Donna K. Weaver

DNF at 44%

I think this book has a lot going for it with a more cuddly slow burn romance between the good natured CEO of a gaming company and a university acquaintance he always loved named Ahri (who just happened to be married to a real D-bag. I really hated Zed even though he only appears for a few scenes of the story at the most).

The mystery of why someone ransaked Ahri's apartment the day after Zed ran off with a cryptic message is the one true thing that kept me going. I think the mystery is the best portion of the book and the main reason I gave it 3 stars.

I didn't dislike the characters or the slow burn romance, it's more like I couldn't really get into the author's writing style. Too much exposition like "he joustled his hair" in the middle of a speech continuously pulled me out of the story. I believe this is an issue of personal reading taste and by itself it was not a deal-breaker to me, just an additional symptom of the things I didn't enjoy about the book.

One issue that soon became apparent in this book is the fact that well, everyone was too nice and didn't seem flustered or furious about the trashy way Ahri was treated. They sort of shrugged their shoulders and she just sort of simpers in misery in a room. Like, they were "nice", but that sort of fake nice that gets on your nerves. Crazy nutjob just stole her property when she planned to move out? No big deal. Ahri fed up living in a small apartment in the gaming company complex with the desire to have her absent brother Kayn console her? Okay, so he is busy at work doing a mega urgent project, but the book doesn't really offer any reasons why I should root for Kayn.

We don't see Ahri's frustration on her face as she marches in circles in the gaming company apartment, wondering if her life was in danger or how to get a new job. For the most part, the book sort of tumbles on without caring about fleshing out her personality. But it does a LOT OF TELLING. Loves to talk about how the CEO guy's family is so picture perfect with the most (grating) toddler nephews and wonderful (boring) potential mother-in-law. Either I felt they didn't seem like real people (Ahri is pretty much supposed to be a stranger to them), or the fact they were devoid of major faults made the family life chapters of the book to be utterly and irreparably dull.

That's it! I felt bored. I think the idea was good, just that well, there was no tension. And I pulled along because the mystery is what really drives me forward. I didn't care much about whether Ahri and CEO guy ever hit it off, I just want to know why Zed left.… (mere)

Francie Davis has struggled for years to support her family. Her husband, crippled badly in an accident years ago, and embittered by it, has died a few months ago, leaving only Francie and their son, Rafe, now heading off to college. He'll be attending Harvard on scholarship. Francie will only be supporting herself, now, but will be doing it on her own, without Rafe's help in the vegetable garden which has largely fed them for years. But Francie has her own dreams, long on hold, and she's now pursuing them.

Francie has gotten a job at the local college, and the benefits include a 3/4 discount on tuition. She'll be a full time student, and a full time worker--while trying to complete the harvesting that was not yet completed when Rafe left North Carolina for Massachusetts.

Alex Diederik is a history professor at that same local college, sharing office support with Prof. Kevin Eldred, and has a daughter, Samantha, who is also a student there. They're going through a rough period in their relationship, because Samantha, or "Sam," finds herself defending her divorced parents against each other. Vicki has remarried, a French man whom Alex, and we later learn Sam, both find rather creepy

Francie, in her job capacity, is assigned as the office support for Professors Diederik and Eldred.

Let it be noted here that it's hard to imagine that Vicki's new husband is much creepier than Eldred, who is preying on female students.

Francie first sees Alex and Sam when Sam is leaving her father's office at the end of a heated argument. They aren't introduced, and Francie assumes she's a student. Sam later sees Francie in the cafeteria, looking very much like the student she also is, and introduces herself by her middle name only, "Rose."

Francie and Rose become friends, while Alex and Francie gradually recover from their first meeting, where Alex was apparently berating a student. Then a history club project brings Alex out to what he doesn't know is Francie's house. She inherited it from her grandmother, and it has recently been added to the historic register. This is the start of Alex and Francie, Alex and Sam, and Francie and Sam all connecting better and more closely.

It's a nicely done novella, with everybody growing a bit as human beings, and a very nice little romancce.

I bought this book.… (mere)

Billionaire romances are not usually my thing; they often feel especially artificial. I can't necessarily claim this one is grounded solidly in reality, but I like the characters. They, including the four billionaire friends, seem like real, credible, likable people.

The basic background: A few years ago, some Harvard students, while still in grad school, created a game which hit it big, and sold it for millions. With that money, they started their company, REKD, and created a new game, a competitive arena type game, and went big into esports. Our first billionaire, Rafe Davis, is the CEO of the company, and persuaded his friends to locate in his native North Carolina, to be near his mother, stepfather, and younger siblings. Another of the friends, Kayn, has a sister, Ahri, who got married three years ago, to a guy Kayn never approved of.

For the past year, their marriage has been getting steadily worse. Then one day he comes home, tells her he's leaving, and oh, by the way, she needs to get out, too, because otherwise she'll be in real danger. Go to her mother, or her brother.

Well, their mother moved back to Korea, so really, her brother is the only option.

And thus she is thrown together with Rafe, and with Rafe's family, because they're coming up on a new release, and staying in Kayn's condo while hiding from the people who are definitely chasing her is just too isolating. Rafe's mother could use some extra help around her B&B, she says, and soon Ahri is settled in, helping with Rafe's younger siblings and the vegetable garden, in addition being installed at REKD to cover the maternity leave of Rafe's office manager.

Rafe, like Ahri and Kayn, grew up poor and was a scholarship kid, before he, Kayn, and the others got rich in gaming. Their fathers, in different ways, each abandoned their families. And Ahri is just as much into gaming as Rafe and Kayn.

I do really like that she speaks up about some of the stupidities of this type of game--including women warriors going into battle in "armor" that is basically heavy, uncomfortable lingerie, providing no protection at all. Rafe is reluctant to hear it, but she doesn't back down.

The tension cranks up with Ahri's ex is found dead, murdered, and again when the truck that was moving her possessions from Arizona, not to North Carolina but to another state, to see if it got followed without telling the bad guys where to look for Ahri, really does get attacked.

I'm not saying the plot is actually believable. It's just that Weaver is really good with characters, and with keeping things moving, and with making me perfectly happy to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the ride.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the author, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (mere)

This book contains two novellas, "The Savage Ghost," which is, in fact, a ghost story, and "Waves of Deceit," a romantic suspense story with no fantastical elements. It might seem an odd combination, but I enjoyed them both.

In "A Savage Ghost," the Savage family has jut inherited an actual Scottish castle, disassembled, shipped to the US, and reconstructed about a hundred years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Savage are looking forward to transforming it into a bed & breakfast inn. Oldest son Ezra is looking forward to being involved. The younger siblings, twin boys plus a younger girl, Melanie, are excited about living in a castle.

And then there's Lia, the oldest daughter, Ezra's twin sister. Lia has worked and studied to become a pastry chef, and is torn between family duty and the desire to fulfill her own lifetime dream, starting a pastry shop in Sacramento with her friend and baking buddy, Taylor.

When she discovers that her summer crush from last summer, Coop Montgomery, is in fact the gardner and landscaper hired by the recently deceased former owner from whom they inherited the place. she's even more torn. She doesn't want to give up her dream, which is in Sacramento, but Coop doesn't want to give up his, either, for which he's worked just as hard as she has.

But while they're working that out, they have to deal with one or two other distractions. Strange accidents happen; small items disappear and then reappear in odd places. The twin boys are the prime suspects for things that could be pranks. The boys swear they're innocent, but who else could it be?

They really ought to listen to Melanie, and eventually, Lia and Coop do. It's funny and sweet, and has just enough suspense.

"Waves of Deceit" is a very different story, having only romance in common with the other story. Shelby Nash grew up with a mentally unbalanced mother who never told her who her father was--and when she was sixteen, her mother died.

And her father's attorney, Alan Bradley, shows up at the funeral. Her father is billionaire industrialist Charles Grantham. Ten years later, she's educated, a successful project manager with a growing reputation, and really hates her father for the sixteen years of silence, neglect, and deceit. Along the way, she's lost a boyfriend she really loved, Wade Masters, when he reacted very badly to learning who her father was.

She and Wade are both still interested despite their bad breakup, but there's a real question whether they can work things out before someone really does kill her.

It's a short but effective story of romantic suspense, with convincing danger as well as

Now, she's got her biggest project ever, and Wade Masters is the lead architect on it. There's apparently a serious threat to her, which makes no sense, and she still hasn't ever met her father.

She also has no idea just how thoroughly she's been lied to.

Overall, recommended. They're both good stories and worth your time.

I received a free electronic galley of this book and am voluntarily reviewing it.… (mere)