Sophia’s #CBR5 Review #56: The Last Kiss Goodbye by Karen Robards

I did not pick up The Last Kiss Goodbye (2013) by Karen Robards with the best attitude. First, I am not a fan of paranormal romance novels. I just don’t understand the appeal of falling in love with a ghost. Romance heroes are pretty unrealistic already. Is it really necessary to make them even more unobtainable? Second, the only reason I was reading The Last Kiss Goodbye was to get closure after reading The Last Victim, a book that I only read because Robards was one of my favorite romance authors, and she’d never written about ghosts before. And not only did The Last Victim have ghosts, but it didn’t even have an ending! What I know now is that it is the first book of the “Charlotte Stone” series. I have no idea when this series is going to end, but it appears it could go on forever. The Last Kiss Goodbye is the second book in the Charlotte Stone series. I picked it up because I like closure and I was curious how she was going to make everything work out (I was assuming that paranormal romances–like regular romances–requires a happy ending).

Unfortunately, reading The Last Kiss Goodbye didn’t get me any closure.

Continued…

Sophia’s #CBR5 Review #29: Shiver by Karen Robards

I was puttering along in rush hour traffic the other day after my commute had suddenly (and hopefully only temporarily) increased dramatically, and I figured why not make use of this time by listening to books on CD. In fact, one of Karen Robard’s latest books, Shiver (2012) was only available from my library on CD so I figured a little romance wouldn’t take too much concentration as I drove. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work for me.

Samantha Jones is a 23-year-old woman who drives a tow truck and repossesses cars at night to support herself and her 4-year-old son, Tyler. Tyler’s dad is out of the picture. One night, Samantha picks up a BMW that happens to have Danny, shot and beat up in the trunk. [***SPOILERS*?*] Danny is an FBI agent who is undercover pretending to be Marco, another FBI agent gone bad and going into the witness protection program. Apparently the plan was for Danny to pretend to be Marco and distract the murderous thugs after Marco while Marco spills everything he knows. The U.S. Marshalls guarding Danny don’t know that he’s really a good guy, and when Danny’s first safe house is compromised, he ends up in the trunk of the car. When the bad guys find Samantha near the car, they throw her in the trunk, too.

Click here for the rest of my review.

Sophia’s #CBR5 Review #24: The Last Victim by Karen Robards

I’ve read a lot of Karen Robards because she writes romantic suspense, and romantic suspense is some of my favorite escapist literature. Feeling the need for some escape, and seeing that Robard’s latest book was available at the library with no wait, I decided it was time to read it. I’ve usually liked most of Robard’s contemporary stuff. However, when I read the blurb, I felt some premonition of doubt. The heroine, Dr. Charlotte Stone (Charlie), could see and sometimes communicate with ghosts. I’ve never been a fan of mixing ghosts into my romance novels. The romance requires enough suspension of disbelief as it is, so when you throw ghosts into the mix, it’s a little too much for me. But since Robards had been pretty grounded in the past, I hoped the ghosts bit would just be a small part of the story that I could mostly ignore. That turned out to be wishful thinking.

To read more, click here.