Jaime Maddox

Well, that sucked me in lickety split. Yikes.

It's the story of Ella and Reese (with a very cool side of Cassidy, Reese's sister who has Down Syndrome).

Ella spent summers with her grandparents in the area of Pennsylvania where it takes place (the Poconos) until she was 12, and her best friend was Stephanie Gates.

Reese never knew Ella, but she was best friends with Steph all through high school.

Reese and Ella meet when Ella gets a job at the local college as their new VP of development (scholarships and asking alumni for money and that sort of thing, yeah, I didn't know that was what it was called either until this book). And Ella moves in next door to Reese's parents and sister, Cassidy (Cass for short).

The story then gets complicated when Ella is asked by Stephanie's mother to create a scholarship in Steph's honor (who died Senior year of high school) not to mention the DA starts re-looking into the case as well.

The murderer gets worried and Cass comes under threat to her life.

Of course, through all this Reese and Ella get closer as well, but, can this twisty case stop their love?

I sorta guessed about one of Steph's plot twists very early on, it was the only thing that made sense to my brain. But, the 'who dun it' part of the story, really, really kept me guessing (heck, I even guessed the motive wrong, what am I doing, I've read so many mysteries I shouldn't have gotten it wrong. Guess this was an awesome mystery). And then kept me second and third guessing until the very end and we found out who did do it.

It was an awesome read, a really cool mystery, and one of my favorite Maddox books to date.

I got this galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (mais)

This is the story of Mac and Jess, and whew it was so very, very focused on the two of them throughout the novel. At least, it seemed that way to me.

Mac is a state policewoman who's working a kidnapping case. A Dr. Hawk kidnapped Dr. Jess Benson as well as her father, and a sort of co-worker (another doctor).

Mac and Jess don't meet in the book right away, but when they do there's much back and forth and at first it's quite a slow burn because of the positions they're in.

Unfortunately it took me forever and a half to get into this novel. Sometimes it will take me a couple of chapters, but in this case it took me nearly the whole first half to get into it.

I will say that once I got into the flow it was quite the thrill ride though.

And even though we never saw the Dr. Hawk character (at least, I don't think we did), I still felt like his character was all over the story.

It was an intense read and enjoyable as well. Just was a little slow for me at first.

I got this galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (mais)

For the most part I've always liked medical thrillers and I think this novel definitely could fit into that genre.

It starts as two main stories. There's the story of Ward. She and Jess, her sort of ex-girlfriend are in a weird place. And so Ward takes a job as a roving ER docs in the mountains of PA. Each month she's in a different town and a different hospital. She also happens to be following a Dr. Edward Hawk's assignments from hospital to hospital. And that's where the thriller part of the story comes in.

There's also the story of Abby. We don't get to know quite as much about her life as we do Ward's and that bummed me out a little. But what we did learn was cool. They meet because Abby is the CEO of one of the hospitals where Ward (and Hawk before her) works. They meet and even while dealing with the thriller part of the novel start to fall in love. But, of course, there are things in their way.

I liked the plot and writing, but what I really, really liked were the characters. Like Frieda, Ward's friend, and Judi, Abby's Mom. Not to mention (although sometimes I wanted to strangle them) Jess and her father, they were unique characters too.

It was a really good novel (although I shouldn't be surprised since it's Maddox), and I liked that the author didn't hide the antagonist's part of the plot (to make it a mystery) but instead wove it really well into the entire story.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (mais)

Jaime Maddox, Jaime Maddox. She always seems to start out with these feel good lesbian romances. You're reading along, enjoying the fun and light ride, and then --BAM-- you get hit with the twisty and suddenly the light ride turns into a twisty, turney awesome mess.

Although there were some clues that it was going to have a turn somewhere in there, at the beginning it's the simple-ish story of Alex and Britain (aka Brit). Alex is a former basketball star who is a teacher and the new coach of a High School girls basketball team. She's also a bit of a commitment phobe when the book starts, and she has a big secret that barely anyone knows. She's in Rehobooth when she meets Brit, who ironically is about to start teaching at the same school where Alex works. Brit even winds up becoming Alex's assistant coach. There's a bit of back and forth between the two women, but, they do seem to find love with one another. And then the twist hits them, and not only do they get thrown for a loop, but other characters in the story do as well and we get an interesting book about student athletes, gambling, and other forms of cheating.

There was only one part that was harder for me. At the beginning it seemed a little scattered, and it was hard for me to get right into the story. I felt thrown into the deep end of the pool, and it took a bit to get my treading water legs under me.

Other than that it was a great book with interesting characters and a both fun, and then super twisty plot.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.… (mais)