Tag Archives: romance

Mind Games (Lock & Mori # 2)

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Mind Games is book two of the Lock & Mori series, and it is anticipated that a third book will soon be published. For those unfamiliar with Lock & Mori, this is a modern day adaptation of the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Professor James Moriarty, although in these stories, Mori is a teenaged girl.

In Lock & Mori we see Mori’s father tried and convicted as a serial killer, and Mori and her brothers rescued from a domestic violence situation. Mind Games picks up two weeks after the father’s arrest. But even though her father is in prison, Mori doesn’t feel safe. Letters of a threatening nature are arriving, and police are receiving anonymous tips that lead them to believe that it is Mori, not her father, who has committed the murders.  Lock sticks by Mori and together they search for who is framing her.

This is an action packed mystery that can be read as a stand alone, although the enjoyment is enhanced by having read the first book.

Hurricane Kiss

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Hurricane Kiss is flying off the shelf and has a list of “holds” awaiting its return. The steamy black and white cover may be the initial draw, but the story itself keeps the teens reading through to the end.

The story involves a teenaged girl, Jillian, and her neighbors, who are confined in the car for a long road trip as they try to get away from an incoming hurricane. One of the neighbors is River, the former starting quarterback of Jillian’s high school. There is a backstory for River: while once headed to fame for his football prowess, he disappeared, serving time in a juvenile detention center. Now that he’s out, he’s quiet with a chip on his shoulder.

As the effort to flee to storm gridlocks in traffic, River takes action to find shelter, and he and Jillian find themselves inside their empty high school. Their time alone, where they wait for the storm to pass, allows them to look back at the past, and reconcile how to move forward.

The storyline is exciting and nerve wracking, with themes of teen angst, romance, and survival.

Stay With Me

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Stay With Me in the companion novel to Come Back to Me, and is written by Mila Gray, which is the pseudonym of young adult author Sarah Alderson (Fated series: Fated, Severed, Shadowed) that she is using for her more adult-themed works. Stay With Me definitely is more of an adult themed novel, as it is a steamy, slow-burn romance between Noel, a wounded Marine, and Didi, a young psychology intern at a military hospital.

The story is also a love triangle, as Didi has a boyfriend, Zac, who is working out of town for the summer. Until Didi started her psychology internship where she meets Noel, she thought that Zac was the man for her.  But sparks fly when Didi begins working with Noel, and their forbidden romance grabs the readers and will not let go.

The novel is filled with issues of PTSD, the struggles of wounded warriors and their families, the complications of prior romantic commitments (Zac and Didi), and the ethical ramifications of medical provider / patient romantic relations (Didi and Noel).

This steamy romance is a page turner best suited for juniors, seniors and college students.

Lucky Few

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Stevie Hart describes herself as a normal-type.  This is one of four categories she has created to describe students who are homeschooled.  Her best friend, Sanger, is a normal-type also.  Enter Max, the new neighbor kid who is obsessed with cheating death.  Together this trio embark on a challenge to defy death 23 times. On her own, Stevie is involved with the political action efforts to save her favorite place, Barton Springs. What starts out as a way to pass time with friends – old and new – turns into a journey of self-discovery.

The story moves from one death cheat to another, yet in the background our characters are learning how to cope with change – sometimes with grace and other time with the elegance of a toddler tantruming. In the periphery, the cast of characters deal with pressures of academic success, discrimination, Christian values, political activism, and abandonment to name a few.

Note that Stevie and Sanger are homeschooled, yet they go to classes taught by teaching staff at  non-home school locations and the homeschool co-op has a sports team. Part of the controversy in a side plot has to do with the homeschool co-op board requesting that Sanger leave the co-op because her parents are lesbians. This friction propels the plot and is an undercurrent of the development of the main character, Stevie, who questions these decisions by adults in authority and determines her own moral compass.