Mini Review for Nothing Personal (The Kincaids #2) by Rosalind James

TITLE: Nothing Personal
SERIES: The Kincaids #2
AUTHOR: Rosalind James
NARRATOR: Emma Taylor
PUBLICATION DATE: October 18, 2013 / May 19, 2015
PUBLISHER: Independent / Audible Studios
PAGES: 337 pages / 11 hours
FORMAT: Audiobook
SOURCE: Review copy via Audible
RATING: 4 bows

Summary from Audible:

When you wish upon a star… Alec Kincaid has never met the obstacle he couldn’t overcome – or the woman who could resist him. And it’s not going to happen now, not with his star shining more brightly than ever in the high-stakes arena of San Francisco’s software industry. Desiree Harlin doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and she doesn’t waste time wishing. She’s learned the hard way that dreams don’t come true. And with her reputation and hard-won security on the line, succumbing to temptation isn’t an option. But things aren’t always what they seem. And even stars sometimes fall. Note: Despite the fog San Francisco does get hot at times. If you prefer your romance without steam, you may want to visit a different city…er, book.

You guys know I have been having issues writing reviews for a little while now, so I’m giving the mini-review idea a shot. What that means is I’ll be pulling the description directly from Audible (or GoodReads) and then giving you my thoughts in a shorter manner than we are all perhaps accustomed to. I hope this will help get my creative mind back to flowing!

You get a good peek at Alec’s personality in Welcome To Paradise, so I was pretty excited to get to see through his eyes this time. I knew his character would change some because he was portrayed as a bit of a man-whore in WTP and that mind-set doesn’t really work in a romance. The guy has to give up the idea of sleeping with any woman other than the heroine. His change is subtle and believable. I found I liked his perspective quite a bit, but maybe not as much as his twins. The other side of this is Desiree. She’s smart and spunky and very professional. She has really fought her way up to be where she is. She had very low beginnings in life and had to work her way through college, but she did it and she is awesome at her job.

The romance had a very believable feel. Though there is immediate attraction, there is no insta-love or immediate falling into bed together. Ray is very (VERY) attached to the rules and she doesn’t like to break them when her job (and therefore her well-being) is on the line. It’s a slow-build with an excellent payoff.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel. I only had a few issues with it. The main one was this is has a suspense element, but it was introduced a little too late in the novel for my tastes. You don’t even get a hint of it until over halfway through the book. By that point, I was way too focused on the romantic element to care about someone trying to do bad things to harm Alec’s business. Maybe that was just me, but I just didn’t care and I thought the guilty party was extremely obvious from the first moment it was revealed that there was a foul-play being made.

Audio notes:
Emma Taylor does a good job narrating this. I’m very satisfied with her performance. She doesn’t really go above and beyond, but she does a good job and I would definitely be okay with listening to more of her work.

****Thank you to Esther Bochner at Audible for providing me with an audio copy in exchange for an honest review****

Review for Edge (Romance On The Edge #1) by Tiffinie Helmer

TITLE: Edge
SERIES: Romance On The Edge #1
AUTHOR: Tiffinie Helmer
NARRATOR: Mia Chiarmonte
PUBLICATION DATE: March 16, 2013 (book) / December 9, 2014 (audio)
PUBLISHER: The Story Vault (book) / Audible Studios (audio)
PAGES: 377 pages / 11 hours & 8 minutes
FORMAT: Audiobook
SOURCE: Review copy via Audible
RATING: 4 bows

Cache Calder’s life will never be the same. He is still trying to get his bearings after a suicide bomber left him injured and his friends dead. It was his fault they were there, chasing a story for his photojournalism career. So when his boss shows up demanding he travel to Alaska for a new story, he tells him to shove it. That is, until he learns that his subject is Amelia Bennett, the girl who gave him the acclaim to chase the stories he wanted. Mel Bennett has left her old life as far behind as possible. No one in her new life knows that she was the kidnap victim of a religious fanatic 20 years ago. But when strange things start happening at the Edge just after Cache’s arrival, her control and her grip on reality start to falter and suddenly, she has much bigger problems than the people at the lodge discovering her past.

Mel was a stubborn character! She was determined to have everything her way, regardless of the cost to her. She’s smart and strong and completely enviable in some ways. After all, this woman is fully capable of looking after herself in Alaska, where the dangers range from hypothermia in the winter to bear attacks to angry poachers to just making sure you have enough food. She does everything. She hunts, she fishes, she flies a damn plane. The woman can take on almost any challenge. But it also makes you wonder how important that control over her world is. I cannot imagine the horrors of her kidnapping and the torment of being held captive for as long as she was, but I can imagine that after an ordeal like that, control is paramount. I can also imagine that she’s still suffering lingering effects of PTSD. Either way, watching her fight her attraction to Cache was very amusing.

Then we have Cache himself, a character I was instantly rooting for. Once he boards his plane to Alaska, he learns that not only has Mel not granted permission to do her story, but his superiors have booked him under a false name so they can be surreptitious about obtaining her story. Being a man of incredible honor, he refuses to do this job. He’ll take Mel’s picture, but he won’t turn them over or print a word of her story unless he receives written permission to do so. Then, once he arrives on the Edge, he sees how wonderful Alaska (and Mel) can be. He’s too caught up in the world to come clean with her and then he is scared of the consequences. Things get heated, and fast and suddenly, all he wants to do is quit his job and stay on the Edge for the rest of his life. There is something about this isolated part of Alaska that has captured him. The wildlife is fascinating and the scenery is gorgeous. It’s land made for a photographers eyes and he cannot get enough.

What was really great about this was the entire cast has their own story. Helmer gave you the standard perspectives of Mel and Cache, but you also got a bit of Lynette and Emily and Nicole wrapped in. The side characters each got their own mini story that was equally as interesting as Mel’s. I’ll admit there were times when I just wanted to get back to the main story line, but each additional perspective gave me a bigger picture of the story and that made it better.

There was nothing about this story that bothered me. It gets 4 stars because I don’t adore it the way I adore my 5 star books. It was interesting and fascinating, but that magical, OMFG, this is AMAZING quality was missing. Don’t misunderstand me, this book was great and I highly recommend it to romance fans, but it isn’t something that I think I’ll ever re-read. The mystery, I have to say, was entirely captivating. Who the hell was messing with Mel? Was it all in her head? Who is fucking with the canoes and stealing the food? What the hell is going on at this lodge?!?

The story is engrossing, the writing is great, and the tension between Mel & Cache is palpable. This has everything you could want in a romance.

Audio notes:
This is my first Mia Chiarmonte novel. I have to say, she does a pretty spectacular job. I’m relatively picking about narrators. They can’t have an over-nasal-y voice or a whiny voice. They must be able to show inflection and create different voices. I’ve came across some I loved (Emily Bauer) and some I hated (Justine Eyre), and some in the middle. A good narrator can make or break how I feel about a novel. The mark of a good narrator, for me, is when I forget that there is just one person reading this story because each voice takes on a different character for me. That definitely happened with Mia. She reads at a great pace with varied voices for each character. Pacing is another thing that’s super important with audios. Too slow and you are bored. Too fast and you feel like you’ve missed something. I know Audible gives you the option of speeding up or slowing down, but I don’t like doing that. I like listening to the narrator’s natural pace. Mia does a perfect job. I don’t have a single complaint and that is really saying something.

****Thank you to Esther Bochner at Audible for providing me with an audio copy in exchange for an honest review****