Finding Elodie by Susan Stoker

 

3 Star

This review contains spoilers...huge spoilers

Elodie loves to cook.  When she took on a job as a private chef she is over the moon.  That is until her boss asks her to poison a guest.  This is when she finds out her dream job is working for a mob boss.  On the run she takes a job on ship that travels all over the world.  Everything is great until the boat is boarded by pirates.  She is able to hide from them and is rescued by a SEAL team.  She feels an instant connection to Scott "Mustang".  He gives her his number but she loses it begore she can call him.  All she knows is he's in Hawaii so after getting a payout from her employer she uproots her life to track him down.  When she finds him will the spark still be there?

I just liked this book.  Wasn't a huge fan of Elodie.  She is way too naïve and bit ridiculous throughout this whole story.  At no time did she consider going to the police for help.  Ok fine not sure who might be in his pocket so she joins a ship that's taken over by pirates even without seeing Scott she is instantly attracted to him.  It was a lot.  Genius that is Elodie she decides to take a job on a charter boat which is hired by everyone.  This bares repeating...the boat is hired by everyone. So the mafia is after you and you don't consider they might find you and hire your boat thus taking you and anyone else on the boat out? Other than the plot issues the writing was spot on I just couldn't get past some of these issues I had with the story.

Book 1 SEAL Team Hawaii

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Bad to Worse by Plum Pascal and HP Mallory

2.5 Star

Everly has left Dread and gone on to the correct Academy.  She hopes that it will be what she wants but she misses her men from Dread.  When she finally gets there she is bullied for smelling differently and having a gollum.  The gollum is her only friend.  Will she stay or go back to Dread and her men?

I wanted to like this book so much but the way it ends is what ruined the book for me.  It literally ends at what feels like mid book.   Spoilers will follow:

The people at the new academy arrests Everly and try and purge her of the influence of Dread.  The men come and save her from the purge but it erases her memory of them.  She wakes up in Jean-Claude Von Zarovich the third's castle and feels like she should know them but doesn't.  The book ends literally with her going back to sleep after finding out where she was.  No resolution at all.

So not only is this book a 100 pages less than the first book but it's a dollar more expensive.  I enjoyed the story and the writing but hated where the author ended the story.  Literally it was at the 80% mark on my kindle and the rest was ads for other books by these authors.  Overall, it was an interesting addition but one I wasn't overly happy about it.  I will wait and see what the next book holds just because I want to see where it is going but if that one ends the same way I am out.

Book 2 The F My Life

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How to Break an Undead Heart by Hailey Edwards

4 Stars

Grier finally has Boaz as her boyfriend.  She should be happier, but he keeps dodging her calls and ignoring her.  After an attack on her home she has more important things to worry about than what he is up too.  She will need to figure out who she can rely on as an ally to keep her safe.

This book was so good.  I really liked how the relationship between Boaz and Grier was resolved. 

 

This is a spoiler and if you don’t want to know what happens stop reading until you’ve read the book.

I was never a fan of Boaz or his sister Amelia.  They frustrated me with how selfish they were.  This book just showed how very selfish they are.  Amelia knew it would hurt Grier that Boaz was marrying someone else to protect Amelia and she didn’t warn Grier.  She let Grier be blindsided by all of it.  It showed where Grier fell on her list of priority.

 

I loved Linus in this story.  He helps her through everything without expecting anything in return.  The story progressed the overall plot of who the mystery vampire was.  I can’t wait for the next one to see where the story is going to go.

To The Rude Guy in Apartment Five by J.S. Cooper

2 Stars

Spoilers throughout!!!!!

This is a story of friends coming back together after being separated for 10 years and how they end up together.  It starts with notes left on each other’s doors until they run into each other in the hall.

I wanted to love this book but it kind of sucked.  The writing was good which is why I gave it 2 stars.  The plot sounded like a good book and the sample I read was awesome so I splurged and bought it.  The best I can say is that the writing was spot on. I hated both main characters.  They both kinda sucked.  Magnolia when she was 18 she tried to seduce her boyfriend’s brother.  They were neighbors and she had loved him forever and just had to have him.  But she was dating the brother!  Speaking of him Jagger was pretend dating Magnolia’s sister.  He also claims to have been in love with Magnolia forever. He admits he only started pretend dating the sister to make Magnolia jealous.  So that was when they were 18 and 20 can totally understand their thought process at that age and forgive them but they are just as childish now 10 years later.  It was so frustrating to have Magnolia come home mostly drunk spitting mad at Jagger for his behavior and 2 seconds after entering his apartment she’s reading to fuck him.  Really he gets naked and all is forgiven.  Just very frustrating.  Jagger wasn’t any better.  He cracks jokes throughout the book and they are not funny and made at inappropriate times.

Save your money for something better.