Recent Reads

Treachery in Death by J.D. Robb

Why this one: I’m addicted to this series and since the price was right…..

Steam Level: Warm. There have been much hotter books in this series but Eve and Roarke have settled into marriage and though the passion between them burns just as bright, it’s not written as explicitly in this one as in some of the early books.

Blurb: Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime-an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. This is Peabody's first case as primary detective-good thing she learned from the master.
But Peabody soon stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a hard workout, she's all alone in the locker room when the gym door clatters open; and-while hiding inside a shower stall trying not to make a sound-she overhears two fellow officers, Garnet and Oberman, arguing. It doesn't take long to realize they're both crooked-guilty not just of corruption but of murder. Now Peabody, Eve, and Eve's husband, Roarke, are trying to get the hard evidence they need to bring the dirty cops down-knowing all the while that the two are willing to kill to keep their secret.

My thoughts: I liked this one. There have been a few where I can’t really say that off the bat, but I can with Treachery. It was a bit different in that the murders that Eve and her team investigate happen before the story begins for the most part. And the one person murdered during the course of the story isn’t one of the innocents that so often are victims. No beloved teachers at private schools, no good cops under cover, no teenage girls who run afoul of evil witch wannabe’s and no little girls entire family are murdered during the writing of this book.

There is one, off scene so to speak, to start the story off. Dallas makes Peabody the primary in this one and there was one particular scene that was quite cute with Peabody wanting to be bad cop and Eve being good cop. We don’t often see her in this role *g*

But the story really begins when Peabody overhears some very obviously crooked cops discussing an informant they had iced. She is in a very scary situation and afterwards she and McNabb head to see Eve on how they should handle this situation when someone in their very own house has gone bad. This one pitted Eve against another lieutenant womano o’ womano so to speak, Team Good against Team Bad.

There was a lot that was familiar with the other book in this series, but then that’s what makes these such comfort books for me. There was also the start of a secondary love story in this one between a character I think we’ve all been hoping to see meet someone – heh, heh, heh on me not naming who – you will have to read it to find out who for yourselves.

Overall, this one is in the higher level of the In Death books I’ve enjoyed, although it didn’t quite touch my very favourites.

Grade: 4 out of 5

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Why this one: I think she can write a great story and her heroes are always wonderful. I read another one in this 3 book series and quite enjoyed it so I got the other two as ebooks

Steam Level: while there weren’t many, what love scenes there were in there were very hot.

Blurb: Suzanne Carter has sworn off men…really! Her inability to take life seriously drives them crazy, so it’s best she leaves them alone. Then one night, strong, handsome Ryan Alondo rescues her and she simply melts. Who could resist all that rough-and-tumble sexiness? But as tempting as he is, she’s not going to fall for his charms. Because there’s no way she wants to ruin a man this gorgeous. From the moment Ryan sets eyes on Suanne, he knows she’s the one for him. She’s fun and sexy and exactly what he needs in his overcrowded, responsible life. And the passion between them can’t be ignored. He just has to convince her he’s serious enough for both of them. Good thing he can be very, very persuasive.

My Thoughts: This is an older book; back from the now defunct Temptation line and I didn’t pay very much for it, so I’m not bummed that it bombed for me. But it was a bit disappointing since once again, Ms. Shalvis wrote a great hero. But when I have issues with her books, it’s usually because of the heroine and that’s the case in Roughing it with Ryan. While Ryan was my kind of hero, a blue collar type who worked with his hands; an older brother who raised his younger siblings when their parents died, sexy and hunky and going for a higher education, I had real issues with Suzanne. First off, at the beginning of the book, she has just moved out, or rather been forced out, of living with her fiancé. She’s in no place to get involved with a guy so soon. But does she tell this to Ryan? Noooo, of course not. She just jumps from that relationship straight to another. And while she doesn’t fall right into his arms, when she does, just for lusts sake, she then backs off, confusing this great guy. And then she doesn’t want the relation ship to go any further, not for a normal reason like she just got out of a bad one, but because she figures she’s bound to hurt him as she’s hurt three previous fiancés. She doesn’t have the self awareness to realize that she’s a twit and the fault was with the men and not her. They would suggest something she should do for a living and she did it. One of them suggested she should be a stipper so she became one for awhile. Come off it. If some guy told me I should take my clothes off for a living, if he were serious and not just flattering me, he would so be out the door and at that curb!!!! But our heroine Suzanne – she’s engaged to the idiot and then when the relationship doesn’t work out, blames herself. For the life of me I didn’t understand what a guy like the hero would see in such a nitwit – except for a curvy body. She has zero sense of self worth and she’s stupid; two things that are unforgivable for me in a heroine.

She makes the poor guy work so hard for her, not because she’s worth it and we should all make the men ‘earn’ us, but because she’s an idiot. And she ends up hurting him in the process. ‘Cause she is an idiot. She’s out of a job because her last fiancé said she should work at his sisters restaurant and when he breaks it off, she lost her job. To keep things going until she finds another job, she does catering which she loves, but keeps saying it’s just a hobby and continues to look for a job as a chef which her previous boyfriend told her to do and thus she doesn’t think she should do catering because no guy said she should – because she’s an idiot. Mind you, she did strip for a while ‘cause a guy told her too.

I bet you get the feeling that I didn’t care for Suzanne one ity bity bit. And you would be right. I kept thinking about quitting this book ‘cause of her, but Ryan was so scrumptious. Author Jill Shalvis does this to me. She’s a very good author and I can totally get why she’s loved by many readers. I consider myself one. But when I don’t like the heroine, the book becomes a fail and sadly that made this one a fail.

But I did like the third one and I also have the second one – the rubber book of the series so to speak so I’ll have to see what I think of it.

Grade: Hero = 5/Heroine = 1.5. Factoring in good writing despite not liking the heroine, this book gets a 3