I’m gonna be honest about this: There has got to be something alluring about these Brenda Novak Stillwater books that is managing to keep me hooked. It took every ounce of discipline I had to put the book down after two hours of straight reading before going to sleep. 50% into the book, I finally caved, knowing that I needed to at least get enough sleep if I didn’t want to go into work sleepy or cranky.

Is it the storyline? The premise of the book itself doesn’t leave much mystery or surprise to be anticipated. We know what the mystery is and we have an inkling about the conclusion, even if we don’t know what will actually happen. (Well, okay, after reading several romantic suspense novels, I’m not going to deny that everything hinges on a Happily Ever After closing each book whether or not it’s an ongoing series, so we have a vague idea of how things will come out--with sunshine and rainbows and happy days.) But I suspect that I now understand that “suspense” isn’t always dependent on “OMG! Who did it?” or “Ooh, what’s going to happen to our heroes?” or even “Ack! What happens next?”

The suspense in the Stillwater trilogy (thus far) is really more a mixture of “How is the conclusion going to happen?” and “How are we going to get there?” and “How will life turn out for the Montgomerys and everyone else in Stillwater?”

Anwyay… in all honesty, it takes quite of bit of care for the characters for me to start asking those questions regardless of the fact that the plot seems quite straight-forward and there probably won’t be much in terms of surprise twists. Because things are still going to happen to the characters of Stillwater and, Gosh Darnit! I wanna know how everything plays out!

So maybe I do care for the characters enough to want to know all of their fates in the end as well as how the entire scandal will handle itself by the last book.

How do the Montgomery’s manage to have their Happily Ever After? How will things turn out for the family? Will the town accept the truth? Will the siblings be able to move on? Will Mom ever learn to stop being so naive about life and face the facts of the world? Will the people of this small town forever be ignorant, judgemental, snobby jerks? Will Irene Montgomery ever grow a backbone and stop causing trouble for her kids? Can love conquer all…?

We know certain particular facts:

1) The reverend was a terrible monster of a human being who did terrible things to young girls, including his stepdaughter.

2) The Montgomerys are keeping the secret of the night the reverend died because they’re afraid of the repercussions because the town hates them already and would just end up victim-blaming rather than being sympathetic.

3) No matter what, someone still died and truths are being hidden.


So yeah, despite a lot of flashes of rage during the reading of this book (mostly because a lot of the characters got on my nerves), it didn’t escape my notice that I really do want to know how everything wraps up in the end.

In Dead Giveaway Clay Montgomery comes closer to being imprisoned for the death of Reverend Barker, despite the fact that there is no evidence to prove that the reverend is dead nor that Clay killed him. And since we had already learned in the first book that the death was an accident and it had been Mommy Dearest who’d landed the executing blow, we know that Clay wasn’t the one who killed the reverend. But it doesn’t help that someone died and all the Montgomerys were instrumental in covering up that death.

In a nutshell, not much really happens in this story aside from a lot of fingers being pointed, and a lot of anger being channeled, and a lot of angsty romance being presented, and a lot of judgement being thrown around by people who have no idea how to be compassionate. And really… that’s it. There’s little to add onto as a continuation of Dead Silence except for the fact that this is just a long drawn out drama with the same events occurring over and over again as the base platform for three romances to happen.

I’m not really complaining, but I’m also not really all that excited about it all. I just want to know how everything ends.

And I’m also ready to be rid of a lot of the Stillwater townspeople. They piss me off a great deal. As I’d mentioned about the first book, I cared very little for most of the characters in the book and in this series in general. Clay is, thus far, one of the few I actually like. Allie’s not so bad either… and if only Grace would grow more of a backbone.

Irene got on my last nerve since all she ever did was cry and complain and cause trouble despite knowing how crucial it was for her to stay out of trouble. Madeline… I don’t know. I understand her need to find out what happened to her father, but her persistence sometimes bordered on a child’s obsession. But then again, she doesn’t know what the reader knows and so she wouldn’t understand why her constant persistence in investigating her father’s disappearance comes across as troublesome.

I’m half-looking forward to finishing the series in Madeline’s perspective--mainly to see how she ends up handling the truth of her father. But I haven’t grown to like her through the first two books and find her kind of annoying, so I’m hoping that the last book will give me a chance to get to know her better.

Apparently I have self control issues when it comes to buying books and starting new books.

But that's beside the point.

It Happened One Wedding is yet another amazingly fun and entertaining romance starring two witty, mature, and intelligent individuals with their own fair share of relationship issues. To be totally honest, while I had a lot of fun reading this book, I couldn't help but notice that we are rehashing the same story line over again with the same type of "Friends With Benefits" trope with a set of almost the same type of people. The only thing that kept the book fun, as always, is James' use of witty dialogue and interesting personalities... despite all of the characters being basically the same type of people. The only difference from one story to the next (starting from About That Night onward) are the circumstances surrounding our couples.

Otherwise, these last three books in the FBI/U.S. Attorney series simply surrounds a couple who get together due to lust, become sex friends and slowly become closer friends with deeper feelings for one another, but due to their own personal issues, they refrain from taking the relationship any further. And then they finally decide that, yes, they DO love each other, make their confessions, and wrap up the story with a sappy (yet also heart-warming) Happily Ever After.

I have no complaints about these story lines and as long as they have their own personal touch, I tend to find lots of enjoyment. And of course, there were many laugh-out-loud moments, so I definitely enjoyed myself.

And so I still loved the story, which makes for an enjoyable, warm-hearted read. Of course, this couple does not quite trump the Brooke Parker and Cade Morgan love story from the previous book. Now those two were fun. In comparison, Brooke and Cade were much hotter, and Brooke is much sassier. Sidney came off a bit lukewarm sometimes, but likable nonetheless.

Vaughn Roberts and Sidney Sinclair together were just okay, to be honest, and the romance left a bit more to be desired.

I have the attention span of a goldfish sometimes.  I have started three books within the timespan of three days.  Despite the fact that I find the other two books interesting, my mind seems to be flitting.  It also doesn't help that I was on a mission to find a good audio book to listen to during a road trip.

Listening to sample clips throughout Audible, I came across the BBC radio adaptation of Neverwhere and immediately thought, "James McAvoy?  I like James McAvoy..." and then proceeded to listen to the sample clip at an even more curious level because... well, James McAvoy!.  What I listened to of the radio adaptation was fairly different from the other audio book narrations I had listened to before and I liked it pretty well.  Having a full cast audio with sound effects and James McAvoy seemed to bring everything more to life.

And due to the BBC radio adaptation audio book, I decided that I kind of wanted to read the book since it has been touted as having much more of Neil Gaiman's creative imagery than the audio book had presented.

And so...

So far the book seems entertaining enough.  Neil Gaiman surely has an awesome sense of creativity and I like the detailed narration and the strange sense of whimsical nonsense.  The fantasy is piquing my curiosity enough to want to finish reading the rest of the book, hopefully in time to go on my road trip and listen to the BBC radio adaptation (with James McAvoy!).

The characters are weird though and I'm having trouble connecting.  Nonetheless, this book seems to be quite enjoyable and fun so far.

For what it's worth, this was a breezy, enjoyable read, but it sped by like every other simple contemporary romance ever written:

The couple is a pair of best friends struggling not to cross that dreaded "friends only" line into a deeper relationship even though they're both pining after each other. Complications arise when they make the decision to pretend to be engaged for their own reasons. Antics ensue. A big misunderstanding laced with the fact that no one ever bothers to communicate with each other properly occurs. Angst ensues. Big realizations abound. Happily ever after.

It's not spoilery territory if everyone knows what the outcome will end up being, right? Because it's the same formula as the rest of the romances that use the same cliched plot device. It's in the way the author does the telling and whether or not he or she can present with something more unique than the same ol' formula. And most of the time, I enjoy myself the same cliched tellings just because they're fun and they're tried and true and they work.

So it's only unfortunate that there wasn't really anything that stood out about Falling for Her Fiance. Which is totally not the fault of the book, or the story, or the author. I just figured that I was maybe looking for something that stood out uniquely aside from carbon-copy standard protagonists and the same old conflicts and story developments.

The humor was mediocre to almost tacky. None of the other characters stood out much either, which is a shame because I would have at least liked to have enjoyed myself with a lovable side character since I found Dani and Wes kind of boring.

Nonetheless, I do appreciate the friendship between Wes and Dani--as friends they were definitely a fun enough pair and it would have been nice to explore their friendship from day one, when they first met in a college history class. As a romantic couple, however, there were many times you just wanted to shake them both and tell them to get over themselves already and make-out until one of them gives in.

Anyway, this was enjoyable on its own merits, but it just didn't really work out too well for me in the end.

It took me three books to make a decision on what it is about this series that doesn't work for me. While this third book has a lot more action and a lot more forward progress and doesn't have a repeating story line like the first two books did, it was still a mediocre to MEH read for me. In fact, the entire world of The Healing Wars had quite the potential to become a great story, if only because there was a well-thought out story line and a decently created world with depth in culture and the people.

Unfortunately, the book read like a detached, unemotional screenplay that was waiting for the actors and the director to inject excitement and feeling and bring everything to life. The characters felt detached from what they were doing and they weren't in the least likable or relatable enough for me to forgive them for being lifeless character bios on paper. At least two significant deaths occurred, a war happened, more people died, and the younger sister is in terrible shape with brain damage and stuff... but I couldn't find a smidge of care in me to feel anything for these tragic happenings when I knew that I SHOULD at least feel SOMETHING.

While I will admit that I can be a cold and calculating bitch with no compassion, I do have human emotions (contrary to popular belief), and if written well to evoke those emotions in me to present themselves, I would at least manifest my own version of sadness, pity, anger, or happiness. But the entire series of The Healing Wars never brought any of this out. The only feeling I had was relief that the story was over.

Sincerely, however, I will say that the book was written well. It flowed, it progressed, and it got you from point A to point B without dilly-dallying too much on insignificant matters. This was how I was able to finish reading it, because the book wasn't terrible to read at all--it just didn't stand out, nor did I care for it.

Once again, I really would just give this book (and the entire series) a simple "MEH" rating. Not good, but not bad... just okay. I don't discourage people from reading it, but it wouldn't be one of the first books at the top of my list to recommend--especially for non-fantasy readers, or non-high fantasy fans (like my best friend who thinks that high fantasy novels are boring).

At the very least, I got a few answers to some of my questions and I've grown to accept the way the magic system works even if it still doesn't make sense. The world's magic logic has some gaping holes that I know will never get answered, but I can live with that. At least now I know that the people in this world do know how to use traditional means of healing--bandaging wounds, allowing cuts and bruises to heal on their own... and such--even though it is mentioned that the Healers see herbs and salves and such as an unorthodox form of healing and not "true healing", which is an interesting concept that I would have liked to see explored more if this story wasn't already long enough.

My biggest complaints are really for the characters; especially Nya. Honestly, sometimes I wish Nya would just shut-up and let the experts do the war planning. Because, just because she has saved the day more than once doesn't mean that she's very good at being diplomatic and when her rash tongue starts pissing off people she shouldn't be pissing off and ruining the bigger picture for the world, then she's just being childish and needs to go away and let the adults do the negotiating. Several times she would chime in with her own two-cents and I really just wanted her to go away and find something else to play with before she ruined more chances of survival by continually being too daft to realize that there is more to saving the world than just her powers and what she can do.

She got annoying really fast. So did her best friend Aylin. Aylin evoked some eye rolls from me because she just kept resurrecting old conflicts and old arguments about Nya's powers. She doesn't like that Nya uses her shifting powers to kill or torture. But, oh, it's alright if someone else came along and put a knife in the enemy's chest... because that's different than killing... with Nya's shifting powers? I just didn't understand that aspect of Aylin's repulsion over the way Nya used her powers. Because in the first book we've already established that, like it or not, there are certain ways that Nya can use her powers as a weapon and she need only learn how to use them properly.

I don't know why Aylin keeps bringing this up as a means to evoke argument.

Nya was written to be way too perfect as "The One" who will save the day. And honestly, she was the most complex character in the story if only because everyone else was so straight-forward and predictable that they became cardboard cut-outs in the background. There was just no life in these people.  They were all drones or lemmings, which conveniently allowed Nya to become the more ideal, more intelligent "leader" for these people.

Then again, I cared little for the characters, so it doesn't bother me all too much.

Simply put, The Healing Wars is a mediocre read that many people may enjoy. It's just not my cuppa.