Bella Jewel

The Watcher

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I received this ARC from St Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another breezy Bella Jewel read for a lazy weekend.  I feel so fortunate to be getting such a steady supply of her books lately, they are fast-paced thrillers!

Marlie has had more than her share of tragedy and horror.  Seven years ago she was kidnapped and tortured at the hands of “The Watcher”.  Now she lives in a cabin in the woods and works a dead-end waitress job rather than deal with the fame being the only survivor of a serial killer brought her.  Things are perfect but she has a life and it’s her own, until her sister, Kaity, goes missing too.

All because I was being a good person.  Life is a bitch like that.

This can’t be happening.  Twice to one family?  When the police show little concern or interest in the case, Marlie hires crack private eye, Kenai and sets off on a road trip to bring her sister home.

This wouldn’t be a Bella Jewel story without some sweet, dramatic romance to round the story out nicely.  Ms. Jewel has delivered once again!

4 stars.

Expected Publication: May 30, 2017

Buy It Here

72 Hours

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72 Hours

I received this ARC courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.  Shoutout to Publicist Brittani Hilles for indulging my fondness for Bella Jewel yet again!

Lara is heartbroken, reeling from a recent breakup she didn’t see coming and a loss she may never recover from.  She has gone from a no nonsense, no sugar coating, speak her mind sort of woman to a shell of her former self in the last few months.

Noah is her devastatingly handsome ex, the cause of her despair.

When they are both kidnapped and dumped in the woods together as part of some sort of warped game on the part of a clearly deranged capturer, will they be able to put all their feelings aside to survive?

72 hours.  They have a 72 hour head start before his wicked games begin.  Can the ghost of a woman and the man she despises survive what’s to come?

WOW!  This was an edge of your seat, page turner!  I started it right before bed (immediately after finishing my previous read) thinking I’d read a chapter or two to give me a general idea and get back to it today.  Well, I woke up early and rather than get a few more hours of sleep on my relaxed  late-start workday I decided to get up and keep reading!

I read, a lot.  I’ve read about serial killers, I’ve read good thrillers and romantic suspense, but that’s all it was … fiction.  It’s created to entertain an active mind.  It’s no more than a creative author putting words onto paper.  Those things don’t actually happen.  I know the world is a vile and hideous place at times, but this …no.

I found Lara a bit one dimensional at times but I tried to temper it by remembering all she had gone through prior to the start of the book.  Noah appealed to my fondness for bad boy types.  That said, I found the one chapter written from Noah’s perspective to be more distracting than anything else.  I’m all about shifts but for only a single chapter it was a bit odd.  All things said, it was a fun and quick read.

If you are keen on a bit of suspense with a bit of suspension of disbelief,  without too much head scratching- Ms. Jewel is your girl.  This one did not disappoint!

*Fair warning, there is a bit of smut.  There are also a few issues with language consistency (the author isn’t American and some of the choices in vocabulary will stand out if you have a keen eye).

4 Stars

Publication Date: April 4, 2017 

Click on the link at the top of the review if you want to snag it from Amazon.

 

Hard To Forget (Alpha’s Heart #3)

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I received this Arc from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is the third and (I think) final installment in Bella Jewel’s Alpha’s Heart trilogy.  I’ve had the privilege of being asked to read and review each one so this review is bittersweet.

Delaney is a bodyguard.  That’s right, a female bodyguard.  She’s been taking crap for her career choice day in and day out but she’s finally crawled her way out of the muck and is assigned her first big client.  Jaxson is a millionaire hotel chain owner.  He’s a babe, he’s ripped and he’s in danger.  Delaney takes on this case-bullets and all- with everything she has but that might mean taking him on too and not just until the threat is over.

You’re mine, Delaney.  For as long as I can fucking have you, you’re mine.

This was my favorite book of the series.  Hard to Forget had the best character building and the strongest plot.  I found Delaney likable and was rooting for her from the beginning, to put it bluntly she was a more ‘human’ character than the heroines in Jewel’s previous two books.  Jaxson has the typical macho male flaws but he too is intriguing and raw in a way that makes him seem real.  I powered through this one in one night, a work night if that’s any indicator of what a fun read it was.

I’ll hang on, Mr. Shields, because I think you just may be way too hard to forget.

Four stars.

Publication date: December 15, 2015

Hard To Break (Alpha’s Heart #2)

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I received this ARC from St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

I only just recently read and reviewed the first book in this series so I was delighted when I was offered a chance to do the same with the newest installment.

Quinn is just one of the boys, a skilled mechanic that spent her childhood working on cars with her dad.  When her mother passes away, Quinn has to step up and keep her family garage going and keep an eye on her grieving father.  She enjoys her work, though her personal life isn’t much to write home about.  When finances get desperate, enter Tazen Watts, world-famous mechanic with his own TV show.  He makes quick work of dismantling her life, starting with her garage.  She hates him, or at least she tries to.  She annoys him, or at least she used to.

He is getting to me and…I can’t deny it.  I like it.  I like it a hell of a lot.  I shouldn’t, but I do and a huge part of me is tired of pretending I don’t.

Like the book before it I found this to be a pleasant enough weekend afternoon read.  It was uncomplicated and quick, just the way I like my lazy morning reads.  A definite must if you are a Bella Jewel fan.

Three stars.

Publication Date: October 13, 2015

Hard To Fight

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I received this ARC from Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Once again I’m late (19 days post publication) with this review!  Over the summer I blamed my travels but this time I blame moving to Kurdistan two weeks ago.  The expat life is no joke.  I digress.

This book is exactly what it looks like; this is a formulaic bad boy meets good girl love story.  Raide Knox is definitely the kind of bad boy I can get behind, even if I found the heroine (Gracie) a little annoying at times.  Raide is a bad boy with a mission, on a path of revenge destined for sure destruction.  Gracie is a bounty hunter who spends far too much time worrying about how no one takes her seriously…I wouldn’t take her seriously either, she whines too much!  When she goes after Raide, Gracie finds that her first big take down is anything but easy. This is a cute little read, especially if you don’t mind a little smut.  Expect a HEA, even if it was a little too tidy.

Three stars.