Hope Flames
RECOMMENDED: Hope Flames by Jaci Burton is $2.99! This is the first book in the contemporary romance Hope series. Elyse read this one and it earned a B grade:
The hero of this book is a police officer with a police dog named Boomer. The heroine is a vet with a pit-bull puppy named Annie and a lab named Daisy.
Hope Flames was light and fun and a nice break from the angsty stuff I’ve been reading. And also PUPPIES!
Thirty-two and finally setting up her veterinary practice in the town she once called home, Emma Burnett is on her own and loving it. Independent and driven, she’s not letting any man get in the way of her dreams. Not again.
That’s fine with Luke McCormack. Divorced and hardly lacking in female company when he needs it, he’s devoted to the only faithful companion in his life–his police dog. Still, there’s something about Emma he can’t shake.
When a series of local break-ins leaves Emma vulnerable, she seeks help from the first man to spark her desire in years. And now they’re giving each other something they thought they’d lost forever…hope.
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The Anatomist’s Wife by Anna Lee Huber is 99c. This is a historical mystery that we tend to recommend on Instagram who want Deanna Raybourn or Lady Sherlock read-alikes. Some people found the prose a bit flowery, while others loved the characters and setting.
Scotland, 1830. Following the death of her husband, Lady Darby has taken refuge at her sister’s estate, finding solace in her passion for painting. But when her hosts throw a house party for the cream of London society, Kiera is unable to hide from the ire of those who believe her to be as unnatural as her husband, an anatomist who used her artistic talents to suit his own macabre purposes.
Kiera wants to put her past aside, but when one of the house guests is murdered, her brother-in-law asks her to utilize her knowledge of human anatomy to aid the insufferable Sebastian Gage—a fellow guest with some experience as an inquiry agent. While Gage is clearly more competent than she first assumed, Kiera isn’t about to let her guard down as accusations and rumors swirl.
When Kiera and Gage’s search leads them to even more gruesome discoveries, a series of disturbing notes urges Lady Darby to give up the inquiry. But Kiera is determined to both protect her family and prove her innocence, even as she risks becoming the next victim…
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Blade & Rose by Miranda Honfleur is 99c at Amazon! This is the first book in a fantasy romance series and I’ve seen this one mentioned in the comments before. Readers say this was a promising start, though there was definitely room for improvement. Have you read this one?
A kingdom in turmoil or the love of her life. Which one will she save?
Elemental mage Rielle hasn’t heard from her best friend in far too long. Yet no one at the Tower of Magic seems to care about Olivia’s silence, or the curtain of secrecy surrounding the distant capital. Before Rielle can investigate, she’s assigned a strange new mission: escort a knight named Jon across the kingdom.
When whispers reveal mercenaries have killed the king and taken the capital and that no one is coming to help, Rielle can’t leave Olivia in peril. But as infamous mages and deadly assassins hunt Jon, she can’t leave him unprotected either—especially as she finds herself falling for his strength, his passion, and his uncompromising goodness. Her past returns to haunt her, a werewolf stalks their steps, and an ancient evil is gathering, yet the restraints forbidding their love strain and snap one by one.
Saving Olivia and the kingdom means defying orders and sacrificing her every ambition, and could mean losing the man who’s become so much more to her than a mission. Which will she choose: her best friend and the kingdom, or the love of her life?
If you like the romance of A Court of Thorns and Roses, the epic adventure of Game of Thrones, and a heroine who never gives up, you’ll love this romantic epic fantasy series.
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The Last Victim by Karen Robards is 99c! This is a mystery/thriller with some paranormal and romantic suspense elements. There is a crazysauce twist in the story that a lot of readers HATED. I’ll spoil it for you just in case you’re on the fence.
The man the heroine becomes sexually involved with is the prime suspect as the serial killer. Some reviewers mention that even if it’s revealed the man is innocent, it really disturbed them too much in this book, especially since the man in question is technically a spirit.Dr. Charlotte Stone sees what others do not.
A sought-after expert in criminal pathology, Charlie regularly sits face-to-face with madmen. Obsessed with learning what makes human monsters commit terrible crimes, Charlie desires little else from life—no doubt because when she was sixteen, she herself survived a serial killer’s bloodbath: A man butchered the family of Charlie’s best friend, Holly, then left the girl’s body on a seaside boardwalk one week later.
Because of the information Charlie gave police, the Boardwalk Killer went underground. She kept to herself her eerie postmortem visions of Holly and her mother. And even years later, knowing her contact with ghosts might undermine her credibility as a psychological expert, Charlie tells no one about the visits she gets from the spirit world.
Now all-too-handsome FBI agent Tony Bartoli is telling Charlie that a teenage girl is missing, her family slaughtered. Bartoli suspects that after fifteen years, the Boardwalk Killer—or a sick copycat with his M.O.—is back. Time is running short for an innocent, kidnapped girl, and Bartoli pleads for Charlie’s help.
This is the one case Charlie shouldn’t go near. But she also knows that she may be the one person in the world who can stop this vicious killer. For Charlie—whose good looks disguise a world of hurt, vulnerability, and potent psychic gifts—a frantic hunt for a madman soon becomes a complex test of cunning, passions, and secrets. Aiding Dr. Stone on her quest to catch a madman is a ghostly presence with bad intentions: the fiery spirit of seductive bad boy Michael Garland who refuses to be ignored, though in his cat and mouse game they may both lose their hearts.
Dr. Charlotte Stone sees what others do not. And she sees the Boardwalk Killer coming for her.
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Reading the sample for “Blade & Rose” – the vibe reminds me of “Sing the Four Quarters” by Tanya Huff, a favorite I’ve reread many times.
Lake Silence by Anne Bishop is 1.99 at Amazon.
OMG The Last Victim is infamous in my book club for said crazysauce twist. I hated it because the heroine was TSTL, but had to email my book club on the sale because we literally talked about it every month for a year a while back.
I’ve read Hope Flames, and the second in the series-Hope Ignites. Hope Flames was my first Jaci Burton. I loved both these books, maybe Hope Ignites even more than the first-a movie being filmed on a ranch-romance between the star and the rancher. This heroine really appealed to me, she was very down to earth. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series!
The Anatomist’s Apprentice has a bad case of instalove & contains instances of fatphobia that I found really upsetting 🙁 The mystery wasn’t good enough to overcome these faults for me, and no matter how good the mystery is it might not be enough for others to want to read that kind of stuff. Also, the hero calls himself a scientist which according to the Charles Lenox mysteries I finished just previous to checking this book out is not a term that came into use for another 100 years after TAA’s setting! That was just a small annoyance in comparison to the other problems, however.
oops — maybe need that comment deleted? I was scrolling too fast & saw The Anatomist’s Apprentice & not The Anatomist’s Wife, which I have NOT read! my rage overcame me. Sorry!
Thank you for the spoiler for the Karen Robards book. I would have been livid at the second thing you wrote about the character, not his, er, occupation.
I loved the Anatomist’s Wife. I just finished relistening to it again a couple of weeks ago as an audio book. The whole series is pretty darn good. There’s enough details to keep it interesting, it doesn’t have cutesy quirky characters which usually drives me nuts. The romance in it is muted in this first book in the series but it develops over the next few books.
Yikes that Last Victim book sounds like some terrible Ghost Whisperer fanfic. I’ve got FF on the brain today thinking about the Hugos. Speaking of which, Zen Cho’s winning short story is free to read here:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/if-at-first-you-dont-succeed-try-try-again-by-zen-cho/
Bring a hanky. It’s quite lovely.
Is anyone else getting Starbuck/Apollo vibes from the Star Knight Errant add near the bottom of the scroll? It’s the haircut and pose, I’m sure. But it’s putting me in the mood for space m/f, not that I’ve the slightest idea what’s worth trying… (All I’ve been reading lately is historical m/m.)
I had mixed feelings about The Last Victim. I’m actually a fan of paranormal romance, and generally okay with “bad boys,” but ghostly Michael Garland creeped me out. So much so that I haven’t read the other books in the series (but who knows, if they go on sale I might give them a try). I generally like Karen Robards as she has fast-paced action in her romantic suspense, but this one was just a little bit too squickish for me.
JJB …. Thank Heavens, I’m not the only one …I scrolled Down, then Up again all like: Is That BSG Fanfic! LOL
If you are looking for a great SF-Romance with a cool heroine, look no firther than Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalic. It is Awesome!!!!
@JJB Have you read any Michelle Diener SFR? I love her Class Five series! The only problem is there are only three books
I have been thoroughly enjoying Blade and Rose! It’s got a great pace and voice so far, and I am trying not to rush through. Which is hard. But you only get to read a book for the first time once! I think I might give up tonight though and just let my self splurge, lol.
So far as what I think, I love the characters. Rielle has got my attention. And I really love the French influence woven throughout. It’s a somewhat familiar fantasy setting but with enough distinction to make it feel like its own place.
If you want a standalone from the same author, her No Man Can Tame is phenomenal. Gorgeous Beauty and the Beast retelling set in the same world though different nations and peoples with a heavier Italian influence.
I LOVE the Blade and Rose series! I’ve read and reread all of the books a couple of times because I enjoyed them so much, and I am not one to reread books. I just fell in love with the world and all of the characters. – I can’t recommend this series enough.
@JJB, I’ll second the suggestion for Diener’s Dark Horse and the other Class 5 books.
If you’re interested in another recommendation with only a hint of romance, I’ll suggest Linesman by SK Dunstall.