Slay Ride by Chris Grabenstein

Advertising executive Scott Wilkinson has a very nice life: a lovely home in suburban New Jersey, a beautiful wife, and a little girl on the way. But his charmed existence becomes cursed when he steps into a Lucky Seven airport limousine driven by an embittered one-time agent of the KGB. Nicolai Kyznetsoff is already enraged at the world when Wilkinson dares to admonish him for being a few minutes late. After surviving a white-knuckle ride to LaGuardia, Wilkinson calls Lucky Seven to file a complaint.

A year goes by and while Wilkinson's life seems perfect little does he know that Grandfather Frost is waiting for the right moment to attack and is soon kidnapped. His worried, very pregnant wife refuses to sit around and wait.

Meanwhile, across town, off-duty FBI agent Christopher Miller (aka Saint Christopher) finds the "Man in the Moon," a serial killer who has been taking out cab drivers with every full moon on the Jersey shore. He is placed on probation for outshining his jealous boss who we find out later has been using Miller's name with the Russian mafia. He is called in to calm down an old Russian woman who has been robbed and uncovers details of Russian diamond smugglers who transport the booty in nesting matryoshka dolls.

But Nicolai isn't just out for revenge on Wilkinson but Miller as well. He believes Miller has stolen his diamonds. So after many gruesome killings and biting your nails chases will he find Wilkinson in time before he is killed off or before Nicolai kills Miller?

This was a wild fast read but rather gruesome killings of lots of people with very graphic detail. Thankfully I can skim over that part. The ending was bit pat for me but overall a good read. I'll try one of his other works to see what it is like.

Tiger Eye by Marjoie M. Liu

Psychically sensitive tourist Dela Reese browses for treasures at Beijing's Dirt Market, where an old woman sells her a riddle box for only one yuan. Surprisingly, when Dela opens the box back in her hotel room, a gorgeous seven-foot-tall warrior appears, bearing 2,000-year-old weapons. The warrior, Hari, has been cursed for two millennia to serve as a slave - bereft of his power to shape-shift into a tiger - to anyone who opens the box. Assassins follow Delilah and Hari from Beijing back home to the U.S., where Dela and Hari soon find themselves in the midst of a war between Chinese crime syndicates. The reappearance of Hari's age-old nemesis, the Magi, who has been searching for Hari since he was imprisoned in the box, jacks up the suspense.

First in the series of the Dirk & Stelle paranormal romances. This was suprisingly good and very sensual in an erotic way. I actually read the 2nd book first so it was good to go back and figure out who these people are. All the characters are well connected and make me want to know more about this group. I'm glad that she has written several and look forward to reading more.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Short stories featuring a Christmas theme. There is a darkly playful humor through the book, some of which didn't seem that funny to me. I really enjoyed the first and last stories. SantaLand Dairies chronicles his time working as an elf at Macy's, covering everything from the preliminary group lectures ("You are not a dancer. If you were a real dancer you wouldn't be here. You're an elf and you're going to wear panties like an elf.") to the perils of inter-elf flirtation. Along the way, he paints a funny and sad portrait of the way the countless parents who pass through SantaLand are too busy creating an Experience to really pay attention to their children. Christmas Means Giving is truly the bizaare way two neighbors try to outdo each other during Christmas by giving to it literally kills them!

I have never read any of his previous works but had heard an online review of this collection on XM audio radio. I enjoyed the rest but it didn't move me like these two stories did. I think I could read SantaLand every year to start my Christmas season out with a laugh!

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered a reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace, and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia, Valek. And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust, and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

We see the story from Yelena's point of view. She murdered General Brazell’s only son, Reyad, which is punished by death. Living in the territory of Ixia’s, military rule had produced strict laws called the Code of Behavior. During peacetime, proper military conduct does not allow the taking of a human life. If murder was committed, the punishment was execution. Of course we learn the nightmare she lived in Brazell's orphanage

As Yelena tries to escape her dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and she develops magical powers she can't control. Her life’s at stake again and choices must be made. We are introduced to many interesting characters in this complex novel in which politics and fantasy are interwoven.

Two more are in this interesting series. Can't wait to try them out.

Magic Study
Fire Study

Born In Death by J.D. Robb
Eve is busy planning her friend Mavis's babyshower when she is drawn into a double homicide. Dallas's investigation of these brutal murders of Natalie Copperfield, a 26-year-old accountant, and Copperfield's boyfriend becomes entangled with the search for Tandy Willowby, a pregnant friend who mysteriously vanishes shortly before her due date. Dallas discovers that Copperfield had stumbled on some white-collar fraud at her high-profile accounting firm, while Willowby's disappearance may be part of a series of abductions.

But all of this is taking it's toll on both Eve & Roarke as they are Mavis' birth coaches and it is completely freaking them out. Plus all the real dirt behind the murders brings up old wounds for both of them.

The mystery is really not the main focus as it is more on Eve & Roarke and them having to deal with life and death. It was nice to see more of Mavis but the other main characters such Feeney, Peabody, McNabb, Louise, Mira, Mavis, Whitney, etc.

Happy New Year!
It's almost 2007. Here is my last book review for 2006.

Tess Monaghan series by Laura Lippman

No Good Deeds
By A Spider's Thread
Last Place
In a Strange City
Sugar House
Book 4:
In Big Trouble ~ When Baltimore PI Tess Monaghan receives an envelope postmarked Boerne, Tex., containing a photo of Crow, her former musician boyfriend, and a scrap of newspaper headline reading "in big trouble," a day's outing to visit Crow's parents in Charlottesville which turns into a road trip to Texas. Tough and street savvy in her hometown, the former reporter feels lost in the land of the Alamo. Crow seems to have disappeared with a mysterious blonde singer, and as Tess searches for them, she encounters a wall of family secrets behind which may lie the reason for the body count rising around her.

Lippman does an excellent job at making you feel that you are in San Antonio and other Texas areas. As someone who lived in Houston for a few years I always feel rather nostalgic when it comes to books set in Texas. While feeling lost and lonely in Texas as nothing is familiar Tess quickly finds her niche there. She is a likeable character who I always enjoy reading her latest adventure

Book 3:
Butchers Hill ~ Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out the shingle as a P.I.-for-hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Her first client is Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalizing his car, just sprung from jail. He wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime for his own peace of mind, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses she locates start dying. Is the "Butcher of Butchers Hill" as it again? Or is there another, even more sinister force at work?

She reluctantly accepts a 2nd case of a woman looking for her sister. Tess quickly finds out that there is no sister and the woman she is looking for is the woman's real idenity. Passing the test she is then assigned to find out what happened to a daughter she gave up for adoption 13 years before. Both cases overlap as Tess tries to discover the truth buried under all the lies.

This novel was inspired by a real-life Baltimore homicide, the story of a man who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy who had thrown rocks at his car. I find myself really liking this character with each book. We see how she is developing into herself. Lots of plot twists and I found myself wondering who was really the bad guy here.

Book 2:
Charm City ~ Business tycoon "Wink" Wynkowski is trying to bring pro basketball back to town, and everybody's rooting fro him -- until a devastating, muckraking expose of his lurid past appears on the front page of the Baltimore Beacon-Light. It's a surprise even to the Blight's editors, who thought they'd killed the piece. Instead, the piece killed Wink -- who's found in his garage with the car running.

Now the paper wants to nail the unknown computer hacker who planted the lethal story, and the assignment is right up the alley of a former newshound like Tess. But it doesn't take long for her to discover deeper, darker secrets, and to realize that this situation is really more about whacking than hacking.

We see more development of her relationship with several characters including her parents. We see more of Uncle Spike (who may not even be related to anyone) who has been found beaten to a pulp in his bar, leaving him in a coma. He left Tess his very bow-beaten greyhound who she finds herself nursing back to health.

The mystery is kind of not the most important thing as the person who ended up doing was kind of far fetched and I didn't see it coming. But I find myself wanting to know more about Tess and her friends and family. So I'll keep reading the next one.

Baltimore Blues ~ Introduces us to Tess Monaghan. Downsized ex-reporter Tess spends her days working part-time at the bookstore owned by sexy Aunt Kitty and rowing her mornings away and trying not to fall into the disgustingly polluted Patapsco from her city-owned boat. When rowing buddy Rocky pays her what looks like a fortune to follow his fiance, the trail leads to murder with Rocky the prime suspect.

What it leads to is another murder or someone very close to her and it becomes personal.

An interesting series and while it was slow to start it really ran the pace and finished better than it started. I liked her descriptions of Baltimore and of the newspaper industry. I'll read more of this series.

Inside Job by Connie Willis

Professional debunker Rob, proprietor of the Jaundiced Eye magazine, considers himself incredibly lucky to have Kildy as his sole employee. Smart, dedicated, gorgeous, and, thanks to her last movie before she hung up on Hollywood, rich. She says Rob has to witness this channeler Ariaura's act. It's quite a show, all right, for in the midst of Ariaura's particular ancient wise guy's basso spiel, a gravelly baritone interrupts to berate the audience as "yaps" and the act as "claptrap." Why is Ariaura undermining herself? Or is she? After all, she angrily accuses Rob and Kildy of scheming to destroy her. Could the baritone belong to a genuine channeled spirit, who just might be the legendary skeptic H.L. Mencken? Or is Rob being scammed by the oldest trick in the book? by his lovely sidekick Kildy?

While this is really a novella Willis really manages to fill it with thought provoking ideas. Can the skeptic trust someone enough to fall in love? Very reminiscent of some of the Dashiell Hammett style storyline of falling for the girl only to have her betray him and break his heart.

Connie Willis is regarded as a Sci Fi author but I find her more of a psychological writer as all of her characters are often more complex than meets the eye. She always makes me think afterwards. This was the perfect book to finish my time at Cerritos. I read a lot of Connie Willis while working at Cerritos Library. So it's fitting that my last library book from there I read is by Willis. Can you tell I'm a fan?

Slouching Towards Bethlehm by Joan Didion

This classic 1968 work is justly renowned as Joan Didion's finest collection of essays. Its central theme - and the theme behind much of what Didion writes - is the atomisation of American culture, the way in which things have fallen apart and left millions adrift from the cultural and ethical moorings that their ancestors took for granted. 33 years later, it is ironic to look back on the period that the writer depicts with such grim pathos when it is celebrated as a time of idealism and freedom by the survivors of the sixties.

I only got through the first couple of essays and found I had to really concentrate to fully appreciate her style. She writes really, really well and make one think. So I look forward to picking up this work and trying again at a more stable part in my life.

Alice in the know by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
#18 in the Alice series
Alice fills the summer before her junior year of high school with a job at the mall, hanging out with her friends, and wishing she had a bigger family. It's the summer before junior year, and Alice is looking forward to three months of excitement, passion, and drama. But what does she find? A summer working in a local department store, trying to stop shoplifters, and more "real life" problems than she could have ever imagined: A good friend becomes seriously ill, Lester has more romance problems than even Alice knows what to do with, and the gang from Mark Stedmeister's pool is starting to grow up a bit faster than Alice is comfortable with. Fortunately for Alice her family and friends are with her through it all, and by the end of the summer, Alice finds she knows a whole lot more than she had in June.

As usual reading Alice is reading a part of life I wish I could have had as a teenager. Naylor really seems to keep up with events in a teen's life yet it won't feel too dated in 5 years. I always enjoy a dose of Alice in my hectic life.

Sparks: an urban fairytale by Lawrence Marvit

The girl, Josephine, is a wondeful lass who can find neither happiness nor peace outside of her job at a small auto garage as a good mechanic. Her home life is hellish with a fat bullying thug of a father and a doped up broken zombie of a mother in a spiteful neighborhood that sees her as a freak. All of this takes their toll on her self esteem as she looks on enviously at the social life that other women seem to take on at ease.

It all culminates with a flight of fancy as she builds a construction of a idealed perfect man from spare auto parts. That little indulgence takes on a wondrous tone when a freak bolt of lightning strikes the construct and brings him to life. Eventually, the mechanical man and Josephine meet and the girl gains a companion she never anticipated.

In the story that follows, Jo struggles to teach the Robot, who soon dubs himself as Galahad from Arthurian legend, how to communicate and the complexities of life and existence. In return, Galahad helps make her see the true beauty of her nature that the world of fools around her cannot perceive even as she strives to fit in a square peg in a round hole kind of world. However, events take a terrible course of their own that will forever change the lives of the characters.

This was a very moving story as you feel the despair and loneliness she feels. It is a story of finding one's own path and taking the harder road to find happiness. Well done.

Friends, Lovers and Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
2nd in the Sunday Philosopher's Club
Isabel’s niece, Cat, asks Isabel to run her delicatessen while she attends a wedding in Italy. There Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly plagued with memories of events that never happened to him. The situation appeals to Isabel as a philosophical question: Is the heart truly the seat of the soul? And it piques her insatiable curiosity: Could the memories be connected with the donor’s demise? Of course, Grace—Isabel’s no-nonsense housekeeper—and Isabel’s friend Jamie think it is none of Isabel’s business. Meanwhile, Cat brings home an Italian lothario, who, in accordance with all that Isabel knows about Italian lotharios, shouldn’t be trusted . . . but, goodness, he is charming.

I really liked this installment better than the first title. I think because there really wasn't a mystery. I have a much better opinion of this series as I really could relate to the philosophy aspect more.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an all-American girl...

Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kung-fu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn’t want to be a monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...

Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he’s ruining his cousin Danny’s life. Danny’s a basketball player, a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse...

These three apparently unrelated tales come together with an unexpected twist, in a modern fable that is hilarious, poignant, and action-packed.

This book was a 2006 National Book Foundation finalist Young People's Literature. It is a graphic novel or comic story. Very bring and colorful. I couldn't figure out how these 3 different stories were connected. What a delightful surprise as while at first seemed to be a stereotypical look at Chinese Americans it quickly showed a mixture of both worlds.

Awaken Me Darkley by Gena Showalter
Part of the Alien Huntres series

It's sometime in the future, and aliens have been residents on Earth for more than 70 years. Enter Mia Snow, head of the New Chicago Police Department's Alien Investigation and Removal Agency, as she and her crack crew try to solve the latest string of extraterrestrially induced murders. This particular killer favors handsome young men with dark hair and dark eyes. Mia knows that the culprit is one of the dreaded Arcadians, the most clever and deadly species of all.

However, when her second-in-command--and best friend--Dallas Gutierrez is mortally wounded, and only Arcadian Kyrin en Arr, the prime murder suspect, holds the key to his survival, Mia has to make a hard choice between her ethics as a cop and her love for her friend. To make matters worse, she is physically attracted to Kyrin, and suddenly, her black-and-white world has gone all swirly gray.

Interesting book and it might be a series eventually from what the author wrote at the end of the book. It was a good mix of Buffy the Vampire slayer and erotica.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters unearth a shocking clue to Olivia's disappearance among the clutter of their childhood home.

Case Two: Theo delights in his daughter Laura's wit, effortless beauty, and selfless love. But her first day as an associate in his law firm is also the day when Theo's world turns upside down.

Case Three: Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, she'd made a grave mistake and would spend the rest of her life paying for it--until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Inextricably caught up in his clients' grief, joy, and desire, Jackson finds their unshakable need for resolution very much like his own.

It is an interesting idea, having a private detective commissioned to solve three cases that the police could never solve. What is interesting is what he discovers is often different than the actual result. We get all kinds of perspective, from Jackson himself, the victims and the perpetrators. The odd thing for me was how much sex was discussed in this book, if they weren't talking or fantasizing about it, they were doing it. It was a bit odd to hear these very prim and proper Brits talking about sex. Plus it didn't feel at all erotic but rather detatched.

Almost all the various cases become intertwined with one another in a very interesting way. I would try another of her novels to see if she writes different types of books.

Date with the Other Side by Erin McCarthy
Boston Mcnamara has been sent to small town USA in what he views as a punishement. Add to this, he finds himself renting a haunted house, has a rather quirky land lady and oh, yeah, locked doors mean nothing to sexy Shelby, resident ghost tour guide.

Shelby is making ends meet by taking people around her small town on a personal guided tour of hunted houses. Cuttersville is loaded with them and her grammy just so happens to own many of them. She is in for the shock of her life when she brings her tour to "the white house" only to find it not haunted by spooks but instead occupied by one sexy man. Of course Boston is not thrilled to be caught without a stitch on by Shelby and her faithful followers. Throw in her granny that wants Shelby to find a man, an ex-husband who wants to get remarried and ghosts everywhere!

Lots of pretty good sex scenes too. Shelby claims to have never had an orgasism. So of course Boston takes this as challenge to prove her wrong. The ghosts seem to be attracted to them when they are together so it helps break the tension so to speak when a ghost cow moos right at a crucial moment.

These two are truly opposites so can they put aside their differences and see what they have in common to make this have a happy ending. Fun read.

Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock
This novella won the 1967 Nebula Award.
Karl Glogauer travels back in time two thousand years, meets John the Baptist, and then seeks Jesus Christ himself. This is a very intense read. At first I thought Ok, a time travel novel. Then as you see how Glogauer interweaves himself in this timeless story I became amazed by it. It is really hard to discribe my thoughts and emotions while reading this. Wow!

Dirk & Steele Series
by Marjorie M. Liu

EYE OF HEAVEN
DARK DREAMERS
RED HEART OF JADE
Book 2
Shadow Touch
A private detective who picks up people's memories through touch, Artur Loginov isn't entirely surprised when he's kidnapped and imprisoned in an asylumlike facility; his former days as a Russian mobster taught him to believe he'd come to a bad end. But he's surprised to find the other prisoners are paranormally gifted as well--including Elena Baxter from Wisconsin, able to perform miraculous healings and now stunned to realize she's no longer alone in the world. Aided by a pair of shape-shifters, Elena and Artur escape only to discover their captors' sinister goal--and that they are the only ones who can thwart it.

Interesting book. I had no idea it was part of a series. But as far as I can tell this stands on it's own. It defintely leaves you wanting more. I liked the suspense and erotic nature and while it had violence nothing was graphically described. I like erotica that let's you imagine how it all goes. Kind of a cross between Laurell K. Hamilton and Charles De Lint. Now I want to read the first book to see if can find out more about this world.

Book 1
Tiger Eye
Psychically sensitive tourist Dela Reese browses for treasures at Beijing's Dirt Market, where an old woman sells her a riddle box for only one yuan. Surprisingly, when Dela opens the box back in her hotel room, a gorgeous seven-foot-tall warrior appears, bearing 2,000-year-old weapons. The warrior, Hari, has been cursed for two millennia to serve as a slave - bereft of his power to shape-shift into a tiger - to anyone who opens the box. Assassins follow Delilah and Hari from Beijing back home to the U.S., where Dela and Hari soon find themselves in the midst of a war between Chinese crime syndicates. The reappearance of Hari's age-old nemesis, the Magi, who has been searching for Hari since he was imprisoned in the box, jacks up the suspense

2176 series

Book 2
Day of Fire by Kathleen Nance

Day Daniels, a Mounty, lives in Canada. But for over a century it's been closed off, quarantined. Now, in 2176, its people thrive. The country still needs peacekeepers, though-and the Mounties are there. Be It All. Do It All. Those are the high-tech police force's twin mottos. They're Day Daniels's mottos, too.

Someone or something called the Shadow Voice is broadcasting treason, and Day's determined to stamp it out. When her partner is murdered she is determined to discover who did it and put them away for life. Seeking a source with information, Day enters the techbar, Flash Point. There she meets Lian, a civilian bartender. Quickly she discovers that Lian Firebird is neither of those things but an enigmatic government operative and shaman. He is trying to discover the source of a new strain of small pox and becomes her partner. He offers-no, insists-upon joining her trek to the legendary Citadel.

But she needs Lian to gain access to the UCE territory to discover the true source of the threat and save the world in the process.

Interesting book. I liked the futuristic aspects of it and am curious to read some of the others in the series.

Book 1 - Legend of Banzai Maguire by Susan Grant

Legend of Banzai Maguire by Susan Grant
We start in 2006 as U.S. Air Force fighter Bree "Bonzai" Maguire is preparing for a routine patrol between North and South Korea. She feels a shiver of apprehension and soon finds her foreboding to be well founded when she and her wingman, Cam, are trapped by a mad scientist and frozen alive—until treasure hunter Ty Armstrong rescues her 170 years later. Bree awakens to a new era in human history, one enhanced by advanced technologies but bereft of freedom. Almost immediately, Bree is stolen from Ty by the prince of the Kingdom of Asia, Kyber, who offers her innumerable luxuries. Bree knows, however, that she's little more than a treasured pet to him. Desperate to find her wingman, Bree turns to Ty, but she soon learns that he's as helpless as she and that his country, formerly the U.S. but now the bloated and unstable United Colonies of Earth, is even worse than Kyber's benevolent dictatorship.

Both are told to watch the shadows and sure enough when the mysterious Shadow voice takes over all communications Ty and Bree use the opportunity to escape to find out who and what the shadow voice is all about. Unfortunately we don't learn too much about that part as there are 4 more books in the series.

Book 3 - Shadow Runners by Liz Maverick

Book 4 - Power of Two by Patti O'Shea

Book 5 - Scarlet Empress by Susan Grant

Second Sight by Amanda Quick (aka Janye Ann Krentz)

Photographer Venetia Milton is a spinster by Victorian standards. Economically strapped, she's also the sole support of her aunt and younger siblings. Things start to look up when she is chosen to photograph a collection of artifacts belonging to the Arcane Society, a 200-year-old clandestine organization founded by an alchemist. The collection is housed in an isolated gothic mansion, and Venetia finds herself there in the company of handsome and mysterious Gabriel Jones. Deciding that it's now or never for love, Venetia seduces him, only to lose the man of her dreams in a fire set by a nefarious enemy.

Venetia resourcefully moves on, opening a portrait shop and assuming the persona of Gabriel's grieving widow. The talented Mrs. Jones becomes the toast of London, but with Gabriel soon showing up on her doorstep very much alive, Venetia adapts herself again. Now to the former widow reunited with her assumed dead husband. Miffed, she consigns him to the attic, but their chemistry quickly reignites; while tracking down one murderous, blackmailing thief after another, they steal opportunities for fervent encounters in the garden, in the carriage, in the society's mansion and at home.

I enjoy her books especially her more science fiction books she writes under Jayne Castle. But I enjoy reading any of her books she comes out with. She is a fun and easy read.

Code Name series by Christina Skye

Code Name: Princess
2nd book in the Code Name: series. This one features navy SEAL Hawk MacKenzie and hotel investigator Jess Mulcahey (sister to FBI agent Summer Mulcahey, the heroine from Nanny). The pair come together under tumultuous circumstances when Jess, pretending to be minor royalty, bribes a hotel manager into upgrading her to a nicer room, which turns out to be Hawk's digs. Although the hotel has changed locks, it doesn't deter Hawk, who gains entry with a "highly illicit piece of technology" and catches her in the shower.

Hawk is hot on the trail of a stolen government lab animal, and Jess is afraid the hotel staff will seek revenge on her for a bad review. Neither has the time or patience for the other's drama, but they are thrown together time and again in the genre's usual fashion-chasing the bad guys through the fog and rain of Washington State's Olympic Peninsula, easing sexual tension in a stalled hotel elevator and tracking down the lab animal, an adorable koala bear.

I like romance books that feature characters from other books. It was interesting how the murder part of this book is skimmed over leaving one almost to feel it didn't really happen. The main focus is on the two characters as their characters clash and sizzle at the same time. I'll look for her other books.