McLaughlin and Dover give sex appeal a heart. Natalie and Brennan are a tempt that should not be missed. A Date for Midnight brings a touch of bad boy fantasy with a smidge of real world romance. Used to be lovers get a second chance to maybe get love right. Packed full of swoonworthy moments and heartaching angst, Mclaughlin and Dover put their best heart forward. These two talented authors are perfectly in tune when it comes to speaking the language of the heart.

A Minute to Midnight, David Balducci, author; Brittany Pressley and Kyf Brewer, narrators.

Female FBI agent Atlee Pine has suffered a setback in her career because of an overreaction when she caught a pedophile with a young girl. Although she rescued the girl, she also beat the pedophile to a pulp. Her superior understood her reaction, and he did not discipline her, but instead, he gave her the opportunity to use some time off to reconcile her emotional issues concerning her twin sister’s disappearance. She set out to find out what she could about the crime that had occurred more than two decades ago, when her sister Mercy had been kidnapped. She and Mercy were six years old at the time. Atlee was left for dead with a fractured skull. Her sister was never found. Her parents were devastated, and her father was accused of the crime. Eventually, her parents left town in secret.

As years passed, Atlee was never told the truth about her background, although she did not realize it until this investigation. She knew that her father killed himself on her birthday and that her mother abandoned her when she was in college, leaving her enough money to finish her education. However, she discovered that the rest of her life was a fiction. She was never able to find her mom or discover the truth about her sister’s disappearance, either. Now she hoped to at least find out something about Mercy.

When she returns to her home town, with her assistant, Carol Blum, she discovers that her mother and father had different names and a past she had not known. While she searches for answers about her sister’s fate, additional murders take place around her. She assists in the investigation and pretty much takes it over. She wonders if there is a serial killer on the loose? Are the murders related to her return? Has everyone told her the whole story about her family, or are they holding back facts? Somehow, in bits and pieces she realizes that she knows little about herself or anything else, and she places herself in great danger.

Atlee acts as if she is superior to everyone else, and she often has a chip on her shoulder. Her responses to others are authoritarian, abrupt and sarcastic. I did not find her very likeable. Sometimes she actually seemed to be endowed with supernatural capabilities, almost like a superhero, surviving situations that should have killed her. The author seemed to want to stress the fact that women are at least as capable, if not more so, than men in similar situations.

The author would not have written such trite dialogue between men, as he did between the women in the book. It was often glib and pointless. I found the book disappointing. I thought that the narrator over emoted, and her interpretation of the characters made me dislike most of them. Although Atlee’s insights were often spot on, and she was very fit and strong, I found her to be ruled by emotions not brains. She is painted as the sharpest knife in the drawer, the brightest bulb in the box, the genius who somehow instinctively solves all problems. However, the novel feels like it is chick lit at best, filled with trite platitudes and hackneyed conversations, not up to the standards of this author.

I won’t be listening to the next book they indicated is coming in this series and was disappointed that the book left me hanging without Atlee solving the mystery of her sister or her mother’s location. While the book tackles civil rights, women’s rights, sex trafficking, drugs, porn, and other crimes high on the liberal list of causes, it seemed to do so in  a trivial manner to me. It was almost as if the author did it for the sake of his liberal leanings. I would not recommend this book to others. It held my interest, but only because I thought it would get better. It really didn't improve.

Book: Read a book about light, miracles, featuring Jewish characters, set in Israel, that is the second book in a series, with the word “two” in the title, or with a light on the cover.

Atlee Pine is working through her aggression. 

And she still wants so much to find out who has taken and killed her twin sister.

Now in her old home, she find out more about the past of her parents that she didn't know before. 

There are a mix of persons around her. 

Her assistance, Blum is a older woman with children. And a trusting ally. 

Laredo is the man who wronged her before, and now met again. He said he was a changed man after his divorce.

Jack Lineberry, an older gentleman who knew her mother. And still holding back information from her. 

And three murders. Who are the killer and why. 

The story is mostly on Pine finding more about her past and his sister's murder. Some of the story is on the new murders, which seems to be a lot of running around interviewing persons of interest and discovering their lies. 

Good story. For me, not the best, but still engaging enough to stay up reading. 

Reading this for Door 18 with light in the cover. After all, this book is about hope. 

Atlee Pine is going back to her childhood home looking for answers. But all she found so far are more questions. 

Her twin has gone missing when they were six. The supposing killer was now in jail. But this killer has not left anyone he kidnapped to escape death. So why did he spared Atlee? Or is he really the killer.

If he is not the killer, then either her sister's killer is still out there, or his sister might still be alive.

She found out that she didn't really know her parents. The past is coming back.

In the meantime, there are some dead bodies dressed up in vintage fashion item showing up. Who killed them and why. 

This is what's going on so far in the book.

The development of the story is interesting. The setup is a bit slow for my taste but still engaging as there are more reveal of Pine's past, before she is a trained FBI agent. 

Why do her parents lied to her? 

Hope to find out soon. 

I guess I'm not having much luck with romantic suspense this week.  I DNFed the last one and this one... well, it was just alright.  Nothing exciting really.  Definitely not enough to make me overlook the things that bugged me.

And what were those things?  Well, for one, I was getting a whiff of the misogyny that so turned me off the previous book. While the hero, Reed, did his best to be respectful and look for consent etcetera, his inner thoughts were just a tad too leery for me to be totally comfortable.  When it's the bad guy, it doesn't bother me, but in the hero?  Nope.

Then there was the instalove.  I didn't buy it. 

There was also a scene set in a Wiccan shop that was run by a woman who the author described as 60-ish.  You would have thought this woman was a doddering old fool, just because of her age. I'm here to tell you, (at 62), that we are nowhere near as ready for the home as this woman was depicted.  And maybe I could have glossed over it, but the heroine came across as rather judgmental and mean in her thoughts about the woman.  It was a small thing, but it really irritated me.

And then we came to the end.  I like my thrillers to come to a conclusion. This did not. All of a sudden, the people in danger were rescued, the bad guy got away, the MCs declared their love for each other and decided to move away.  Oh yeah, the bad guy got away.  It was totally unsatisfying. I went online and discovered that book two in the series concerns the brother of the heroine taking up the chase for the bad guy. I have it in my TBR, but honestly?  I'm not that anxious to read it.