Review: Mystery with a touch of Romance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 29, 2013
The first book in the series was free.  It was well written and interesting enough I decided to purchase the second.  After that I skipped to this bookVengeance to the Max ( Max Starr Series, Book 5, a paranormal romance mystery).SPOILERS:If you like mysteries and well written intertwined plots, this series is for you.  It involves a strong woman lead detective but emotionally she's handicapped.  If your expecting romance, this series has it but it is slow building with lots of road blocks.  The series takes place over a series of months and in that time it's more about Max admitting to her past, to her married life, to realize who she is, and who she can become.  It's more of a life awakening and how improving herself will solidify her relationship with her boyfriend detective, Witt Long.What put me off reading every book in the series was the way Max was possessed by various women and how their sexual nature was broadcast onto Max.  It'd get quite graphic and in that sense the smex scenes weren't due to romance, more of having power over others.  It was the wrong way to promote this series as a paranormal "romance" because that type of stuff is not romance.  In this series Max kept talking about how she couldn't trust what she was feeling sexually.  This caused all sorts of problems in her building relationship with Witt Long.  She couldn't separate her feelings and interest in Witt between the possession of her body by various women.In this book Cameron (the ghost) was trying to help her but in this book it comes with a twist. This "I can't remember" he kept saying wasn't always consistent.  His only being able to hover near Max wasn't always true.  He did influence Max's best friend to phone Max.  How could he do that if he couldn't 'travel'?  How did he guide Witt so many times and influence Witt when Witt wasn't anywhere near Max?  Cameron has his own agenda, he wants the guy that killed him taken care of, and he is ultimately using Max to do that.And this part about her husband always loving her yet he had affairs.  Plural.  Affairs.  That he was leaving her the night he was gunned down and he knew this, had to remind her of it, even confirmed it when she finally remembered yet all thru the series we get hints that he 'can't remember'.  I would say typical male posturing and loser but as a ghost he's somehow off the hook?  ??Those clothes Cameron packed, the ones he had packed in his trunk, the night he was leaving Max, on the night he was gunned down while buying smokes. . . Those clothes were tucked in a cardboard box under the bed.  They were 'yellow' after two years of storage.  Two years.  I can tell you that clothes folded up in a drawer for five years don't turn yellow.  Not even pressed white shirts.  Another problem I had with the author and how she wrote her details.So the overall feeling I got with this series is a deeply disturbed Max dealing with her life and how she solves crimes and overcoming her life.  By having her husband's ghost around, great example loser that he was, he pointed her in the right direction to her new life with Witt.  I wouldn't have started this series without a free starter book. . . And I wouldn't recommend it to a friend.  Many of the themes are harsh, it isn't for the under 18 crowd, I don't come away with Max having a happily ever after because she still has problems.  She's had losers in her life and now we expect her to have a good life.  All solved in a few months.  I'm not buying it.The last point -- I have no idea if she's still psychic after her husband's ghost left.  Another question and yet the series is done.  -- Dan's wife