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sinadria's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
4.5
hsegdash's review against another edition
3.0
Great history on The Alamo and San Antonio. Plot is predictable.
cmorris109's review
challenging
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? Yes
5.0
hldonavant's review against another edition
1.0
mindless. sadly her books seem to go by a recipe card....i liked it but i knew exactly how it was going to go....
rowdyroo762's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it!! Lots of twists and turns and a new Krewe team. How fun. Sometimes Heather Graham has one villain, sometimes more; read it and find out. Very clever and well written. She is one of my favorite authors. I have read almost all of her books when they come out, except this series. Reading while safe distancing from home during Covid 19.
jazzrizz's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book. Jackson Crow has been charged with setting up a 2nd Krewe of Hunters . . . with their first case revolves around the Alamo and the Longhorn Saloon.
I really like the awkward start of this new group getting to know each other and deciding on whether or not they'd actually be a group. I'm really intrigued by Sean's character.
Logan and Kelsey seemed to fit a little too well right off the bat though. I think they're a good couple, but their relationship felt a little rushed to me. A bit "cookie cutter" like Jackson and Angela.
I've already queued up the next ebook from the library.
I really like the awkward start of this new group getting to know each other and deciding on whether or not they'd actually be a group. I'm really intrigued by Sean's character.
Logan and Kelsey seemed to fit a little too well right off the bat though. I think they're a good couple, but their relationship felt a little rushed to me. A bit "cookie cutter" like Jackson and Angela.
I've already queued up the next ebook from the library.
laden_bookshelf's review against another edition
3.0
I got this from the library and it was a okay procedural with the added supernatural ghost twist. The herrings were a bit too red, but otherwise a solid read.
jscarpa14's review against another edition
3.0
RECEIVED FROM: Net Galley For Review
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Kelsey O’Brien is a Florida US Marshall who’s been summoned to Texas to learn about a job over with the FBI, she’s got no interest in switching law enforcement branches, but she isn’t given a choice about going to at least consider the job. Logan Raintree is a Texas Ranger sent to San Antonio for the same reason. Jackson Crow is trying to assemble a second Krewe of Hunters, his first is spread too thin and there’s a serial killer in Texas killing women and it seems to revolve around the Alamo. Crow believes it’s going to take people with extra gifts to solve this case and Kelsey and Logan both have them. Neither are interest in transferring but neither can walk away from the dead woman in need of justice and the missing ones that might be saved. But will their gifts help the find the killer or make them another target for the killer themselves? Can the discover why these women are being murdered before another one dies?
I’m usually a big fan of Heather Graham, she’s one of my favorite writers to read and I’ve been reading her work for years. However this particular story didn’t grab me the way Graham’s work usually does. A lot of what bothered me is that the set up and follow through of the story didn’t fit with my sense of logic. Some of it was that while the officers need to make the connections they did to solve the crime, they weren’t logical assumptions. For one bodies naturally decompose when left to rot. With all of the woman murdered in different ways, just because they were all found decomposing doesn’t seem like it would be enough to connect a serial killer into the mix. As the book progresses it does become clear that the murders are related, but in the beginning the idea that they’re investigating a serial killing at all doesn’t really make sense to me. Then how the second Krewe of Hunters team is compiled wasn’t actually logical either. Both Logan and Kelsey sound like they’ve been really discrete about their gifts and while people close to them might have noticed something different about them, it doesn’t explain how Jackson Crow, having never met them before would have known exactly what their abilities were. I could see if he worked with them, him figuring it out because of working in close quarters to them, but I can’t see him knowing these things without ever having met them. While I’m paranoid enough to think that the government knows a little about every citizen, I’m not paranoid enough to think that they FBI knows everyone’s deepest darkest secrets. If that were the case criminals would never go free and heck they’d never even get to commit the crime because since the government knew all their secrets they’d be monitoring to make sure the potential criminal didn’t do anything wrong. Plus there are the other team members, where it’s not really clear if their normal or gifted, there are allusions that they might be, but then again it never comes out and clearly answers that question. And here’s another thing that bothers my logic quotient about the team, Kelsey is a US Marshall and Logan is a Texas Ranger. While there’s lots of build up to being a Texas Ranger, it’s kind got the same romanticism as being a cowboy, if they were building a federal team wouldn’t it make sense to chose an agent whose already worked on a Federal level to lead it? Logan may make a semi decent alpha male, but Kelsey’s previous position makes her the more logical choice for team leader. Sure they’ll both be making the move to FBI, but it just seems someone whose only worked at a state level would rank lower than someone whose already in a federal law enforcement position. Back to investigation, when Logan and Kelsey first make the connection to the Galveston Diamond, it doesn’t make sense. Yes, it turns out to be true. But the only thing that gives them the idea is that Kelsey keeps seeing the residual haunting of Rose’s murder that happened a hundred years ago. It’s not logical to think that would be related to the current murders, whether it turned out to be right or not, the thought pattern didn’t make sense to me. The same for when they discovered the women all claimed to be psychic, or when they guessed It then the proof just sort of fell into place for them. It just seemed too contrived for me, the law enforcement officers would say what if and the proof of that landed in their laps. I may not have ever worked in law enforcement but I’m pretty sure life just doesn’t work like that. While the book does include sex, the scenes weren’t really graphic and didn’t really dominate the story in any way which is one of the reasons I’ve always respected Graham as a writer. She writes romance and has erotic scenes in her story yes, but her stories are never just about two people falling into bed together. Graham tells a good story and the physical stuff between the characters is just sort of I guess extra, a way to enhance the romantic storyline between the characters, but the romantic storyline is always the secondary plot in her novels. But with this story neither the primary or secondary plot lines grabbed me. One of the hooks of reading romance is that usually the male and female leads initially clash, there’s a battle of wills and enough fire between them to stir an argument or a string of them. Then the alpha male starts getting all protective over the vixen who’s driving him nuts, their passionate arguments then lead to a physical connection and slowly they realize its more than that, they actually care about each other. Yes Graham has the protective nature in Logan, and the story has physical interaction leading into deeper feelings. However, these characters don’t ever really argue. I mean there’s one little spat when Logan forces Kelsey to use her abilities when she’s not ready to, but Kelsey quickly forgives him and within a few pages it’s over and done with. With Kelsey and Logan’s love story there’s never any fire really. They don’t seem to be strong enough characters to get under each other’s skin. Without the fire between the characters it’s hard to become involved in their love story. The story was told in a close third person and it was interesting the way the past was weaved into the present and the paranormal twist of ghosts being witnesses, but nothing about it really grabbed me and pulled me in. The story is semi-fast paced, but again since I wasn’t hooked it seemed to drag at points for me. When you’re not hooked on a story no matter what the pacing is it’s not going to seem exciting and fast paced. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, but just not one I connected with. Graham’s a talented writer, so its highly likely that the story line will connect with many readers and engross them in a way it just didn’t with me.
The main characters, Logan and Kelsey were fairly well developed but I found them hard to relate to. Some of their behaviors just seemed off to me. For example Kelsey is a US Marshall which gives the impression that this is a strong heroine. She’s not going to take orders or disrespect from anyone. But when Logan goes into protective mode even though she’s supposed to be his colleague, she either goes along with what he wants meekly or she laughs it off. She doesn’t get offended or show back bone when she’s paired up with him. There’s the idea of her gifts having made her childhood a little hard until she started lying about them to protect herself, but yet she’s quick to use them after her initial meeting with Jackson and Logan. At first she hedges a little over lunch, but then she’s gung ho psychic chick. The circumstances of her life, her abilities, her childhood and her job just make me picture or expect very different behaviors from the ones she exhibits. Beyond that I just found nothing I could really relate to in this character. It’s hard to related to a woman who looks like a runway model that whose behavior doesn’t really match with her life choices. The fact that no physical flaws seemed to be given to this character either didn’t make her any easier to connect with either. Even she doesn’t seem to notice any physical flaws about herself, no she’s not conceited, but everyone has something physical about them that bugs them, that they think others notice about them. She worries that everyone will think she’s too pretty to take seriously. Plus she’s like 5’ 10” and everyone treats her like a delicate little flower. The woman is half a foot taller than me, she’s gorgeous and self assured, it seems to me that most men are going to be intimidated by her rather than all let’s make sure she doesn’t break a nail. And then there’s the irritating trait the she seems to think every woman has a crush on Logan, not in a jealous way, but just in an ‘oh look she likes Logan way’. Logan again has no physical flaws, he has emotional issues but they don’t really seem to affect him. Both of the leading characters just come across as flat on the page. The secondary characters seems poorly developed, including the villains themselves. Yeah you have vague idea about each character, but they’re more stereotypical than someone easy to relate to that feels real.
Overall if you’re a fan of Graham’s work you might like the book, but personally it wasn’t one of my favorites. It wasn’t poorly written, but the plot didn’t engross my attention and the characters came across as flat for me. It has a slight connection to Graham’s Krewe of Hunters series, but it’s not listed as part of that series even though there are cross over characters. I guess the decision about whether the book is a good read for you remains up to you as a reader, personally I didn’t connect with the story.
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***
Kelsey O’Brien is a Florida US Marshall who’s been summoned to Texas to learn about a job over with the FBI, she’s got no interest in switching law enforcement branches, but she isn’t given a choice about going to at least consider the job. Logan Raintree is a Texas Ranger sent to San Antonio for the same reason. Jackson Crow is trying to assemble a second Krewe of Hunters, his first is spread too thin and there’s a serial killer in Texas killing women and it seems to revolve around the Alamo. Crow believes it’s going to take people with extra gifts to solve this case and Kelsey and Logan both have them. Neither are interest in transferring but neither can walk away from the dead woman in need of justice and the missing ones that might be saved. But will their gifts help the find the killer or make them another target for the killer themselves? Can the discover why these women are being murdered before another one dies?
I’m usually a big fan of Heather Graham, she’s one of my favorite writers to read and I’ve been reading her work for years. However this particular story didn’t grab me the way Graham’s work usually does. A lot of what bothered me is that the set up and follow through of the story didn’t fit with my sense of logic. Some of it was that while the officers need to make the connections they did to solve the crime, they weren’t logical assumptions. For one bodies naturally decompose when left to rot. With all of the woman murdered in different ways, just because they were all found decomposing doesn’t seem like it would be enough to connect a serial killer into the mix. As the book progresses it does become clear that the murders are related, but in the beginning the idea that they’re investigating a serial killing at all doesn’t really make sense to me. Then how the second Krewe of Hunters team is compiled wasn’t actually logical either. Both Logan and Kelsey sound like they’ve been really discrete about their gifts and while people close to them might have noticed something different about them, it doesn’t explain how Jackson Crow, having never met them before would have known exactly what their abilities were. I could see if he worked with them, him figuring it out because of working in close quarters to them, but I can’t see him knowing these things without ever having met them. While I’m paranoid enough to think that the government knows a little about every citizen, I’m not paranoid enough to think that they FBI knows everyone’s deepest darkest secrets. If that were the case criminals would never go free and heck they’d never even get to commit the crime because since the government knew all their secrets they’d be monitoring to make sure the potential criminal didn’t do anything wrong. Plus there are the other team members, where it’s not really clear if their normal or gifted, there are allusions that they might be, but then again it never comes out and clearly answers that question. And here’s another thing that bothers my logic quotient about the team, Kelsey is a US Marshall and Logan is a Texas Ranger. While there’s lots of build up to being a Texas Ranger, it’s kind got the same romanticism as being a cowboy, if they were building a federal team wouldn’t it make sense to chose an agent whose already worked on a Federal level to lead it? Logan may make a semi decent alpha male, but Kelsey’s previous position makes her the more logical choice for team leader. Sure they’ll both be making the move to FBI, but it just seems someone whose only worked at a state level would rank lower than someone whose already in a federal law enforcement position. Back to investigation, when Logan and Kelsey first make the connection to the Galveston Diamond, it doesn’t make sense. Yes, it turns out to be true. But the only thing that gives them the idea is that Kelsey keeps seeing the residual haunting of Rose’s murder that happened a hundred years ago. It’s not logical to think that would be related to the current murders, whether it turned out to be right or not, the thought pattern didn’t make sense to me. The same for when they discovered the women all claimed to be psychic, or when they guessed It then the proof just sort of fell into place for them. It just seemed too contrived for me, the law enforcement officers would say what if and the proof of that landed in their laps. I may not have ever worked in law enforcement but I’m pretty sure life just doesn’t work like that. While the book does include sex, the scenes weren’t really graphic and didn’t really dominate the story in any way which is one of the reasons I’ve always respected Graham as a writer. She writes romance and has erotic scenes in her story yes, but her stories are never just about two people falling into bed together. Graham tells a good story and the physical stuff between the characters is just sort of I guess extra, a way to enhance the romantic storyline between the characters, but the romantic storyline is always the secondary plot in her novels. But with this story neither the primary or secondary plot lines grabbed me. One of the hooks of reading romance is that usually the male and female leads initially clash, there’s a battle of wills and enough fire between them to stir an argument or a string of them. Then the alpha male starts getting all protective over the vixen who’s driving him nuts, their passionate arguments then lead to a physical connection and slowly they realize its more than that, they actually care about each other. Yes Graham has the protective nature in Logan, and the story has physical interaction leading into deeper feelings. However, these characters don’t ever really argue. I mean there’s one little spat when Logan forces Kelsey to use her abilities when she’s not ready to, but Kelsey quickly forgives him and within a few pages it’s over and done with. With Kelsey and Logan’s love story there’s never any fire really. They don’t seem to be strong enough characters to get under each other’s skin. Without the fire between the characters it’s hard to become involved in their love story. The story was told in a close third person and it was interesting the way the past was weaved into the present and the paranormal twist of ghosts being witnesses, but nothing about it really grabbed me and pulled me in. The story is semi-fast paced, but again since I wasn’t hooked it seemed to drag at points for me. When you’re not hooked on a story no matter what the pacing is it’s not going to seem exciting and fast paced. I’m not saying it’s a bad book, but just not one I connected with. Graham’s a talented writer, so its highly likely that the story line will connect with many readers and engross them in a way it just didn’t with me.
The main characters, Logan and Kelsey were fairly well developed but I found them hard to relate to. Some of their behaviors just seemed off to me. For example Kelsey is a US Marshall which gives the impression that this is a strong heroine. She’s not going to take orders or disrespect from anyone. But when Logan goes into protective mode even though she’s supposed to be his colleague, she either goes along with what he wants meekly or she laughs it off. She doesn’t get offended or show back bone when she’s paired up with him. There’s the idea of her gifts having made her childhood a little hard until she started lying about them to protect herself, but yet she’s quick to use them after her initial meeting with Jackson and Logan. At first she hedges a little over lunch, but then she’s gung ho psychic chick. The circumstances of her life, her abilities, her childhood and her job just make me picture or expect very different behaviors from the ones she exhibits. Beyond that I just found nothing I could really relate to in this character. It’s hard to related to a woman who looks like a runway model that whose behavior doesn’t really match with her life choices. The fact that no physical flaws seemed to be given to this character either didn’t make her any easier to connect with either. Even she doesn’t seem to notice any physical flaws about herself, no she’s not conceited, but everyone has something physical about them that bugs them, that they think others notice about them. She worries that everyone will think she’s too pretty to take seriously. Plus she’s like 5’ 10” and everyone treats her like a delicate little flower. The woman is half a foot taller than me, she’s gorgeous and self assured, it seems to me that most men are going to be intimidated by her rather than all let’s make sure she doesn’t break a nail. And then there’s the irritating trait the she seems to think every woman has a crush on Logan, not in a jealous way, but just in an ‘oh look she likes Logan way’. Logan again has no physical flaws, he has emotional issues but they don’t really seem to affect him. Both of the leading characters just come across as flat on the page. The secondary characters seems poorly developed, including the villains themselves. Yeah you have vague idea about each character, but they’re more stereotypical than someone easy to relate to that feels real.
Overall if you’re a fan of Graham’s work you might like the book, but personally it wasn’t one of my favorites. It wasn’t poorly written, but the plot didn’t engross my attention and the characters came across as flat for me. It has a slight connection to Graham’s Krewe of Hunters series, but it’s not listed as part of that series even though there are cross over characters. I guess the decision about whether the book is a good read for you remains up to you as a reader, personally I didn’t connect with the story.
lachmi's review against another edition
3.0
It was harder to get into this book than the other series. I'll still give the other books a chance but this one was a little disappointing.