Posted in Uncategorized on June 16, 2009

Author – Charlotte Hughes


You might recognize the name Charlotte Hughes as a co-author with Janet Evanovich of the Full House series. What you may not know is that Charlotte has authored several of her own books including several for Loveswept and Silhouette, along with a new series featuring Dr. Kate Holly.


‘Nutcase’ is the follow up book to ‘What Looks Like Crazy,’ which features psychologist Kate Holly, her friend and receptionist Mona, ex-husband Jay and her hot tub loving ex-boyfriend Dr. Thad Glazer. Throw in her mother and her twin sister that run a “junque” shop and create “art” from that junk, a dog named Mike and a cast of interesting patients and you have a recipe for disaster, but in a good way!


In this installment, Kate is being evicted from her office, which throws her for a loop as she is not able to find another office that has a reasonable rent rate or is close to her existing office. Thad offers to let her share his office and she agrees to take him up on it. After all she has no other choice and only has 3 more days to find a new office.


On top of that, she has a depressed dog and a kind older lady offers some of her homemade dog treats and playtime with her dog. It sounds like a good idea until she finds out what the special ingredient is in the treats. And even more, she has to worry about her ex-husband Jay since an arsonist is targeting firefighters in the Atlanta area and while he may be her ex, she still loves him and is worried about his well being.


If you have read any of Charlotte’s other books, you are sure to like this one too. It is filled with crazy people (and not just her patients), a little intrigue, lots of warm and fuzzy moments and some conflict, after all what is a book without some conflict?


I really enjoyed this book. I had to read the first one before this one because I have to read a series in order, but this book could easily be enjoyed without having read ‘What Looks Like Crazy’ first. While this may be categorized as a romance, I found it to be quite humorous and hard to put down.


If you are looking for a book that will make you laugh out loud, this is one to consider!


Reviewed for RebeccasReads.com 4/09

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Posted in Uncategorized on June 16, 2009

Author – Lisa Black

“Takeover” is the first in a new thriller series by author Lisa Black. Lisa is a forensic scientist so the topic of this book is very familiar to her. She previously worked in Cleveland where the story is set but now resides in Florida. The second in this series, “Evidence of Murder” will be published in August 2009.

Theresa MacLean is a forensic scientist living in Cleveland with her daughter, Rachel, and is engaged to a Paul Cleary, a local policeman. She is called investigate the murder of Mark Ludlow who was found dead in front of his own home. It is a curious murder because it doesn’t seem logical how he was murdered or even why.

Later that morning she finds out that her fiancé is being held hostage in the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland in what appears to be a bank robbery, but at the Federal Reserve? Enter Chris Cavanaugh, the local negotiator that has a seemingly clean track record and hasn’t lost a hostage yet. Chris doesn’t want Theresa involved or around the scene, but her fiancé is in that bank and she can’t just stand around and do nothing. So will she help matters or make them worse? And what will happen to her fiancé, Paul? Will he make it out of the situation?

I really enjoyed this book for many reasons. The first being the time frame of the book. The story takes place over eight hours and it is a very intense eight hours. The second is the shorter chapters; it made it easier to find a stopping place even though I didn’t want to put the book down!

There were times where I wanted to shake the main character, Theresa, and ask her if she was crazy?! Only someone not in their right mind would change places and become a hostage in an already volatile situation.

As I was reading the book I could help wondering why someone would try and rob a Federal Reserve Bank when they really don’t have cash on hand like a normal bank. Was there another motive of the robbers? Was there an inside man helping them? What was their plan to get out of there alive, or did they even have one? I did become suspicious of a character or two and wondered what it was that I did not know yet about this person. And I liked that I was on target with one of the characters, although it was a slightly different twist than I expected.

Reviewed for RebeccasReads.com 10/08

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