In Too Deep anthology (Brenda Jackson and Olivia Gates)

This month’s TBR Challenge theme is Blue Collar, but I’m throwing in the towel entirely when it comes to the theme. On the other hand, this has been sitting in my TBR print shelves over a dozen years, so at least that part of the challenge is working.

Without Words, by Ellen O’Connell

I’d like to blame Whiskey’s review for this one–but the truth is, I bought it back in December 2014. Was it on sale? Probably. Why I bought it? I honestly can’t remember, except that I know that Kristie J is very much a fan of the author (she has reviews both at her blog and on GoodReads), and that Wendy the SuperLibrarian reviewed another title by the author (“both of their families should be shot, dismembered and sent through a hay thresher”. OH.)

Reader, beware: violence, threat of rape, trauma, whorephobia, “blood is thicker than water”; the theme of this novel seems to be that there are a lot of horrible people in the world, and that there are a lot of people who aren’t actively evil, but who are content letting those terrible people do inhumane things to those who can’t defend themselves.

The Perfect Rake, by Anne Gracie

The Perfect Rake is the first of the Merridew Sisters books by Anne Gracie.

I mentioned long ago that I had liked this book very much, and I still like many things about it. However, it suffers in the re-read, because I have a lot less patience for some tropes than I once did.

“Ready to Roll” by Suzanne Brockmann

I first got this novella sometime in early 2017, but I was lucky enough to attend RWA National Conference in Orlando that year in July, and I snagged a signed copy at the literacy signing.

Then it languished in the TBR room¹ until January this year, when I read it for SLWendy’s TBR Challenge.

Sadly, what with one thing and another, the review was not written on time :head hanging in shame:

Ah well, in the ‘better late than never’ category, here you have it.

Warning: one of the characters lives in an abusive situation, another (minor) character is the victim of spousal abuse; there’s homophobia and general bigotry. Oh, and some cursing.

“Ready to Roll” by Suzanne Brockmann

This novella is the third in a trilogy of short-ish stories set in the Troubleshooters’ world, centered on SEAL Izzy Zanella. The three stories take place within a year of the events in Breaking the Rules, which was the last novel in the series for half a dozen years,² until Some Kind of Hero came out.

Here’s the blurb from my print copy (yes, the repetitions too):