Samyann
Posts by: Samyann
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Plot. It is a familial story of a Southern family and fodder for discussion in a room full of shrinks. Dozens of vignettes from the birth of twins in a hurricane … to […]
Continue Reading →The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot. A struggling author, Jack, is contacted by the U.S. Marshalls to help write biographies for the witness protection program. The people sheltered by the witness protection program need background stories that are easy […]
Continue Reading →An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Legal, investigative, and police procedurals. Joe Dillard is a criminal defense lawyer with flaws – specifically, a short fuse nearly always directed toward someone anyone would like to punch out. Joe is fiercely defensive […]
Continue Reading →Worthy Opponents by Danielle Steel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Audible audiobook.
Plot. A young woman struggles to maintain the integrity and beauty of a large department store. Spencer Brooks inherited the store – originally established by her grandfather 75 years ago. A popular stop […]
Continue Reading →Identity by Nora Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Following the brutal death of her housemate by a man Morgan was dating, she flees to Vermont and starts to rebuild her life, living with her mother and grandmother. Soon, she is visited by the FBI […]
Continue Reading →Alex Fletcher Boxset by Steven Konkoly
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Audible audio.
An apocalyptic tale of the combinations of a meteor blasting into the ocean off New England, the resulting tsunami, an EMP that disrupts the entire country, and the aggressive behavior of China […]
Continue Reading →To the Center of the Earth by Greig Beck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Three novels – To the…Return to the…Escape from the…This review addresses the entire series.
All novels portend a solid reason for going on the perilous journey – one book because of […]
Continue Reading →Fathomless by Greig Beck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Cate Granger’s grandfather disappeared before she was born. While exploring a cave in Alaska, he discovered local lore and myths were true, that the cave harbored prehistoric behemoths – giants of the ancient world long believed […]
Continue Reading →Secret Sanction by Brian Haig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Sean Drummond is a lawyer – a JAG officer. Sardonic, sarcastic, and self-deprecating at times, Sean is a good guy, a patriot that has taken his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” to heart. Each […]
Continue Reading →A Killer’s Mind by Mike Omer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot. Police procedurals. As a 14-year-old kid, Zoe Bentley intuits that her friendly next-door neighbor is, in reality, a serial killer. No one, even her parents, believes her except her younger sister. The murderer […]
Continue Reading →The Body Reader by Anne Frasier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Police procedurals. This is not a spoiler, but the series opens with Jude Fontaine, emaciated and brutalized, killing her captor. The last three years have been in confinement in a small basement – […]
Continue Reading →The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Three criminals hide out in an old abandoned “general store.” The criminals, waiting for daylight, find sealed envelopes are dropping through the front door mail slot. It seems the […]
Continue Reading →Mission One by Samuel Best
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Plot. Throughout the three-book series, we’re dealing with an alien entity whose objectives aren’t obvious, at least to this writer. There is a slew of techno-babble that will either delight or frustrate the space fans […]
Continue Reading →The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audible Audiobook
Plot. Amy is the dedicated owner/founder of a golden retriever rescue organization. Hair-raising rescues and a past that involves not only Amy and her partner Brian but an abused […]
Continue Reading →Dark Rivers of the Heart by Dean Koontz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Audible.
Plot. A lonely guy – sole companion being a once abused dog, Rocky, that quivers and cows from everything/everyone – becomes infatuated with a girl who works in a bar. Unbeknownst […]
Continue Reading →Without a Trace by Colleen Coble
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Made the HUGE mistake of popping all 7 novels into my basket because of the Audible sale. Now I can’t get a refund, except for the last two books purchased with credits – seems […]
Continue Reading →The Girls in the Attic by Marius Gabriel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. The story begins in modern day with an older woman telling her 60-year-old daughter about being a Jewish girl in WWII. Flashback to the 1940s and an injured German soldier returning […]
Continue Reading →The Spitfire Girls by Soraya M. Lane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Audible audiobook. As indicated in “Author Notes” at the end of The Spitfire Girls, this is a fictional story – however, it is based on fact. The story is a bit bogged down […]
Continue Reading →I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
David is serving life in prison for the murder of his three-year-old son. In the time served so far, David has had no visitors – not one. That is, until his sister-in-law visits […]
Continue Reading →The Stroke of Winter by Wendy Webb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Audible audiobook. Tess inherits the homestead of her grandfather, a world famous painter. She is converting the big old house into a bed and breakfast. Renovations include opening a wing, unbeknownst to her, […]
Continue Reading →The Murderer’s Son by Joy Ellis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Jackman and Evans Series consists of several novels in the police procedural genre. Main characters appearing throughout the series include Rowan Jackman, a Detective Inspector, and Marie Evans, a Lieutenant. You’ll meet several […]
Continue Reading →Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Plot. We’ve been invaded by aliens – been happening ever since Roswell, but the government keeps this all under wraps, of course. Today, four men take a yearly winter hunting trip and … well, the aliens […]
Continue Reading →Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Tova is a 70+-year-old recent widow, a gentle soul with a heart of gold. Although finances are not a problem, Tova gets a part-time job in maintenance at the local aquarium, mopping […]
Continue Reading →False Memory by Dean Koontz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Marty and her best friend Susan are regularly seeing a shrink. You’ll learn the shrink is a devious serial maniac who is altering their minds and has done it before many times. But this […]
Continue Reading →The Inside Ring by Mike Lawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Joe DeMarco, a guy in his late 30s, has a law degree but cannot find a job because he is the son of a deceased mafia hitman. Joe has never been involved with […]
Continue Reading →Breakthrough by Michael C. Grumley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot. Allyson, a marine biologist, is studying communication with dolphins and primates. Seems it works. The series addresses animal intelligence, alien life forms, mysterious healing abilities, an ancient spaceship deep in the waters of the […]
Continue Reading →The Luna Missile Crisis by Rhett C. Bruno
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. The Luna Missile Crisis begins as Yuri Gagarin dies in collision with an alien ship. JFK is still alive; his vice president is Richard Nixon. Russia assumes American sabotage, and so […]
Continue Reading →Gray: The Complete Series by Lou Cadle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Coral, a young woman camping alone in Idaho, takes refuge in a cave to escape a violent storm and fire that goes on for days. The book never clearly defines precisely what […]
Continue Reading →Before She Disappeared by Lisa Gardner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Frankie Elkin is a loner and recovering alcoholic whose obsession is finding missing persons after the police have given up. She is not a cop, only the victim of violent crime. The story begins […]
Continue Reading →The Witch Between Worlds: 10 Book Epic Fantasy Box Set by Emma Glass
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Audiobook. Plot. 16-year-old Clara, depressed about her life, wanders into the woods and falls into a lake, a portal to another world. Humans have always believed vampires […]
Continue Reading →Fairy Tale by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Charlie, a guy in his late teens, hears a dog whining while passing by a crumbling old house – investigation draws him to aid an old man and an aging German Shepherd. The guy fell […]
Continue Reading →The Red Address Book by Sofia Lundberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. The gift of an address book to ten-year-old Doris in 1930s Sweden is the basis of this story. Now 96 and dying, Doris writes her story, using the address book as a […]
Continue Reading →Descent by Tim Johnston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot: A man and his wife, struggling with marriage issues, take their 18-yr-old daughter and her younger brother on a trip to the mountains. While the parents have a lazy morning at the hotel, the girl […]
Continue Reading →Moral Compass by Danielle Steel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Plot: A prestigious, all-boy school turns coed, and shortly, one of the girl students is raped.
Liked: Not graphic, has no objectionable language, is a clean read, has a sex scene that is not graphic. […]
Continue Reading →Night of the Living Deed by E.J. Copperman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot. Alison Kirby, a 30-something divorced mother of a nine-year-old girl, purchases a large seaside fixer-upper house to create a vacation inn. During rehab of the property, Alison is hit on the […]
Continue Reading →The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot: The Lightkeepers takes place throughout one year. A group of scientists settle on a desolate island off the coast of California – it is wild, remote, and full of aggressive birds protecting their territory, […]
Continue Reading →The Unknown Beloved by Amy Harmon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot: A mob hit in 1930s Chicago leaves a 10-yr-old Dani Flannigan orphaned. Beat cop Michael Malone, involved in the investigation, is charged with taking the child to relatives in Cleveland. While en route, […]
Continue Reading →Vanishing Girls by Lisa Regan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. The Detective Josie Quinn series consists of several police procedurals, most involving missing or murdered women or girls. The setting is a small town in Pennsylvania. Josie’s childhood trauma is interwoven into each story; […]
Continue Reading →Wanderers by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Plot. The human race has contracted a virus from bats, and a small group of survivors has been “infected” by an AI with nano-type-bots that give them immunity to the virus. In only a few months, […]
Continue Reading →Backyard Starship by J.N. Chaney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Van Tudor inherits a farm from his grandfather. There is a spaceship in the barn. There is also a wise-cracking AI bird. Seems there was some truth in the stories of space grandpa told […]
Continue Reading →One Good Deed by David Baldacci
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
At this writing, The Archer Series consists of three full-length novels; in order, they are One Good Deed, A Gambling Man, and Dream Town. The ending of book three, Dream Town, leaves no doubt […]
Continue Reading →Deep Night by Ambrose Ibsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book 1 in the Detective Harlan Ulrich Series. Plot. Nancy brings a landscape painting home from the pawnshop she owns and immediately begins to be harassed by a ghost – the woman who appears in […]
Continue Reading →A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Following a bad automobile accident, Annie Beyers awakens in a hospital, bruised and battered, begging to know if her daughter survived the crash. Hannah was in the back, in a booster seat. […]
Continue Reading →Heartbreak Bay by Rachel Caine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This review addresses the Stillhouse Series. Stillhouse Lake, Killman Creek, Wolfhunter River, Bitter Falls, and Heartbreak Bay at this writing. There will likely be more novels to the series – there is a Rachel Caine […]
Continue Reading →The Keeper of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Plot. Soline Roussel is born into a family of dressmakers, decades of women specializing in wedding gowns – with a touch of magic. During WWII, Soline experiences the horrible loss of her […]
Continue Reading →The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Joe Talbert Series, at this writing, consists of three books: The Life We Bury, The Shadows We Hide, and The Stolen Hours; the first two are narrated by Zack Villa, the last […]
Continue Reading →The Observer Effect by Nick Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Joseph Bridgeman Series, at this writing, consists of three novels from 9-12 hours of listening in unabridged audiobook format released from February 2021 through March 2022 – a fourth book is to be […]
Continue Reading →The Missing by Kiersten Modglin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Plot. Five tourists, strangers, are lured from a south-Florida resort area to enjoy an island cruise. Soon, they are dropped off on a deserted island and are told that only the last of them to […]
Continue Reading →Striking Range by Margaret Mizushima
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Review addresses the entire series. At this writing, the series consists of Killing Trail, Stalking Ground, Hunting Hour, Burning Ridge, Tracking Game, Hanging Falls, and Striking Range. All books are 9-10 hours of listening in […]
Continue Reading →The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plot. Apollo 18 is launched by Americans to intentionally disable Soviet equipment being used to spy on America, in addition to finding out what the Soviets have found on the moon. Murder and mystery […]
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