Julie Garwood - Slow Burn

An unpretentious beauty who radiates kindness, Kate MacKenna doesn't have a bad bone in her body--or an enemy in the world. So why are bombs igniting everywhere she goes? The first explosion brings her face-to-face with a handsome Charleston police detective. The second one sends her into the arms of her best friend's brother--a Boston cop who's a little too reckless and way too charming for comfort. But Dylan Buchanan won't let emotion prevent him from doing his job: Someone is trying to kill Kate, and Dylan is the only one standing between her and the monster who wants her dead.

Comment: Another book by this author. I still have another one to read but I have to admit I'm not screaming with joy over the fact...

The book tells us the story of Kate McKenna a businesswoman bent on turning her small business into a successful one and she's on the right track to do so. Unfortunately for her, Compton McKenna, her old uncle knows about her eye for the business and makes her the biggest benefactor from his will.

Helping her is Dylan Buchanan, the brother of her best friend and someone she's had a crush on since forever. When attempts are made on her life, they get together and Dylan protects her and helps finding the responsible for attempted murder on her.

I've decided to pick these books in the first place because of the promise of a suspense book with a strong romance. I was drifting in the greatness of amazing books from Karen Rose at the time and I wanted another author, writing the same genre, who'd give me the same feeling.

I was told about this author although I was informed not to expect such good romance to match the rest of the story. Still, I carried on.

After having read 5 books with this one I think I'm giving up. I have another one but it's not in a single book, I have it as part of a collection in a bigger book and it's more difficult to carry with me, so it's not as easily accessible as that. The thing is, in all books, the romance isn't that good. It's tasteless, bland. They meet somehow, blah blah blah, but I don't feel real chemistry between them. It's like they're a couple because it suits the story and without real emotion, no can do.

You might say, well, it's fiction, how could they show real feelings? I'll answer: like many authors do in their books (and not always focused on romance), also these could show a bigger sexual tension between the couple, more scenes with them interacting outside a romance set up juts so we could see them in a different register, more scenes with them thinking about the other and what it meant, more clues with other characters speaking about them and so many more ways, but somehow they could be seen more romantically involved before admitting or acting on their love. In ms Garwood book's this doesn't happen. 

Then, the story itself, this one like so many others have an interesting story behind and some things do catch my interest, but overall, I've read better. If I were to exclude the romance and leave only the suspense, it wouldn't be as gripping as one might think. Fine, this one provided a villain I wasn't expecting but the tone of the book, the way things are said, I don't know, it's all so...normal, almost boring.

I guess this author isn't for me and it took me a lot of books to see it, but I had them and how could I judge without trying...

So, what else can I say about the book, I was glad the bad guys were caught, the end was very adequate for the characters, but it didn't move me and I wasn't left wondering about them. I confess I was already picturing my next read.

Anyway, it's good enough to pass the time, but it's not the most vibrant or thrilling thing to read, in my opinion.

Julie Garwood - Murder List

Hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison is flirting with danger. She agrees to help a journalist friend expose Dr. Lawrence Shields, a shady self-help guru who may have been responsible for the death of one of his vulnerable devotees. Hoping to find some damning evidence, Regan attends a Shields seminar, where the doctor has his guests make a list of the people who hays hurt or angered them over the years and asks: Would your world be a better place if these people ceased to exist? Treating the exercise as a game, Regan plays along.
The experience is all but forgotten--until the first person on Regan's list turns up dead. Shock turns to horror when another name from her list surfaces as a corpse. While brutal murders seem to stalk Regan's every move, her attraction to the detective assigned to protect her grows. As the menace intensifies and a serial killer circles, Regan must discover who has turned her private revenge fantasies into grisly reality.

Comment: This is another story closer to my completion of the books I have by the author. This time it was the story of Alec Buchanan and Regan. Alec is another sibling in the family getting his tale and romance told, after his older brothers.
Alec is finishing his job in the police to start working as an FBI agent. He also wants to get closer to home and his family. It helps that he's getting tired of his job because some people in the force are lazy and don't do the right thing. As a last assignment, he has to act like a body guard to Regan because she's been threatened by some guy and he wants to kill her.
Regan is the youngest of 4 and with three older brothers she feels her position is always being challenged because they are overprotective. One day she attends a conference with two friends to help unmask a con man who deceives women and gets their money. In an exercise they have to write down a murder list with all the people they would erase from their lives in order to make them less important and Regan writes down real names. When the villain gets that list he kills the people in there for her...

I'm reading these books because I have them and I'd feel like wasting the time I put before when I got them, otherwise I'd have given up already. The books are entertaining, but...bland. Tasteless. Neither the romance or the thriller parts are good enough on their own, much less together.
The characters seem fine and have several traits that are appealing and interesting to focus on, but in this book I have to confess I was more interested in the (few) tidbits I'd read about secondary ones. It's just that the main couple was so...boring. Alec had his life planned and then met Regan, he felt attracted to her but I wasn't convinced o his feelings for her. Yeah, he loves her but the author didn't write in a way that I felt passion between them, even when she said so. I just didn't feel it. Regan was more interesting but not enough for me to really care for her. I was more curious to know if her older brother would ever notice her best friend... so no, the romance didn't swept me off my feet.
Then the thriller part was just so...so...boring. I didn't feel curious or even eager to know more about the bad guy or why he acted like that....why? Because it become pretty obvious very soon and after that it was just waiting to see if anything happened. I think the author missed to pinpoint the really main points in the story and gave more focus on things I really wasn't interesting in. Oh well.
I don't even know what else to say about the book, just that although it allowed some entertainment, it surely didn't fulfill my romance needs or even my mystery ones. Let's hope the next one isn't like this.

Julie Garwood - Killjoy

Her razor-sharp mind and ability to decipher evidence have made Avery Delaney an expert crime analyst for the FBI. Now she will have to use every one of her skills on a case that hits painfully close to home.
Avery's beloved aunt Carolyn was on her way to a posh spa in the Colorado mountains. But she never arrived. Now, with scant clues and fewer resources, Avery must track down Carolyn -- and outmaneuver a brilliant killer named Monk who is part of an elaborate plot of madness and lethal vengeance.

Comment: This is another book in the suspense series by the author. I've said before that this isn't the strongest or the best romantic suspense I've read, but I keep trying because sometimes we find interesting things where we least expect it.
This story is about John Paul, the brother of the protagonist from the previous book. In this book he keeps following Monk, the killer who escaped from the previous story. It's interesting that the author kept the same plotline in this book. The female protagonist is Avery, a young woman who had bad experiences in her childhood because of her mother.
At first these two didn't want to acknowledge the attraction between them but then they stopped. I think this was done too fast, one minute they wouldn't admit it to themselves, then they were already falling in love? Romance in stressful situations isn't impossible but it has to be well done (I always remember Diana Duncan's Truth or Consequences where this situation was done perfectly, in my opinion).
The story was interesting enough, I confess somewhere in the middle I read quite fast in order to know more.
One thing bothered me a bit, the villain's POV. Usually this is something I can do without. I don't need to read from their pov's in order to be satisfied with their reasonings or actions. I'm the kind of reader who's happy enough with knowing things secondhanded...but as always it depends on the story, style, emotions, many things but in this book especifically I could do without. To be honest I don't understand why we had to read from their pov's so many times, with only one time it was pretty obvious what they were up to.
In the end I liked reading it, it's not the best book I've read but it's definitely not the worst either.

Julie Garwood - Mercy

Attorney Theo Buchanan - brother of seasoned FBI agent Nick Buchanan, the hero of HEARTBREAKER - is in New Orleans to receive an award for his work with the Department of Justice. When he becomes unexpectedly ill at the gala, a beautiful stranger rushes him to the hospital and saves his life. The woman - a brilliant surgeon named Michelle Renard - intrigues Theo, but before he can learn more about her, she leaves New Orleans and returns to her small clinic in Louisiana. Theo seeks her out to thank her, but finds more than he bargained for. When he arrives in the little town of Bowen, he discovers that Michelle is being followed, her house has been broken into and her clinic destroyed. Theo is in a position to return the ultimate favour. Michelle saved his life...now can he save hers?

Comment: The first book in the series (Heartbreaker) wasn't a winner with me. Everything seemed rushed, phony. I was quite reluctant to read more (I had read the 1st one a long time ago) but the constant good opinions by some people I trust convinced me to keep reading. And I liked it.
This book shows a better chemestry between the main characters, the plot isn't that special, I must confess...there are other authrs who can do a better job with the mistery and the thriller parts, but it was intriguing enough to entertain.
There are three of four scenes that I really loved seeing and the end is sweet and hopeful.
All in all a better read that what I'd expect and I'll read more in the future.