Scan barcode
noir_frost's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
1.0
Idk what was happening half the time, POVs are grey at best unless the two aren't in the same scene together. There was a lot of potential, summary wise, but man - honestly I wish I could take back my time and read another one.
I hate giving 1 stars but I literally can't think of anything that can up it more. The 1 is for effort because writing ain't easy.
Will I read another of her books? Probably. Not from this series, tho. And probably something much more recent to see if there's anything different writing wise.
I hate giving 1 stars but I literally can't think of anything that can up it more. The 1 is for effort because writing ain't easy.
Will I read another of her books? Probably. Not from this series, tho. And probably something much more recent to see if there's anything different writing wise.
tawnyad2004's review against another edition
3.0
So I loved the idea for this book more then I actually liked the book itself. I mean it’s an Irish family with a pub, already I’m into it. What I’m not into is the inconsistencies of the book. Especially at the beginning ****SPOILERS**** most of it starts at the very beginning. 1. She’s at the jewelry store when it’s getting robbed and at one point the robber shoots his gun and she feels the kick back but just a few short paragraphs later we learn they aren’t real guns but water pistols. Ummmmmm then how did it fire?
2. The number of people in the jewelry store robbery gets changed from 4 (including Kieran to 3) just inexplicably the number changes. 3. The cell phone one of the perps bought. This perp bought it from a drug store that sold cell phones, enough that an employee worked that counter. Paid in cash. Yet this lady remember so vividly who bought one cell phone 2 months prior In cash it was like looking at a photograph.
It’s hard to fully get behind a book when there are so many OBVIOUS and rather large holes. To add to it I really, really did not like Kieran’s friend Julie. She was a selfish person who apparently didn’t give a rats ass about how her selfishly stupid actions would affect her friends family. For someone who is said to be super smart she comes off as a dumb ass. Yes I get she was emotional but what a bullshit excuse. Your pissed at the way your ex is treating you do something petty or financially crippling don’t ask your friends to commit a crime that will have them going to jail for years bc you want your ex to hurt or get in trouble. Get in trouble for something he certainly wouldn’t have gotten blamed for anyway!!!! Uggg idiot…
2. The number of people in the jewelry store robbery gets changed from 4 (including Kieran to 3) just inexplicably the number changes. 3. The cell phone one of the perps bought. This perp bought it from a drug store that sold cell phones, enough that an employee worked that counter. Paid in cash. Yet this lady remember so vividly who bought one cell phone 2 months prior In cash it was like looking at a photograph.
It’s hard to fully get behind a book when there are so many OBVIOUS and rather large holes. To add to it I really, really did not like Kieran’s friend Julie. She was a selfish person who apparently didn’t give a rats ass about how her selfishly stupid actions would affect her friends family. For someone who is said to be super smart she comes off as a dumb ass. Yes I get she was emotional but what a bullshit excuse. Your pissed at the way your ex is treating you do something petty or financially crippling don’t ask your friends to commit a crime that will have them going to jail for years bc you want your ex to hurt or get in trouble. Get in trouble for something he certainly wouldn’t have gotten blamed for anyway!!!! Uggg idiot…
tboofy's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fast read that did grab me and make me want to keep reading, but it wasn't my favorite. It was somewhat predictable, and I forget that Heather Graham draws you in with a nice PG-rated book then throws love scenes right in the middle. Easy enough to skip. Maybe I'm just tired of the beautiful but strong lead character falling for the super hot cop (or FBI agent in this case), so he's always there to protect her while they're sleeping together. Whatever. Worth reading, but don't expect deep character development or believable plot lines.
samantha_reads_more's review against another edition
Ok, I tried with this book but there is legit nothing interesting happening.
The book is so jumpy, oh we're at work, now we're at the bar, now we're here with little to no transitions. I also just don't like the writing. Sure, it's easy to breeze through bc it's simple writing. As for the claim that the author stands at the top of the romantic suspense category, I'd disagree.
The whole book was just lacking, and while I could've forced myself through it.... I'm just not interested in doing that.
Counting it though, bc I read over half of the dang thing.
The book is so jumpy, oh we're at work, now we're at the bar, now we're here with little to no transitions. I also just don't like the writing. Sure, it's easy to breeze through bc it's simple writing. As for the claim that the author stands at the top of the romantic suspense category, I'd disagree.
The whole book was just lacking, and while I could've forced myself through it.... I'm just not interested in doing that.
Counting it though, bc I read over half of the dang thing.
bookwyrm_lark's review against another edition
3.0
Flawless is a straightforward romantic-suspense novel set in New York City. And I wish I knew why I didn’t love it. Heather Graham is usually a pretty good storyteller, and on the whole I liked the two main characters, but something just didn’t quite jell for me. Close, but not quite.
For once, the blurb describes the book pretty accurately. Kieran is in the wrong place at the wrong time (albeit for the right reason); she is abducted in the course of a jewelry store robbery. Craig Frasier is an FBI agent who responds to the robbery and chases after the fleeing thieves. Once everything is under control, Kieran has to walk a very fine line for the rest of the book. She doesn’t want her youngest brother Danny to get in trouble, she doesn’t want the authorities to know about his juvie record, she doesn’t want her eldest brother to find out what an idiot Danny was, and (as the case goes on) she doesn’t want her family or their pub dragged into the case. And she really, really doesn’t want any personal fame or publicity. That means she ends up keeping a lot of secrets — from Craig and his partner as well as from her eldest brother.
The problem is, Kieran is both good and not good at keeping secrets. Craig knows there are things she’s not telling him. His gut says to trust her, but he’s too good an agent not to wonder why she was in the shop and if she was somehow involved with the thieves. And Kieran isn’t good at hiding the fact that she’s concealing something. At the same time, she stubbornly holds back when telling the truth might be a better move. I do understand why she doesn’t speak up. Even as their relationship deepens, she hasn’t known Craig all that long, certainly not long enough to know how he would react about her brother. But on the other hand, how on earth did she think she could keep her brother’s record a secret from the police, let alone the FBI — he’s in the system, for heaven’s sake! For someone who seems pretty smart, she sure doesn’t always act it, or think logically. The urge to protect and keep silent seems to overcome some of her common sense, and I began to find that exasperating.
Craig I liked immediately, and that liking only grew as I continued to read. He’s a good friend to his partner, an excellent field agent, and a stand-up guy. He really shouldn’t be getting involved with a witness (couldn’t that cost him his job in real life?), but other than that, he makes an admirable hero, complete with a sense of humor.
The Finnegans are a typical (stereotypical) Irish-American family. Big brother Declan runs the pub and raised his younger siblings after their parents died. The younger ones all work at the pub when they’re not out doing other jobs. (Besides Kieran’s work as a criminal psychologist, her twin brother Kevin is an actor trying to get roles, and her younger brother Danny is a tour guide.) The family extends to friends, including Julie, the girl who got Danny into the mess in the first place — and oh, did I want to shake some sense into the pair of them more than once! There’s also an older man, Bobby, a recovered alcoholic who nonetheless loves to hang out at the bar. (Does that seem as unlikely to you as it does to me?) And of course, there’s Craig’s partner Mike. The dynamics between all these characters are interesting—especially the affection the whole family feels for Bobby—and for me they were one of the best parts of the book outside the mystery plot.
The mystery itself was absorbing, though I spotted two of the real villains very soon after they were introduced. Copycat crimes are not unusual, but what is unusual is to have the copycat(s) acting simultaneously with the original criminal(s), making it harder to investigate. . . especially when the DA is convinced the killers have been caught. And of course, once Kieran and Craig begin to suspect someone is trying to kill her, the suspense ratchets up a notch or two. Even once I was fairly sure I knew who was behind the murder-robberies, I was still eager to find out how and when they would be apprehended.
I may not have loved Flawless, but I did like it, certainly well enough that I would read a sequel if it turns into a series. There’s no clear indication of that happening, so it may be a standalone, and that’s OK too. Either way, Flawless gave me several hours of reading pleasure in the middle of an insomniac night, and that was all that really mattered.
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
FTC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.
For once, the blurb describes the book pretty accurately. Kieran is in the wrong place at the wrong time (albeit for the right reason); she is abducted in the course of a jewelry store robbery. Craig Frasier is an FBI agent who responds to the robbery and chases after the fleeing thieves. Once everything is under control, Kieran has to walk a very fine line for the rest of the book. She doesn’t want her youngest brother Danny to get in trouble, she doesn’t want the authorities to know about his juvie record, she doesn’t want her eldest brother to find out what an idiot Danny was, and (as the case goes on) she doesn’t want her family or their pub dragged into the case. And she really, really doesn’t want any personal fame or publicity. That means she ends up keeping a lot of secrets — from Craig and his partner as well as from her eldest brother.
The problem is, Kieran is both good and not good at keeping secrets. Craig knows there are things she’s not telling him. His gut says to trust her, but he’s too good an agent not to wonder why she was in the shop and if she was somehow involved with the thieves. And Kieran isn’t good at hiding the fact that she’s concealing something. At the same time, she stubbornly holds back when telling the truth might be a better move. I do understand why she doesn’t speak up. Even as their relationship deepens, she hasn’t known Craig all that long, certainly not long enough to know how he would react about her brother. But on the other hand, how on earth did she think she could keep her brother’s record a secret from the police, let alone the FBI — he’s in the system, for heaven’s sake! For someone who seems pretty smart, she sure doesn’t always act it, or think logically. The urge to protect and keep silent seems to overcome some of her common sense, and I began to find that exasperating.
Craig I liked immediately, and that liking only grew as I continued to read. He’s a good friend to his partner, an excellent field agent, and a stand-up guy. He really shouldn’t be getting involved with a witness (couldn’t that cost him his job in real life?), but other than that, he makes an admirable hero, complete with a sense of humor.
The Finnegans are a typical (stereotypical) Irish-American family. Big brother Declan runs the pub and raised his younger siblings after their parents died. The younger ones all work at the pub when they’re not out doing other jobs. (Besides Kieran’s work as a criminal psychologist, her twin brother Kevin is an actor trying to get roles, and her younger brother Danny is a tour guide.) The family extends to friends, including Julie, the girl who got Danny into the mess in the first place — and oh, did I want to shake some sense into the pair of them more than once! There’s also an older man, Bobby, a recovered alcoholic who nonetheless loves to hang out at the bar. (Does that seem as unlikely to you as it does to me?) And of course, there’s Craig’s partner Mike. The dynamics between all these characters are interesting—especially the affection the whole family feels for Bobby—and for me they were one of the best parts of the book outside the mystery plot.
The mystery itself was absorbing, though I spotted two of the real villains very soon after they were introduced. Copycat crimes are not unusual, but what is unusual is to have the copycat(s) acting simultaneously with the original criminal(s), making it harder to investigate. . . especially when the DA is convinced the killers have been caught. And of course, once Kieran and Craig begin to suspect someone is trying to kill her, the suspense ratchets up a notch or two. Even once I was fairly sure I knew who was behind the murder-robberies, I was still eager to find out how and when they would be apprehended.
I may not have loved Flawless, but I did like it, certainly well enough that I would read a sequel if it turns into a series. There’s no clear indication of that happening, so it may be a standalone, and that’s OK too. Either way, Flawless gave me several hours of reading pleasure in the middle of an insomniac night, and that was all that really mattered.
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
FTC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.
apicard49's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
4.0
starryviolet's review against another edition
1.0
I read this for a book club, and was so happy to be done with it. Was it a romance? Was it a mystery? Was it a crime thriller? It tried to be all and succeeded at not being any. The plot kind of faded away by the half way point, and none of the characters were compelling enough to make me care what happened to them. I also kept forgetting that Kieran was a girl, so that was a problem. Especially considering she was supposed to be the romantic heroine. Overall a very disappointing book.
nicolepeck's review against another edition
3.0
This was a fairly short book (less than 300 pages), and I expected to read it faster than I did, but I struggled some to want to make the time to read it. While I enjoyed the characters and their interactions with each other and the synopsis made me want to read the book, it wasn't as well developed and engaging as I had hoped for. It was still a fairly good book, and the whodunit was hidden enough that I didn't guess it, but I just wanted more that I didn't quite get. I would, however, love to have Finnegan's be a real place and go enjoy a meal and the atmosphere there! Probably 3.5 stars overall.
marilanoire's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad story but I think I’ve never read so much „he said“ „she said“ in one single book ever, kind of annoying...
lpcoolgirl's review against another edition
5.0
This book was so fantastic! Loved the mystery and the romance! Though I wonder if she's ever going to tell him why she was really in the store!