Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.38 AVERAGE
3.38 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It was terrible. Pick something else. (Longer, less emotional review to come)
I absolutely picked this up because I found randomly on twitter that Stacy Abrams writes romance novels. But the "romance" is absolutely a side aspect of this legal thriller. (It's almost like saying Jack Reacher books are romances because he always meets a woman while solving a crime).
I enjoyed the legal philosophical musings and the super super detailed evidence objections because I'm a nerd and they showed me more about Stacy Abrams. I'm impressed by her ability/creativity to write these on the side. But without knowing the alter ego, it's not super compelling.
I enjoyed the legal philosophical musings and the super super detailed evidence objections because I'm a nerd and they showed me more about Stacy Abrams. I'm impressed by her ability/creativity to write these on the side. But without knowing the alter ego, it's not super compelling.
Disappointed this ends on a cliffhanger.
What good is suspense and mystery if it's never resolved?
What good is suspense and mystery if it's never resolved?
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bestie gifted this to me for Christmas, and it was so fun! Knowing that Stacey Abrams is the author did add marginally to the fun, but this novel stands on its own merits. Not a five star romance for me, because I like things spicier (well - this is spicy, just not particularly explicitly spicy), and it has a copaganda element I was a little surprised by and is not totally my jam. Still, an excellent romantic suspense novel, and good enough I'll be buying the sequel.
I was inspired by Stacey Abrams’s run for governor of Georgia, and when I heard she had a side gig as a romance novelist under the pseudonym Selena Montgomery, I knew I had to check that out. Reckless is about Kell, an Atlanta defense attorney who grew up in a small-town orphanage run by mother figure and mentor Eliza. Kell has been called back home to represent Eliza, who is afraid she’s going to be arrested for the murder of a former resident of her program. Kell is torn—she wants to help her old friend, but she’s stayed away from her hometown for years for a reason and she doesn’t want that reason dredged up from the past. It’s getting harder for Kell to stay away, though, because the police are turning up the heat on the investigation of Eliza—oh, and because a smokin’ hot sheriff wants to be her boyfriend and she’s running out of reasons to tell him no. Romantic suspense was the perfect way to round out my mystery/thriller binge because while the stakes are high and there’s plenty of danger, the guaranteed happy ending kept me from white-knuckling too badly. Be aware if you pick this one up that it’s the first in a planned trilogy—only the first two books have been released and the wait for book three is looking quite long at the moment, as Ms. Abrams is concentrating on her political career. A loss for us readers who are waiting to have those loose ends tied up, but a win for U.S. politics!
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
fast-paced
Published in 2008, Reckless was written by Selena Montgomery which is the pen name of the former Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, Stacey Abrams. I read it in its electronic format rather than the hardcopy book.
Reckless is a romantic suspense story focusing on one of three young women who spent her formative years in a rural Georgia orphanage run by a kind-hearted woman after her parents abandoned her. As the story opens, she and two girlfriends who also lived at the orphanage are running in the woods from a warehouse fire. They’re carrying $300,000. Two of the girls are 18 and ready to leave the orphanage to begin their lives. The third young woman is 16. We don’t know exactly what happened or why they have this money, and don’t learn very much in this book. Instead, we jump ahead over 10 years to one of the girls — now grown and a famous defense attorney in Atlanta — getting a call from the woman who still runs the orphanage, asking her to come back to help her as she’s afraid she might be arrested for murder.
Despite the past she ran from and not wanting to return to Georgia, Kell Jameson feels she owes Eliza Farraday her help and loyalty. She decides to return for a short visit to hear Eliza’s story and see if she can find out what actually happened. As she gets close to her old hometown, Kell is stopped by the local sheriff, Luke Calder, accusing her of speeding and running red lights in her fancy Porsche. In the process of this prickly interaction, there’s underlying attraction and some flirtation. Later, after Kell meets with Eliza and realizes the situation is more precarious than she expected, Kell decides to stay longer in town to investigate who murdered a former resident of the orphanage who had since become involved in criminal activity and was threatening the orphanage. The difficulty was that Luke Calder was also investigating the murder, as well as the discovery of two bodies in the basement of a warehouse from a long ago fire, which puts him in direct conflict with Kell. In addition a local police chief, who wants Calder’s job, also is doing an investigation that may be corrupted by outside criminal influences who have an interest in seeing the blame put on Eliza. The story proceeds with Kell and Luke tentatively and cautiously joining forces, but distrustful with each other in spite of their attraction, while the police chief and a secret group who may be a part of this criminal enterprise do all they can to see that the truth doesn’t come to light.
As a crime procedural, this story is pretty good as the author clearly knows the law, crime investigation, and court procedures. I was engaged in knowing who might have committed the murder and who were these nefarious group of alleged criminals manipulating things behind the scenes. However, the romance aspect of the story was less engaging. Nothing terribly compelling or special, but not bad either. It doesn’t diminish the suspense portion, but Kell and Luke’s romance is not entirely necessary.
I realized pretty early that this story is the first in a trilogy — each book focusing on one of the young women who had, years earlier, run from a burning warehouse with hundreds of thousands of dollars in hand. Therefore, I didn’t expect to have that mystery solved in this book.
Well written but ultimately not satisfying. I’d give *this* story a C-/D. Perhaps the whole trilogy would have rated much higher, as I suspect we would then have all the answers. But, I don’t think we’re ever going to get that conclusion since the author is understandably otherwise occupied with her political career.
Reckless is a romantic suspense story focusing on one of three young women who spent her formative years in a rural Georgia orphanage run by a kind-hearted woman after her parents abandoned her. As the story opens, she and two girlfriends who also lived at the orphanage are running in the woods from a warehouse fire. They’re carrying $300,000. Two of the girls are 18 and ready to leave the orphanage to begin their lives. The third young woman is 16. We don’t know exactly what happened or why they have this money, and don’t learn very much in this book. Instead, we jump ahead over 10 years to one of the girls — now grown and a famous defense attorney in Atlanta — getting a call from the woman who still runs the orphanage, asking her to come back to help her as she’s afraid she might be arrested for murder.
Despite the past she ran from and not wanting to return to Georgia, Kell Jameson feels she owes Eliza Farraday her help and loyalty. She decides to return for a short visit to hear Eliza’s story and see if she can find out what actually happened. As she gets close to her old hometown, Kell is stopped by the local sheriff, Luke Calder, accusing her of speeding and running red lights in her fancy Porsche. In the process of this prickly interaction, there’s underlying attraction and some flirtation. Later, after Kell meets with Eliza and realizes the situation is more precarious than she expected, Kell decides to stay longer in town to investigate who murdered a former resident of the orphanage who had since become involved in criminal activity and was threatening the orphanage. The difficulty was that Luke Calder was also investigating the murder, as well as the discovery of two bodies in the basement of a warehouse from a long ago fire, which puts him in direct conflict with Kell. In addition a local police chief, who wants Calder’s job, also is doing an investigation that may be corrupted by outside criminal influences who have an interest in seeing the blame put on Eliza. The story proceeds with Kell and Luke tentatively and cautiously joining forces, but distrustful with each other in spite of their attraction, while the police chief and a secret group who may be a part of this criminal enterprise do all they can to see that the truth doesn’t come to light.
As a crime procedural, this story is pretty good as the author clearly knows the law, crime investigation, and court procedures. I was engaged in knowing who might have committed the murder and who were these nefarious group of alleged criminals manipulating things behind the scenes. However, the romance aspect of the story was less engaging. Nothing terribly compelling or special, but not bad either. It doesn’t diminish the suspense portion, but Kell and Luke’s romance is not entirely necessary.
I realized pretty early that this story is the first in a trilogy — each book focusing on one of the young women who had, years earlier, run from a burning warehouse with hundreds of thousands of dollars in hand. Therefore, I didn’t expect to have that mystery solved in this book.
Spoiler
But, I did expect some crime to be solved! Notably, the murder of the guy who had once lived at the orphanage. However, it wasn’t! All we learned was that Eliza wasn’t the murderer, and our heroine and hero were finally confronted with direct warnings and interactions with the secret group behind the criminal enterprise related to the murder and the warehouse fire. For that reason I was ultimately dissatisfied with the conclusion of this story, finding it a complete let down. When you introduce a murder at the beginning of a novel, you should solve that murder by the end. The author didn’t have to totally spoil the larger criminal arc, but by giving the reader no answers regarding the suspense side of the storyline, she failed to successfully complete her story, in my opinion.Well written but ultimately not satisfying. I’d give *this* story a C-/D. Perhaps the whole trilogy would have rated much higher, as I suspect we would then have all the answers. But, I don’t think we’re ever going to get that conclusion since the author is understandably otherwise occupied with her political career.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes