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Alone In the Dark by Karen Rose (Cincinnati #2)

download Synopsis: Former Army Ranger Marcus O’Bannion and homicide cop Scarlett Bishop have met only briefly but when Scarlett receives a phone call in the middle of the night, she immediately recognises the hauntingly smooth voice asking her to meet him in one of Cincinnati’s roughest areas.

On arriving, Scarlett finds the body of a seventeen-year-old Asian girl and Marcus injured. A fierce champion of victims’ rights, Marcus claims the young woman was working for an affluent local family and the last time he saw her she was terrified, abused, and clearly in need of help. Having agreed to meet her, both Marcus and the young woman were targeted for death.

As they investigate, Scarlett and Marcus are pulled into the dangerous world of human trafficking where they soon realise they are going to have to become as ruthless as those they are hunting.

Because if they don’t, how many other girls may end up alone in the dark?

My Rating: 5/5

My Review: I am so glad that I promised myself I would get back into Karen Rose books and I decided to go with the Cincinnati series as I LOVED Deacon Novak in book 1. I now realise by the end of this book that this series features the same characters but each book seems to spotlight one person. Book one was Deacon Novak and book2 (this one) features his partner Scarlett Bishop along with Marcus O’Bannion the owner of a newspaper. The opening of this book is pretty full on as Marcus plans to meet and potentially help a young girl. That young girl ends up dead and Marcus shot.

With the great opening the story just grew in strength as time went on. KR books are always reasonably long and well plotted and this was no exception. There is a lot of information about other characters and their part in the series and this individual story. The story itself is very well paced and you are never short on action. I fell in love with Marcus Brother Stone and his colleague Diesel too.

At over 700 pages this is a hefty but worthwhile read. I got to the end and loved it so much I went straight onto book 3 which picks up a week after this one ends. Another cracking read and one I would recommend

The Bookshop on The Shore by Jenny Colgan

Synopsis: Zoe is a single mother, sinking beneath the waves trying to cope by herself in London. Hari, her gorgeous little boy is perfect in every way – except for the fact that he just doesn’t speak, at all. When her landlord raises the rent on her flat, Zoe doesn’t know where to turn.

Then Hari’s aunt suggests Zoe could move to Scotland to help run a bookshop. Going from the lonely city to a small village in the Highlands could be the change Zoe and Hari desperately need.

Faced with an unwelcoming boss, a moody, distant bookseller named Ramsay Urquart, and a band of unruly children, Zoe wonders if she’s made the right decision. But Hari has found his very first real friend, and no one could resist the beauty of the loch glinting in the summer sun. If only Ramsay would just be a little more approachable…

My Rating: 3/5

My Review: I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand by the time I had finished it I realised I had enjoyed it, however on the downside it took me two attempts to get into the book. Normally with a JC book it just flows, but for some reason I struggled to gel with the main character Zoe and her son Hari. This had a somewhat lacklustre feel to it, which is not at all how I normally feel about her books but there was something missing for me in this latest book. Zoe and Hari start afresh up in Scotland, and Zoe splits her time between running a mobile bookshop for Nina and looking after Ramsay Urquarts children. The story just seems to trundle along with no real eye catching characters which is again slightly unusual with this author. I persevered and by the end it was a reasonably enjoyable book but in truth nowhere near as good as her other books.