Month: November 2019

Review: Somebody Killed His Editor (Holmes and Moriarity #1) by Josh Lanyon

My first gay romance mystery. Hooked me with the mystery and Kit’s snark.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Kindle Edition. 272 pages. Published June 16th 2009 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

Blurb:

For sixteen years reclusive mystery writer Christopher (Kit) Holmes enjoyed a very successful career, thanks to the popularity of elderly spinster sleuth, Miss Butterwith, and her ingenious cat, Mr. Pinkerton. But sales are down in everything but chick lit, and Christopher’s new editor doesn’t like geriatric gumshoes. It’s a pink, pink world for Mr. Holmes.

At the urging of his agent, Christopher reluctantly agrees to attend a mystery writers’ conference at a remote Northern California winery. But no sooner does he arrive than he discovers the pajama-clad body of a woman in the woods. If nearly two decades of mystery-writing are anything to go by, the woman doesn’t appear to have died a natural death.

With a storm in full force and a washed-out bridge making it impossible for law enforcement to come to the rescue, it’s practically like all those classic murder mysteries in isolated country manors that Christopher has been penning for sixteen years! If only Miss Butterwith was on hand. Or even Mr. Pinkerton… 

Likes:

  • Hooked me right from the start and kept my attention.
  • Snarky and sarcastic main character.
  • Cozy mystery with a male lead.
  • Great start to a new series.
  • Amazing women of color characters.

Dislikes:

  • I still had some questions about the killer at the end.
  • The big reveal at the end wasn’t so big.
  • Didn’t give me all the usual cozy mystery feels.

I’m not entirely sure this book is a cozy mystery. It’s definitely close, but it doesn’t have the exact same feel to it. Maybe that’s because this book is set in a new-to-Kit setting. Or it could be because Kit is a gay man and I’ve never read a cozy mystery with a man as the main character before.

As main characters go, Kit was great. I love snarky, sarcastic characters, as long as they are decent people underneath. I was hooked right from the start, both by the situation and by Kit’s character. It took me a while to warm up to J.X. because he flip-flopped a lot. He clearly had feeling for Kit but at the same time didn’t like him.

It took a while to get the full backstory between the two, but it was worth the wait. I actually picked up this book because I was looking for something with a second chance romance. I wasn’t disappointed. The romance doesn’t take as much of a backseat to solving the murders like in a normal cozy. I’d say Kit’s relationship with J.X. were of equal importance to finding the murderer.

That was definitely a good thing, because the ending was a bit anticlimactic. There wasn’t much surprise. I do wish the killer’s motives had been spelled out a little more. I got the general idea, but I always enjoy when the killer admits to everything and spells out their reasoning behind everything they did.

I’m looking forward to getting the next book in the series. I flew through this book and expect to do the same with the next.  

Be sure to check out the reviews for All She Wrote, The Boy With the Painful Tattoo, and In Other Words… Murder.

Series Review: At Last, The Beloved Series by Stella Starling

Solid romances but all the books were too long and repetitive.

Series rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Books and their rating:          

All I Want – 2.5 stars

Be True – 5 stars

Be Mine – 4.5 stars

Be Loved – 3.5 stars

Likes:

  • The romances were solid.
  • The characters were generally likeable.
  • The writing was good.
  • Slow burn romance.

Dislikes:

  • Too long.
  • Too repetitive.
  • The books got less interesting as they went on.
  • Same story told through three different relationships.
  • Formulaic.

Technically, All I Want isn’t a part of the Beloved series. However, I’m including it because I was annoyed when I was reading Be True and Ash and Elliot kept turning up. The story behind their romance was referenced enough times to make me wish I’d read their story first so I could actually understand the context.

I think All I Want should be tied to the Beloved series in some way, because they feature many of the same characters and locations. As a reader, there’s nothing more annoying than wondering, “Wait, should I have read this book first?” when you’re already invested in the current book.

In the end, not reading All I Want first was probably a good thing. My ratings for the books decreased with every book, ultimately ending with me not finishing All I Want.

The reason for my decreased rating was because of how the books are structured. Be True was great. Wordy, but the story and characters had me hooked. Unfortunately, all three books in the Beloved series are about the exact same inciting incident. That meant that Be Mine and Be Loved both rehashed scenes I had already seen in the previous books. Since I was reading the books back to back, those rehashed scenes were boring.

Worst of all, when it came to the third book, Be Loved, I felt like I already knew what was going to happen with the bad guy. He was the same bad guy as in the previous book, so I knew when he was going to drop off the radar and that he wouldn’t physically hurt anyone. That completely wiped out the suspense element. It was very disappointing.

Another issue I had was with the epilogues. All three books in the Beloved series had epilogues set one year later, on Valentine’s Day. The first time it happened, it was cute. The second time, it was fine. The third time, I was over it. It really didn’t feel like Starling had considered that people would be binge reading the books after they were all out, and that the similarities would become glaring.

I think the idea of having the books al start with the same inciting incident is a novel idea. I just don’t think it worked as well as it could have. Still, the trilogy kept me interested enough to finish all the books. That’s more than I can say for All I Want.

All I Want had potential. The setup was good and the romance was solid. What didn’t work for me was Ash. I have to like both main characters in a romance novel. I didn’t care about Ash. He wasn’t a bad guy, but he didn’t do anything to make me like him either. My affection is not guaranteed. The characters have to earn my regard.

Or should I say, he didn’t earn my regard fast enough. I stopped reading at the 36% mark. The Ash who appeared in Be True was a decent guy. So I’m sure he went through a transformation in the 64% of All I Want that I didn’t read. But I wasn’t willing to wait around. With so many books out there, why should I stick with something that *might* pay off?

My overall thoughts on the series is that Stella Starling is a good writer who knows romance. She just needs to be tougher with her editing. The books are long – 356, 406, 240, and 275 pages respectively. There’s repetition in every book, especially when the characters are reminding themselves why the romance could never work. The books would flow better, be more cohesive, and less repetitive if subjected to a harsh red pen. I think the quality of the series overall would drastically improve.

Review: All I Want by Stella Starling

DNF, which is sad because I was looking forward to this book.

2.5 out of 5 stars

Ebook. Kindle Unlimited. 356 pages. Published December 1st 2016

Blurb:

“All I want for Christmas is someone to love.”

Shy retail clerk Elliott Gaffney’s Christmas wish isn’t something Santa can grant him, but that doesn’t stop it from being his favorite time of year. Especially since he gets to work at Chicago’s prestigious Ashby’s department store in “the North Pole,” doing his part to make the magic of Christmas come alive for others.

All Bennett “Ash” Ashby wants for Christmas is to forget about it. Unfortunately, his father is forcing him to pay penance for the media frenzy caused by his latest public sex scandal. The Ashby heir, working as a lowly department store Santa? Only the fact that no one will know it’s really him can save Ash the embarrassment of being stuck in a fat suit instead of partying with his friends.

But when Elliott catches Ash’s eye, Christmas starts to look a whole lot brighter. And even though Elliott would never have the guts to say yes if he knew who Ash really was, falling for “Ben,” the new Santa, is another story all together…

Likes:

  • Elliot.
  • Christmas spirit.

Dislikes:

  • 356 pages.
  • Starting a romance with lies.
  • I was never given a reason to like Ash.
  • Elliot falls for the first guy who’s nice to him.

DNF 36%

I was looking forward to this book. Ash and Elliot show up a number of times in Be True and I was excited for their story. I knew ahead of time that Starling’s writing was longwinded. What I didn’t take into account was all the time I’d spend not liking Ash.

In a way, I have to give credit for Ash being true to his nature. He’s a spoiled rich boy who has never needed to think about anyone but himself. But spoiled rich boys like him always get redeemed. And I’m sure Ash does. Eventually. Sometime after the 36% mark where I stopped reading.

Ash isn’t a bag guy. But there’s nothing particularly likeable about him either. He thinks everyone around him is ridiculous for how worked up they get about Christmas, he only thinks about getting back to his money and rich friends, and he has no problem lying to everyone around him. Sure, he treats Elliot nicely, but it’s because he wants to get into Elliot’s pants.

I wanted to watch Ash change into a better person. By the time I gave up on the book, Ash was realizing that his old life wasn’t as great as he thought, but he hadn’t changed. No act of kindness or generosity. Nothing. And considering how long the book is – 356 pages! – the 36% mark felt like it had taken me ages to get to. I even took this book on summer vacation with me and couldn’t work up enough enthusiasm to finish it.

Elliot on the other hand was kindness personified. He really was a great character. Except for the fact that he fell for Ash, aka Ben, because Ash was the first guy he dated who was actually nice to him. Way to set the bar low. Romantically, Elliot reminded me of vintage heroines who feel the need to sooth the wildness in a man’s soul. “There was something in Ben’s soul, hidden away behind his cocky demeanor, that called out to Elliot.” Barf.

Add in the fact that Ash is lying to everyone around him about who he is. That’s not a great way to start off a romance. Neither is Elliot’s inability to keep his promise to himself and end their date at the door. That was a major dislike for me.

Overall, this book is so wordy that you could cut out a hundred pages and have a better story. I do have to say that the romance was progressing just fine. The men were getting closer, getting to know each other. I would have finished this book if I had liked Ash. But I wasn’t going to wait around for him to become likable. Not liking Ash meant that I wasn’t invested in the romance. I got to the first sex scene and didn’t care. And if I don’t care about the romance, then why read a romance book?