Leslie Kelly - Bringing Down Sam

High school teacher Eve Barret has a secret--she was once a child modeling superstar. She's left that life far behind, and has no intention of returning to it. At least not until her best friends talk her into a crazy scheme to "bring down" Public Enemy Number 1: Sam Kenneman.
Sam Kenneman has every woman in the country up in arms about his new bestseller, 101 Ways To Avoid Commitment. The book's supposed to be a joke--but women aren't getting it. Now he just wants the frenzy to die down so life can go back to normal.
Her goal? Teach him a lesson.
His goal? Don't fall for the sexy blonde.
The problem? They can't resist each other!

Comment: This is another book that I cannot remember why I added to my TBR. Must be one more case of having seen something somewhere and that was it.

Sam Kenneman is not very much respected by most women due to his books giving tips to men in the dating scene or even his relationship advice. Sam works for a magazine and his editor Diane is a little annoyed at having to work with such an obnoxious man, so one day while relaxing with friends, they decide to play a trick on Sam, making him fall in love with Eve, their blond bombshell friend, and then Eve dumps him in a very public way, breaking his heart as he has advised men to do with women. Eve accepts because she believes Sam to be this sexist guy but from the moment they meet and the longer they get to know each other, she can't help but change her mind. Sam, too, soon sees through Eve's bimbo persona and realizes she is much wittier and funny than what she presented at first. With both having personal issues to deal with, can they be a real couple after all?

This isn't a lengthy story and at the end of the book the author included some notes, explaining the original idea was for this to be part of a Harlequin Temptation series. This edition is a self published one, after she got her tights back. I think it can be quite visible this was aimed to be a shorter type of story, for things happen in a very condensed way, which certainly suited the Harlequin page limit, but that might feel a bit rushed in several moments.

The premise isn't  too bad - nor is it original - but I was interested in seeing what the author would do with it. The original story, or the bones of it, must have been written decades ago because the scenes described seemed quite dated (for instance the description of how Sam sees Eve for the first time in a fake model gig reminded me of those 80s or 90s cover shoots) and from the beginning I wasn't that confident their relationship would develop in such a romantic way.

At first, Eve pretends to be someone less clever because she and her friends thought that was the type of woman Sam would more likely fall for. Obviously, we know better and after a few scenes, they simply go past the masks and start making a real connection. The relationship then develops in a more likable way and I was surprised by how they got along and how quickly they started sharing certain things. I would not say the falling in love process was that romantic or that unique, but it worked out well enough.

Both protagonists have past issues which made them vulnerable and not as willing to trust someone. Eve was a model since she was a child until problems with her father made her want to stop. She is now a teacher and she still feels the impact of her childhood experiences. Sam has had a rocky relationship with his father too, then he found out his father had a son with another woman, his mother divorced him and they talk but things aren't great between them now. These issues are kind of dealt with through the novel, but considering the page limit, in a rather superficial way. Things still make sense for the type of story, but it wasn't the emotional significance I expected.

One things was surprisingly good, I'll have to say. Closer to the end, when it seems the big misunderstanding is set to arrive and separate them, instead of doing what seemed expected, they actually talk and respect each other's side of things and they can avoid the big fight/tension scenes. I didn't see it coming, and it was refreshing to see. Not much later, we have the epilogue with the HEA, everything ends up well and I felt happy enough for them. In terms of character development, certain elements were logical, structured, interesting. But the overall vibe was not one of marvel to me.

There is a book featuring Sam's brother... if I find it for free some day I might try it but I'm not eager to read it. Still, in terms of competent work, I cannot say the author did badly with this novel.

Grade: 6/10

Leslie A. Kelly - Cold Sight

Aidan McConnell once used his special psychic abilities to help find the missing. But after the media made him the scapegoat for a child’s death, he retreated from the world and became a recluse.
Lexie Nolan is a small-town reporter with big vision. She was the first to connect a series of disappearances among teenage girls to a serial killer…but nobody will listen to her.
Lexie is in desperate need of help from the sexy psychic who's an expert in finding people. And even though Aidan loathes the media, he can’t help being drawn in to the passionate, beautiful reporter.
Nor can he resist helping her on this particular case. Because he knows the latest missing girl.
And he knows time to save her is running out. 

Comment: This was the book chosen for the book club I usually participate in. I had never heard about the author but I was surprised to enjoy the story enough. I'll try to keep an eye on the author or, at least, I'll try to read the next story in the series.

This is a contemporary mystery/suspense with some elements of paranormal and a romance.

Aidan is an empath of sorts who can know things by sensing them in others, by studying objects or testimony of people and then he tries to connect with the other person. This has helped him having a professional career as an investigator and he, along with his team, have specialized in crimes and disappearances. However, one bad case has send him to self seclusion to Granville, an apparent quiet town but where teenage girls from the poor side of town have been missing.

Lexie Nolan is a reporter and apart from her direct boss, no one seems to care about the facts which has forced to apologize for a piece she wrote and now she's stuck in non important events. But knowing Aidan is near by can be the help she needed and she tries to contact him. From then on, it's only a matter of time until the truth comes up...

I can say I liked this novel and it has some interesting elements and scenes. I especially liked how the heroes tried to understand and study each clue so they could help the latest missing girl and find out who is the villain.

There were two details I liked less but maybe it's just my personal taste that can't separate my preferences from possibilities.

I really liked Aidan and Lexie, especially because despite the fact their romance was a bit faster, there was something to make it look less instantaneous. Basically, because Aidan has psychic abilities, their connection comes from feelings and the fact they bond and seem to be in sync with each other. I can accept this as a step to make their relationship move a bit quick. I especially liked how they thought and dreamed of one another before any real intimacy. After that, however, I'd have liked a little bit more attention on them as a couple except to say they were falling in love, I guess I'd have liked a couple more scenes with them before that.

As for the plot, it was imaginative and it made me think about other authors who create complex crime plots, although in this book there's a certain lack of detail in some areas which I found would have enhanced the story a lot.

This story has a villain and it has a disgusting situation that really makes me furious when I think it's so easy to hide and dissimulate: I'm thinking of those people who act one way in public and but are actually (and often) mean or evil or disgusting in their heads/hearts.

Thinking about this and about "deserving" punishment, I must say I feel the end of the story wasn't done well enough; it should have been developed more, it should have more scenes where prison and social punishment were met and sadly, that was missing. We just know the "bad guys" were caught but that's not enough in my opinion. Most suspense authors focus so much on the planing and solving os the crimes, the mysteries but then when the end comes, everything is simply wrapped up and no scene, no obvious notion of what happened to the villains.

The paranormal elements weren't exaggerated nor too elaborated. I think they were just part of the characters and although they helped to give information that the usual way wouldn't be possible, it was still presented in a simple way and it didn't seem to be just a handy prop to make the story different.

I'm looking for to read something else by the author but I hope the final stages of the next books in the series are better solved and tidied than in this one.

Grade: 7/10