Review: The Wreck - Marie Force

The Wreck by Marie Force.

Carly Holbrook and Brian Westbury are weeks away from their high school graduation. The young couple plans to marry before they head to college, and their future seems bright with promise. Everything changes one spring night when their six closest friends, including Brian's younger brother, are killed in a fiery car accident that Carly and Brian witness. The trauma leaves Carly unable to speak, and Brian is forced to make unimaginable decisions about a future that once seemed so certain. With Carly incapable of going forward with their plans, Brian leaves home-and Carly-for good. Fifteen years later, disturbing new clues indicate the accident that wrecked so many lives wasn't an accident at all, bringing Brian home to face a past—and a love—he's never forgotten.

Marie Force is a new to me author this year. I have read four of her books so far including this one and they are fast becoming must reads for me. She writes a great mix of romance and suspense.

Her characters in this particular book were very well written and had a lot of depth to them. The main characters Carly and Brian they were so cute together. I loved how we go to see them together as teens and then have them come together again as adults.

I figured out who the criminal fairly early on in the book but I like to think it's because I'm pretty good at picking these things up not because the author made it totally obvious. But knowing who did it in no way ruined the book for me, in fact I prefer to know so I can make note of what the character is doing throughout the book and to pick up any clues the author gives you.

I read this book in one sitting I was that invested I just had to know how in was all going to turn out. There was one big twist that I didn't see coming, in fact it totally blindsided me and to be honest I could have done without it because I really didn't like the way it was handled. I am not a fan of keeping such huge secrets from people - can't say more than that or it will ruin the book.

Anyway I just recently bought two more of Marie Force's books and I can't wait to get started on them.

That's all for now.

Fatal Justice - Marie Force

This is the second book in Marie Force’s Fatal series. It follows Lieutenant Samantha Holland and Senator Nick Cappuano, their jobs, their friends and family and their relationship. Be warned there will be spoilers from the first book in this review.

Fatal Justice carries on from where the last book left off, so it’s probably a good idea to read the first book, Fatal Affair, before this one. Nick is now Senator taking on the role after his best friend, John O’Connor, the previous Senator was murdered and Sam has been promoted to Lieutenant. While not living together they are in a serious relationship and are trying to navigate all the complications that come with that. Nick is adjusting to being a Senator and Sam is juggling several difficult cases She has a murdered supreme court nominee who happens to be a friend of Nick and the O’Connor’s. And closer to home she has a murdered family that could be connected to the shooting of her father that took place several years ago.

There were many different story lines running through this book and apart from a few scenes involving different couples relationships it seemed to have one action sequence after the other. Which on one hand seemed a little over the top but on the other hand kept me reading so much that I finished it in one night.

We also got a little more focus on the secondary characters as they all interact with each other, which is what I hoped would happen after reading the first book. However it all seems a little fast as the book only covers a few days time wise and the developments in the relationships are going 100 miles an hour.

The murder mystery element was a little intense and far fetched but again I didn’t see the identity of the murderer until Sam figured it out in end so maybe far fetched is a good thing. The book involves several of Americas big political issues, namely abortion and homosexuality which adds an interesting twist. And the book did make me laugh out loud a few times with the absurdity of some of the situations the characters find themselves, but it didn’t pull me out of the story so I guess it works.

Overall I really liked this book. Not as much as I liked the first but it was very entertaining. I am definitely going to read the next books in this series when they come out later in the year.

Side note. I am currently reading White Cat by Holly Black and loving it. Review coming soon.

That’s all for now.

Fatal Affair - Marie Force

I discovered Marie Force through a recommendation on amazon.com, I liked the sound of her books so I decided to download several of them on to my kindle. This is the second Marie Force novel that I have read, the first being Line of Scrimmage, which I read at the end of last year. The first book Line of Scrimmage was a straight contemporary romance where as Fatal Affair is the start of a new romantic suspense series.

Fatal Affair’s main character is Detective Sergeant Samantha Holland. Sam is assigned a case involving a murdered State Senator, John O‘Connor. Sam’s recent history with the metro police has not been good, she was involved in a shoot out that resulted in the death of a child so her career is now riding on this very high profile case. To complicate things even further Sam has a history with the murdered Senators Chief of Staff and best friend, Nick Cappuano. So while Sam and Nick try to solve the murder they also have to navigate the idea of starting a new relationship at the worst possible time.

I loved this book, it was fast, thrilling and pure escapism. Marie Force has managed to write the perfect balance of mystery and romance. There were lots of unexpected twists that I didn’t see coming. I can usually figure out who the murderer is but I didn’t in this book, there were way to many potential suspects.

Sam and Nick were both well written, well rounded characters and I like the fact that they have a previous history together. It made the story easier to get into and made me more invested in their relationship because it was obvious from the start that they had very good chemistry. I like the other characters in the book especially Sam’s partner Freddie and the Senator’s deputy chief of staff Christina. I hope the secondary characters story lines are developed in further books in this series. Another thing I really liked was the fact that the book was set in Washington DC, the political angle was very interesting, it makes me want to read more books that have this kind of setting.

I have already started the next book in the series, Fatal Justice, which is a continuation of Sam and Nick’s story. This series reminds me of one my all time favourite series the In Death books by J.D. Robb’s which also have the same main characters through out. If the Fatal series is even half as good as the In Death series I will be very happy.

I have just had a look at Marie Force’s website and it looks like she has another three books coming out in this series, two for later in the year and one early next year. Yay!

That’s all for now.