C. C. Hunter

What a magnificent way to end a rather entertaining and hot trilogy!

Austin Brook seems to be the only one in the PI trio that takes the capture of DeLuna seriously as of late. He can’t blame his partners, after all, now they’re both married and have something to lose, so it’s only logical to be careful. But Austin is a man who values necessary risks, and his instincts tell him Leah Reece, DeLuna’s half-sister, is the key to taking the drug lord down once and for all. And since show more she’s not his type, he won’t be tempted to sleep with her and screw the mission up. Too bad the young cat-lover neither has anything to do with her half-brother, nor is easy to resist. Leah has been treated less than pleasantly by the men in her life so far. Her father never cared for her or her little brother, her ex-husband maxed her card for phone sex and cheated on her with the neighbors, and her half-brother is an abusing criminal that doesn’t care to leave her alone. With DeLuna closing in from all sides, looking for their other brother, Louis, thinking that he’s responsible for all the screw-ups in his drug deals lately, it’s gonna be hard to keep her new neighbor – and his protectiveness – at arm’s length. Not that she’s sure she wants to, anyway. But what happens, when a woman who has been lied to so much, finds out that almost everything she thought she knew of the man she’s falling in love with is a complete lie? And what will Austin do, when he ends up needing to keep his arch-enemy’s half-sister safe and by his side more than he needs his long-awaited revenge?

Didn’t I tell you we needed the little break we got in Tyler’s story? With both him and Dallas happily married off, Austin is sort of left alone to his machinations, until it’s too late for them to stop him from going after DeLuna’s sister – even if Roberto, their guy in DeLuna’s business, told them she has nothing to do with their nemesis. And yeah, I did mean it, the two previous books were a breeze compared to the third one! Because Austin has waited way too long in his opinion to capture the piece of shit that framed him, and he’s out for blood. Until he meets Leah – then he turns into the biggest wuss, worse than Tyler and Dallas have ever been! Then, he meets her FOUR cats – and discovers an ailurophobic’s worst nightmare can come true faster than a wet dream in heat! (yes, my darlings, Austin, the world’s most badass ailurophobic, falls in love with Leah, a woman who’s so obsessed with cats, she became a vet solely for them, and has not one, not two, but four cats – two of which are semi-feral. I’ll leave you to your deductions ;) )

While Austin wasn’t my favorite of the trio – I won’t even repeat my obvious love for Tyler the geek and Rick the softie macho badass – I have to admit he was a pleasant surprise. I’ve seen the whole “she’s not my type and could be an enemy so I’ll just seduce and use her” theme for playboy characters like our dear blond clown, yet he made it all look quite refreshing and cute. The way he would try to keep his distance, but he just wouldn’t listen, and the way he was so scared out of his mind whenever a feline was in the near vicinity, it was simply too hilarious to resist! Though he did end up “adopting” one because he wanted to be Leah’s hero. Awww!!!

Speaking of Leah, yeah, well, not the best choice of woman, but hey, if Austin likes her, what the hell, I can accept her somewhat. You see, after being used to awesome heroines like Nikki and Zoe, Leah was not what you’d call a breather. We get it, you have trust issues, girl, and the guy lied to you and used you. Grab a pan and roast his nuts, I would be all for it and behind you 100%. But don’t be such a judgemental bitch. Youknow what kind of a bastard you half-brother is, you’ve experienced it for yourself. How could you possibly NOT believe this one thing Austin says about being framed by him? Hellooo, the guy is a drug lord, an abuser, a criminal, a killer. If someone tells you this guy framed three cops, even if that someone has lied to you repeatedly, you ought to believe it, because you may not know the liar well, but you do know your brother and you know he’s very much capable of it. But nooo, why act reasonably? Screw that and let’s start saying the cops must not be innocent, and it had nothing to do with DeLuna. Super smart! (where are you, Nikki and Zoe? come give us your light of justice, because, frankly, Leah needs it!)

Oh, oh, let’s not forget the fact she made him adopt a cat! Ok, to her defense, Austin said he liked cats, but, even if he did, picking up a cat and dumping it on him is NOT ok. Or acceptable. The woman started planning to do it right when she met him, the heck is up with that? And she was the worst kind of hypocrite – damn, I nearly forgot about it. She was trying to keep guys at distance when it was about Austin, but she goes out with that other vet, Eric, and suddenly she’s trying to convince herself to like him because they have so many things in common. Oh, yeah, really nice of you, cat lady…

Right about now, most of you might be wondering about the high rating since I can’t stop hating on Leah, correct? Well, I can tell you this much: Austin was hilarious and delightful (also, the man can cook, piss off!), the suspense and the action was so much worth reading Leah’s awful thoughts when Austin was risking his ass to save hers, and the secondary couple was perhaps the best out of all the trilogy’s couples! I mean it, Roberto and Sara were freaking cool! The sex scene made me melt, alright, but it was more than that. All that tension between them, Roberto’s guilt for falling for another woman because he felt he was cheating on his dead wife by being happy, how they tried to stay away from each other and couldn’t do it. And the phone conversations, oh, I love those! Funny and simply adorable. It was nice to see them together at the end, they were a fitting duo. And he read romance novels because she suggested it, how cool is that?!

Having reached the end of this trilogy, I have to say I will miss those guys. They were really great – though they sort of acted like a bunch of gossipy teenage girls at times. And yes, I was very much satisfied with the way things went on with the DeLuna case – so I am an evil, bitchy sadist, sue me. One thing’s for sure: Christie Craig is not an author whose books you want to miss!

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.*** show less

What happens when you realize you're about to marry a man you don't love—a man who doesn't love you? When accidentally flushing her $8,000 engagement ring down the toilet isn't enough of a sign for Katie Ray to call off the big day, fate gets busy. Will seeing her wedding planner murdered and getting herself locked in the dark with a sexy PI do the trick?
Hired by Houston's elite wedding planner to investigate some missing brides, the last thing bad-boy Carl Hades wants is to be shackled show more with another man's soon-to-be wife. Especially when the gorgeous redhead stirred emotions he'd avoided for years. Now, avoiding her sounds like a genius plan, especially when her future wedding goes the same the way as her engagement ring—down the toilet—making Katie available. . . and a hell of a lot more tempting. But when the missing brides come up dead, Carl suspects that Katie might be next, which makes avoiding her impossible and improbably, especially when being with her is a whole lot of fun. show less

Book Title: "Born at Midnight”
Author: C.C. Hunter
Published By: St. Martin’s Griffin
Age Recommended: 14+
Reviewed By: Kitty Bullard
Raven Rating: 5++++

Review: I am in love with C.C. Hunter. Her ability to write teenagers emotional turmoil so perfectly is nothing short of amazing. Her characters, even though supernatural, are real. In this first novel in her Shadow Falls series you meet Kylie Galen, a normal teenage girl with night terrors and a stalker that no one else seems to see but her. show more Not really so normal huh? Kylie spends her time with a therapist a few days a week trying to figure out why she has these night terrors and in the meantime her parents are divorcing, her boyfriend has broken up with her and her best friend is going through changes brought on predominantly by peer pressure. So now you see the normal part. Kylie is longing for one thing, a place where she belongs with friends that will understand her.
Her mother sends her to Shadow Falls at the behest of her therapist and the last thing Kylie wants to do is figure out that she’s not so normal after all. Has she finally found the place where she truly belongs or will she have to convince these strange people that she’s not a part of their world?
I loved this book from start to finish, it’s exciting, with real emotion and you feel as though you can identify with these teens rather than trying to sort through a barrage of emotion that are anything but what you’d expect from a true teen. C.C. Hunter is a great writer and I look forward to more of her work, can’t wait to get to book number two! show less

I'm not ashamed to admit that I am completely intrigued by this series. I just love reading from Kylie's point of view and I just love the setting. Also, one of the most important things to me is that I love the characters. (Not just the main ones either) I will enjoy reading just about anything if I like the characters (even if the story sucks.) Fortunately, the story here definitely does not suck. I think I'm just as anxious as Kylie is to finally find out exactly what she is and what's show more really brewing in this new world of hers. I'm also really enjoying the side-stories of the ghosts that Kylie has to deal with. It really makes me laugh when she has to ignore the crazy (more often totally creepy) things the ghosts do while she's in the presence of others. I get more and more excited every time she finds another ability, and more and more sympathetic every time she discovers that she just doesn't fit perfectly anywhere.

As far as the romance triangle goes, I found myself kinda changing who I was rooting for. (this is HIGHLY unusual for me!) In book one, I was all about Lucas, whereas this time around, I just couldn't help but love Derek. There were some pretty awesome scenes between Kylie & Derek in Awake at Dawn. Also, I just kinda felt like the author changed Lucas' character a bit. Something felt slightly off if that makes any sense.

Anyway, there was some pretty awesome stuff in Shadow Falls, book 2; and I've definitely added C.C. Hunter to my must-read author's list. I can't wait to read Turned at Dusk! show less