Review: Bad....Just. Really. Bad.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 21, 2014
The price was good for this so I thought I hadn't much to lose except my time.The first book:  Breaking Free.  **** Stars.  I had unknowingly already read this as part of another boxed set.  This book was pretty good, Hawk and Zoe were pretty well developed characters and the romance and suspense of the storyline held a good balance.  These were characters I cared about.  I would read more from this author, Teresa Reasor.Undercover Secrets: * Star.  This was one of the worst stories I have read.  Brad Malone is an undercover cop who is trying to find a killer in the homeless community by posing as a homeless person himself.  Allison Prescott is a new local TV news reporter, divorced, raising a 12 year old daughter Megan, mostly by herself.  She is struggling to make ends meet and is convinced she needs that big story so she won't lose her job and can better pay her bills and hire an attorney to defend herself from her ex-husband who has a new wife and who wants to take custody of Megan.  She latches on to the mysterious homeless murders as that potential big break.Brad:  I liked Brad actually, he was the one somewhat redeeming character, although I his perception of Allison as a "princess" seemed unfounded and used to force more of a conflict between the two.  Allison is just plain strange in my mind.  And some of the references seemed dated like "going to cash a check" (who does that anymore?), looking in a phone book, and having a manual garage door.  The other problem which was probably the most annoying for me was Megan.  I have an 11 year old and absolutely NOTHING about this child rang true.  Nothing.  She kept calling Bill, (Brad's undercover name) Brill, even after her mom and Bill clarified his name was Bill, and was convinced he was really a rock star, compared him to Bono and Sting.  So maybe if you had a 12 year old in the 1980's?  No way is a 12 yr old talking about Bono and Sting today or even in the last decade.  And everything else about Megan just did not ring true, her mannerisms and dialogue were nothing a current 12 year old would say or do.  Allison's EX - Dr. Doug, this character was written as a charicature of a mid life crisis, over the top douchebag and you can't even begin to wonder what Allison saw in him.  The only reason I kept plodding through this story was to find out if the killer is revealed (who I pretty much guessed about half way into the story but was not certain).  This book aggravated so much I think I sprained my eyeballs I rolled my eyes so many times.Wildfire: DNF.  Could not get past the first 20 pages or so, and usually I can power through.The Knowing: ** Stars.  This one started off well enough, Nia De'brie has visions of a man killing young women and for the past 3 years during the last snowstorms of spring he has murdered.  So Nia thinks going to Hawaii, getting as far away from snow is going to magically do something, I don't know, make the murders not happen, or make her not have the visions?  This did not make sense to me.  She meets a handsome criminal defense attorney on the flight to Hawaii and together they embark on trying to unravel what's going on, as Nia has another vision of a girl murdered in Hawaii.  I found myself skimming a lot through this story, not as bad as Undercover Secrets but still below average.Island Getaway: *** Stars.  Annika Holst is on her way to bury her father's cremains in his homeland medieval Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.  Nick Costa is an FBI agent is following Annika as it seems her father may have been a murderer and art thief.  Annika is shy and unassuming and can't figure out why Nick would want to spend time with her.  Nick is surprised by his attraction to her, as she is not the overtly beautiful women he usually dates.  Nick is out to prove that Annika wasn't involved in her father's shady dealings and is indeed, just headed to bury his ashes.  Sinister forces are at work and Nick becomes Annika's protector, while Annika doesn't know who to trust or where to turn.  They develop a nice steamy relationship and all in all this was really just okay for me.  I may give this author another try.Angel Unborn:  DNF.  Read through the first pages about a giant "iguana type creature" in the parking lot of a hospital.  Nope.  Just Nope.Between a Rock and a Mad Woman:  DNF.  I could not power through after the first few chapters.  The main characters were not interesting or believable.  I don't know if I was just fed up at that point or what but this was the worst collection of stories I've ever read and cannot help but wonder where the 5 star reviews came from.  I usually expect to get a couple of hits and a couple of misses with a boxed set but this was just awful and I really would not recommend any of them except Breaking Free, the first story.