever’s behind the murders and keep the town’s secret while trying to keep his relationship with Trevor strictly casual. The relationship between John and Trevor intrigued me. Trevor clearly wanted more than just the casual set up they had and you know that John did as well but he was fighting against it so hard. After a while, John realized his feelings for Trevor ran a lot deeper than casual sex. It was just his secrets that held him back from opening himself up to Trevor completely.  I actually like the fact that it wasn’t this Insta – love that you see in many shifter stories. Yes, they were mates however they had to build up to the love, the relationship had to develop between these two men. That to me, made it that much better. that to me felt a lot more realistic than the insta- love trope.

You get a bit of everything with this story: you get the paranormal, a murder mystery with a bit of romance thrown in. I liked that the author stepped outside of the box with this as it could’ve easily been a run of the mill murder mystery and I think Stone made a very wise decision adding the paranormal element to it.  There were also added a wide variety of very interesting peripheral characters added. The dialogue, plot, storyline and editing were fantastic.

I really enjoyed this story. There were no plot holes and the story didn’t lag or or drag along anywhere. The pace was perfect; it grabbed and held my interest from the very beginning. The editing and dialogue was perfect. The author did a lovely job of developing these characters, plot and storyline. There were several times in the story that I thought I had it figured out who the murder was only to find out that I couldn’t have been more wrong. The culprit definitely wasn’t who I suspected! This book will keep you engaged and at the edge of your seat until the last page. This is a definite must read and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BUY LINKS

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press

 

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Murder on the Mountain Audiobook by Jamie Fessenden Narrated by Cliff Bergen

Dreamspinner Presents:

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6102

murder mountainBlurb

When Jesse Morales, a recent college grad who aspires to be a mystery writer, volunteers to work on the summit of Mt. Washington for a week, he expects to work hard. What he doesn’t expect is to find a corpse in the fog, lying among the rocks, his head crushed. The dead man turns out to be a young tourist named Stuart Warren, who strayed from his friends while visiting the mountain.

Kyle Dubois, a widowed state police detective, is called to the scene in the middle of the night, along with his partner, Wesley Roberts. Kyle and Jesse are instantly drawn to one another, except Jesse’s fascination with murder mysteries makes it difficult for Kyle to take the young man seriously. But Jesse finds a way to make himself invaluable to the detective by checking into the hotel where the victim’s friends and family are staying and infiltrating their circle. Soon, he is learning things that could very well solve the case—or get him killed.

Review

Jesse finds himself in the right place at the wrong time and is suddenly embroiled in a murder mystery. His desire to solve the crime is rivaled by his attraction to the somewhat older detective on the case, Kyle Dubois.

Kyle, a bi-sexual who has only ever been with a woman, is immediately attracted to Jesse, but dismisses him due to his age.

Stuart is dead and pretty much everyone is a suspect. With Jesse’s help (Kyle reluctantly allows him to be part of the investigation) they manage to solve the crime, but not before Jesse is almost killed and Kyle has to admit his lust for Jesse might be more like love.

**

I admit right up front that this is not my typical book. I really like Jamie Fessenden’s writing style and have enjoyed previous works by the author, but I’m not a mystery fan. I like more romance than whodunit and this is definitely the latter.

As a result, my enjoyment of this book was less than it would be if you were setting out to enjoy a mystery with a bit of romance thrown in. Which is what this book is.

However, there were parts I adored. I absolutely loved Kyle’s exploration into gay sex and Jesse’s handling of the entire situation. I thought Kyle’s partner was a riot and the ease with which he accepted Kyle’s new love interest was fantastic.

I didn’t love the mystery and grew tired of the scenes with the “frat boys” involved in Stuart’s life.

If mystery is more your thing I think you will really enjoy this book, but if you are looking for a more “romance focused” book, you might want to take a pass.

Audio

Cliff Bergen is a new narrator to me and I thought he did a nice job with the narration. His vaguely East Coast accent fit the story well and it really seemed to fit the grumpy detective. I think my overall enjoyment of the book was enhanced by listening to the story and I’d look for him in the future.

Writing/Editing 4

Romance 2

Sex/Heat  4

Storyline 4

World Building/Characterizations 4

Audio 4

 

3.6 of 5 hearts

3.5

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