Showing posts with label bold strokes books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bold strokes books. Show all posts

Blind Curves (Blind Eye Mysteries) Review

Blind Curves (Blind Eye Mysteries)
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Blind Curves is the first book in a thrilling new detective series by Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall. The story takes place in San Francisco, the authors' home, and the descriptions are rich and lively, thus making the city itself an additional character in the novel.
Velvet Erickson, journalist, is suspected of killing wealthy publisher and former lover, Rosemary Finney. Since she is the only suspect and must prove her innocence within 48 hours or be jailed until her trial, she hires friend Yoshi Yakamoto, owner of Blind Eye Detective Agency. Yoshi and fellow detective Bud Williams set out to find the killer, but along the way they uncover corruption at the highest levels in the wealthy secluded town of Woodside, south of San Francisco. In a race against time, the real murderer is doing everything possible to keep the truth from unfolding, and Velvet is counting on the Blind Eye team to save her skin.
This easy to read, down to earth novel is electrifying from the get-go. The pace moves at a quick clip, and the authors clearly explain the complex relationships as they divulge key clues. Blind Curves is used metaphorically and literally throughout the book tying together the mystery puzzle neatly in the end.
The character development though is what makes this novel stand out and will make the reader craving for more in the series as they complete Blind Curves. In revealing that Yoshi is legally blind and Bud is a paraplegic and wheelchair bound, we get a glimpse of the challenges they face and how they compensate. But the reader does not feel sorry for these two because Blind Curves strips away the labels and gives us gritty, likeable, and appealing characters. The authors add depth to their characterization by enlightening us, and we see Yoshi as clever, intelligent and at times manipulative, but never helpless. This detective knows how to get to the facts, and she uses all of her resources to do it. Anderson-Minshalls add to the book by including wonderfully colorful secondary characters in Tucker, Yoshi's receptionist, and AJ, an East Palo Alto policewoman.
One of the best features of this book is that all of the key characters except Bud are lesbians, and that's the way I like my fiction. While the reader is left hanging as to what the future has in store for these characters, I was fully satisfied with Blind Curves. I am counting the days until Blind Leap's release in October of 2007.


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Run to Me Review

Run to Me
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I liked "Love on Location" by this author more. But this book was one that will slip effortlessly in among the average quality of lesbian romances, and likely charm those who pick it up.
The writing and editing was a little loose for me to give the book really high marks. Beth flees to San Francisco to train for its half-marathon after the abrupt and painful end of a 3-year relationship in LA. There she spontaneously rents a room from a quirky cast of characters and removed from her old life begins an emotional recovery process. She meets Mary, whom everyone loves and who seems to love everyone, and they strike immediate sparks, but Beth is wary of being cheated on, and Mary has been shying away from serious relationships for years. Determined to keep it casual, they begin to train for the race together, furiously attempting to resist all impulses to take their relationship deeper.
The reader spends the vast majority of the book inside Beth's head and thoughts. I like a rich internal voice, so that was good.
Except Beth had a tendency to think one thing one scene, then think something in direct opposition in the next. She'd make a decision, then ponder contradictory thoughts without referencing that decision. Perhaps the author meant to portray the disorganized jumble of one's thoughts as their mind and body war with one another, but it would have meant more if the tenor of the thoughts and contradictions had changed as Beth recovered. Instead she hashed and rehashed the same thoughts over and over, and they began to manifest in confusing actions, and also to be boring. I kept thinking, "Didn't we already go over this...more than once?" This led to the character repeatedly creating her own drama. Not something I generally enjoy.
Thankfully we also got a bit from Mary's point of view, which was usually clearer, and helped express the confusion this reader was feeling at Beth's mixed signals. There were sweet and hot moments as their relationship stuttered along. And despite Beth's clothes unaccountable disappearing in one such hot scene, it wasn't too hard to overlook the frustrating moments as the author brought her novel to a decent close, wrapping up events in a satisfying manner.
I liked the additional psychology the author brought to this book, compared to "Love on Location." She also shook up her formula a touch, which isn't a bad thing. So far I'm a fan. Hopefully she tightens up the characterizations a bit in her next work, but I'm interested to see what she does next. It's a solid, quick read, and I expect the vast majority of those who take the time to read this book will be entertained enough to consider it time well-spent.

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Blind Leap (Blind Eye Mysteries) Review

Blind Leap (Blind Eye Mysteries)
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I love the Blind Eye series and can't wait for the next one to come out. I think that the authors work well together for a married couple. Yoshi and her group of misfits at the Blind Eye Detective agency kept me enthralled with every piece of the crime. I felt as though I was working with them to solve the crime.

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