Mann Family

by Kate Brady
Book #1: Where Angels Rest | Goodreads | Rating:  3.5 Stars
Book #2: Where Evil Waits | Goodreads | Rating:  4.0 Stars

Series Rating:  3.75 Stars


At the end of the paperback for Where Evil Waits, there is an excerpt for a book called Where Danger Hides--the book is supposedly about Alayna Mann who makes an appearance in Where Angels Rest as an attorney, one of the Mann siblings we are introduced to in this series.  But try as I might, I can't seem to be able to find this particular book, which tells me that either it is still a work in progress, it never got finished, or it never got published, for whatever reason.

I'm only a slight bit disappointed, but since Where Evil Waits and Where Angels Rest were published two years apart, and because Where Evil Waits was published in 2014, I suppose there's still a chance that this third book will make its appearance soon.

Anyway...

Now that my tangent is finished, I at least have something to post for this review.  Because, to be totally honest, I haven't been sure what to say about this Mann Family series--well, mainly the first book, because the second book was a bit more exciting and I DO have a little bit to say (see below)  It's a good, well-written romantic suspense duo, that's for certain, and I DID enjoy both books.  Much like the other two Kate Brady books I've read, they were immensely enjoyable and had enough excitement and suspense to keep me hooked.

Where Angels Rest thoughts...

Where Angels Rest is highly enjoyable and has a great premise to start off.  It's as much a murder mystery as it is a crime thriller, but I can't say much else about it.  While the beginning starts off strong, and the characters are great, I can't help but notice that the narration and the story progress becomes a little awkward as the book moves toward the end.

I'll give it one thing though: the overall experience is quite intense.

Still, I will file it under an "I liked it" rating and move on.

The romance might not have been the best.  But I DID readily come to like both Nick Mann and Erin Sims, even if Erin seemed to be a little on edge, and Nick had his own problems with denial and wanting his rose-colored world to remain rose-colored.

I wish we could have gotten to know some of the other characters a little bit more.  And I wish the romance could have been a bit better developed--it seemed a little awkward and forced.

The crime mystery aspect had its moments, but by a certain point you kind of figure out who the killer is.  The big kudos though is how well the red herrings are spread out, because finding out all the other secrets being kept by persons involved was actually a good twist.

Again, not really much stands out about this book, but I found it likable and hard to put down, so that's a plus.  Un-put-down-able is always a plus.

Where Evil Waits thoughts...

First of all... the blurb given from the back of the book is a little misleading. This is something we find out pretty early on in the story.

Secondly, it probably doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how obvious who Luke Varón really is. If you have no idea, I won't spoil it for you, but it's pretty damn obvious.

Anyway...


I liked the second book in this series a bit more than the first.

Where Evil Waits is really less of a murder mystery than the typical crime thriller, but what makes it a mystery isn't the "whodunnit" part of the crime, but the "Why did he do it?" part.  I've always been a bit meh about books wherein the killer is already acknowledge in the beginning of the book; at the same time, I'm also not very thrilled about following along inside the head of our killer either.

But Where Evil Waits really DOES handle this aspect pretty well, because we are still given a mystery--or rather a curiosity--to discover.

At first, all the flashbacks to detail our killer's moment of truce seemed a bit unnecessary.  But at the same time, I think think they served their purpose.  I'm just not certain they made me very comfortable, although grudges and murder with such intimate passion never are comfortable subjects.

The above stated about the way in which the crime and murders are detailed and handled was one of the reasons in which I liked this second book more than the first.  Another reason is the romance--it was a bit better developed with a nicely incorporated "getting to know you" phase despite the chaos and the danger and the tension.  Of course, it doesn't stop the instalust--which I don't mind; but I found that the instalust only took one measly little turning point to become instalove--which I DO kind of mind.

But I can live with it.

Kate and Luke are readily likable main characters.  Kate has spunk that you expect from an assistant district attorney.  Luke is the usual broody, commitment-phobic, charming alpha male who's commitment issues suddenly disappear when the right woman shows up.  But unlike his brother from the first book, I feel like he had less of a reason to be shy of commitments, so I'll give him that sudden change of heart and move on.

The rest of the side characters in this book were great touches, and again, I'd love to know more about them.  The crime thriller/serial killing aspect was a bit strange, but at the same time it held its creepiness factor.

Let's just say that I had a hard time putting this book down and just kept right on reading until the very ending.  Even when I finally couldn't make it and fell asleep for a few minutes due to exhaustion of my very long day, I still trudged on.

One day--it took only one day to finish this book.  There's no doubt that I did very much enjoy it.  A lot.

Overall thoughts...

One of the things that I like about a Kate Brady book (all four that I have read so far) is how quickly we fall into the suspense of the crime thriller.  Even if the murderer is already know, even if there is no mystery to speak of, the books are packed full of nervous tension of the suspense and you find yourself sucked into the book.

It's that easy to get hooked.

As books in the romantic suspense genre, these two are highly enjoyable and a good representations.  For a rainy day or not, they certain DO make for a great reading spell.


***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge

Kara Chandler is at her wits' end. Someone is sending her gifts, taunting her with messages of what she's supposedly done...But when the creep kills the policeman she's turned to for help and threatens her son, Kara knows she needs to take drastic measures. Enter Luke Varon, a hitman for a drug cartel, Kara had unsuccessfully prosecuted for murder. He has the resources to make her and her son disappear...But he's not who he appears to be.


This wasn't as strong as its predecessor which was a bit disappointing, since I've loved Luke, Nick's (hero from the previous book) brother, from the moment he appeared on the scene. Pity, he wasn't as "alive" and "real" in his own book. I just didn't connect with him—no matter what persona he chose to portray. He didn't seem believable as a hitman (maybe because I knew he wasn't really one), and he seemed even less so as the good guy. I guess he was somewhere in between, in that gray area that could've worked wonderfully, but was somewhat unexplored. He wasn't ambiguous, rather he was just bland.

The heroine unfortunately didn't work any better for me. She was rather trusting, and ready to hire a criminal and murdered and then more than willing to follow his every lead, for a prosecutor, no matter how dire her circumstances were. And then, despite what she knew about the guy, she ended up hoping he was actually a good guy. Her hunch proved right, but still. The whole thing needed quite a lot of belief to be suspended.
And in the end, Luke didn't even have to explain much about anything. She just believed him. What if he was lying? What if he was leading her on a merry chase?

I guess what was really "off-putting" with this story was that it was the complete opposite of the first book in the series. While everything the characters in the first book did, whatever they said, however they acted and reasoned, it was believable, realistic. It was something anyone of us could or would do in such circumstances. (Almost) everything the characters did in this one, whatever they said, however they acted and reasoned, was anything but believable and realistic.

Even the villain was a bit over the top. Okay, I got the need for revenge, but the entire plot of how he got to there, the guest list, the reenactment...If was a tad too far-fetched for me. I love a decently twisted villain, but this one had a twist or two too many for my taste. And I never glimpsed any explanation of his skills (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention).

The only saving grace was the secondary aspects, I guess. The investigation into Kara's "stalker" and the progression of the investigation. Yes, the procedural part of the story is what worked very well for me, the rest not so much.

For the past twelve years, dr. Erin Sims has tried (in vein) to get someone, anyone, to reexamine her brother’s case. Justin didn’t kill anyone, yet he was sitting on Death Row, waiting for execution. Now, Erin has finally found the real murderer, hiding in plain sight, running a B&B in a small town in Ohio under another name. Unfortunately, that only gets her brother a stay of a week...For the sheriff to determine the man’s true identity.

But Erin has no intention of sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the bumbling sheriff to do his work. Her brother doesn’t have a lifetime to wait. So she boards the plane and heads to Ohio, determined to do what she does best—destroy the murderer’s reputation. Which isn’t hard in a small town. One word and rumors fly.

But Erin has obviously stirred a hornet’s nest, since someone is determined to either run her out of town, deter her just enough to waste time or get rid of her. Permanently. Lucky for her, the sheriff isn’t bumbling at all. Nick Mann knows what he’s doing, and although he’s at first adamant that nothing bad happens in his town, not on his watch, he quickly discovers just how wrong he was. Nothing is as it seems, especially not an out-of-towner determined to prove her brother’s innocence. And small towns can be as bad as big cities. Sometimes even worse.


God, how I loved this story. Just loved it.

I especially loved Erin Sims, the heroine. She was dogged, she had gumption, she was a stubborn, unstoppable force, willing and able to do just about anything to get her brother exonerated. Yet, underneath that core of steel, there was fear and terror, keeping her sharp, keeping her on the edge, keeping her treading forward no matter what.
She was strong, yet vulnerable, stubborn, yet pliant, with a soft heart, and a core of steel. She was far from perfect, she had her flaws, and that’s what made her realistic. She wasn’t a Mary Sue and she wasn’t a damsel in distress, and that made her come through as a “person”. Someone who could be a neighbor or friend, or just someone passing us on the street.

Nick Mann was just the same. A fictitious character, but “real”. Like someone we could know in real life. Stubborn, tough, rough-around-the-edges, but with a protective streak a mile wide, and once you got into the close circle of his, once he determined someone needed protecting, he’d do it no matter the cost.
I loved how he was the only one (at first) who saw the true Erin Sims. He saw through the mask of bravado to the core beneath, a core enveloped by fear. Yet that glimpse didn’t diminish his respect for her, it enforced it, morphed it into something more. Something stronger. And lasting.
Their first meeting was strange. She was bruised and tired, he was half-drunk and pissed off, yet they somehow kicked it off. And though he didn’t want to believe her at first, he soon realized she was probably the only one telling the truth. So he forgo the memos and reports, and followed his gut, earning her respect in return. And her trust, which, for just reasons, didn’t come easy.

I loved these two to bits, I couldn’t help it. Everything about them seemed “real”. From their personalities, their interactions with each other and everybody else, their relationship, how it progressed from animosity through admiration and gradual earning of trust and respect, to attraction and romance. But the latter, which is a requisite in a romantic suspense, didn’t seem forced or rushed (despite the short amount of time they knew each other). It progressed gradually, at just the right tempo and pace to keep it believable.
Because the reader was there every step of the way, alongside them, the reader was shown (and not told, bravo!) about the two, the reader was shown one through the eyes of the other. That’s what made us understand these two, made us understand what they saw when they looked at the other one, why they felt the way they felt. We were there. We saw it happen.

For me, the characters and their characterization is what’s important in a story. The plot has to be character-driven. I need to empathize, I need to feel something for the characters, about the characters (be it good or bad) to enjoy the story. And since I absolutely adored Erin and Nick, I adored the story.
It didn’t only have these two amazing lead characters, the supporting cast was also wonderfully painted (I loved Nick’s brother, Luke), there was the small town where bad people lived behind masks of civility and did bad things yet everybody refused to believe it could be, there was the wicked, wicked villain (whose identity I actually nailed on the spot, yet wasn’t sure until the end, bravo again Ms Brady), the mystery and suspense was masterfully woven into the story.
And although toward the end the whole thing slowed down quite a lot (a few pages could’ve been shaved off, if you ask me), the overall pacing was absolutely perfect, keeping the story progressing steadily.

If I have a minor problem with this story is the fact I didn’t quite get the villain’s motive. Maybe it got lost in the breakneck action in the end, but I just don’t get it. How and why did the murdered chose its victims? What did they see, hear or know that they had to become angels? No idea. But then the Angelmaker was bonkers. No other explanation needed.

Oh well, despite that minor hiccup...I LOVED THIS STORY! Shouting-from-the-rooftops LOVED it.

Top Ten Tuesdays is an original and weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  

As of present, I have read around 170 books in 2014.  Even if not including manga volumes and novellas, my book total still rounds out to around 150 books.  There were a lot of good books that I loved, a lot of books that were good that I didn't love as much, a lot of books that I loved but weren't really that good, and then there were those mediocre books that were alright, but that caught my eye nonetheless.  And then there are the books that I just couldn't find it in me to like at all, but this isn't the place to talk about them.

As it stands, it isn't easy to narrow 150 books down to a Top Ten list.  And so I chose to re-format my list just a little bit.  I also needed to account for the fact that I like Young Adult novels differently than I like Adult and non-YA novels--Yes, there is a difference in how I perceive a book dependent on target audience.

Without further ado, and in no particular order...

Although, if it wasn't already obvious, they very first book on this list, regardless of genre or target audience, is the Top Book I Read in 2014.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Book 3 of The Raven Cycle) by Maggie Stiefvater

There is no competition.  Just read my reviews of Maggie's Raven Cycle books to see how much I love this series.

See my Somewhat of a Review.

And... NOW, in no particular order:

Young Adult

Split Second (Book 2 of Pivot Point) by Kasie West -- Reviewed

The Bitter Kingdom (Book 3 of Fire and Thorns) by Rae Carson -- Squeeing Review

The Unbound (Book 2 of the Archived) by Victoria Schwab -- Reviewed

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak -- Reviewed

-- Honorable Mentions --

Grave Mercy (Book 1 of His Fair Assassin) by Robin LaFevers -- Review Soon

In the Afterlight (Book 3 of The Darkest Minds) by Alexandra Bracken -- Reviewed

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West -- Reviewed

Young Adult is a genre that I've come to love a lot, and while this list of Top Tens is in no particular order, the Young Adult books were actually ranked in my personal list above many of the Romantic Suspense novels and Adult Contemporary Romances I've read this year.  Aside from being books I thoroughly enjoyed, I also have every intention of continuing to follow the above listed authors in the future as well.

Kasie West is a recent YA author I've fallen for with her dry and witty sarcasm and her nerdy heroines and her adorable romances.  Despite the disappointment that was her 2014 YA Contemporary, On the Fence, I still found that her Pivot Point series is one of the better YAs I have enjoyed.  Rae Carson's Fire and Thorns series is one of the best high fantasy adventures I've read in a long time.  The Unbound may not have been as good as The Archived, but as the story progressed, I found that I still loved it all the same.  The Book Thief is an interesting, quietly insightful story told of a tragic historical time, but narrated in the point of view of the common person living their day-by-day as war and tragedy happens around them on a larger scale, in the background.

The honorable mentions (which also includes a Kasie West book) are ones I've found that I loved even if they weren't really all that excellent.  But they nonetheless brought out a love in me that makes it hard not to give them a shout-out as well.

Adult

Love Irresistibly (Book 4 of FBI/US Attorney) by Julie James -- Sort of Reviewed

She's Got the Look (Book 2 of Walker Brothers) by Leslie Kelly -- Duology Review

Over the Line (Book 4 of The Bodyguards) by Cindy Gerard -- Reviewed

To the Limit (Book 2 of The Bodyguards) by Cindy Gerard -- Reviewed

-- Honorable Mentions --

Tempting the Bodyguard (Book 3 of Gamble Brothers) by J. Lynn -- 2014 book

Deadly Dreams (Book 5 of Mindhunters) by Kylie Brant

Last to Die (Book 2 of Sheridan) by Kate Brady

To be honest, this list is kind of in order of how much I liked each book and where they stand in my personal rankings.  Aside from Deadly Dreams, because I wasn't quite sure where to put that one, but I knew I wanted it mentioned, at the least.

While the YA books I read were actually ranked higher on a complete, overall list, Love Irresistibly was the one Adult book that managed to squeeze it's way up into my overall Top Ten list.  But since there were a number of Adult books I also loved, I wanted to give the rest a chance to be mentioned as well.

The one common denominator of these books would have to be the romance (duh) and how much I loved the couple as a couple together.  From Brooke Parker and Cade Morgan in Love Irresistibly to Alana Gore and Chandler Gamble in Tempting the Bodyguard, the romances were adorably amusing, sweet, and witty with a nice scoop of heart-warming-gushy-ness to boot.  Most importantly, I had no problem liking both individuals of each coupling separate as much as I liked them together, which is something that doesn't always happen all too often.

They're all couples with equal footing in their relationships.  And even though the same can be said for the rest of the couples in the entire Mindhunters series and the FBI/US Attorney series, I chose the book from both series I liked the most to include in this list.

Other

The Silkworm (Book 2 of Cormoran Strike) by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowlings)

Because of this book, I had to edit this post.  I finished reading The Silkworm after I had put the finishing touches on this Top Ten Tuesdays post.  But it was good enough that I decided that I must include it.  I wasn't too thrilled with The Cuckoo's Calling last year; The Silkworm was a lot more enjoyable and somehow a lot more engaging, though I'm not certain I know what Rowlings did different this time.  Something else stood out, made the story more than just a mystery, albeit an entertaining and good mystery.

-- Honorable Mention --

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Book 4 of Haruhi Suzumiya) by Tanigawa Nagaru

Something about this book really just hit the right spot.  I don't know what it is, but I'm guessing it's the fact that I haven't seen the anime movie adaptation of it and had the chance to be surprised at all the right places and enjoy the humor without knowing that it was coming.  But the world of Haruhi Suzumiya is still a geniusly created one that I continue to enjoy as it continues onto the end.

See My Brief Thoughts.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -- specifically the audiobook BBC radio adaptation

The Neverwhere book by itself had great imagery and creative plot and world-building.  I've no doubt that Neil Gaiman is an excellent fantasy writer.  But of the two books I've read of his, I've found his story progression to be lacking at times and monotonous at others.  But what made me really love Neverwhere was actually the full-cast BBC radio performance.  Where I didn't really care much for the characters, especially Richard Mayhew (whose name I had to look up because he was really not that memorable), I found that the voice acting by James McAvoy really brings this persona to life, piquing my interest just a little bit more.

***

So there we go:  One Top Book I Read in 2014, Four Top YA books I Read in 2014, Four Top Adult Books I Read in 2014, and lastly One Top Book I'm Not Sure How to Categorize But That I Loved Read in 2014.  And then a mishmash of "Honorable Mentions.

To be totally honest, these top ten lists are grueling tasks for me.  Either I have too many options to choose from to add to my lists, or I don't have enough.  There never seems to be a happy middle.

And in this case, for Top New Series I Want to Start (New... like within the last year or two), I was totally thinking:  "What?  You want me to choose only ten?"  Then again, I'll admit that most of the series I want to start are really series that were started a lot more than two or three years ago, so I'll relent.

And yes, I know that this is a Top Ten Tuesdays meme from The Broke and the Bookish.  And I know that we are far from Tuesday.  But nonetheless, I stumbled across this meme and decided that I wanted to participate, even if I'm a bit late.

So I managed to narrow my list down to certain series, sacrificing many others, otherwise, this list will go on forever.

To point out, I'm typically a reader of all things and all genres, but my most recent obsessions within the past two years or so has been YA novels and more recently, Romantic Suspense novels.

1.  Legend by Marie Lu -- I've been meaning to read this series for a long time already.  Now that it's completely finished and ready to be read in one sitting... or two... or three... I really need to get it going.  Thus, I even added it to a Reading Challenge just to prioritize.

#1 - Legend

#2 - Prodigy

#3 - Champion

2.  Skylark by Meagan Spooner -- In keeping with the YA dystopian hype, this is a series I got interested in when it first came out, but never got around to reading.  So then I decided, as another year went by, to just wait until the last book was available to jump into it.  The premise sounds interesting enough, so I'm hopeful.

#1 - Skylark

#2 - Shadowlark

#3 - Lark Ascending

3.  His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers -- I own the first two books (bought at a rather ideal price via Amazon Kindle) and am planning on buying the third book when it's available.  The covers are pretty and the premise for each book is attractive and sound cool:  Assassin Nuns.  That should say it all, right?

#1 - Grave Mercy

#2 - Dark Triumph

#3 - Mortal Heart

4.  The Malediction Trilogy by Danielle L. Jensen -- I like high fantasies a lot and am on a mission to find another epic favorite after finishing Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.  I have the first book in this trilogy (because I'm a compulsive book buyer), and have read good reviews about the first book, so I'm interested to see how the series turns out.

#1 - Stolen Songbird

#2 - Hidden Huntress

#3 - --third book untitled--

5.  Mann Family by Kate Brady -- The two books I've read of Kate Brady's so far were pretty good, so I'm curious about this series.  Having gotten drawn into the Romantic Suspense genre lately, I can always go for a good murder mystery/crime thriller anytime.

#1 - Where Angels Rest

#2 - Where Evil Waits

6.  Circle of Evil by Kylie Brant -- I loved Kylie Brant's Mindhunter series and am also looking to read a lot of her other, earlier works.  Circle of Evil is her newest series, another intriguing concept of a suspense, crime thriller and mystery.  And I can never get enough of those.

#1 - Chasing Evil

#2 - Touching Evil

#3 - Facing Evil

7.  Aftershock by Jill Sorenson -- This is one of those Romantic Suspense series that leans more towards the suspense and contemporary than mystery or crime thriller.  Having to do with disasters such as subway and airplane crashes and desert survival.  There has been great praise for her work as a new author in this genre, so I'm curious enough to want to give her series a go.

#1 - Aftershock

#2 - Freefall

#3 - Badlands

#4 - Backwoods

#5 - Wild

8.  One-Eyed Jacks by Cindy Gerard -- I have a soft spot in my heart for Cindy Gerard's work mainly because of certain particular books and certain particular characters from her first Romantic Suspense series The Bodyguards.  Of course, starting One-Eyed Jacks also means that I must first start and finish reading the series receding this one, Black Ops., since they tie into each other.

#1 - Killing Time

#2 - The Way Home

#3 - Running Blind

9.  Fated Blades by Steve Bein -- I have no reasons for this one except that the cover for the first book looks cool and that the concept sounds pretty awesome.

#1 - Daughter of the Sword

#2 - Year of the Demon

#3 - Disciple of the Wind

10.  Beauty and the Brit by Terri L. Austin -- The one and only Contemporary Romance on this list.  It sounds interesting to me... and I had a need to round off this list with more than just Romantic Suspense and/or YA novels.

#1 - His Every Need

#2 - His Kind of Trouble