Book Reviews – Have Coffee Need Books

Adult Fiction, Book Reviews, Mystery, Suspense

Book Review: Denied by Mary Keliikoa

Denied by Mary Keliikoa

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On July 01,21 | 1 Comment

Title: Denied (Kelly Pruett Mystery #2)
Author: Mary Keliikoa
Genre: Mystery Suspense
Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not for me, maybe for you.

I enjoy a good suspense novel, but the writing style of Mary Keliikoa didn’t work for me despite giving her two books to sell me on it. I find it slow, dry, and rather pedantic. In my head, the voice of the main character was a drawl. The entire thing was frustrating as hell.

PI Kelly Pruett is following in her father’s footsteps. She’s trying to keep his private investigation agency going after his death. After almost dying on a case, she’s on recovery when she takes a new investigation for a childhood friend to find the woman’s missing father.

Book Reviews, Paranormal Romance, Shifter Romance

Book Review: Alpha’s Moon by Sabrina Silvers

Alpha's Moon by Sabrina Silvers

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On June 25,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Alpha’s Moon (Dirigo Pack #1)
Author: Sabrina Silvers
Genre: Shifter Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

You had me a shifter.

I find it difficult to dislike a shifter book. The sub-genre is chockablock with both the traditional and the far-out, so I tend to soak those books up. I don’t regret it either.

Alpha’s Moon is good. Much more the traditional shifter story with a kickass heroine and a truly devoted Alpha-Heir who is dying to claim her.

After a night out, Sheridan finds herself at the center of an abduction investigation for her close friend Kayleigh. A White Knight in the form of Kayleigh’s brother rides in and takes over. Kane is the Alpha-Heir of the Dirigo Pack and in charge of security. His senses tell him Sheridan isn’t a suspect, and what’s more, she’s his true mate. He doesn’t expect her to fight the mating call so hard or to want her like he does. Meanwhile, his sister is missing, and someone is subverting the investigation. Who in the pack is guilty of the unthinkable? Treason.

Adult Fiction, Book Reviews, Contemporary Romance

Book Review: Beautiful Sins by Piper Lawson

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On June 24,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Beautiful Sins (The Enemies Trilogy)
Author: Piper Lawson
Genre: Contemporary Urban Fiction
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you are a Piper Lawson fan, you won’t be disappointed.

Beautiful Sins is the second book in The Enemies Trilogy. This is a spin-off of The Rivals Trilogy and centers around Harrison and Rae, who are from that series. The first book, Beautiful Enemy, is set in Ibiza, where Harrison and Rae first fall in love and hit their first real hiccup, which sends Rae running to Los Angeles, where Beautiful Sins begins. Now, Rae, an up-and-coming DJ, is trying to make her way back into the spotlight for her talent and not for the scandals plaguing her.

Having finished this book, the thing I feel most is that a lot happened here. Beautiful Sins is a soap opera, not in a bad way, just in a slightly WOAH way. Piper Lawson tends to write these very intricate stories, though, and if you have read her before, you know what you are in for, if not, know that this will be a ride.

Book Reviews, Contemporary Fantasy, Fake Marriage Romance

Book Review: Hot Heir by Pippa Grant

Hot Heir by Pippa Grant

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On May 14,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Hot Heir (The Royals #3)
Author: Pippa Grant
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Fake Marriage Romance
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pippa Grant and her zany romance style are here with this romp, a Rom-Com Fake Marriage, where two of the most unlikely puzzle pieces fit.

Hot Heir reintroduces us to Viktor and Peach, the bickering and baiting pair who are more likely to light one another on fire than be caught in a hot air balloon over Goat’s Tit. However, as luck would have it, they are afloat over a peach orchard and arguing the finer points of sandbag babies at the opener. From that point on, you should know Pippa Grant is not here to disappoint.

Adult Fiction, Book Reviews, Contemporary Romance

Book Review: Beautiful Enemy by Piper Lawson

Beautiful Enemy by Piper Lawson

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On May 12,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Beautiful Enemy (The Enemies Trilogy #1)
Author: Piper Lawson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don’t know how to rate this. Is it really good? YES. Is it much the same formula that Piper Lawson tends to use in her other series? YES. I give it a 5-star rating for the story and a 3-star rating for the originality and come up with this 4-star rating.

Beautiful Enemy brings back two characters introduced to us in Piper Lawson’s last series, The Rivals Trilogy, Rae and Harrison. Rae has trekked off to Ibiza to recover her reputation after outing Harrison on social made her a pariah. Little does she realize that she’s walked into the lion’s den, and she’s about to be at her enemy’s beck and call for the next month because she just signed a contract to play at one of his venues.

Academy Romance, Book Reviews, YA Fantasy, YA Reverse Harem, YA Romance

Book Review: Stone and Secret by Evangeline Anderson

Stone and Secret by Evangeline Anderson

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On May 09,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Stone and Secret (Nocturne Academy #3)
Author: Evangeline Anderson
Genre: Fantasy YA
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stone and Secret is my first Nocturne Academy novel, and I am ashamed I’ve not read the series already!

Emma Plunkett is the white bread of young ladies. She’s the average of unforgettable, you just saw her, and you don’t remember it. She’s trying her best to survive the meanest of Nocturne Academy because even white bread has to deal with mold. Emma’s mold? That would be Morganna Starchild, beast of a Fae, mean girl gone wild.

Emma thinks she’s pulled the short straw when lined up to be lab partners with one of the most unfortunate looking students in school, Bran O’Connor. It seems like one more thing for which Morganna to snipe at her, but she quickly finds herself seeing more in Bran than what is on the surface. This is good because soon, she finds herself needing some help getting out of a sitch that is skin deep.

Book Reviews, College Romance, Genre, NA Bully Romance, NA Romance, Sports Romance

Book Review: The Deception You Weave by Tracy Lorraine

The Deception You Weave by Tracy Lorraine

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On May 06,21 | 0 Comment

Title: The Deception You Weave (Maddison Kings University #2)
Author: Tracy Lorraine
Genre: College Sports Romance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No spoilers here: I’m not too fond of Letty. Unlike the previous two MKU installments, I finally liked Kane–for a little bit.

A little reminder. Letty dropped the bomb on Kane as to what their puddle loving resulted in, and that literally put him in a tailspin at the end of the book. So this one begins with him in the hospital and with Letty in the arms of another dude.

LETTY!

Really, now? How many dudes do you need? I know, all of them. Because Letty only knows what she wants when forced to admit it.

Book Reviews, Christian Fiction, Futuristic, Suspense

Book Review: Operation Jade Helmet by Ashley Fontainne

Operation Jade Helmet by Ashley Fontainne

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On April 23,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Operation: Jade Helmet
Author: Ashley Fontainne
Genre: Christian Fiction/Suspense/Futuristic
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not gonna lie; this book’s not my cup of tea. I read the blurb going in, and I thought it would be some great techno-thriller. At thirty percent, I was still waiting for the blurb story to kick in. I feel a little like I was ripped off.

Operation: Jade Helmet is a big story told in small snippets of times in different locations. It’s meant to encompass a global event, the end of times. We were warned, through all sorts of worldwide chaos, Global warming, and talks of one government to rule us all. Good and evil are amassing their armies, and the fight is here.

“The Clearing begins, my children.”

Book Reviews, Thriller, YA Fiction

Book Review: The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On April 16,21 | 2 Comments

Title: The Mary Shelley Club
Author: Goldy Moldavsky
Genre: Thriller, Young Adult
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fear tests. They can be born from movies, but the Mary Shelley Club brings them to life.

Rachel Chavez is recovering from a home invasion and neglecting her PTSD. Her mother has transferred them both from their former world in the burbs to a new one in NYC (which I’m unsure how she affords on a teacher’s salary). This life is a delicate new existence where Rachel tries to gently poke at her past when she’s comfortable doing so and avoid doing so whenever it’s possible. Until she sees something unusual happen at a party.

“I, too, crave chaos.”

Book Reviews, NA Romance, New Adult Fiction

Book Review: Badly Behaved by Meagan Brandy

Badly Behaved by Meagan Brandy

ByMs Ali Cat: Ali Crean | On April 09,21 | 0 Comment

Title: Badly Behaved
Author: Meagan Brandy
Genre: New Adult Romance
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lights Out! Let’s Party.

It’s weird because the cosmos always hand me books one after another or one close to another with a similar problem amongst the characters or same name, something in common. I mention it because the dynamic which produces the Blackout Trio is one that I had just read about in another book of another genre–I can’t tell you as it spoils both books, but the universe is weird. That’s all I can say.

When you are as jaded and bored as Jameson Filano, you need a little something to light up your life; oddly enough, for her, it’s a party where the lights go out. Of course, it’s not just power failure but also the three powerhouse personalities in the room that fascinate her until her kidnapping and subsequent trip to the beach, which ends in more inquisitiveness. But life goes on in her world, and no one even notices the time that she’s gone. Her world tilted a little, and no one else saw. C’est la vie.