Anything for You was much better in the abstract than it was in reality. It had the potential to be a gritty thriller, but the writing is too detached to become invested in the story. It didn't help that I didn't like a single character in this story. Not one. For the most part, I found the story to be obnoxious, vulgar, and explicit. Now, let me say that I am not easily offended, but I didn't find any of those things to be necessary for this to be a good story. Honestly, I felt like the shock value they add ended up being detrimental. The thing with being explicit in a story like this is that most people don't need it. With the right words, an author can give just enough for the reader to imagine the gory details. And I'm here to tell you that I can always imagine it much worse than most can write it. Maybe it's just me, maybe not, but the only thing I got from reading this one was a few hours that I can't get back. It's predictable, unengaging, and well, just not good in my opinion.

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

Not much to say here, I could not get into this book. Other reviewers mentioned how crude it is, and honestly it is. I just couldn't root for the main character, Valerie Hart. I don't know if I would have felt differently if I had read book #1 (The Killing Lessons) and book #2 (LoveMurder). Valerie is obsessed with sex it seems and her ties to this case (a man she almost had sex with is killed during a home invasion) didn't do much for me. I am definitely going to pass on reading any moer about Valerie.

"Anything For You" follows homicide detective Valerie Hart. Valerie is called in when former prosecutor Adam Grant is found murdered and his wife injured. It looks like a home invasion gone wrong, but as readers follow along, something else seems to be going on. Valerie is worried about working the case and anyone finding out that she and Adam Grant had a passing something (honestly the scenes about them almost having sex were just...blah) and wants to stay on the case. 

I can't say much about Valerie besides she seems or is written as oversexed. She has recently got back together with her ex-husband Nick and they just seem to be two bodies that meet and never really click. Or at least I didn't think they did. I don't want to poo poo women liking and enjoying sex. Valerie is just written as a male fantasy I think. She meets a dude and starts thinking about how he is in bed and practically starts humping men's legs. She really is a female version of the Lucas Davenport character in the first couple of Prey books. I stopped reading that series for a year since the first few books were so bad and I was tired of reading about how Lucas saw a woman and how he jumped right into wanting "to nail her." 

I can't say much else about the secondary characters since I didn't get a good sense of anyone. Once again I am going to blame myself for getting a ARC and not realizing until after the fact it was the third book in a series. We do flip between Valerie and a woman in this one (no spoilers) but once again I didn't think the other woman was written well at all. 

The writing was not good. I think other reviewers nailed it on the head is that you definitely get that a man wrote this book especially with how Black graphically describes sex. I started to skip over any sex related scenes. The flow wasn't working for me either since you go back and forth between Valerie investigating and then some mysterious woman who is up to something. It takes way too long for the dots to connect. 

The setting of the book is mostly San Francisco, but it just felt like any old beige city in America. I wish that Black had incorporated more of the city into this. I just recently watched "The Last Black Man in San Francisco" and thought that movie was brilliant in showcasing the many facets of those that live in that city.

The ending was okay. I was just glad to be done. 

My own fault for clicking at NetGalley without realizing this is a third book in a series. So far it’s interesting and the MC is a bit much though.  She’s a homicide detective in San Francisco investigating a home invasion that left one man dead. We are getting another POV though in the book and I don’t know who that is yet. 

EDIT: I should have included a warning on my original review - this is very dark fiction, featuring not just a deep dive into the cesspool of the killers' minds, but also some very graphic description of those crimes, as they occur. I'm not especially squeamish, but those parts of the book were uncomfortable for me, especially those that gave the victims' thoughts and experiences. 

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

This thriller has nearly all the elements that I really enjoy - an whopper of an opening scene, excellent pacing, characters both empathetic and repulsive, and a satisfying ending. It was not without flaws, though. The events were heavily dependent on implausibly freak timing, which is fine if it's once or twice in a story, but here it was nearly every pivotal event. The romance, or more precisely the personal relationships, used some eye-rollingly common tropes. The main character was a little too "tortured hero" for me. 

Still, the writing was good enough to overcome these flaws, and I enjoyed it enough that I'll be looking for other books by this author. 

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library via Overdrive. Christina Delaine's performance was excellent.  

@GoddessFish, @askole, #ScienceFiction, #Romance, 3 out of 5 (good)

Sassing Saul is the tenth book in the Coletti Warlords series, and whilst I don't think it completely necessary to have read all of the previous books, it would probably help.

This book is a quick and easy read with plenty of action. Not all aliens are good guys, and Annie is involved in fighting the bad guys as much as she can. With her psychic powers, she is very good at what she does, and gets herself a reputation as the Grim Reaper. Unfortunately, this allows her husband to track her down and try to sell her. She makes her escape and finds her way to a different town, where she gets a new job. This has the knock-on effect of bring her to General Saul Jones' attention.

Now, this is where it lost me. Saul and Annie spend most of the book apart, and he does insist on treating her like a defenseless female, when he knows first-hand just how capable she is. There was no attraction between them either before or after the mind-wipe (which I didn't like at all.) A lot of new (to me) characters are introduced to Annie in quick succession and she immediately has an amazing bond with all of them. This was okay, but it all happened so quickly I was unable to fully 'get to know' these new females before the action kicked off again. This is where reading the previous books would help!

All in all, it was a good read that kept my attention throughout. I have no hesitation in recommending it, but I would also go to the next step and say to start from the very beginning of the series, as I think this will only help with your enjoyment.

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!