Christina Dodd

What to say about this book? I feel like I'd give it more than 5 stars if I could which is not something that I feel very often. This is one of those books where you enjoy the entire journey rather than reading as fast as you can to get to the end and find out what is going on.

Most of the story is watching the police chief and the hero figure out what is going on with the heroine and watching the very damaged hero come back to life and decide to go on with it. I loved the hero. I loved how show more he was so far down that he hadn't even bathed in 3 months and how he was just existing until he worked up the courage to jump off a cliff. The author allowed him to really be in that spot and didn't just fix him as soon as he met the heroine.

The secondary characters were great without being caricatures. Loved the home repair guys. Even the town busybody was nuanced.

There were really three main characters. The second strongest character was Kateri the police chief. She has been in the other two books in the series as well. You watch her try to solve the mystery as well as deal with the other crimes in town while running for re-election to her position as police chief and dealing with her love life. She is a pretty strong character and I liked her better here than in the other two books. Not that I disliked her before, just that she's really developing as someone to care for.

The heroine wasn't as well developed. Perhaps the author felt that if we knew her better we would figure out what was going on too soon. I have to say that I knew what was going on practically from the first. The joy for me was watching the hero respond to her. So this is technically a romantic suspense but the romance part is almost not there. I think I would have bought into the romance a little better if we had seen her respond to the hero a few more times from her POV or something. Plus I really felt like she was helping him more than he was helping her. I was disappointed in his reaction to the rat poisoning incident. She had done so much for him mentally by this point that it rang kind of a wrong note to have him just wash his hands of her when he figured out she was doped up instead of trying to help some way even if he hadn't figured out yet that she was being gaslighted. This is the only part of the book which was less than stellar for me However the scenes where the two of them interacted were for the most part pretty riveting. I just wish they had had more page time together. They sure were two messed up people who found each other.

So read this book for the hero's journey. I have read almost all of CD's novels and while she is generally a wonderful author, I think she really hit it out of the ballpark with this one. show less

T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. Not the writing but the characters OH GOD the characters.

Charlotte is the improbably prim/proper/perfect governess-cum-heiress with a secret past (OF SCANDAL) who falls for the improbably-named Wynter, the young Englishman who moved to a desert country and returned with young children in tow. They and he need to be Civilized posthaste for some vague English ceremony involving Queen Victoria: hence, Lady Miss Governess Charlotte.

... and then it gets icky.

Wynter decides early show more on that Charlotte (for whom he holds no romantic feelings) will be his wife, and to hell with what she wants because women are a possession, like one's dog or horse, only rather lower down. I am not making this up. He sets about seducing the unwilling young governess by removing his shirt and talking about his scars and making her touch his "man nipples". I am not making this up.

And! After Wynter discovers her Tiny Scandal From Long Ago, he entraps her in the same way -- and in front of the vicar, too! Charlotte may be forced to marry him, but she refuses to bed him. On their wedding night, she locks the door. He blows upon the lock with a quick blast from his pistol as she screams, cuts off her dress as she protests, and seriously just rapes her I mean, wrestles naked with her and leaves her screaming again (orgasm this time).

"You're marrying a woman who won't have the right to demand anything from you, because you saved her. Never mind that your ruined her in the first place ..."

I am not making this up.
I sincerely hope Ms Dodd has a better imagination. I hope this isn't anyone's real story. I am too cynical to expect it, but I can hope. show less

Evelyn just got released from juvenile detention. She has a job in a small town in Alaska. She is so excited about this new start. She will be close to her mom and her sister. But, the job does not turn out the way she expects and she ends up accused of murder. Through a harrowing accident she escapes and becomes someone new in the wilds of Alaska. However, Evelyn must return after several years as a fugitive because she must save her mom from an old threat!

When this book began and the show more setting was Alaska…I was so excited. I love reading about Alaska. Little did I know this book would take me on a wild ride! Talk about wicked! This book is wickedly good! I was actually gasping for air at the end…well several times through this book but especially the end. This book NEVER STOPS! I loved everything about it. The setting, the intensity, the characters and the story itself is over the top!

I know this author has been on the scene for quite a while. Believe it or not…I have never read her books…I MUST remedy that soon.

Grab your copy today! You will not be sorry!

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review. show less

The story first takes place in the Himalayan Mountains, somewhere on the border between Tibet and Nepal, high on top of Mt. Anaya; a place that area natives believe is cursed. Twenty-eight year old Karen Sonnet is on the mountain to oversea the building of a "boutique hotel" for trekkers and climbers looking for the ultimate challenge. She is the on site supervisor representing her extremely wealthy--extremely difficult and demanding--father, Jackson Sonnet. He's the owner of a chain of show more resort hotels that specialized in extreme adventure vacations, and though Mt. Anaya had a reputation for being "un-climbable" Mr. Sonnet felt that was what made it a very attractive area to build.

After three months of working on the mountain Karen has encountered many frustrating problems during construction; some because she's a woman doing what's considered a man's job. And others because the workers are afraid--they say she seeks to build the hotel on the "Heart of Evil"--and they believe the mountain will destroy anyone who tries to conquer it because it hides the "Evil One's" treasure.

Karen's not happy with the situation, but she's a brave, tough, and disciplined workaholic that won't run from a challenge so easily, or worse, be chased away by local superstitions... even though she's starting to believe them herself. So by day Karen fears the mountain she works on, and now also, the nights that are plagued by the mysterious "midnight lover" who haunts her sleep...

Christina Dodd has the ability to create both strong female and male characters, and this story doesn't disappoint. It proceeds at a good pace and has entertaining dialogue. My one critique is the heroine's "uncaring" father's about-face and appearance at the end of the book was a little too convenient, but this didn't take away from my enjoyment. 4 stars. show less