Hotel of Secrets, by Diana Biller

Shortly after SuperWendy mentioned this title in her Unusual Historicals Marchblog post, I was approved for an ARC (it seems that we share a fondness for a good many tropes, settings, etc., quelle surprise)

Reader beware: parental neglect; domestic violence; killing in self-defense; violence, murder, attempted murder; extrajudicial point-blank executions. Explicit sex, including a scene of female masturbation. (The author has a list of content warnings here)

Take Me For A Ride, by Karen Kendall

This month’s SuperWendy’s TBRChallenge theme is “flirting with danger”, which in my world almost always means romantic suspense. As this cover fairly screams “running from the bad guys”, and since this book has been sitting in my print TBR cordillera of doom since RWA in DC (in 2009, mind), it seemed like it was all going to work beautifully.

Unfortunately, it didn’t.

The Socialite’s Guide to Murder, by S.K. Golden

This is marketed as a debut (unless S.K. Golden is a pseudonym, of course), as well as the first book in a series, and I have to say that it shows.

Reader beware: wealthy white debutante, with attendant problematic behavior and perspective; closeted gay best friend (see: period setting); agoraphobia and PTSD; car accident; parental neglect; closed door sex.

Some Kind of Hero, by Suzanne Brockmann

I have said before that it’s generally hard for me to give up on authors I’ve stopped loving–though I hope I’ve finally learned my lesson there.

On the other hand, there are some authors I still very much like, but whose writing may have shifted in directions that, quite simply, don’t interest me. This was the case a few years ago with Ms Brockmann’s (then) upcoming series: I felt completely meh about the whole “not too distant future” thing.

Then, a couple of years ago. she wrote the first of what is supposed to be a spinoff series from the Troubleshooters and I was somewhat interested.¹

And then…then, this book was announced, and here we are.

Reader beware: adult language, some violence, graphic sex. If any of these bothers you, skip the book. Hell, skip the whole series.

Some Kind of Hero, by Suzanne Brockmann

While this is the 17th full length novel in the very successful Troubleshooters series, it absolutely stands on its own, giving a new reader a good taste of what Ms Brockmann’s writing voice is like: fast paced, with well drawn, three-dimensional characters, and set in the real world, very much right here, right now.

Neither of the main characters have appeared in any of the previous books in the series. And while a couple of the secondary characters have, the story is structured so that there’s no need for extensive backstory of previous events, and what little there is, is integrated organically into the narrative.

Here’s the blurb: