2022 Novel Reviews – Page 3 – Baskerville Book Reviews

Review: Offered in Oklahoma City

A robber is dead, and a young woman stands accused.

Not only a witness, Nick is a victim, and he’ll need help to keep his assignment on track. His girlfriend Sandra answers the call, but a personal interest draws her into the investigation when the thief’s death turns out to be an overdose.

A Satanic Preist faces off with a televangelist, and both may even be suspects.

Was this an accident? Where did the drugs come from? How did the victim get them? The questions point to one answer, but there is something missing. The key lies in Nick’s memory and a single photo.

But will anyone believe him?

He has a concussion. He’s behind on his assignment. And even Sandra thinks this time, he may be wrong. Will he convince them of what he knows to be true? Or has his hunch finally led him down the wrong path?

Review: The Priestess and the Dragon

The Cruel Prince meets Inuyasha in this slow-burn romantic fantasy. You won’t be able to put down this action-packed fantasy adventure!

Exiled to a mountain shrine, Suzume trains to become a priestess serving the god of the mountain. As she toils at the temple, she longs for a life beyond its walls. Until she awakens the slumbering god and unmasks the temple’s centuries-old secret.

The god is a fake. Five hundred years ago, the shrine’s founder sealed a dragon in a stone. And now that he’s free, he wants revenge. Unleashing the dragon wasn’t an accident. As Suzume learns, she’s the first priestess’ reincarnation.

He spirits her away and Suzume plots to kill him before he kills her. But the more time they spend together, she starts to question her feelings for him. Tangled threads of fate bind them together and Suzume must decide: will she follow her heart or will history repeat itself?

Start the adventure today with this epic romantic fantasy sure to please listeners who enjoy aching slow-burn romance, twists and turns, complex characters, and villains you love to hate!

Review: Her Valentine Surprise

Sam has a secret he holds close to his heart…

Joy Paulson is fine being single. In fact, it saves her from the maddening dating rituals in Manhattan. If she ever settles down, it will be with someone she truly loves and trusts. That’s why she turns down her super-hot boss when he asks her out, leading to disaster when he retaliates, forcing her termination.

Sam Davidson has pined for Joy since the first time he saw her sweet smile and stunning eyes. But there’s a secret that the shy IT developer holds deep inside: Sam is still a virgin. At twenty-nine, he never intended it to happen, but accepts that he could never please Joy in all the ways she deserves.

Sam can offer her a job, though, and proceeds to help Joy rebuild her life after the unfair firing. As their work relationship grows, Joy is taken with Sam’s kindness, gorgeous crystal-hazel eyes and generous smile. And his hands…oh, his firm, broad hands…Joy can’t figure out why Sam resists the desire that sparks so vividly between them, but Valentine’s Day is coming and she’s determined to seduce him and make them both burn. Even if it means discovering all his secrets…

Inexperienced hero trope lovers unite! This is a fun, fast-paced, steamy novella from an author who wanted to flip the script and write about a sweet, sexy, inexperienced male main character. Sam is so adorably sensual and endearing, he might just melt your heart. Here’s wishing you a fantastic Valentine’s Day all year round!

Review: EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT IN THE END

What happens…after?

In Everything Will Be All Right in the End: Apocalypse Songs, you’ll see the lengths a father will go in order to protect his child, the emptiness that revenge can harness, gods compelled to act after being forgotten, a boy carrying the weight of decisions he didn’t make, and monsters both within and without. You’ll meet people who have lost everything, faced everything, lived through the worst that could happen, attempted to pick up the pieces of their shattered realities, and you will hear their apocalypse songs.

Listen closely.

Review: Reckoning

A cold, efficient killer. A secret society. A vengeful woman.

After a frenzied attack by two drug addicts robs Maddie of her husband and youngest child, she relocates to a remote village in Scotland with her two remaining children to rebuild her life.

Her eldest son, mute since witnessing the bloody attack, becomes obsessed with a far-right politician on TV. And Maddie starts receiving mysterious emails, and she knows she has to return to London.

As her life, and everything she thought she knew about it, begins to unravel, Maddie taps into a capacity for violence she never knew she possessed.

A mother will do everything it takes to protect her children.

And avenge the one she lost.

Review: Hearts Reclaimed

Two weary souls find each other against all odds…

Ashlyn Rivers left her cheating fiancé behind and moved to Ardor Creek to revamp her life. Done with men in general, she has plenty to focus on, like building her new business and renovating her house for the local haunted homes tour. Falling in love is definitely not on the agenda.

Scott Grillo lost his family in a tragic accident several years ago. Still processing the loss, he throws himself into his contracting business, pushing away the loneliness and heartache.

When Ashlyn blazes into Scott’s life, he turns down her request to renovate her house, vowing to squelch the desire she stirs deep inside. But Ashlyn is a force to be reckoned with and Scott finds himself longing for her embrace each day she remains in Ardor Creek.

Can these two disillusioned souls reclaim their hearts and choose to love again?

Welcome to Ardor Creek, the small Pennsylvania town where love is in the air! If you like a grumpy hero and feisty heroine, this book is your jam. As with all of Ayla’s books, there’s a slight holiday theme, and Halloween ghosts play a part! The main character is a widower who discusses the loss of his family so please take note of this before listening. Settle in and fall in love with Ardor Creek today!

Review: His Holiday Pact

Who knew a fake holiday relationship could be so fun?

Kayla Summers has had enough of her mother’s insistence that she find a man and get married. At thirty-three, she’s a successful attorney and has a fantastic life. Knowing her mother will grill her constantly over the upcoming holidays about her single existence, she dreads the visits home.

Carter Manheim is a self-proclaimed bachelor, dead set on seducing every beautiful woman in Manhattan. And why not? His parents’ disastrous marriage and divorce proved that lifelong commitments just aren’t viable. As his mother’s health worsens, his only wish is to give her one last happy holiday, even if it entails bringing home a girlfriend.

When Kayla’s sexy neighbor proposes they take each other home for the holidays as fake partners, she’s floored. However, getting her mother off her back is her number one priority and she agrees to the arrangement. Now, if she can only keep her heart from becoming emotionally entangled with the player of the century, she’ll be just fine…

This is a 40,000 word book filled with fast-paced, fake relationship shenanigans, and steamy scenes designed to melt your Kindle. The main character’s mother has late-stage cancer and there are adult language and situations, so please consider that before you read. Here’s hoping this funny, romantic story can give you a few hours of escape during the holidays! Enjoy!

Review: The Awakening

In L. A. Banks’ The Awakening there is a vampire war brewing in the underworld and at the center of it all is Damali Richards, spoken word artist and Vampire Huntress. But she is not just any Vampire Huntress, she is the millennium Neteru. A woman so potentially powerful that the vampire world is about to invoke a bloody battle that threatens to spill over onto her streets in order to possess her. It’s just a matter of who will get to her first.

Fallon Nuit, a rogue vampire, is one of the most powerful Damali has ever encountered and he has allied himself with the deadly Amanrath demons in order to claim her. But the Vampire Council has plans for her as well. And now an unlikely variable has entered into the equation, an ex-lover now turned vampire with an agenda of his own. And she must risk trusting him once more if they are to survive.

Review: Green Monsters

I knew what love was. Love was sex. And I was most definitely going to make Jason love me today. Love me as if his life depended on it.

Green Monsters is told completely from the viewpoint of the antagonist, delving deep into the mind of a narcissistic psychopath.

Stacey Adams had not set out with the intention of hating her sister, Emma. In fact, she was convinced, at some point, she must have loved her once. Over the years, however, Emma had taken that love, twisting it into something bitter, until Stacey had no choice but to act on her impulsive instincts. After seemingly finding it easy to steal her sister’s husband, Jason, Stacey’s life appeared complete. All she needed now was her sister gone, out of the way. Forever freeing the man she believed had been drawn into Emma’s control for too long.

Green Monsters tells the tale of a sister’s jealousy for a life that was not her own. She only wanted to be happy, of course. And Jason would become her happiness. He was her one true love. She would save him and save herself in the process.

Little did she know what her actions were about to uncover.

Review: Starvation

Sixteen-year-old Wes McCoy is not the favorite child. He does not have a wrestling scholarship to Stanford nor does he live up to the family legacy as an athlete, unlike his brother, Jason. But when Jason dies in a car accident on the way to the state high school wrestling championship, Wes turns to food to give him the control over his life he didn’t have before, and the kind of success he never tasted.

Told through alternating past and present chapters, Wes must come to terms with more than Jason’s death. There’s Caila, a defiant girl who introduces him to the painful pleasure of starving. And there’s Collin, Wes’s best friend who speaks in Shakespearean insults and with whom his relationship is irreparably damaged. But most of all, Wes must take back control from his eating disorder as he learns more about himself and the mystery surrounding Jason’s accident, before he loses his life and those closest to him.