Review Round Up ~ November 14

Recent Releases

Knox by Brenda Rothert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars - Would Recommend to a Friend

Review Copy Purchased by E-Reading After Midnight

With Knox, Ms Rothert returns us to the world of the Chicago Blaze in a heavily connected stand alone story.

Knox is a character that honestly don’t recall seeing too much in the previous books, but I loved getting to know him here. Over the course of the book we find out that Know is really like a truffle - hard deliciousness on the outside with a sweet, soft center.

His love interest, Reese, is a fun character to get to know. I appreciated the way she responded to adversity and channeled that into something bigger and better for herself.

Together, this couple was awesome. They were the perfect combination of instant chemistry combined with a slow burn/friendship. Knox is a well written and fast paced book. There were some things I would have liked to have more time with, but overall things were well balanced. The conflicts in the story were organic to who the couple is and flowed well with the rest of the story.

My one caution would be for readers new to the series. The secondary cast (primarily the other players) is heavy with people who have been in previous books in either a primary or secondary role. Having read some of the previous books would definitely help with understanding the relationships discussed. Having said that, don’t let it stop you from reading Knox if this is the best place to start.

Amazon

 Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J. Christopher

3.5 stars - Worth a Reader's Time

Review Copy Provided by publisher via Net Galley

Not the Girl You Marry is a book I picked up to review based strictly on the blurb as the author is new to me.
The premise of the book puts a spin on the “fake relationship with a purpose” trope that was unique and had me curious about who these people would be.

The author included a note at the beginning of the book about how some of her personal experiences influenced the heroine’s attitudes. Having that information was helpful - knowing that Hannah’s experiences and her resulting thought process was even somewhat based real experiences made me more open to seeing where she was coming from and how she responded to some of Jack’s behaviors.

Overall, I liked Jack and Hannah. Both characters were interesting and a bit different than those I’ve seen before. I appreciated the emotional growth that both experienced, I could especially (and I think most woman can) relate to Hannah’s experience and how history influences how she responds.

The plot and pacing of the story was entertaining, but I felt like there were places were the cross purposes being worked on could have been explored a bit more for the humor aspect. There were times the story felt a bit heavy. My other concern/ complaint was some of the language used - and I don’t mean the f bomb, etc- I mean some of the “headline” words that I’m not sure are mainstream yet. (I had to google a couple of things).

This is a book that I liked and I will definitely be exploring more by this author, there are just a few small things that fall under the “ maybe think about this” list.

Amazon

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