Good Reads: Sky High

Sky High by Susan O'Brien
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sky High is the second book in the Nicki Valentine mystery series. It is a nicely written, full length novel.

Nicki has been a self employed private detective for a year with a home based business doing background checks. She has two small, school aged children and a budding romance with, Dean, one of her past instructors from the PI school. Nicki's character has been fleshed out in this novel, with more information on her past and her philandering late husband. She was a much more well rounded character and I enjoyed her interactions with her best friend.

The Dean character wasn't my favorite. Nicki seems to have well founded reservations about him, but she never openly communicates her concerns. As a result I didn't relate to their relationship.

The runaway groom/murder victim plot was fun and fast paced. The culprit wasn't evident until the end of the book. I like to be kept guessing.

One big problem I had was with a contradiction in the plot. We are told that the woman Nicki's late husband was having an affair with thought that he was separated and didn't know about the children. But toward the end of the book Nicki finds a letter that indicates that she did know about Nicki and the kids. It blows one of the big plot devices out of the water.

Overall, this is a decent read, a good mystery with a so so romance. It ends with a HFN.

ARC provided by Henery Press via Netgalley.

Up Your Grilled Cheese Game

Grilled cheese sandwiches make for a quick and easy meal on nights when I don't feel like cooking.  Sometime I decide to switch out the type of cheese I use, instead of cheddar.  Last weekend I grabbed a few random ingredients from my fridge and came up with a delicious version of grilled cheese.

INGREDIENTS

brie cheese, sliced thinly
bread
butter
Brimstone Originals jalapeño jelly

Make as you would any grilled cheese sandwich with the addition of spreading the inside of the bread with the jalapeño jelly.

The result is a rich, creamy, sweet and spicy sandwich.  Very tasty and unique.

Enjoy!

God bless,
Pam

Good Reads: The Scam

The Scam by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Scam was truly a fun read in so many ways. It is the fourth book in the Fox and O'Hare series. It is very well written and professionally edited.

Fox is a male con artist that was pursued and finally caught by the female FBI agent O'Hare. They are now partnered together as a secret FBI team tasked with conning criminals that have never been caught by traditional (legal) means. In The Scam they set out to run a con on a casino owner laundering organized crime money through his casinos.

The plot was fast paced and creative. We see more of O'Hare's retired black ops father and the relationship between Fox and O'Hare continues to develop. The ending was a shocker and made me wish that this series put out more than one book a year..

Overall, this is a great read. Lee Goldberg is doing a good job with this series. The Scam ends with a cliffhanger instead of the usual HFN.